CREATING A DIGITAL FILE: Details

RULE AND BORDER SPECIFICATIONS

You should not use a predefined hairline rule in any application. Keep in mind that predefined hairline rules will print at the lowest possible thickness of the selected output device and will almost certainly disappear at 2400 dpi (the resolution of the platesetter used at Webcom). Be consistent and predefine your own hairline width rules as 0.25 point.

Wherever possible, do not use rules to create frames. It is extremely difficult to align rules to create perfect corners on boxes.

The QuarkXPress Frame Editor is a bitmap editor that does not create frame designs in PostScript form. This means that at high resolution, the frames may not hold the smooth, crisp appearance that you see on the screen. We recommend that you avoid the predefined, elaborate frames available within QuarkXPress. Instead use a PostScript drawing program (like Illustrator or Freehand) to create elaborate frames.

FILE NAMING RECOMMENDATIONS

Every computer file must have a unique file name. In particular, revisions of an electronic file should not have the same name as the original file. Even though Macintosh, Windows NT and Windows 95 allow names of 31 or more characters, it’s a good idea to limit file names to 20 characters. This allows you to view the full file names in directory windows and file dialog boxes.

The following characters should not be used in naming document files or images:

" " / \ < > * | : = + [ ] . , ; ^. ?

It’s best to use " . " only once with a 2- or 3-character extension after it to identify the type of document (i.e. .eps or .ps.). If you are sending us multiple files for a project, it is helpful if your file name describes the file’s position in the book and provides a list of the folio numbers it contains. For example, a file for chapter 3 of a book called, The Joy of Desktop Publishing, might have a name like JDTP_Chap03_ppg44_68.

Previous | Table of Contents | Next