- [Instructor] When you're finally ready
to send your job to the printer,
I thought it might be nice
for you to have a helpful checklist.
Some things that you ought to look out for.
Take a look at your document.
Of course, you want to make sure that it's the correct size.
Do you have artwork that goes to the edge?
Well, make sure that it goes beyond the edge
and provides bleed.
Make sure that there isn't any content that's too close
to the fold or trim.
Keeping in mind that binary processes
are very precise these days,
still it can look really awkward.
Make sure you're using the correct inks.
Is it supposed to be a spot color job?
If it isn't, then you should convert all
of your swatches to process.
Also in your document,
it's a good idea if you run spell check
and you might want to check your grammar as well.
Now, there aren't built in grammar checkers
in page layout programs
but if you have somebody in your office
who's a sort of a grammar fan
like I am, well get them to take a look at it.
Now, there are two schools of thought
when it comes to spaces between sentences.
One school believes that you should have double spaces.
One believes that you should have single spaces.
I belong to the school
that says you should have single spaces between sentences.
It looks much too wide if you have double spaces.
So I don't know how you feel about it
but my recommendation is you stick with the single space.
Make sure that you haven't used any fonts
that forbid themselves from being embedded.
If you have used Typekit fonts,
make sure that the printer you're sending to
can open your file in creative cloud,
have access to Typekit
and therefore have the fonts necessary for the job.
Make sure there's no font substitution
because that's going to change the way the text looks
for one thing, but that can also result in text reflow
which can result in overset
and certainly a different look to your document.
It's a good idea to sort of clean house
before you send your file off.
If you have stuff sitting out there in the pasteboard,
get rid of it.
In illustrator if you have things outside the art board,
get rid of them too.
It reduces your file size a little bit
and it's just a little bit easier to work on.
It's a good idea to print out your final version
so that you can check it one last time,
and also, so you have something to hand to the printer
that they can use as a reference.
Preflight your document.
Let InDesign find any problems.
If you're using illustrator to create your document,
you don't have a built-in preflight feature
but consider making a PDF
and then using the preflight feature in Acrobat.
Again, it's like having a second set of eyes
to catch things that you might miss.
When you're dealing with raster images,
of course you want to make sure
that they have adequate resolution.
Even though the old rule of thumb
is 300 pixels per inch at final size,
you can get by with less,
I would say 250 and above you're all right.
But what we mean is that resolution at final size.
So if you have a two inch by two inch image
at 300 pixels per inch
but then you scale it up, 300% in InDesign,
it's no longer 300 pixel per inch resolution.
Now you're spreading the same data over a larger area.
You're going to see loss of detail.
You're going to see some softening,
try to avoid that if you can.
If you do have to scale something up beyond those values,
do it in Photoshop, it does a little more elegant job
than page layout programs do.
If your printer says that you have to provide CMYK images
and you're using RGB images, well go ahead
and convert them to CMYK.
If you've rotated and scaled images
in a rather extreme fashion in page layout,
again, you might consider going into Photoshop
and performing those transforms there.
It has little interpolation.
It might look a little bit smoother.
And this is something people don't think about,
file names.
I've seen people put really long file names on images.
It helps them keep track of things
but here's what happens when your job lands on a server,
the true name of a file is that entire directory path.
So, it's whatever you've named that file,
plus the name of the folder it's in,
the folder that's in, so forth and so on.
You know what?
Keep it short and sweet.
Working in your vector artwork,
you want to make sure you're using the correct colors again.
If this job is going to be printed all process,
don't use spot colors,
convert them to process before you send.
When you place images into illustrator,
the resolution counts there too.
It's not just in InDesign.
So make sure that it's at least 250 pixels
per inch at final size.
Ideally it's 300, but again, anywhere in there
and you're good.
And because you're placing images into illustrator
they're not part of illustrator.
Now there, when you have the option to link
or embed, your choice.
If you link, be sure to package at the end
so that everything travels together.
If you are embedding well, then it's self-contained
and everything does travel together.
Make sure that you haven't used any fonts
that forbid embedding in PDFs
because that's going to cause a problem down the line.
And the same thing goes for vector artwork.
Keep your file names short and sweet.
Sending files, be sure to package InDesign
so that you get all the bits and pieces,
you want all of the placed images,
all the placed vector artwork, and any necessary fonts
and exactly the same advice for dealing with illustrator.
And when you're asked to make PDFs,
make sure you make them to the specifications
provided by the printer.
If the printer doesn't give you specifications
you're safe with press quality.
And if you have any doubt at all,
go for PDF X1A,
you could print that anywhere in the world.
When the printer creates page proofs and shows them to you,
some things for you to check there,
make sure the image size and crop is correct.
Image orientation.
Make sure nothing's flopped.
Make sure that the color is what you expect.
And this is especially important when you're dealing
with product shots in catalogs and so forth.
If there's small detail,
make sure that that's being held in the proof.
Look for Moire, that's an unattractive pattern in fabric
and screens like a screen door or rug patterns.
To some extent there's not much you can do about this.
It's where that pattern meets the digital image format,
meets the half tone.
And some of it you just sort of have to accept
but sometimes you can blur it a little.
The printer is going to be your best source
of advice for dealing with something like that.
And of course you want to make sure that there's bleed.
You want to make sure that you stayed within a live area.
Again, you're trying to stay away from foals and trams.
You don't want to be too close,
make sure there has been no text reflow.
And any special effects such as glows and shadows
that you might've created in illustrator or InDesign
make sure that those are rendering correctly.
And if you have any artwork that goes
from one page to another,
make sure that it's aligned correctly,
make sure that there's an offset
between the edges of the artwork.
And then if you're checking folding dummies
and these are just paginated print outs
that show you the order of the pages in the final piece
so that you can check the way the book flows
and you can also check crossover art.
You want to make sure that the pagination is correct,
that your page numbers are correct.
And again, you want to check for any changes
from the page proof stage to this stage.
Even though you're ready for the job to be done,
it's important to take this extra time to double-check,
hey, maybe even triple check your work
and that minimizes problems and delays at the printer.
This will go a long way
towards ensuring a really smooth print job.