Chapters 11 & 12 Summaries

In Chapter 11 we learn about InDesign CS4 production tips and Chapter 12 talks about Acrobat production tips.

When you are wanting to place images in InDesign, it's good to know that the Frame tool and the plain Rectangle tool can both accept images. Any closed shape, for that matter, can accept images as content, as long as the line is closed. You can also place multiple files all at once if by Shift-clicking, or Command-clicking/Control-clicking. Doing this only allows you to place from one folder at a time. You also do not even have to have a frame created to place an image into it. You can simply just File>Place and click and the image will be created inside its own image box.

There are several methods besides File>Place that you can use to put an image into your document. In one method, you can drag directly from a folder. You will still get correct links as though you placed the images. Another method involves Adobe Bridge. Select your files in Bridge from the correct folder and drag them onto your InDesign document.
You should not use drag and drop for everything. Dragging large images into InDesign adds its entire size to the document.

The Links panel in InDesign allows you to see what images are up to date, what images the program can't find and what images are modified. If InDesign contains graphics that have been moved or renamed, and the program can't find them, then a red stop sign symbol will appear next to the link. If a graphic has been modified and resaved with the same name, a yellow triangle will appear. When you try to open a file in InDesign with missing or modified links, an alert will appear that will give the option of updating those links (or to not.) To find a missing graphic when the file is open, select the link in the Links panel, and choose Relink. If you update missing links that have other files that are missing in the program, CS4 knows to update those as well. Updating modified links in CS4 is easy. Simply click Update Link after selecting the link name.

To transform graphics, there are several ways. Those ways include the Selection tool, the Scale tool, or the Free Transform tool. You can select frames with the Selection tool. You can also modify sizes using the X/Y scale fields. You can scale in proportion by Command/Control+Shift and dragging a corner of a graphic.

InDesign and Illustrator are able to create drop shadows that are able to interact correctly with other items in an InDesign file. You may want to create a more custom shadow than what Photoshop is able to do. If you want to create the illusion of the shadow falling on another object or surface, you have to paint the shadow yourself and apply the Multiply mode to the shadow. The problem with applying the blending mode is that it is not accepted in InDesign. To solve this problem, you have to use the Object Layer Options with allows you to still apply realistic effects with shadows. You can apply several layers of the same thing on top of each other with this feature, allowing you to create the look you desire for you file.

Swatches allow you to save colors that you want to use repeatedly. You can save colors from the Colors panel to the Swatches panel. One way is to select the Swatches panel menu, choose Add Unnamed Colors and InDesign finds all of the colors used and adds them to the panel.

The main purpose of the ink manager is to fix any spot-color errors by remapping colors out of place to their correct links. You can launch the Ink Manager by the Separations Preview panel menu, the Swatches panel menu, in the Print dialog under "Output", or in the Export dialogs for both EPS and Adobe PDF. To use the Ink Manager to remap, first select the spot color you want to remap. Then choose the correct Ink Alias, and it's as easy as that. You can also convert all spot colors to process with the click of the All Spots to Process check box. If you are sending native InDesign files to your print service provider, it's a good idea to let them know that you have already rectified the spot-color problems with Ink Manager.

PDFs start out outside of Acrobat, though some PDFs are created from scanning in documents, an existing image or a Web page. Most PDFs come from InDesign or Illustrator. Although Adobe Systems created the PDF concept, anyone can write software that deals with or creates PDFs.

Above is a table of creation settings for PDFs that cover the Adobe Creative Suite. Another thing to note, is that when it comes to PDF/X-1a, image content can be RGB or Lab tagged with color profiles. Unless you and your print provider plan to use color management, you will need to submit PDF/X-3 files.

If you wish to retain layer, live transparency or interactivity, you must export your PDFs rather than use Distiller. Some print providers and publication companies may insist that you use Distiller, but that is not always the way to go. Exporting is much faster and easier than using Distiller. If you are being asked to use Distiller, find out why.

Lastly, Chapter 12 talks about editing PDF files. Editing in Acrobat is limited, on purpose. Your PDFs need to be finished files when they are converted to PDF. If you must edit, Acrobat offers the TouchUp Text tool, the TouchUp Object tool and the TouchUp Reading Order tool. The text tool selects and edits text. The object tool allows you to select and edit objects in their native programs. The Reading Order tool allows you to make your files more accessible to the visually-impaired.

Sources:

McCue, Claudia. Real World Print Production with Adobe Creative Suite Applications. Berkeley, CA: Peachpit, 2009. Print.

Chapters 8, 9 and 10 Summary

In Chapter 8, we learn about job submission. First thing that was covered was the customer service representative (CSR) that your job will be handed over to. When you are talking with your CSR, you must bring up any special issues that have to do with your job. Things like unusual stock, special mixed inks, varnishes/other coatings, custom finishing, and unusual content need to be brought up with the CSR. The CSR will answer any questions you may have and see to it that your job is taken care of correctly.
Whenever you are talking with your printer, you also need to obtain a detailed schedule that includes dates for events such as random proofs, page proofs, bluelines and press checks. All this information will help make sure your job is printed on time. Also remind anyone that is working with your job that they need to contact you if they have any questions about your job. Be prepared to receive calls at random times, like in the middle of the night. You may not be expecting it, but your job has to be finished on time, and the night crew printing it may come up with a question for you.
When you are building your files, it's best to start from the ground up. Make sure you check the external document size, that there is adequate bleed, and check your internal panel sizes. Also look over artwork that interacts with folds, perforations, or die cut trims. Your print service can provide some help when it comes to these things. More things to check are that there are a correct number of pages and correct inks.
If you have raster images in your files, make sure to check the resolution of each photo. They should usually be set to 300 ppi. Check the color space of your images. Images usually come in 5 file types for printing: CMYK, RGB, grayscale, monochrome and duotone. Also look over your files and see if any of them need retouching. If they do, and you don't feel comfortable doing it, let your print service know that you would like them to take care of it. Make sure that all of your images are rotated and scaled properly. You will achieve the best results when your scans or digital photographs are created at the proper size and rotation for final use. When you name these files, avoid using periods, asterisks, and other characters.
To check vector images, make sure your use the correct colors, and that the color naming stays consistent throughout all the files. You can embed images into the file, but that increases the file size. Send your images to the print service just in case they need to edit the images you've included. When it comes to fonts, embed them or create outlines. Keep in mind that fonts are not available for editing when you embed them. Spell check all of your content and make sure there are no empty text boxes lying around. Remember to include enough bleed for you images if it is necessary.
Types of proofs include image proofs and page proofs. When you check image proofs, remember to check the:

• size
• crop
• orientation
• angle
• color
• detail
• moire
• the matching of the original artwork

Make sure they are all set for the final use that you want. When checking page proofs, look over the:

• bleed
• that the document is the correct size
• the image area
• that you used the correct fonts
• that there are no overset texts
• the text reflow
• correct images are used and that the cropped images fit their frames

Also check the special effects on the page(s), rules/other strokes, trapping (no misregistration), overprint, rich blacks, moire in screen tints or images, crossover art (correct alignment and color match the artwork) and make sure there are no unnecessary spot colors.
Know the fate of your images when you are working with them in Photoshop. Decide at what scale will the image be used and how it needs to be rotated. Scan images to the size that they need to be in rather than in Photoshop. Know if your image will be used at multiple sizes. If it will be, scan in the largest size and use scaling tools when you need the smaller version of it. When it comes to image resolution, include as much information as you can, so that you achieve the best quality. You can always get rid of extra information if you don't need it. 300 ppi is generally the resolution you want when you're printing at 133-150 line screen. If the line screen will be higher than that, it is best to include a lot of detail in your content.
Although we print in CMYK, sometimes it can be very beneficial to work with images in RGB, especially when it comes to color correcting, retouching and compositing. The wider gamut of RGB allows you more to work with as you make changes to the images. Artistic features and Photoshop effects are not available in CMYK.
Working with layered files in Photoshop can be very helpful. The layers keep individual components of an intricate work from being stuck together permanently. This is useful if you change your mind on one component as your working - it can be easily changed without messing up the rest of your image.
Adding effects such as transparency can add some pizzazz to your images. Effects like these are no longer limited to Photoshop, but if you work outside Photoshop with them, it may be sort of difficult. Illustrator and InDesign don't always handle transparency well, so it can be limiting to use it. Illustrator and InDesign can handle placed Photoshop images, but not Photoshop's blending modes. Transparency is expressed in percentage opacity, so more or less changes the strength of what is showing through. To get around the problems that Illustrator and InDesign can run into, work on your Photoshop images with things like drop shadows in layers, and then flatten them when you want to take them over to one of the other two programs. Another way to fix the problem is to not add the drop shadow in Photoshop at all, but add it later in Illustrator or InDesign.
When you are trying to create a path, the magic wand tool in Photoshop is not the best way to go, because this tool follows the rectangle edges of pixels and make your clipped images look jagged. If you really want the best results. the pen tool is your best bet. Not many people like the pen tool but with it you can create the most natural looking results.
A duotone is an image composed of two colors. These images usually contain spot color components, and because of that, it's important to create them the right way so that they print the right way. In Photoshop, choose Image>Mode>Duotone and a dialog box will appear. "Black" as one of the colors can stay as black, for it is implied that it is the simple process black of CMYK.  Any other colors used need to be chosen from the Pantone colors list.

Adobe Illustrator artboards can be imagined as pieces of drawing paper. In Illustrator, you art can go way past the edges of the artboard. To create an artboard, use the Artboard tool. You can see the width and height of the artboard as you drag its edges. To hide artboards, choose View>Hide Artboads. To modify artboards, you can select them with the Artboard tool, and change the size of the sides. You can also delete an artboard by selecting it and pressing the delete key on your keyboard or by pressing the X that appears next the the board when it is selected. You can also reposition artboards by selecting them and dragging them to a new position.
When creating an Illustrator document, you can specify the amount of bleed you would like. If you already have an existing document, choose File>Document Setup and add a bleed there. Bleeds do not have to be the same size all around the file. How bleeds are applied depends on your settings in the PDF, AI or EPS file.

Even though RIPs can now handle a lot of complexity in files, it is still a good idea to simplify your work.Remove empty points, remove too many points on a pen path, and clean up stray points that you don't need. To clean up these points, simply select Path>Clean Up and Illustrator will do the work for you.
Illustrator offers "live" effects. This means that the effects won't permanently alter your object when the effect is applied. You can edit the appearance of the effects in the Appearance panel. You can also hide or remove effects after they've been applied. Filters are now gone in Illustrator, and pixels aren't generated on the objects you've added effects to until they are printed.
Illustrator effects are added to the interiors and edges of the vector objects, while Photoshop effects are only applied to the interior. They are both even applied to Clipping Masks.
When you want to apply transparency or other blending modes in Illustrator, you may not always get the results you're looking for. Spot colors may not always look the way you want them to when you use these effects. To see how colors will really look, you can turn on the Overprint Preview option and see. Turn off these function when you're done, for this option slows down the program.
Old printers that are still being used have a hard time outputting images with transparency. If you are using a printer with this problem, you must flatten the transparency. The flattening only affects outfut and export and takes placing during export printing. This mimicks the colors of the transparency with opaque objects instead, and allows the printer to print your files. If you must downsave to an earlier AI file type, you must specify a transparency flattener preset. Ask your printer if they have any suggestions on how you should do this.
You can either link or embed raster images in Illustrator. Linking results in a smaller AI file, while embedding does the opposite. When you link images, they are externally stored, and therefore easier to edit. Embedding makes it easier to keep track of files you've added to you AI file, but embedding makes it harder to edit these separate files. When you save files as an EPS file, images and fonts are automatically embedded into the files. You should save the embedded files along with the EPS file just in case, so that you can go in and edit them later if needed. Images still rely on resolution when placed in Illustrator. Scaling up or down after placing an image will still change its quality, like it would in Photoshop. Always place your images at 100%.

Sources:

McCue, Claudia. Real World Print Production with Adobe Creative Suite Applications. Berkeley, CA: Peachpit, 2009. Print.

Chapter 6 and 7 Summary

In Chapter 6 and 7 we learn about fonts and cross platform issues.

The first thing we learn about in chapter 6 is the font format PostScript. In the early days of fonts, Postscript was the main font format used, because early RIPs crashed when they tried to take on TrueType fonts. This is no longer the case. Postscript consists of two files: a bitmap screen font and a printer component that holds instructions on printing the font. You should never delete one or the other off of your computer thinking that you only need one for the font to function.

Truetype consists of a single file. As mentioned earlier, they are now able to be read by RIPs, so there is no need to worry about whether you are using Truetype or Postscript.

Opentype fonts are single-file fonts like Truetype. They do not have separate screen and printer fonts. The plus about Opentype is that it is cross platform, meaing the same font file cam be used on a Mac or PC. Opentype fonts can contain as many as 65,000 glyphs, whereas Postscript can only have up to 256 characters.

A font family is a collection of fonts that all have the same characteristics as the others. Examples of these include Helvetica, Arial, Georgia and Garamond. Each of these families have characters that look similar to the other characters in their family.

Glyphs are any distinct letterform, such asa lowercase b, a number, or an ampersand. This opens up possibilties to a fon designer to be able to include a number of different things in one font. It used to be that separate titling sets had to be saved separately, but not anymore.

dfonts are Macintosh OS X System fonts that are Truetype fonts underneath it all. These fonts are data only. They are hard to distiguish from the Postcript fonts that are named the same. If you want to use Postscript instead of the dfonts that are automatically default, you have to be able to activate or deactivate them yourself. dfonts also don't not work on OS 9 systems because they are not recognized as fonts.

Multiple Master fonts were introduced by Adobe and allow users to apply different effects to them such as multiple weights, widths and angles. It isn't used much today because people don't know much about them, but they are still used today for display and printing when fonts are missing in a PDF. They are also used whem fonts are not available for display in InDesign or Illustrator.

End User Agreements (or EULAs) are attached to fonts that you purchase to use. Most of the agreements attached to fonts allow for the same font file to be used on several workstations and one or two printing devices. If you are wanting to send you files off to be printed by another print provider, both you and the printer have to own the fonts for the font to be printed legally. Converting text to outlines may get rid of the hinting for the fonts, but that doesn't mean you're getting around the EULAs.

When it comes to file naming, do not use punctuation at all. Letters, numerals, spaces, underscores and hyphens are allowed to be used in file naming. If you are naming files for the Web, you should avoid using spaces, because the space will be replaced with "%20." Colons and slashes may be allowed to be used in Mac OS, but avoid using them for they will not be allowed to be copied over to Windows. You should also avoid slashes because when you send files to a print provider, they will most likely copy your files over to a server to store, and you could mess up all of your files if you had not named them safely.

Extensions are not required by all Mac systems, but  you should always use them. They help you identify files quickly. Most file names consist of three letters, such as .tif, .pdf and .eps. Some have longer extensions like .html. A period always separates the name of the file and the extension.

Formats that can cross platforms include Opentype fonts, and graphic format files. These include TIFF, PSD, EPS, AI, and JPEG. You don't have to worry about converting them, and you can use them wherever!

Sources:

McCue, Claudia. Real World Print Production with Adobe Creative Suite Applications. Berkeley, CA: Peachpit, 2009. Print.

Chapters 4 & 5 Summary

Whenever you are thinking about how you should save your raster images, you need to think about what you will be using them for. Most of the time, you are limited to the file types supported by the software you are exporting the images to. Most commonly us formats have usually been TIFF and EPS.

File formats you should not use for print include PNGs,BMPs, GIFs and JPEGs. All of these are primarily used for onscreen and Web. PNGs have no support for CMYK color space, as with BMPs. GIFs tend to have low resolution and a color palette limited to 256 colors. JPEGs compress image information, which causes pixelated looking images in print.

JPEG vs RAW
JPEGs offer a compress format, and most cameras deliver their images as JPEGs. Now some higher level cameras can deliver images as Camera Raw. RAW has little to no compression, which is greater for the quality of your images, but you also end up with larger file sizes. RAW files can also be color corrected without losing much information in the file.

The word "pixel" is short for "picture element." Pixels are the smallest unit of measurement in a digitized image. Zoom into any image onscreen and you'll see the little squares of color that make up the image.
ppi stands for pixels per inch. Knowing how many pixels there are per inch tells us the resolution of an image. When it comes to Web, the final image resolution is always 72 ppi. Typical resolution for print is said to be at 300 ppi, while some say you should have a little more and others say it's okay to have a little less. It mainly depends on what type of products you're printing and what you think the final product should look like.

Bitmap images are sometimes called "line art images." This is because they only contain black and white pixels with no shades of grey. Bitmap images are very compact, so they can have a very high resolution, but still have small file sizes.

 When it comes to cropping, you can't always anticipate what all you will need to include in an image when saving a digital file or scanning in an image. Sometimes you can guess ahead and go ahead and crop out what you don't need while placing the image into your computer, but if you aren't completely sure you should go ahead and place the whole thing onto the computer. You can always crop it out later.
When you rotate images, the only completely safe way to to so is to rotate in 90 degree increments. If you rotate at any other degree, you will cause the image to lose information and look softened/blurred.

Vector images are pixel free, so this means that you can scale vector images as big or small as you'd like without the images looking pixelated or jagged. Shapes always stay smooth when they're vector. Vector file formats include EPS, which is the most common file type, or the AI format, which is native to Adobe Illustrator. Adobe PDF can also store vector images. If you are planning on placing the vector images in InDesign, it would be a good idea to save the files as AI. InDesign allows you to use transparency and blending modes that are available in Illustrator. Vector formats that are not appropriate for print include WMF, EMF or raster formats.

When you embed fonts in an EPS file or AI file, then that will allow you to be able to see that font information for display and printing. While that is very helpful, it does not allow you to edit embedded fonts. You still have to have that font active on your computer if you need to edit the text.

Outlining texts get rid of the "hints" that font files carry, and some don't like that fact.  But you shouldn't have to worry about outlining fonts if you are printing with a high resolution platesetter or imagesetter. Lower quality printers cause outlined text to look bloated, but you won't have that problem with higher quality printers.

When you are working with vector images, sometimes you draw out your own paths to create shapes. You may think that the more points you include in the paths of your drawing will mean that you have a more details or better drawing, but you can still achieve the same image with less points. And if your images turn out a bit bumpy, Illustrator has tools that help smooth out the paths. The more points you have on the paths you make, the larger the file size, and we all should like to save space where possible.