Prepress FAQs and Tips

Here in Webcom's Prepress Customer Support Department it's our job to work with prepress operators and technicians to identify and solve any prepress compatibility problems that may currently exist in your prepress procedures and to establish the most efficient system of workflow for getting your projects to press.

Along the way we have identified a few common problems that seem to reoccur and have compiled some tips on how to best avoid them.

Hairlines
Pre-defined hairline rules vary in width according to the resolution of the printing device. At 2400 dpi, the resolution of our Creo platesetter, they will almost certainly disappear. If you want your hairlines to be seen, specify their width as 0.25 or 0.30 point.

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.

Defining Spot Colours
When specifying spot colours, set the process separation colour to "Off" to ensure that the colours are not generated as a CMYK match. This is the most common error encountered when defining spot colours. NOTE: If elements of your book are going to be printed as four-colour process, "process separation" must be selected when you create a new colour. If you don’t select this option, the colour will be created as a fifth "spot" colour in the job.

Changing Spot Colours to Process Equivalents
When specifying process tint matches, be aware that different programs can generate different CMYK percentages for the same PANTONE colour. Some software developers have ignored the recommended PANTONE CMYK process tint percentages and have substituted their own. We recommend using a PANTONE swatch book for selecting and matching colours. The PANTONE Matching System (PMS®) is the North American standard for colour specification.

Colour Naming Conventions
The naming of colours is important because a printing plate is output for each colour listed in a palette (CMYK and any spot colours) used in a document. For instance, using the colour "spot Black" instead of Process "Black" will result in two separate plates. Colour names must also be consistent among applications. If one of your applications uses a slightly different naming convention for its colours (i.e. PMS 335 CVC vs. PMS 335 CV), two different plates will be imaged when the files are processed, even though the colours themselves match.

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.

Naming Revised Files
If you send us a file called, say INTRO.TXT and then revise it, please don't use the same name for the revised version. If you do there's a possibility the wrong one will be used.

Font Attributes
Fonts are the cause of some of the most persistent problems in imaging electronic files. The fonts used to output your files at Webcom must be of the same version, name and manufacturer as you used to create them. While it is Webcom’s responsibility to maintain licensed versions of the fonts used in our production processes, please remember that your job cannot move through the manufacturing process unless you have included all of the fonts used in the creation of your document.

Including Fonts with Electronics Jobs
When you send your book files to Webcom for printing, it’s important to follow these guidelines for including the electronic fonts with your job:

• In applications, always use the actual stylized typeface. Avoid the use of style attributes such as bold, italic, bold italic, outline and shadow from the measurements palette. If there is no corresponding printer font available for the style you’ve chosen, the computer will ignore the command and use the printer font for the non-stylized version.
• Send all the fonts used in the document. If you’re not using specific preflighting software, often your page layout software can give you information about the fonts used. In QuarkXPress, try the Font Usage menu. In PageMaker® 6.5, use the Save for Service Provider plug-in for built-in preflighting. On the Mac, sending fonts usually means that you must include both a copy of the bitmap screen font (the font suitcase) and the printer fonts for each style instance. On the PC, send files ending in .TTF for TrueType fonts, and for PostScript fonts send both .PFM and .PFB files.
• Use a unique naming structure when creating custom fonts. If you elect to create your own custom design typefaces with a program such as Fontographer®, make sure that you have assigned a unique name both to the screen and the printer version of the font to avoid conflict with industry standard names. Unless your last name is Garamond, using your own name to identify the font is a safe way to avoid conflicts.

Please refer to the step-by-step instructions ( HOW TO GATHER FONTS FROM THE MAC OS or HOW TO GATHER FONTS FROM WINDOWS 9X ) for sending fonts from your specific platform and system.

If you are going to be supplying PostScript files to Webcom, please make sure that you have clearly indicated this on the Prepress Pouch Pak. This will ensure that your files are received and handled in a timely and efficient manner.

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