Printing Tips: Avoiding Prepress Bloopers
Preparing files for output is full of potential booby traps. The wrong files, missing images, nested graphics — all these can gum up your prepress process and add hours (and dollars) to your printing bills. Failure to abide by the rules of your print shop can quickly give you the reputation as a client from hell that incurs the wrath of prepress operators.
In theory, things should be easier than in the past when designers were just getting use to the brave new world of digital file preparation. But if anything, even more gotcha’s exist today than ever before. According to the folks at RR Donnelley, one of the world’s largest printing companies, the errors that come through its shops are a mix of old (missing fonts) and new (badly distilled files).
Here, courtesy of BookTech magazine, are the most common prepress bloopers you need to avoid when sending files to your printer.
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This story was originally published in BookTech magazine. Copyright © 2003 North American Publishing Co., Phila., Pa. All rights reserved worldwide. Reprinted by permission.
This article was last modified on January 11, 2022
This article was first published on October 22, 2003
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