Common Problems

1. All multicolor, non-process, jobs must be separated using Pantone spot colors. If you are using more than one application make sure that the Pantone colors are using the same name. For example, some programs may call the color 185 CVC and another application may call it 185 CV. Even though the color is the same, it will separated on two different plates. You can print your separations to your laser printer to check for problems.

2. All process color jobs must be converted to CMYK. Do not leave anything in RGB or it will not separate properly (see important terms).

3. Include all fonts or the computer will make a font substitution which can alter the way your job looks, (see font usage).

4. Do not use paperclips, tape, staples or fold live artwork (see camera ready artwork).

5. Save images as Tiff or Eps files. Do not use JIFF or JPEG files.

6. AOL (America Online) is unreliable for sending larger attachments (over 2mb).

7. Compress files with Stuffit, WinZip or PKzip before e-mailing/transmitting.

8. We can not work with any colors created in a word processor or text editor. Word processor files never print as intended due to text reflow and reformatting.

9. Make sure your images are in a high enough resolution. At the final size being used, the resolution should be 300dpi. (See number 15 for more information)

10. Screen resolution is 72dpi. so something may look great on the screen but horrible when printed.

11. Make sure digital camera photos are of a high enough resolution. It is very important to make sure that the camera is on the highest quality setting possible. This means that if you can only save one image on the picture card instead of 12, 64 or 128 images, then this is good! You want to create the best quality picture that the camera can make. This will mean large file sizes and slow downloads from the camera itself, but it will get you the best possible results from your camera. Remember, images should be at 300dpi in their final size in the layout!

12. Do not click B or I in the font style palette in order to make a font bold or italic. This may look fine on the screen and on your printout but if the postscript printer font for bold or Italic does not exist, a font substitution will occur when used on most high end output equipment.

13. Graphics taken from the internet almost never have enough resolution to be used for printing.

14. Do not embed graphic files in your application file. Use them as external links only.

15. Use high enough resolution. If you know what the pixel dimensions of your image, you can do a little math to determine the resolution, and the size you can print the image at for clear and crisp printing. Simply write down the pixel dimensions of your image and divide those numbers by 300 if the image does not include text and 400 if the image does include text. For example: An image without any text has a pixel dimension of 600 x 900 pixels. Once each dimension is divided by 300 the result is 2 x 3 inches. This means that you can use this image at 2 x 3 inches or smaller in your layout for quality printing results. If your image editing software does not tell you what the pixel dimensions are, but it does tell you what the resolution is, then you know the maximum size you can use that image in your layout. We recommend that images be at 300dpi in their final size in the layout and 400dpi if the images include text. Please keep in mind that resolution and physical dimensions are in direct proportion to each other. If you have an image that is 2x2 at 300dpi and increase its size in the layout to 4x4 the new resolution is now 150dpi. So remember, when you bring an image in to your layout you can shrink it down in size (because the resolution will increase) but you will be limited as to how far you can increase it in size.