*How to Create a Digital File for Print* by Obscure/Renegade
1) What kind of Program/File types do they require?
Contact the Vendor and find out if they need a certain kind of file. Most reputable Printshops can accept a wide variety of files, but sometimes they prefer certain files due to the kind of imposition software they use. Sometimes they want a native format (.AI, .FH8, .QXD) and sometimes they want a .TIF, .EPS, or .PDF.
Once you find out what file/program type they prefer, ask them what version of that program's software they use. For example, if you have Adobe Illustrator 9.0 and they only have 7.0, you WILL need to save down to 7.0 in order to prevent serious problems.Many programs update features and editing features, and they can literally disappear, or worse, corrupt your file permanently.
2) Mac or PC?
Not all files are created equal. Ask them what platform they use. If it differs from your own, advise them of that and ask if you need to save as a certain file type. Certain EPS & TIF encodings can vary from program to program, and it's best to find out A) if it makes a difference to them and B) if so, what they prefer.
3) Resolution!
This is, by far, the number one issue that people run into when creating a file for print. The simple answer is, create/scan all of your raster (pixel) files at 300DPI, and your B/W Line Art @ 1200DPI.
Some print places require a higher res, for something special like an annual report.Sometimes when you create a file destined for a large size (Billboards, posters) you may have to create your work at a very particular resolution. Anything larger than say, 26x38" might require special treatment. To be safe, ask the vendor.
Vector files use mathematical equations to render shape, and as such are infinitely scalable. If you are using a vector program (Illustrator, Freehand) you can pretty much scale at whim without losing resolution.
However, if you import/export a Vector file into a raster program such as Photoshop, you can only scale downward after the fact. Scaling upwards will pixelate your image and completely destroy the clarity and focus. Get your logo to the exact size, or even a bit larger to be safe, before you bring it into a raster program to avoid the "jaggies."
Another thing to be cognizant of is that pixel dimensions are totally irrelevant when it comes to print. For instance: a file that's 1600x1200 pixels can be 72 or 300 DPI, and it will look the same size on-screen. However, the true physical (print) size of the image will change drastically.
A 1600x1200 file @ 72 is 22.222 x 16.667 inches. When you change it to 300 DPI—without using resample, which destroys the quality of the image—the inches change to 5.33 x 4 inches.
That is obviously much smaller than the original. Even though the pixel dimensions are the same, it will print @ 5.33 x 4, NOT 22.222 x 16.667 inches. That's a huge difference, so be mindful of how you build your files. Leave pixel dimensions to "photoshop experts" & people who only work online, and go by DPI & inches (or metric, picas, agate, etc.) for the real world.
4) Am I bleeding, and should I be?
A bleed is a lot simpler than you might think. Basically, all it means is that you pull your image/color fill past the trim line of your piece. The reason you use a bleed is so that when the cutter trims your paper out, you won't have that ugly, razor-thin edge of white running along the edges of your work.
For example: Let's say you have a flyer that's 11x17". If your printer wants you to have a 1/4" (.25") bleed, that means you create your document at 11.5x17.5", in a program like AI os PS. That will create a bleed area of .25" all the way around your piece. In the case of something like Quark or InDesign, create your document @ the actual size, and pull four guides .25" or .125" outside of the document.
That .25" or .125" is where you extend your color fills & images off of the actual page. Keep your (important) text at least 1/8" to the INSIDE of your trim line to avoid getting your text whacked off.
5) Color: CMYK, PANTONE, and why RGB is so tricky.
RGB is all well and good for the web. It's also the only way you can get all of your filters in PhotoShop to activate. However, it is completely wrong for print. Why? The gamut, or overall color range, of RGB is greater than the overall range of CMYK. If you create all of these bright, vivid colors in RGB you will lose them the instant you convert them into CMYK, especially in the Blue & Purple areas. Sometimes you will get very little shift, and other times it will look like a totally different image.
The good news is that once you convert to CMYK, you can use PhotoShop's Hue/Saturation, Variations, etc. to get your Raster images about 95-97% back to the color range. Some colors are simply unreproducable using the CMYK process, but that's the way it is.
Now, feel free to create and manipulate Raster files in RGB: Before you finalize them, or place them into another program, you MUST convert them to CMYK.
Regarding vector files: You need to convert the color space of the document & the images to CMYK, unless you have specifically budgeted/planned for a PMS color.If you have budgeted for a Pantone (aka PMS or Spot color), you can obviously use that, but otherwise stick to CMYK. You should also derive your CMYK colors by resampling your chosen PMS color(s).
PANTONE colors, also known as Spot or PMS colors, are highly precise inks that are guaranteed to look exactly like the corresponding color chip in a current PMS book. Now, keep in mind that when you use one PMS color (in a Quark/InDesign file, or in a piece of vector art) along with CMYK, you are actually using 5 colors. This costs more money & time to print. If you find a PMS color you really like but you can't afford the cost, you can convert it to CMYK in your relevant program and adjust the CMYK mix until it matches your chip as closely as possible.
If you have money & time, by all means ask your printer about the set-up charges, and if you need a varnish (which would add a 6th "color") for it.
6) The Miracle/Torture of Color Profiles
Most people don't use Delta-E profiles, but for professional print houses they are essential. They are fairly complex, but I will cover the basics so you can be prepared if the issues arises.
Delta-E Color Profiles are basically a set of instructions that corrects a program or hardware deficiency in displaying or rendering color, based upon the Delta-E Light standard. Based upon this standard, profiles allow anyone's monitor or printer to exactly match the colors of the press you are having your work done on.
If you don't use them, ask your vendor if they do: if so, ask for an initial match proof so you can check the color. Also, ask them if you need to use one of theirs in order to get a more accurate color match. If you DO use them, you already know the process, so be sure to send your profile along with your digital files.
If you want to learn more, go herehttp://www.color.org/ and herehttp://www.colormanagement.nl/index_norm.html
7) Flightchecking: What's that?
When preparing a digital file for print, you must include all of the collateral: fonts, images, profiles, etc. I highly recommend Flightcheck for this. It will investigate your file for missing fonts, color problems, and all sorts of other issues. And not only will it identify potential problems, but it will also gather all the pieces of your files and copy them them into separate folders (Fonts, Images, etc.) and place all of those folders into one central folder for easy access. It's a lot better than hunting around for each and every font or image you used in your piece.
8) The Final Delivery
Ask the printhouse what sort of media they need you to provide the files on. This may seem like an elementary question, but some places only accept certain media. Places that use late-model Macs may not be able to accept a floppy disk. Others may not be able to use a DVD, and still others may not accept outdated media (SyQuest, Tape) Some places absolutely refuse to accept a floppy, ZIP disks, CD's OR DVD's, and insist that you FTP everything over. Be sure to ask this up front, so you're not caught unawares at deadline.
If you have any questions, feel free to PM me. Thanks!
-O/R
*Spot Varnishes* by Obscure/Renegade
Here is an entertaining and flexible method of creating varnishes and SPOT treatments for specific images. You can open up all kinds of subtle and/or overt effects using this method. If you want, you can even use this method in case your client needs a specific piece in particular PMS color.
• Pick an image you want to add your channel to. In this case, I’ve simply made a quick background. I am going to add text over the top of it, and then a raster image.
• Bring your Channels tab to the front. Click the Options arrow, and choose New Spot Channel.
• You will get a new dialogue box, asking you to specify a new PMS color. Since we are creating a varnish, just pick something you can see and re-name the channel to VARNISH. Make sure the Solidity is @ 100%.
• Now you are ready to create your varnish imagery. Grab the text tool and type something up. When you are done, select the Arrow tool. You will have a marquee selection around your text, which is normal.
• Move it where you want it, and Deselect. You can move it around like any other layer after that.
• You can do all sorts of things using this method. You can cut & paste in any raster or vector image you like, and use all of Photoshop’s tools to manipulate that image once it is in there.
• IMPORTANT: Keep in mind, once you paste in your second image to the channel, it flattens with the previous image. You will get the marquee selection when you paste it in, and don’t deselect it until you are completely happy with placement. If you move the new image around, this is what happens:
• If you turn off the CMYK channels you will get a “density” preview of your 5th channel. The varying black areas represent the where the varnish prints.
• Now, this is the important part. When you save your file, you MUST save it as a DCS 2.0 in order for it to work. It basically makes a fancy EPS. The options are shown in the screenshots below, which may vary slighty depending on platform & RIP Software.
• Congratulations! When your files separate at the printers, they will have a 5th plate named “VARNISH” that will be used to overprint varnish in the shapr of your text over the top of your project! You can use shiny, dull, or matte varnish, depending on how much emphasis you want on the text. What I like to do is us that file as a “knockout”, and make the entire piece varnished, EXCEPT for the text.
• In order to use this tutorial for adding a true spot color to a CMYK file, you may have to delete the CMYK info out of the spot's channel. Sometimes the overprint will act up, depending upon your printer's setup.
Please feel free to PM me if you have questions. Thanks! -O/R
*Varnish Tutorial* **by Obscure/Renegade**
OK, here is the easy, and preferred way (for prepress people) to create varnishes. We just finished the 2004 catalog for CharBroil that uses a very simple technique for placing varnish on specific areas of the job, so that will be our example.
• Here's a shot of a grill that we want to varnish, while leaving everything else flat. (Please ignore the fonts, I didn't load them for this demo. )
• Open the image in PS, and Save As a new document. Create a clip path around the object, in as high a degree of accuracy as possible. You don't want crooked lines around your image, because your varnish will be crooked at the end.
• When you are done, save your work path as a clipping path with a flatness of 1 to 3 before you take the next step. Select the Paths tab, select the Work Path layer, then -->Save Path, then choose --> Clipping Path, and you're done.
• Select the path layer in the Paths palette, and turn it into a Selection. Fill it with a PANTONE color, something highly visible.
See how easy this is?
• Save your file out as an EPS.
• Write down the coordinates and scale % of the original image in your document. This is extremely important, because we are going to need them to place our new red EPS over the top of this one, and it has to be absolutely exact.
• Using Step & Repeat (in Quark) with a value of Zero (Horizontal & Vertical) duplicate the box that your image is in, then delete the image in that box. You will have an empty box of the exact same shape, in the exact same place on your page.
• Import your new EPS image into that box. Enter the appropriate values that you wrote down for the original image. Your new EPS should now be exactly over your original image!
• What happens now is that the PANTONE color you chose in the EPS will separate as a 5th plate (assuming a regular CMYK print job) and then you spec that with your printer as your Varnish! From there you can choose matte, high gloss, satin finish, etc.
• You can even use it in other places, once your EPS has brought in that color. And since you are already paying for a 5th plate, you might as well use it in some other ways.
• Here you can see that some other boxes (using the same Step & Repeat technique) are empty, but still using the same PANTONE color. The images under the 3 red boxes will also have the varnish applied over them. You can do this with text as well, or any other duplicate-able object. You can even create a large box to cover the whole page, which will make the entire thing varnished.
• Nothing looks worse than an off-center varnish. So again, I must stress the importance of making sure your EPS is exactly the same shape & size, and in the the exact same X-Y coordinates in order for it to register properly.
Feel free to PM me if you have questions. Thanks! -O/R
Good idea, o/r. If the stinkys are gone for now, anyone with other tutes please pm o/r or myself and we can post them here.
http://www.greynotgrey.com/ian/12stone/tutes/
as always - a backup of all the old tutes.
File formats raster vs. vector colour modes resolution
Layers layer management layer properties layer effects
Masking pen tool bringing in layers pattern fills
Tonal adjustment curves levels
Fill Tricks stripe fill curved fill
Brush Tricks custom brushes pattern brushes
Textures wood
People keep asking about the basics of composition, so although this isn't a tutorial per se it's a list of relevant resources:
basic spatial composition - some basic approaches common to photos and graphics compostion:
http://www.azuswebworks.com/photography/ph_comp.html
golden section/golden mean and the rule of thirds in more detail:
http://photoinf.com/Golden_Mean/Eugene_Ilchenko/GoldenSection.html
text composition/layout tutes: http://desktoppub.about.com/od/typelayout/
How to design a classic David Ogilvy ad layout: http://desktoppub.about.com/od/ads/ss/ogilvy.htm
How to create seamless brushes in illustratorhttp://northlite.50megs.com/illus/patbrush.htm
this post is based on a discussion this thread:http://twelvestone.com/forum_thread/view/34188
// oops
found another selection of tutorials...
an excellent Pen Tool tutorial
http://psdtuts.com/tutorials/tools-tips/photoshops-pen-tool-the-comprehensive-guide/
Copyright & Usage If you have the skill to write an excellent tutorial to produce a unique and impressive effect/design/graphic, then we’d like to hear from you. We pay US$150 p/tutorial that is accepted, and you’ll have the honour of being published on the best photoshop tutorial blog around!
Last post in this thread was some time ago.
I met an architect last night who has not worked for 3 months; she has some web design experience but wants to do some refresher courses before soliciting freelance work (small-scale web industry is still booming here)
PSD Tuts looks good, does anyone have any other design course recommendations?
Originally posted by: X-DUD!!!11~~ YAR!
So I have an image that I need duplicated randomly all over the place. Figgerd a custom brush would be the way to go, rather than copy/paste/rotate it 900 times.
However, it (naturally) takes on the foreground color when I paint... and I want it to use the color of the original sampled image.
Doable?
here's a step-by-step, starting in photoshop:
A pretty easy & fast effect if you know a few tricks. This would have taken me about 5 or so minutes for the whole process.
Originally posted by: rogue_designer Ari - do you know if you can randomize the size and rotation of the symbols when defining the symbol sprayer? Or is that reserved only for art brushes?
(and thanks for the tips - I have never used that tool)
To some extent - just double click the sprayer icon in the toolbar and switch the parameters you want randomized to "user defined" from "average". A bit less control than using all the symbol tools one by one but a lot faster, for sure.
I think the "size" option only works if you use a tablet, based on stylus pressure, though.
