Valid from January 2011
the Print
Support
Manual
2
Contents
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Introduction
The benefits of consulting us early
File formats we can accept for documents
Logo formats and resolution
Checklist for file preparation
Glossary of printing terms
Sending files electronically
Disk formats we can accept
3
4
5
6
8
9
12
15
3
Introduction
The University Print Service offers a complete in-house digital service from design through to
final printed product. We aim to work in partnership with our clients to provide cost efficiency
and reliability using the latest technology, allowing clients to concentrate on their own core
activities.
This manual is designed as a guide to helping you understand what services are available
and how best to prepare your files for whatever end product you desire, be it printed or
delivered online.
The benefits of
consulting us early
Before starting a project that you would like us to print for you, please contact us so that
we can discuss and advise you on:
•
How to make your files more compatible for direct use.
•
The suitability of logos you intend to use, or confirm that we have them on file.
•
The most economical way to produce your job.
•
The suitability of the application for what you want to produce.
•
The selection of ink colours, paper and board.
This will help us smoothly progress work and minimise any unforeseen delays or costs due to file
unsuitability. It will also allow us to supply a more accurate estimate for the cost of your work.
4
File formats we can accept
for documents
5
Application Used
Single Colour
Printing/Copying
Two or More
Pantone Colours
Full Colour
Printing
Full Colour
Copying
Acrobat
Yes
No†
Yes**
Yes
Excel Charts
Yes
No†
No†
Yes
InDesign
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
PowerPoint
Yes
No†
No†
Yes
Publisher 2000
Yes*
Yes*
Yes*
Yes
Quark XPress
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Word
Yes
No†
No†
Yes
This table is provided only as a guide to what is possible from the supplied application file.
We understand that our customers are constrained by the range of software they have at their
disposal. We will happily accept any files from the above applications and do the necessary
work to them to make them compatible with the printing process required.
* Publisher 2000 is a budget application. We would not recommend its use
for process colour printing.
** It will be necessary to contact us early to discuss work supplied in this way. The Acrobat
format is okay but there are other factors in the file preparation. The original application used to
generate the Acrobat file must be capable of generating bleeds and cut marks The image
resolution and type of file must be correct. The elements in the file must be accurately positioned
to allow for binding, folding and cutting etc.
† Reformatting and/or conversion of this application is required before it can be used
in this category.
Logo formats
and resolution
6
Graphic files suitable to be used directly in the following processes
File types
Single colour
Printing/Copying
Two or more
Pantone Colours
Full Colour Printing
Full Colour Copying
EPS
JPEG
TIFF
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes*
No
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Image resolution for printing or copying
File types
Single colour
Printing/Copying
Two or more
Pantone Colours
Full Colour Printing
Full Colour Copying
300 DPI
Yes
N/A
Yes
Yes
Less than
300
No
N/A
No
No
Applications which can be used to produce the files of the type below
File types
Illustrator
Bitmap TIFF No
Freehand
Corel Draw
Photoshop
No
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Vector
Graphic
EPS
Yes
These tables are provided only as a guide to what is possible from the supplied graphic file.
We understand that our customers are constrained by the range of software they have at their
disposal. We will happily accept any files in the above formats and do the necessary work to them
to make them compatible with the printing process required.
*The EPS file must have been generated from a vector graphic application such as Illustrator.
7
Logo formats and resolution
A common source of problems encountered with work sent as electronic files is the format of logos
contained in them. The format of logos is critical.
The one overriding factor in your bitmap logo or photo is its resolution. If the resolution is too small
it will appear ‘blocky’ or ‘pixelated’ in the final print. A common pitfall with logos submitted to us
is that they have been obtained from the Internet. These logos are useful only for a rough visual
layout but should never be submitted as artwork. The image resolution of web based files is 72 dpi
(dots per inch). This is ideal for viewing on a computer monitor but it will not produce good results
when printed. To ensure sharp and detailed reproduction the file should be not less than 300 dpi.
Below are the file specifications that we would need for your file to be used directly but if you do
not have the resources needed to format a file in this way you can give us whatever you have.
Whether it is a logo obtained from the Web or a hard copy, we can reconstruct the logo for you in
the appropriate format.
There could be additional charges that may not have been accounted for at the time of the
estimate.
Colour copying
For work that is to be output in monochrome or composite colour to our colour printer almost
all graphic formats that can be imported into your application are suitable (providing the image
resolution is adequate).
Two colour printing
For work containing a logo that is to be printed in two or more colours our needs become quite
specific. A two or three colour logo has to be in an EPS format (Encapsulated Postscript). This
is the only type of file that can embed the necessary Pantone ink colour information to allow it to
separate into its component inks when sent to plate.
It is not sufficient to save any file in an EPS format. Your EPS file has to be generated from a
vector graphic originated from a suitable application such as Illustrator, Freehand or Corel Draw.
8
To summarise, any file you want us to be able to use directly for separation into more than one
Pantone ink colour should be a vector graphic with the correct Pantone inks defined and saved in
an EPS format.
TIFF files are unsuitable because they can only split into component CMYK.
Process colour printing
Logos to be used in full colour litho printing should be in EPS or TIFF format. EPS is suitable
because it can contain Pantone colour and process colour information, the Pantone ink shades
can be converted easily to their process equivalents.
TIFF formatted files can only split into component process colours (CMYK). A TIFF logo which is
intended to be used in process colour printing is suitable (providing the image resolution is high
enough). The TIFF format is also suitable for photographs.
Checklist for File
Preparation
•
Consult us early
•
Use the appropriate application
•
Supply hard copy (when possible)
•
Supply original photos (if possible)
•
Supply font(s) used in document (if necessary)
•
Supply logos in the correct format
•
Build in proofing time to delivery date
9
Glossary of
Printing Terms
Acrobat PDF
A popular electronic document format. It embeds all typeface, graphic and
page layout information into the one compact file. Its appearance won’t
change regardless of computer platform or printer. This makes it ideal for
proofing work electronically.
CMYK
(Also referred to as Full Colour Litho Printing and Process Colour) Cyan,
Magenta, Yellow and ‘K’ for Black. These are the secondary component
colours that all printing devices use to reproduce the range of colours in a
photograph or ink shade.
Composite
Output
All the colour information is sent to the printer at the one time. The output
device itself is able to split the colour into its component colours (CMYK).
EPS
Encapsulated
PostScript
A form of postscript which is not driver dependant. It is self contained and
should hold the necessary information to produce a logo perfectly because
it has been generated from a mathematically defined vector graphic file.
It should be noted that, depending on the file format it may not be possible
to embed fonts used in a logo. This can be rectified by creating font out
lines, or supplying fonts used in the logo. It is not sufficient to save any file
in an EPS format. Your EPS file has to be generated from a vector graphic
originated from a suitable application such as Illustrator, Freehand or Corel
Draw.
Monochrome
A term to describe an item being reproduced in one colour. The one colour
could be black or any Pantone ink colour.
10
11
Pantone inks
An industry standard range of printing ink shades. An application has to be
able to define these colours to allow separate colour printing plates to be
generated for two or more colour printing.
Printer driver
Software interface that translates information between a printer and a
computer. Microsoft Word looks at the current driver to determine page
breaks for text in a document. Not all drivers and printers are the same.
When a Word document is printed to a different printer, the text flow can
alter slightly by a line or two. This becomes important when headings
re-flow from the top of a page to the bottom of the preceding page.
Quark XPress
Industry standard Desktop Publishing application suitable for accurate
page layout and assigning Pantone ink shades and process colours which
will separate correctly when plated.
Vector
Graphic
Vector file is a mathematical description of an image. It is scaleable to any
size and will not lose any image quality. It is the generic name given to any
graphic created in applications such as Adobe Illustrator, Freehand or
Corel Draw. These packages will allow you to construct a logo correctly,
and have access to electronic Pantone guides for assigning colours to the
file. When it is saved in an EPS format it will be perfectly suitable for
importing into any application that we support for use directly.
Sending files
electronically
Sending PC Files
All file transfers should take place via Zetal online services. Once registered and signed-in for
online services, you will be able to use the internal file upload facility. This allows you to select the
estimate or order for which the files are associated and select the number of files to upload. You
will also be asked after submitting an online order, or estimate, whether you would like to upload
your files.
When using online upload, you will be presented with a progress bar which indicates the approximate time for completion. Once the files are sent to us using online upload, we are automatically
notified, so there is no need to let us know. There is a file size limit for each file uploaded - 100Mb.
If your files are larger than this, please copy them to CD media and send to the UDP.
You may, if you prefer send files via email - but this limits the size of files you can send.
Sending Mac Files
Due to the nature of Mac files, they must be sent to a Mac computer and not a PC
(there is loss of file definition information).
This is accomplished in the following instructions ‘Using the Mac guest folder’:
12
13
Using the Mac guest folder.
If you are a Mac user and you need to transfer files to the Print Unit you can use our Guest folder.
It will allow you to transfer multiple files (up to 100mb) directly to our server.
In order to do this your Mac must be configured to use TCP/IP protocol and have Internet access.
1.At the menu on the top left hand side of the screen choose ‘Go’ a further drop down menu will
appear in this menu at the bottom and from this you choose ‘Connect to Server’ (see Fig 1)
(Fig 1)
2.In the ‘Connect to Server’ dialogue box that appears type in 130.159.69.47 in the
‘Server Address’ box then choose ‘Connect’ (see Fig 2).
(Fig 2)
Sending files
Electronically
14
You will then be taken to a small dialog box which says ‘Enter your name and password for the
server ‘printunitmac’s Mac Pro’ at ‘Connect as’ please choose ‘Guest’ (Fig 3)
(Fig 3)
You should shortly see the ‘Print Unit Guest’ drive mount on to your desktop (Fig 4)
(Fig 4)
You can now drag or save work directly into this drive as you would any other shared drive
on your network.
Disk formats
we can accept
Once the transfer of files has been completed please inform the Print Unit by email at the
following address-
Email : [email protected]
The subject line of the email should contain the online order number, or some other specific
information, sufficient to allow the transferred files to be matched up to a corresponding print order.
Please be aware we cannot work on any file(s) until we have a print order.
We can accept work on disk in the following formats (PC or Mac):
•
CD ROM
•
DVD RAM
•
USB Memory Sticks
•
External Hard drives
•
Card readers
15
Print Services Room 4.17 4th Floor Colville Building
48 North Portland Street Glasgow G1 1XN
Tel: 0141 548 2828 or 2829
Email : [email protected]
www.strath.ac.uk/printservices