Artwork and Photos
Artwork and photos should be of good quality. The rule of thumb is GIGO, an acronym which means "Garbage In, Garbage Out". In other words, if it looks bad when you send it, it will look even worse when we attempt to reproduce it. Submitting artwork/photos from a fax, copier or the internet will result in poor quality reproduction. Images from the internet are
72 dpi GIF, JPEG or PNG files. Color and resolution are removed from these images to allow for rapid transfer on the Internet. These images will appear fuzzy and dull if printed by us.
Clipart
Electronic clip art comes in varying degrees of quality. Much of the generic, over the counter clip art available from local retail chains can not be resized or color separated while still maintaining its quality and integrity. We maintain an extensive digital library of clip art. We highly recommend you consider use of our eps illustrations and clipart especially for color output.
General Information
 Media size should be 8.5x11 inches or less to accommodate the size limitations of our scanning devices.
Use good judgment. Crisp, clean copy with well-defined edges and photos with good highlights, shadows, and midtones make for better reproduction.
Photos and artwork should be clearly labeled with name, cutline (if needed) and attached to copy it is to be used with.
Clearly define and list any special instructions for picture usage – size needed, cropping instructions, etc. You may also leave this to the discretion of the designers and it will be assumed that their discretion is satisfactory unless you indicate otherwise.
Scanning Guidelines
Insuring Proper Resolution and Quality Output
Scanning an image is the most common way of converting an original photo to digital format. Your scanner software will guide you through the process.
Suggested Resolutions
Photos
Images destined for printing on offset or coated offset should be scanned at 300 dpi. The image should be scanned at this resolution and at its intended size. Please be aware, the resolution of an image decreases as it is enlarged. If a 3x5 inch image scanned at 300 dpi is doubled in size to 6x10, the resolution of the image is decreased to 150 dpi. So, if an image is to be enlarged, the scanning resolution should be increase proportionately to the enlargement.
EXAMPLE: The original image is 3x5. The image will print at 6x10 on offset, so its resolution should be 300 dpi. The enlargement is 200%, or two times that of the original, so the scanning resolution should also be doubled to 600 dpi.
Line Art
Line art should be scanned at the same resolution available as our output device – 1200 dpi. If the line art needs to be enlarged, sharpness of the art will be forfeited. If quality is of utmost importance, or you plan on using the desired artwork at various sizes where scaling will be rendered on it a number of different times, the very best solution is to have us redraw your line art in an illustration program.You may send us an original illustrator eps file as well.
General Information
Rotation should be done in the image-editing program you use vs. waiting until the image is placed in your page-layout program.
Any color image should be supplied in a CMYK color model vs. the RGB color model supplied by your scanner or digital camera.
Digital Photography Recommendations/Consideration
 Digital cameras are a wonderful tool for taking and saving pictures. They also speed up production by eliminating the scanning process. Please follow the same guidelines listed above in selecting images for print. In addition:
Always shoot at the highest quality setting your camera is capable of providing.
We prefer the electronic version of the digital photo vs. its printed-out counterpart. Inkjet copies do not reproduce well and do not allow for image adjustment or correction for highest quality output. Laser copies are slightly better but still do not allow for image correction.
Do submit a hard (printed) copy of your document with the file names of your pictures clearly identified throughout the document. Often we have a disk sent to us with 25-30 digital photos and we must open each photo to find the correct picture. This again will reduce production time and thereby reduce your cost.
On the printed copy please also include:
Instructions for cropping if desired.
Cutline information if needed.
File name (as stated above).
Size required (if known).
Be aware that digital photos are taken at a fixed size and resolution. Keep this in mind when planning how much they will need to be enlarged or reduced. Image quality suffers with excessive scaling.
The digital camera is designed to actually take three pictures; one in red (R), green (G) and blue (B). Then the colors are combined together and saved to the picture card. Be aware that because digital photos are taken and saved in the RGB color format, they must be converted to either grayscale images or CMYK format for output. If you do not have an image-editing program, this can be done by the composition department.
One last reminder in regards to photos, graphics, or artwork. PLEASE DO NOT EMBED YOUR ARTWORK IN YOUR DOCUMENT. This makes for a very large file and lengthens the time it takes to open and print a document. Secondly, it does not allow the operator to provide image corrections if necessary. |
