Starnet homepage
Starprint-e homepage		 Send us an email








Do's & Don'ts

The following items are excerpted from our electronic publishing guidelines.

QuarkXpress™
General
Your document size should be the same as your trim size.
If possible (for Indigo jobs), work on a Macintosh platform. PC Quark files do not yet work well to the Indigo. Files created on the PC will need to be converted to Mac. PC fonts differ from Mac fonts and will often need to be replaced. Reflows can and will occur. Additional costs may be incurred in the translation.
Type/Fonts
Use Adobe PostScript or Type 1 fonts. Supply both screen and printer fonts on your disk.
Don't use TrueType fonts, Type 2 fonts, or Multiple Master fonts. MM fonts tend to crash high end imagesetters.
Don't use Quark's type style attributes (i.e. bold, italic, shadow). Use the actual screen font (e.g. Helvetica Bold). Type styles will print to a laser printer, but may not necessarily print correctly on a high end imagesetter. In Quark 3.3x, check under Utilities>Font Usage (in 4.x, Utilities>Usage, click on the Fonts tab) — status for all fonts should be <<Plain>>.
Text drop shadows should be created with layered, offset text boxes (see above – Quark's type style, 'shadow', will print out a very coarse shadow on a high end imagesetter, and will be impossible to trap.
Make sure to include all fonts that are embedded in .eps files. Please note that there are often problems printing placed .eps files with embedded fonts, so wherever possible convert all fonts to outlines in illustration programs.
File Naming
Keep file names short.
With all files, we suggest adhering to the PC ISO naming convention:
  • 8.3 filenames - filename.ext
  • filename - letters or numerals
  • .ext = extension determining file type: .eps, .tif, .bmp, .ai (Adobe Illustrator), .pdf, .wmf, .txt...

Make sure to update your Quark document if you change the name of any imported EPS, TIFF, etc. files.
Blends
For best results, to avoid stepping or banding, blends should be made in Photoshop. Photoshop blends, with 2-5% added noise, will look smoother and more continuous than those made in Quark or Illustrator.
  • Quark blends will almost always have a “stepped” appearance.
  • Illustrator blends are better than Quark blends.
Colors
Make sure your files, including all linked or embedded images, have been converted to the correct color space for the job. Unless otherwise specified, printing is done using process colors: cyan, magenta, yellow, and black (CMYK).
When specifying colors, consult the Pantone Process Color System Guide.
Do not expect printed colors to appear exactly as they do on your screen:
  • Your monitor is most likely uncalibrated
  • Regardless of the color space of your files, all colors are translated into RGB (red, green, blue) for display.
  • Your monitor shows transmissive colors. A printed sheet reflects light.
Ask us about problem areas for certain colors on certain pieces of equipment.
Picture Boxes
If you are using grayscale TIFFs on a white page, the TIFFs should be in a picture box with a background of white or 0% black. If the background is 'None', the image may print with some jagged edges.
Make sure your picture boxes aren’t covering up any type; it may appear fine on your screen, but if clipping paths aren’t saved, it will block out the type behind it when printed.
When creating a solid black area to print, add 30% cyan to it to make it a richer color.
Adobe® Photoshop®
Save 4-color images as single file EPS (or TIFF), mode must be CMYK, not RGB. We can convert, but the color will change.
Don't use JPEG (.jpg) compression. This is 'lossy' compression (data is discarded) and will not do your file justice. Also, do not save EPS files with JPEG previews.
TIFF files are acceptable, but be advised that each page layout program like Quark or Pagemaker has its own set of color tables to interpret your TIFF file with, so running your file from one application to another may cause colors to shift. EPS files are “encapsulated.” The color tables are embedded, thereby affected only by the calibration of the printer.
Don't send TIFF files saved with LZW compression. Although it's not 'lossy' and does not compromise the quality of your image, it can cause printing problems.
Send images at their final size and at a resolution suitable for the type of output. Too low a resolution causes photos to appear blurry or pixelated. Suggested resolutions at final size:
  • for the Indigo: 200- 300 ppi
  • for a poster: 72-120 ppi
  • for offset printing: 300 ppi
  • for internet/screen display: 72 ppi
Create clipping paths in Photoshop, using the pen tool to create the path.
  • Don’t forget to save the path as a clipping path with a flatness of 1-3 device pixels.
  • Converting a selection to a path (especially one selected by using the magic wand tool) can create too many points, which will cause problems with the RIP. Similar problems may arise from using autotracing software, such as Adobe Streamline.
  • Save file as an EPS.
  • Choosing a clipping path from a TIFF file in Quark 4.x is not 100% reliable. A Photoshop EPS file is preferred.
Adobe® Illustrator®/Macromedia® Freehand™
All images placed (or linked) into drawing programs should be single file EPS. Make sure to include those images on the disk for output, in case there is a problem and modifications are necessary.
Make sure to include all linked images on your disk. It won’t print if it’s not there.
Never rotate placed Photoshop images in Illustrator! Whenever possible, scale and rotate photos and art in the program in which they were created. This saves download and RIP time.
Be aware of any hidden layers in your Illustrator file, because they will often print! The print status of a layer must be unchecked manually to avoid this.
Inspect Picture Usage — all images should say “OK” and be checked. If they’re not checked, the picture box is suppressed.
When sending Freehand files, also include the parent files as well as the EPS file.
Copyright 2006 - Starnet Media Group
50 Commerce Drive, P.O. Box 138 Allendale, NJ 07401, USA
Tel: 201-760-2600, Fax 201-760-2550
email

Just what you need!