Design for troublefree output

Other sources of information

Talk to 10 prepress operators and you will get 11 different opinions on how files should be set up. Here are some other interesting sources of information:

  • Rick Yaeger, who describes himself as a “Macintosh Pre-Press Production Mercenary” offers an excellent checklist on his Macmerc web site.
  • Please add a comment if you are aware of other checklists.

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2 Comments to “Design for troublefree output”

  1. Rob Dowie, on September 3rd, 2007 at 6:43 pm Said:

    Great site - really worthwhile and useful!

    One recurring issue I have is with drop shadows, particularly in InDesign which look fine on lasers, but when run to digitals often ‘block out’ the vignette area as a flat colour. Printers usually manage to solve the problem, but are not able to supply me with an explanation as to the cause.

    with thanks

  2. Laurens, on September 5th, 2007 at 4:37 am Said:

    Drop shadows = transparency

    I have had and encountered remarkably few problems with transparency myself. That is probably a coincidence as it is a favorite topic in many prepress discussions.

    Two of the suggestions which I see pop up regulary:

    - As a general rule, make sure that text in InDesign is all put in a separate layer which is the topmost layer.

    - Don’t mix different color models when using transparency. For example: don’t put text that is CMYK (or just K) with a drop shadow on top of a background which is defined using spot colors. A lot of problems can be avoided by correctly defining colors in the InDesign Ink Manager. You can use spot colors in InDesign but if they are going to be printed in CMYK, define the colors as being separated right from the start. I have gotten around a few issues with white rectangles appearing in the background by redefining the colors properly in an InDesign job. Maybe that is what your printer does as well?

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