CSR role: Customer Service Representatives are the common contacts for a job and should be informed of everything about your job when dropping it off at the printer.
Talking with the Printer: Usually when you go to the printer, a salesperson will be your first contact, they will ask you questions about your job and refer you to a CSR, who can handle your job.
Planning for Print: When planning for your print, always keep the dimensions, colors, and substrates of your job in mind. These can include;
Document Size, Adequate Bleed, and Internal Panel sizes.
Check Rasters/Vectors: When supplying rasters for a project, be sure that it is in the proper format for the printer, and be sure that the resolution is set correctly. Depending on your job, the resolution can be drastically different. With Vectors be sure that they have the correct colors (Pantones are a safe bet here). Also be sure to supply the proper images and fonts. This can be done by either embedding them or package the images and fonts together. The best practice is to embed the images and fonts, but also package them , as well, just to be safe.
Types of proofs: sometimes called random proofs or scatter proofs, these show a sample of what your project should look like after being printed.
Scale & Rotate in PS: Always scale and rotate any images in photoshop or some other file editing software before placing it in InDesign.
Resolution for output: Usually, 300 Dpi is the proper resolution for output. Although depending on the project a a lower resolution could be "good enough", especially if the project is a large banner or sign.
Color Space in PS & AI: Always convert images to Pantone or spot colors. This way the printer can match the color exactly, and it will look correct, no matter what.
Flatten or layered: The choice of using a flattened image or a layered image depends on two things, the user and the printer. If the user is skilled, then they may be able to use layered files efficiently, and if the printer allows for it, layered files may fly, but if either of them don't work well with layers, then flattening is the way to go. Just be sure to save an extra copy before destroying some part of a project.
Transparency: Transparency is the amount of alpha in pixels. Something between 1 and 0. The less alpha a pixel has the less visible it is.
Creating a Path: Paths are created by drawing a shape on top of an image and choose create clipping mask. This path will show through like a window in whatever shape the path was in.
Duotones: Duotones are images that are comprised of 2 colors, usually black and a spot color, although, sometimes black can be traded for another spot color, depending on the designers specifications.
AI Artboards: This is the imaginary "paper" that a designer can use to create vectors in Adobe Illustrator.
Bleed Settings: Bleed Settings in Ilustrator apply to all sides, they can not be custom shapes. They can be up to one inch in depth.
AI Simplify complex art: The simplify command in ilustrator "modifies" an image by reducing the number of points used to make a vector image.
AI Clean Up: Clean up deletes all points outside of the current work.
AI Effects & Clipping Mask: Effects in illustrator either alter the inside, the outside, or both, of a vector path. Clipping Masks however, "punch out" parts of an image in the shape of the mask.
AI Transparency: While Transparency may look similar in Photoshop and Illustrator, they have key differences. One of the main differences is that Illustrator will overlap 2 spot colors, which are then converted to CMYK to accommodate the transparency.
AI Linked & Embedded image: You can either link or embed images within illustrator files. If the images are not packaged properly, they can be re-linked. This is of course assuming that the designer still has access to the original image.
File Formats to print: TIFF, PhotoShop EPS, & Photoshop native (PSD).
File formats not to print: PNG, BMP, GIF, and JPEG
Pixels: Small squares that make up the actual image.
JPEG: A lossy file format, JPEGs compress images for efficient file size. This compression causes losses in image quality.
RAW: A less compressed image file format, although this file format can not be put directly on a computer. It can, however, be imported into photoshop as a PSD.
ppi Resolution: Pixels Per Inch resolution refers to the amount of pixels required to produce one square inch of an image.
Bitmap Images: BMP or Bitmap images are can go from 1-32 bit. Which is Black and White, to shades of gray. It does not support CMYK.
Cropping/Rotating: Cropping is the act of clipping the image to a useable size, there is debate over whether this should be done early in the design phase or later.
Rotation: Rotation is the act of turning the image by degrees. The dangers with this is if the image is turned to anything other than 0,90,180,270 or even 360, then there can be digitization, which will reduce the image quality.
Transparency Tip: Sometimes when importing an Illustrator file (.ai) into Indesign, transparencies lose image quality. It must first be converted to EPS, to work properly.
Vector graphics: Vector graphics are resolution independent graphics, meaning that no matter how large or small they are scaled, they will look, generally the same. This is all due to the magic of math.
Vector file formats: Vector file formats are generally .ai (Adobe Illustrator) and .eps (Encapsulated PostScript). Both formats have unique qualities and abilities. However, .ai is the more widely used format.
Embedding fonts: Embedding fonts is the act of packaging the necessary fonts with a project, to allow it to print properly. This does not mean that a user can edit the text. To do that, the user must have the fonts active on their computer.
Outlining text: In Adobe Illustrator, Outlining Fonts is a good way to convert a font to an image. This allows the user to rasterize the text at 100% and export it as a TIFF or other Lossless file format.
Simplify path: This one also comes from Adobe Illustrator, Simplify Path removes unneeded or unused pixels and paths in the document.
All of this information comes from my own experience or the text book for this course:
Real World Print Production with Adobe Creative Suite Applications
By Claudia McCue
These are some of the other Ideas that I had.
Purpose: a notepad, and possibly a funny/useful one at that.
Target audience: Anyone who identifies themselves as a "geek"
Mainly, I'm targeting males between the ages of 14-35, who are interested in geek culture, or have IT jobs.
call to action: The QR Code and my info in the bottom left of the page.
Specifications:
7 x 5 inch
Black ink only | no bleed
50 sheets per pad
padded
chip board back & Magnet
Price per pad: $8.00
How long will it take to create the pads: 7+days (about a day to process and print, and then 7 days to ship.)
What type of file do they need to print the pad: .pdf, .ai, .psd, .bmp, .cdr, .clk, .gif, .jpg, .jpeg, .ppt, .pub, .doc, .pcx, .pic, .pict, .pct, .png, .ps, .tif, .tiff, .emf, .wmf,
This is my final image for the notepad. I think it came out quite nicely.
