Equipment and Software

Software:
We use the following industry standard software programs:
QuarkXpress
Freehand
FrameMaker
Photoshop
Pagemaker
Illustrator
InDesign

Transport Media:
We support the following transport media:
3.5" floppy
Jaz Disk
Zip Disk (100MB & 250MB)
CD

We offer laser proofs, Epson Stylus Pro 9000 large format color proofs and e-mail PDFs. Proofing is not optional.

Planning Your Project:
Our knowledgeable sales staff and production support team are here to assist you in planning your next project. Let us know how we can help--we are your partner in the printing business.Contact should be made at this early stage to verify project specifications. There are limitations in both computer technology and the printing process. Some ideas may look great on screen, but are impossible to reproduce on film.

A Few Design Considerations:
Simple construction is always best. Simplify projects in a way that will produce a minimum amount of processing. Be RIP conscious when planning and building your document.

• Size, crop and rotate graphics prior to export.
• Build documents in layers at 100% size. Please allow 1/8" bleed for bleeding images.
• Minimize font usage.
• Use master pages for repetitive page elements.
• Build the document in READER SPREADS - use single pages for documents with bleeds or crossovers.
• Use style palettes for large documents with repetitive type styles.
• Remove all unnecessary items, text boxes and unused colors in palette.
• Never cover items with white boxes, remove them.
• Never use hairline line widths (they are too thin). Use a minimum of .25pt. for line weight
• Avoid using pattern fills where fit is critical.
• Test and clean up document prior to submitting for output.

Fonts:
Font issues are the most frequent interrupters of workflow. By including your own fonts, you will ensure that what you see on your screen will be what we see on ours.

All Fonts are Not Equal:
In general the more expensive the fonts the better they are. Inexpensive fonts are generally poorly written and unpredictable. If you just gotta have a particular cheap font let us do a test on our imagesetter to make sure it will work before you put a lot of hard work into your project.

Tabs, Indents and Paragraph Spacing:
Always use tabs, indents and paragraph spacing. Avoid using multiple returns or space-bars, as the spacing may not be consistent on film.

Convert Text to Outlines or Paths:
An exported illustration with type still needs a printer and screen font to for output. Convert text to outlines or paths in drawing programs. The text will now be treated as a graphic and will not look for the printer font at output.

Image Preparation:

TIFF: An almost universal image format for photos and scanned graphics.
If in doubt of which format to choose, you rarely go wrong with TIFF.

EPS: Encapsulated Postscript is the format used for virtually all vector artwork. When used with images, it offers PostScript options such as clipping paths, halftone screens,

Scanning Services:
We offer high quality, pleasing color scanning and manipulation services as well as half tone and line art scanning.

• Submit transparencies or reflective artwork that correspond to FPOs. Clearly identify images using letters A, B, C or numbers 1, 2, 3. Indicate cropping with clear or tissue overlay.
• Scan subjects must be flexible enough to wrap around the scanning drum, and cannot exceed 10" x 13".
• Please provide clear instructions for images that need manipulation or color adjustments.

Color:
Software programs allow you to specify color in two ways: spot color(e.g. Pantone); or process color

• When specifying any color, always work from a printed swatchbook, not by what you see on screen.
• Select the right color type--spot or process--for your job before submitting your files.
• Delete any colors (even the programs default colors) that are not used in your document.

Rich Black:
We recommend 40% Cyan, 0% Magenta, 0% Yellow, and 100% Black. If a fuller four-color black is requested, use 60% Cyan, 40% Magenta, 20% Yellow, and 100% Black. Never use a rich black body text. Use 100% black, or separate the black text from the rest of the document by specifying the text layer as a spot color. This allows for easy text alterations without having to reprocess the entire process black plate.

Trapping:
In Prepress, a trap is a process used to ensure that colors appear properly registered. A trap occurs when a lighter color overlaps a darker color to eliminate gaps caused by misregistration of colors, paper shifting or stretching, or imperfect plate alignment at press. Our standard trap setting is .25 of a point, but can be increased upwards to .3, depending on the press the project is printing on. Because trapping can be a delicate matter please call us before trapping your files. For a reasonable cost, we can trap your files.

Preparation of Transport Files:
Your transport media must contain copies of:

• Page layout file
• Graphics or scans
• All working files for graphics
• All fonts (printer and screen fonts)
• Please delete files we should not use

Please mark all electronic media with your company name, contact name, and phone number. After you have gathered all your elements copy them to your transfer disk, then close your fonts and all programs. Load the fonts and launch the file from the transfer disk. All of the links should be to the files on the transfer disk only, if not link them now.

Things to Include with your Job:

• A hard copy of your file with all color breaks, folds, scores, trim marks, pagination, etc. clearly noted.
• A folded, trimmed dummy with pages backed up in the proper position.
• A complete list of fonts and graphic files.
• A complete and accurate NWP Electronic Prepress CheckSheet