Judy Winn
Associate Professor and Extension Communications Specialist
Texas A&M University Agricultural Communications

Background

When Gutenberg cranked up the first printing press back in the 1450s, he founded an industry that remained pretty much unchanged for the next 500 years or so. It wasn't until the middle of this century that the first major change occurred in the way a printed page was created. That's when we shifted from mechanical to electronic typesetting, and from letterpress to offset printing. Many of us are old enough to remember just how dramatic that change was.

In the last 2 to3 years or so, the industry has undergone another change of almost the same magnitude. That is, of course, the shift to digital pre-press production. Paste-ups, camera-ready hard copies, cameras and stripping have largely become relics from the past. Almost overnight, it seemed, printers were asking us if we could send our jobs to them on disk for direct output to film.

In Texas, the group within Agricultural Communications that produces Extension's educational publications is known as Educational Media Ed Med for short. Among us there are three editors, two typesetters, three artists, and one person who manages electronic publishing. As the digital revolution unfolded, we found ourselves groping along by trial and error. And there were a lot of errors!

• Images were sent in the wrong file formats. Some printers wanted only tifs or jpegs. Others could also handle gifs and eps files.
• It was difficult to know that all the necessary elements were contained in a file, so often fonts or images were left out and had to be sent to the printer later on.
• Images were accidently set up in RGB instead of CMYK.
• ProMatch colors weren't set up correctly, and printed out as a fifth color instead. Naturally we were charged for the extra film.
• Sometimes two-color jobs were inadvertently set up as four-color, and, on film, separated into CMYK.
• Layouts for crops, folds and bleeds weren't accurate. It's hard to tell if they're correct on screen unless you zoom in very tight. And, of course, you have to know to check them in the first place.
• Image resolution was often too high or too low.
• Our attempts at color correction were often hit or miss because we didn't understand how to measure color percentages and set them up within the tolerances required on a press.

These kinds of errors cost us money and time. What we didn't realize in the beginning, but learned over time, was that our printers often didn't know much more than we did. Their people were also learning the new technologies, and were as much victims of the digital revolution as we were. I'm assuming that many of you have had similar experiences. If so, our list of errors may sound familiar to you, and I'm hoping that you'll benefit from what we've learned.

Getting the Right Training

Like most publishing operations, we use a variety of software programs. One of our typesetters uses PageMaker, the other QuarkXpress. Both are self-taught. and very good at what they do. They also scan and place graphics and design simple page layouts. The artists use Quark, PhotoShop, Illustrator and FreeHand, primarily. One also uses PageMaker. A challenge we faced was learning how best to integrate various programs in a single digital file. We often have typesetting done in Quark, photos scanned in PhotoShop, and other images created in Illustrator.

We knew we needed training, but weren't sure of the best way to get it. Last year we sent one of the artists to a commercial PhotoShop seminar in hopes that he would learn more about pre-press production and be able to share it with the rest of the group. However, he was disappointed in the quality of the class, which concentrated more on the various bells and whistles in the program than on using the program for production work.

Providence smiled on us when we learned of a man in our area who offers training in pre-press production. We checked out his credentials very carefully, and were quite impressed. Not only has he trained the production staffs of a number of publishing houses, including Texas Monthly (a magazine similar in size and format to Southern Living), but he's also trained the staffs of a number of the printers we work with. They all said he had helped them tremendously, so we contracted with him for two full days of training in our department. His understanding of both what printers need and what production people can achieve set us on the right path at last. The following highlights from our training follow the production process from beginning to end.

Integrating Type and Design

We learned that printers prefer Quark to PageMaker because it is a more sophisticated and flexible type handling program with features that make for better digital files, as we'll see later on. To improve the printing of Quark files you should take "Background Printing" off in Chooser. Don't use True Type. It gives imagesetters trouble, doesn't RIP well, and some preflighting software can't handle it. It also adds overhead to the RIP process. Adobe Type Manager is a better way to manage type than just having all your fonts loose in a folder. If you rotate text boxes in Quark, always rotate in whole numbers rather than fractions; also, do not rotate images in Quark do that in PhotoShop. Both these recommendations will save time when the file is RIPped at the printer, and saving time saves money. A printer may charge for more than 15 minutes RIP time per page.

If you're using a Pantone color, set it up in either your graphic program or in Quark, but not both. The same Pantone color created, for example, in Illustrator and in Quark will be different and will produce different pieces of film. It is usually best to do color separations in Quark.

Trapping is often a problem for printers and designers. A glance through any color magazine will yield examples of poor trapping. Trapping, of course, is the built-in overlap of colors so that there is no gap between them when they are printed. This is usually accomplished by sliding the lighter color under the darker. Trapping is necessary because it's easy for colors not to meet if the press alignment is off a bit or the paper stretches. The designer should look for possible problem areas and do whatever trapping seems necessary. However, we learned that the final responsibility for correct trapping always lies with the person making the film, and in our case that person is at the printer. Film should be output to the specific requirements of the press that will be used to print the job, and trapping is part of that process because the required tolerances could change from one press to another. We've had printers say that trapping is our responsibility. Now that we know different, we'll be including a line in all our printing estimates that says: "Printer to be responsible for all necessary trapping."

Scanning and Color Correction

There are three steps in scanning: capture, color evaluation, and color correction.

Capture an image at 150 line screen (lpi), which equals 300 dots per inch (dpi) or pixels per inch (ppi). For line art all you need is 400 dpi. This will give you high quality. Make sure the pixels are twice the line screen. Pictures should be scanned with 25 percent leeway as to their final size. If in the final layout a picture is not within the 75 to 125 percent range, it should be rescanned or resized in PhotoShop.

Of course, your scanner must be properly calibrated in order to have a starting point for producing colors. Also, the RGB color of a scanned image as you see it on your monitor must be transformed to CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow, black) color that will actually print. Doing the transform function in Quark makes the black too heavy. PhotoShop is where the transform should take place, and that means that color tables in PhotoShop need to be set up to specify CMYK properly.

Once you have captured an image you evaluate the color. Never rely on what your eye sees on the monitor. The only way to evaluate color accurately is by using the PhotoShop densitometer. Place the eyedropper tool in a neutral area of the image and check to see what the percentages of CMYK are in that area. They should be in balance. If there are skin tones in the photograph, use a mid-level skin tone as an area to evaluate. Flesh tones should be an almost equal balance of magenta and yellow, with slightly more yellow. This is the cast that looks most appealing when the photograph is printed.

To correct color, we learned, you should not use the "brightness" and "contrast" scales in PhotoShop. These are useless if you are striving for high quality work. Instead, you use the densitometer to change CMYK percentages and balance. The PhotoShop InfoBox shows you the percentages of each color. Besides correcting skin tones, you should evaluate highlights, midtones and shadows. Add color to highlights, if necessary, so that they have at least 5 percent end dots, keeping them a neutral gray made up of equal percentages of cyan, magenta and yellow. Likewise, make sure the value of shadows is no more than 90 to 95 percent. Shadows that are too dark and highlights that are too light give the pressman no flexibility with which to adjust color on the press should that be necessary.

Another thing to remember is that the angles of the dots must be changed so that the inks don't print at the same angle. When the angles of color dots conflict you get a moire or patterning effect. Even with two inks, as in a duotone, the dot angles of the inks should not be same.

File Preparation and Preflighting

Our trainer suggested a way of organizing our work so that we can systematically build the files needed for each job, and then make sure that they will output correctly to film. We've now implemented this process. The editor puts the edited manuscript on our publishing server in a folder created for that job. The artist makes a copy of that file and designs the publication with the initial specifications. When he's through he puts that file in the job folder on the server. Then the typesetter accesses that file and sets the type while the artist is scanning images or creating illustrations. When the type is set the artist adds all the artwork. At this point, using Adobe Acrobat, we're going to create a pdf (portable document file) to use as a proof to go out to the author. We already use Acrobat for our Web publishing, but we hadn't thought of using it to create proofs as well. If the author makes changes the editor will incorporate them into the file that contains the original manuscript and the typesetter will add them to add to the composite file.

When the publication is complete, it's time to preflight the file a process that ensures it will output correctly. Preflighting is also done at the printer, but the object is to catch problems before you send the job to the printer. This has been a tricky process for us in the past. The key is to collect all the various files and fonts needed for the job. Keeping all the files we build in a working folder as we go along will help. We learned that QuarkXpress has two excellent features to help with preflighting and we've begun using both of them. The first is a plug-in called Font Corral, which gathers all the fonts specified in your publication into the folder with your publication and image files. The second feature is called Quark Report. It acts as an elementary parser that checks your file and prints a report about it. The report lists all the elements found in your file. With it you can check that all the fonts, image files and other elements you need are actually there.

One of the most interesting things we learned was how to use Acrobat Distiller as a RIP. First you write a PostScript file from your Quark document. Then, in Distiller, you use the Prologue and Epilogue program to write a high-end pdf. This is a very effective preflighting technique, because if Distiller can write the pdf successfully your file has been prepared correctly and no parts are missing.

To really feel secure about the integrity of your files, however, it is best to use a regular preflight software program. The one we have invested in is FlightCheck Pro, which not only tells you what is wrong with your file, but also how to fix it.

What to Send the Printer

We had been guilty of sending the printer too little information to work with just the digital file (which might or might not contain all the fonts and images) and perhaps a print-out straight from Quark. So one of the most important lessons learned from our training was to always give the printer every piece of information he might possibly need.

At the end of the production process we have an assortment of files in our working folder for the publication. On a Zip disk we put the publication file, all the font files, all the image files, and the Quark Report (the Report's list of file contents is helpful to the printer also). In addition, we send along a composite proof, a separated proof, and a color proof. At least one of those proofs should be full size; the rest can be shrunk to fit a convenient page size. The proofs printed at less than 100 percent should be marked as to their percentage reduction.

(At the same time that the job goes to the printer, we create the final pdf for posting on the Web.)

Proofing

With this new technology, we were sometimes confused about what kinds of proofs to ask for from the printer. And since printers use different kinds of imaging systems, they sometimes have different names for proofs. Now we understand that what is commonly called a "Rainbo" proof is a digital proof made from the file you send the printer. It's the proof you get when an Adobe RIP is used to make a color composite. The color is close to what you'll see from the film, but not exact, so you can't proof for precise color quality from a Rainbo. If you need to see exactly what the film will produce, ask for a laminate proof, which is a proof made from the film itself. It gives a very good representation of what you will see in print. Some printers may have the new high-end Polaroid proofing system, which can even produce a proof on the actual paper that will be used to print the job.

If you don't have access to a good color laser printer with which to do your own digital proof before the job goes to the printer, then you may want to request a digital proof such as a Rainbo. If you can produce your own digital proof, there is no need to ask for the printer for one.

Although it is essential to have a high quality color proofing monitor with a light shield attached to your scanner, it is only when you see a good quality proof that you can tell if your color quality and balances are what you want. Color is extremely subjective. We learned that your perception of color can change if you have eaten certain foods or if you have hay fever! Color proofs must be viewed under light calibrated to 5000 degrees Kelvin the standard for judging color. Most printers have such a light booth, but of course we don't. It's good to remember this if you have a picky client who sees a proof and wants to make color corrections. You should tell him that the only way he can be sure of an exact color is to go to the printing company where he can view the proofs in a light booth and, if he wants any changes, be prepared to pay about $200 per page.

Other Tips

Perhaps the overall lesson from our training was the importance of working closely with printers and doing all we can to foster a sense of teamwork so that we get the quality of production that we want. While we've always had very good relationships with our printers, I'm sure they have been frustrated with us from time to time, as we have with them. We can make things easier for ourselves and for them by providing more information at every step in the process, and by being consistent in the way we manage pre-press production. Beginning with writing the specifications for the printing bid or estimate, it's a good idea to include phrases such as "Printer to be responsible for trapping." That eliminates surprises and finger-pointing later on. It's also a good idea, if possible, to send a print-out (color, preferably) along with the bid request. Also on the bid request, spell out exactly what materials you will provide: digital file, separations, composite proofs, etc. Specify the kind of proof you want the printer to give you digital or laminate. If your job calls for printing colors in very fine detail, you should probably ask for stochastic screening, a process that creates dots rather than the normal rosette pattern.

Most important of all, we should ask printers to tell us about any problems they encounter with our jobs. That kind of feedback will be enormously helpful as we continue to master digital pre-press production. And we must master it, because the next wave of the digital revolution is on the way. It may not be too long before most printers will have direct-to-plate output for our digital files. When that happens, all responsibility for file creation and proofing will rest with us, and the printer will simply output what we provide. Wouldn't Gutenberg be amazed!

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