Prepress, Design & Layout Services
We offer complete graphic design services to help you communicate your message, design your piece and reach your target audience.
If you submit a camera ready file to us, the prepress and design group insures that your files are properly prepared for the digital print or offset printing process. Fonts are checked, images are optimized, and links are confirmed. When this "pre-flight" check is completed, your job is electronically assembled and press proofs are created.
Once you approve the proofs, printing plates are made and the job is sent to press.
File Submission Guidelines
For digital print and offset print jobs, PDF files work the best. Alternate file formats such as Word, JPG or Powerpoint files often do not print correctly and may be subject to additional fees. Please submit a Press Quality PDF file as well as a copy of your native graphic design or page layout file, along with all packaged images, fonts, graphics and linked files. When creating your native files, include graphics, scanned photographs, and digital images. It is also helpful to us if you submit a hard copy sample or mock up of what your project should look like, so we have a visual comparison in hand to refer to when doing pre-flight checks.
Fonts
Supply all fonts used in your publication, and include both printer and screen fonts. Missing, substituted or inexpensive web fonts can often cause text re-flow and printing issues. Some software programs allow you to apply certain styles (italic, bold, etc…) to a plain font. These stylized fonts don’t always print well. Be sure to use a proper font family.
Graphics
Include all graphic EPS or TIFF files that are in your file. Bitmap line art should be a resolution of at least 600 dpi. Black and White, grayscale images and full color images should be 300 dpi. For large format poster/banner digital printing, 200 dpi is sufficient at 100% the size images are being printed.
Although the world wide web is full of fantastic and colorful images, most are very low resolution .gif or. jpg images that are only 40-72 dpi, which is much too low a resolution to use in a quality printed piece.
Photos
Most publishing and page layout programs have a mask command that will trap a photo inside a box so that the photo does not extend outside the box area. This feature is the preferred method to mask a photo to a box, as many problems arise when a photo is manually cropped to a box, and you can’t see that it doesn’t really fill the frame, or that the photo actually extends outside of the box.
Bleeds and Pages
As you are designing or laying out your printed piece, please build all pages to 100% of their trim size. If you have images, graphics or text blocks that bleed, extend those at least an 1/8th of an inch past your page boundry. Do not scale your pages.
Mock-Up
Include a laser print out mock-up of all pages in your file. Print proofs at 100% of the finished size including the bleeds and marks - do not scale and make “mini-proofs”. This will allow you and us to make sure the file is appropriately set up with the appropriate bleeds, etc. It is especially important to fold the mock-up as the finished job will be folded to assure that the file is set up correctly.
Our Prepress, Design & Layout Services
- Scanning
- Color Correction
- Typesetting
- Trapping
- Impositions
- Brochures & Flyers
- Proofing
- Brand Identity
- Ad Layouts
- Packaging
- Marketing Materials