Solid ideas to help your experience with us
When you've been in business for 25 years, you learn
a thing or two. These valuable tips can help save you time and money.
Have a question on printing, copying or design? Click
here to ask one of our experts.
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How-To Tips This Month:
Working with Text
Working With Images and Color
Working with Text
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If you are working with
drawing programs like Illustrator, Freehand or CorelDraw, convert
headline type to paths. By converting text to outlines, the text becomes
a graphic and you won't need to list the font or worry about fonts
not printing correctly. Just remember to make all of your type edits
first, or better yet, save a copy of the final file before converting
it to outlines. Outlined text cannot be edited like normal text. |
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White space makes a page more appealing
and readable. Give yourself a lot of room for text, and surround it
with white space. Don’t run the type across the width of the
page. It’s best to break the page into smaller columns of type
and intersperse photos, illustrations and yes, more white space. Try
to use one or two type families per document for an even, clean look
to your documents. |
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Even on high-quality full-color presses
and digital copiers like ours, minute misalignment can cause the 4
separate CMYK inks to not line up perfectly in small text (10pt or
smaller). This misalignment can make small text look blurry. To use
small, color text, try picking one of the four colors basic to full-color
printing (cyan, magenta, yellow or black). Or use larger colored text
when possible. Any text larger than 10 pt. will print sharp and vivid
with any color you choose. |
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If you have a choice in type faces, try to
use Postscript fonts. TrueType fonts do not output as consistently
in this form of printing, since there is an inherent tendency for
the digital RIP to use its own resident PostScript fonts as replacement
for any TrueType fonts it encounters in a document while processing.
If you must use TrueType fonts, let us know ahead of time, so we
can check your proof carefully for type changes.
Regardless of the type of font you use, include your fonts when
sending your job for printing. Many programs like Quark and Indesign
allow you to easily package your files for output to use. |
Working with Images and Color
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EPS, TIFF, JPEG;
what does it all mean? These popular image formats show up in lots
of places, and each has its strengths. Here's a basic primer:
JPEG (.jpg) files use built-in compression to make them smaller.
The compression can be dramatic; some images can lose up to 80%
of their total size when saved to JPEG, making them ideal for the
Web (smaller files download faster). But the compression comes at
a price: the image loses quality. Try to avoid these files when
sending documents to be printed.
EPS files (encapsulated Postscript) are perfect for printing. They
print at the highest resolution of the printing device, and provide
exceptional type, images and color fidelity.
TIFF (.tif or Tagged Image File Formats) are typically high-resolution
bitmapped files. When the resolution is 300 dpi (dots per inch)
or higher, they work well for printing, but can be rather large
for online publishing or for emailing. |
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Studies have shown that using
color in a document increases retention rates by as much as 60%.
We live and see in color, and when we are presented with color images,
we gather information faster, and remember it longer. We also prefer
color documents: studies reveal full color increases readership
over 40%.
Nowadays, color can be added to almost any document, economically
and efficiently. Marketing materials, manuals, instructions, safety
guides — any document that needs to be read and understood
— need color.
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Using screens — dots of a color that tend
to mute or lighten the basic color — allows you to create the
illusion of additional colors without increasing cost. You can also
screen an image to make it a perfect background for a document. |
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