Excellent Tutorial Site

Layers Magazine.com

This site is a slick and interesting 'tutorial' site.  Even the most experienced mac aficionado will be inspired or helped. Why not check it out and drop us a comment, or your own suggestions!

Paper Sizes - a quick reference!

The most common system of paper sizes in Europe is the ISO standard All sizes are given in millimetres

The aspect ratio of ISO paper sheets is 1 to 1.414 (the square root of 2). This creates a useful property; if you cut an A sheet in half the resulting parts will be the same proportion as the original. This also creates two sheets of the next A size down, for example an A4 cut in half = two sheets of A5.

You may hear about two other paper sizes, the RA and SRA, which are used in print manufacturing. These are larger than the A sizes to allow for trim marks and bleed. Some print jobs will also require to go on B sizes if they are non standard.

(The ISO system is much rarer in the USA)
Please bookmark this post to keep as a handy guide!

A reminder: Compress Artwork!

A common problem with sending artwork over email is the loss of file extensions (and other general corruption's). Often this is caused by cross system email's, e.g. mac to pc (or visa-versa). A simple solution is to compress the artwork within a folder. Once you have collected the artwork to a folder, simply create a compressed archive of the folder using OSX 'create archive' (right click - contextual menu) or using an application like Stuffit. The resulting .ZIP or .SIT file should retain it's integrity regardless of where it's sent to and from!

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 For more information on apple's archive feature - Click here

Print-Ready PDF's (a guide by adobe)

Further to our other posts on colours and image resolutions...
I thought it would be worth posting a quick link to Adobe's own guide for producing print-ready PDF's. Despite it being a rather long-winded guide, it does contain all the essential information on creating printable PDF's. There is important information on; transparency, colours & trapping etc.
Make sure you are comfy and have a large tea or coffee to hand before downloading the PDF.
→Adobe® PDF in a Print Production Workflow←

Reminder - CMYK not RGB

Just a quick reminder; always check you have converted those RGB pictures to CMYK. It may seem obvious now, but when the pressure's on... small things can slip by.

As most digital camera's are going to take RGB pictures, it might be worth setting up a script in photoshop to batch process your images to CMYK when you import them?

hopefully we can post a guide soon...

The easiest tip in the world!

Worried about overprinting? Had trapping issues and paid for costly reprints? Trying to use spot colours across different design packages, but are being told by the printer's it's set-up wrong?

The answer? The easiest tip in the world!
Many people who design and create artwork appear to have forgotten one of the best tips in the world. If you have any worries, or had an issues with some of your artwork, why not try and print out the separations? A quick run-out on a laser printer with colour separations on, can save you time and money in the long run. Quark, Indesign, and even Acrobat Pro can do this, and it takes almost no time. Any glaring trap issues, such as a white logo set to overprint, will show up straight away!
Good artwork will always help your print workflow too! (less proofing, resubmitting artwork etc...)

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