Our overriding bias is toward doing the mechanical work ourselves. Therefore, our preference for input is that which allows this.
The best output can be obtained by sending us good-quality continuous-tone or clean line copy. Photos get best reproduction from positive color transparencies, either 35mm slides or 4x5 chromes or a high-resolution CMYK scan. Best line copy reproduction comes from glossy PMT's or high-resolution ink-jet prints on glossy photo paper.
If digital files are available, that is excellent, but they are not necessary. Printed items or other halftoned source art is perhaps the worst you can send us that we can use at all. (Color separated film is completely useless to us.) We cannot work from laser-printed separations at any resolution.
By all means send us your specifications on style, for fonts and colors. Our aim is to fit our mechanical requirements to your design concept, not the other way around.
If you prefer to send us digital files, please observe the specifications on this page. In addition, please make a single file for each pass, with the design centered on the page, all extraneous objects removed, and even bleeds provided.
It is our considered opinion that page layout applications, such as InDesign, XPress, and PageMaker, are not appropriate for laying out single-up passes. Files generated in InDesign (.indd) QuarkXPress (.qxd), Adobe PageMaker (.pm), or Microsoft Publisher (.pub) are not usable in other programs and usually cannot be used for source art where Otto is producing layouts. (See Requirements for Ready Layouts.) If you absolutely must use page layout programs for 1-up, please talk with one of our art experts before you begin. Because of the work we need to be able to do with your files once we have them, we strongly prefer to have single-up art in Illustrator, Freehand, CorelDRAW, or Photoshop format.
If you are providing a Photoshop file that was created in layers, using effects, masks, and blending, please provide the layered .psd file. Experience has shown you can save a great deal of grief if you do this, which allows us to make minor adjustments to suit mechanical requirements without having to go back to the original artist or to pixel-edit your artwork.
As always, we will not proceed without your approval, so not to worry about our possibly messing something up.
Include the fonts for the job in a suitcase, (if you are working on the PC, include *pfb and *pfm files for all fonts). TrueType and Open fonts will serve, but can be problematic. Proceed with caution. Make sure that you know your job can be printed with TT or OF to a PostScript printer before you send it. Otherwise, please warn us. If we know in advance that fonts are risky, there are steps we can take to make things work right. Do not rely on so-called preflighting software, as it has many blind spots. Under no circumstances should system fonts be used.
If any bitmaps are included in the design, they should not be scaled or rotated in the design application. These operations should be performed in Photoshop (or equivalent bitmap editor). Bi-level bitmaps may be resolved at up to 1200 dpi if necessary. Greyscale and color bitmaps should not be resolved at greater than a 1:1.4 ratio of line screen frequency to bitmap resolution. (And here's why.)
Include a proof of each file sent. Color proofs are preferable to black-and-white laser proofs. If you print b&w proofs, please indicate color breaks either directly on the proof or on a tissue overlay.
Microsoft Word is not a page layout program. If Microsoft tries to tell you it is, they lie. Do not use it as a page layout program. All you will do is cause yourself and the people who have to do the real layout more problems undoing what you've done. The reasons this is so are NOT your fault. Microsoft has a hard-headed inability to understand the real needs of print production and seems to think the entire graphic arts industry should change to accommodate them, rather than design their software to deal with real-world problems. Again, this is NOT your fault.
The pros, when they submit text in a manuscript, do it this way: 12-point Courier, with a 6-inch line. (On an 8½" x 11" page, that means 1¼" margins left and right.) This will give you 60 characters per line, or ten words, (as the publishing industry counts them). Word counts can be arrived at by noting the line count and multiplying by 10. This will yield a number that is approximately 20% higher than the "actual word count" you will get from MS Word.
Please do not include graphics in Word files, but submit them separately.
If you want to rough out a layout, that is fine; the more you can tell us about what you want the better. Use MS Publisher or CorelDRAW! or, if you have it, PageMaker, InDesign, or QuarkXPress. But please realize that doing so does not mean that you have "designed" your piece. There are myriad other factors that need to be considered, most of which you are probably unaware of.
And that's OK. You or your client are paying us to know these things. Trying to short-circuit the process does not save you money and could even end up costing you more in the long run.
The same holds true of MS Publisher. Publisher is capable of outputting usable files, but is fraught with pitfalls that can ruin your job if you are unaware of them. Treat your Publisher document as a rough sketch with which to communication what you want to us. Do not expect that we will be able to use the file by itself. Please include text in a separate file (a Word doc will do), and all graphics as separate files.
Also...
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