The following information is provided to our customers who wish to supply their jobs as “output ready.” This information will help streamline our job preflight process and ensure the most efficient and cost effective outcome in transferring your files to our systems. Proper file formatting is key to a smooth workflow. If you need assistance, please call 706-542-7199. Output-ready jobs should include a completed Preflight Checklist form.
The UPD Prepress Department is Mac-based running System 10 on a G5 platform.
The programs we use are InDesign CS4, Illustrator CS4, Photoshop CS4, Quark 6, Acrobat 8, and Freehand MX 11. We no longer accept PageMaker files for output. Your PageMaker files can be converted to InDesign by request.
We prefer Microsoft Word files to WordPerfect. We have Microsoft Office for the Mac, but we do not output files from this program. It is used primarily as a text transfer program to InDesign. You can create a PDF of your file for output if you must create your document in a Microsoft product. PDFs made from Microsoft products typically are not "output ready".
NOTE: We do not output files from Microsoft Publisher for offset printing. You will need to use an alternate program or submit your job as a PDF file using the information below. There are several inexpensive software programs for the PC on the market that can aid you in creating PDF files from Microsoft products. Some of these are deskPDF by docudesk, and PDF Converter by Nuance. Please note we do not use these programs and are not making an endorsement.
Document setup – Always set your document page size to the actual size of the piece you are designing for output. “Floating” a small design on a larger page and manually creating crop marks is not accepted and will not output properly.
Scans of signatures and line art should be 800 – 1200 dpi and saved as a Bitmap Tiff (not BMP) for best results.
Black and White images – Should be 300 dpi grayscale Tiff using a generic gray profile.
Bleed – Bleed is the area of color or image that extends beyond the page and should be set to 1/8” (0.125”). InDesign allows you to specify your bleed area in the document setup window.
Color – Your color documents and images should always be in CMYK mode for offset printing. Submitting your documents or support files in RGB mode will cause your job to incur additional expense and/or production time. Be sure your document color palette uses only CMYK colors or designated spot colors. For best results, your CMYK color images should use “U.S. Sheetfed Coated” setting. Adjusting your color images using the Sheetfed Coated setting will yield the best results from our presses. Most images we receive have the Photoshop default “U.S. Web Coated” setting. Using this setting may result in your images printing considerably darker than what you see on your screen. For process color jobs – be sure to convert your spot colors on your color palette to CMYK to avoid unexpected color shifts during output. This includes spot colors that may be used in your linked graphics.
Image format – Use Tiff for images and EPS for graphics. Jpeg and Giff are Web formats and should not be used in offset printing. If you have graphic elements supplied in Tiff format, they should be used at 100% of reproduction size to avoid image degradation. Only images that are duotone or have a clipping path need to be saved as EPS.
Image Resolution – 300 dpi is recommended whenever possible to ensure quality reproduction. 200 dpi is marginally acceptable if the image is used at 100% in your document and not enlarged. Images pulled from the Web typically yield poor results in print. You can not artificially assign a low resolution image a higher resolution and improve its quality.
PDF files – Should be set up following the same parameters as a print job. Be sure it is created in CMYK mode (or grayscale) and not RGB. Designate the proper bleed (0.125”), if any. Be sure you create a “press quality” or “highest quality” and not a “screen quality” PDF for offset printing. Do not include crop and registration marks or color bars. Always be sure to use the “embed fonts” function when making a PDF. Whenever you create a PDF file, inspect it thoroughly. Open the file, inspect it and print the file to be sure you get the expected results.
PLEASE NOTE: If you are submitting a PDF on a time critical job or a job from a third party, it is a good idea to give us all the files (images, graphics and fonts) as if it were a regular, non-PDF job. Some problems that may arise can't always be fixed easily in a PDF.
Text files – (from a PC/Windows environment) Microsoft Word is preferred when supplying raw text for formatting on our systems.