Plum Grove Printers Print Spec Checklist
We’ve learned that by streamlining the pre-press process we are able to pass significant savings onto our customers.Our Pre-Press guidelines and checklists also helps you to bypass common pitfalls associated with preparing digital artwork for print such as embedding fonts, and unlinked images.

File Types

Our company supports all professional design programs, including QuarkXPress, Adobe Pagemaker, and InDesign We also support Microsoft Publisher, Word, Powerpoint, Excel, PDF (.pdf) and Postscript (.ps) formats. When submitting artwork online it is best to use either .ZIP, .SIT (Stuffit), or our free PDF creator, JAWS Courier.

Image Formats

Good : TIFF, TIF Tagged-Image File Format is used to exchange files between applications and computer platforms. TIFF format supports CMYK, RGB, Lab, Indexed Color, Grayscale, and Bitmap mode images. Bad : GIF Graphic Interchange Format is commonly used to display Indexed Color graphics and images in HTML documents over the World Wide Web. Bad : JPEG Joint Photographic Experts Group format is used to display photographs and other continuous tone images in HTML documents over the Web. JPEG format supports CMYK, RGB, and Grayscale color modes. Good : EPS Encapsulated Postscript language file format can contain both vector and bitmap graphics and is supported by virtually all graphics, illustration, and page layout programs. EPS format is used to transfer Postscript artwork between applications. EPS format supports Lab, CMYK, RGB, Indexed Color, Duotone, Grayscale, and Bitmap color modes.

Resolution

High resolution requires all photos to be 300 dpi (dots per inch) and bitmapped images to be 1200 dpi. If you design a job at 72 dpi or lower, your image will be pixilated or fuzzy and will not reproduce correctly

Color

Bad : RGB (Red, Green, Blue) – These are the colors your monitor uses to display. Good : CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black) – These are the colors used for printing.

PDF’s & Why

Portable Document Format is a file format that captures all the elements of a printed document as an electronic image that you can view, navigate, print, or forward to someone else. How Do I Create a PDF? You can create a PDF from most any program. The trick is creating a PDF your printer can use. Programs for creating PDF's: Adobe Acrobat with Distiller Download Jaws PDF Courier FREE from Plum Grove Printers (see button on the left menu bar for download) A PDF submitted to Plum Grove Printers must: 1. Have fonts embedded 2. Have images embedded at 300 dpi or higher 3. Have line art embedded at 1200 dpi or higher 4. Have bleeds showing, when applicable 5. Separate properly PDF's with Bleeds In the PRINT menu, set your paper height and width to 1” larger than your actual document (i.e., 8.5" X 11" document with bleeds will need to have a PDF 9.5" X 12"). Make sure bleed margins are set to 1/8”. Make sure crop marks are selected. PDF without Bleeds In the PRINT menu, set your paper height and width to the exact size of your actual document. Make sure bleed margins are set to 0”. Make sure crop marks are NOT selected. Acceptable Layout Programs for Any Offset & Digital Printing These programs will generate a PDF that separates out properly for offset printing and print properly as a composite for digital printing. -QuarkXPress -Adobe InDesign -Adobe Pagemaker -Adobe Illustrator Acceptable Layout Programs for One Color (Black) Offset Printing & Color Digital Printing These programs will generate a PDF that can produce plates for one-color offset printing, and print properly as a composite for digital printing. There are ways to print other colors-using these programs. Call us for help. -Microsoft Publisher -Microsoft Word -Microsoft PowerPoint