Las Vegas Printing Companies
File Submission Do's and Dont's
The Do’s & Don’ts Designer's Guide has been created to assist you with submitting the necessary electronic art materials and accurately preparing your electronic files for print production. Following these guidelines will help ensure the successful, timely completion of your project.
Do’s:
Define page size as a final size.
Check to see that all bleeds measure .125".
Check that Page/panel sizes are correct for the style of fold if the final piece requires folding.
Define color names the same between graphics software and page layout programs (CV,CVC,CVU,...).
Define all colors appropriately as spot or CMYK colors in both the graphics and page layout programs.
Convert all live color bitmap files from RGB to CMYK
Set the picture box background color to none in QuarkXPress whenever possible.
Scan line work at 800 dpi (dots per inch) or above. This will ensure optimum quality.
Provide live color bitmap images at scan resolutions of 300 dpi.
Place all scans at 100 percent size or smaller in page layout. Enlargements could compromise quality.
Don’ts:
Avoid style options or buttons as they may result in incorrect output.
Avoid specifying a rule weight of hairline (define it as a .25 pt. rule).
Don't forget those embedded art files!
Avoid placing PICT files. Convert them to EPS or TIFF format.
Avoid saving any EPS Options (halftone screening or transfer functions) with Adobe Photoshop images.
Don’t assign trap in page layout or graphics programs. M.O.W will provide all trap.
Avoid creating PDF files with trim marks or page information but add bleed where applicable.
Preparing Electronic Files for Submission: Do's and Don'ts
File Guidlines: Native file guidelines for accurate imaging.
Fonts & Typography
If you have ever attempted to create the perfect project, we're certain that a larger selection of fonts would have been useful. We've compiled a list of online font libraries for you to get just the right look for your next project.
Commercial Font Libraries:
•Bitstream, Inc.
•Adobe Type Library
•Agfa Monotype
•Emigre Fonts
•Linotype Library
•EyeWire
•FontHaus
Free Fonts & Shareware Libraries:
•About.Com's Free Font Library
•Chank
•The Font Pool
•Fontcraft's Scriptorium
•Larabie Fonts
Layout & Design
When you are working on your latest graphic design project, there are many tools that can improve the process to allow your creativity to flow. From simple graphic conversion utilities and image viewers to commercial software packages, our list of Layout & Design software is a good starting place for helping you create a masterpiece.
Windows
•EZ-Pix™
EZ-Pix is a fast, highly functional shareware image viewer and editor with support for all common image formats, including JPEG, GIF, BMP, TIFF and PNG. It has a streamlined interface, and can be used to retrieve images from scanners and digital cameras.
•Gadwin PrintScreen™
Gadwin PrintScreen is a freeware utility that can capture the entire Windows screen, the active window or a specified area. The captured screen can be sent to the printer, or saved to disk as a file in six different graphic file formats.
•GIMP®
GIMP (short for GNU Image Manipulation Program) is a freely distributed open source program for such tasks as photo editing, image composition and image authoring. It may be the closest thing to Photoshop® you can get for free!
•PluginsWorld.com
A large download directory of plugins for Adobe® (Photoshop®, Illustrator®, InDesign®, Acrobat®) and Apple® (Aperture®, AfterEffect®, FinalCut®) plugins. Includes reviews and user ratings.
•The Font Thing™
Browse installed and uninstalled TrueType fonts, view sample text, individual characters and detailed font information all with The Font Thing, the freeware font management utility. It lets you install, uninstall, print, copy or delete any number of fonts at once. You can even store your own notes with them, filter them according to type and group them into collections for convenience.
•The Print Shop™
The Print Shop includes all the tools you'll need to create the perfect greeting card, stationary set, calendar, CD label and more. Choose from more than 115,000 photos, graphics and web art. Select from more than 8,000 professionally designed project templates.
Mac OS X
•Art Text™
Art Text from BeLight® is a tool for creating custom logos, icons, headings, and banners. You can modify text and vector shapes, turning them into fancy graphics for your own use and exporting the result in PDF, TIFF, JPEG, GIF or PNG format.
•FontExplorer™ X
FontExplorer X from Linotype® delivers powerful font sorting, font shopping and font discovery capabilities in one easy-to-use font management tool. Best of all, FontExplorer X is free!
•GIMP
GIMP (short for GNU Image Manipulation Program) is a freely distributed open source program for such tasks as photo editing, image composition and image authoring. It may be the closest thing to Photoshop® you can get for free!
•GraphicConverter™
The "Swiss knife" of graphic file conversion utilities, GraphicConverter can import 200 different graphic file types and export 80.
•iPhoto®
iPhoto from Apple® is a photo viewer and editor that allows you to import photos from your digital camera, perform basic enhancements and corrections and easily organize and archive them on your Mac.
•PluginsWorld.com
A large download directory of plugins for Adobe® (Photoshop®, Illustrator®, InDesign®, Acrobat®) and Apple® (Aperture®, AfterEffect®, FinalCu®) plugins. Includes reviews and user ratings.
•Snapz Pros X™
Snapz Pro X is a shareware screen capture utility offering a multitude of options and rock-solid performance. You can save captures in a number of popular file formats, such as PNG, GIF, JPEG, TIFF, and PSD. It may be the best screen-capture utility for Mac OS X.