There are several different technologies available for color printing. These different technologies will produce final output that will appear different in varying degrees. The paper or media that is used will also affect the final output. Creating media that will match across multiple platforms and technologies (four color press, digital press, web/internet) requires knowledge, patience, time and money. Please ask us in advance of submission if you have any questions or concerns in this area. We will be happy to provide you with help.

Avoid resizing or rotating graphics in your desktop publishing program. Perform these operations in the graphics editing applications before linking the files. With today’s powerful RIP (Raster Image Processor)’s this rule can be somewhat bent, but it is important to know you can still overwhelm the RIP.

Always confirm that your files are submitted in the correct color space. Although digital printers (CMYK= Cyan Magenta Yellow BlacK) can deal with several types of color space data: RGB (Red Green Blue), Spot, CMYK and grayscale, some of the data may lie outside the gamut of the printer in question. In order to print this information, colors are converted to the closest colors within their gamut, which may produce a visible shift in the desired output generating unwanted results.

If you do not truly understand color management do not use it. A bad ICC (International Color Consortium, the industry standard) profile can ruin a good job.

Art Files and Scanned Images—Don't forget those embedded art files! Please include them on your disk or with your file.

Full Color Printing (FOR THE DI)—Define all color names the same, using CMYK, in both your graphics and page layout programs. Pantone to CMYK will not be an exact match. Please request a color conversion chart from us.

Spot Color Printing (DPX)—Use only Pantone colors or black to describe the spot colors you wish printed. Only one Pantone color per ink used should show up in your digital color palette. Most design programs will tell you what Pantone color you are using.

Proof your color before sending the job to be printed. The best way to do this is to print each color separately to see if all your items defined as the right color. If you have a file in red, black, and blue, print only the red, only the blue, and only the black on separate sheets. If you are missing pieces of your layout, it means he color probably isn't specified as one of the spot colors you selected.

Full Color Printing Tip (for the DI)—Convert all live color bitmap files from RGB to CMYK. For best results, we suggest you limit black ink to 95 percent coverage, and total ink to 340 percent coverage.

Halftone Images—should be provided in .EPS OR .TIFF format.

Line Work—should be scanned in at 800 DPI (Dots Per Inch) or greater. This will ensure optimum quality.

Scans—If you are scanning an image or document, place all scans at 100 % size or smaller in your ultimate document. Enlargements could compromise quality.

Scans—Scan in all images at 300 dpi actual size.

Do any image adjusting (rotate, scale, crop) before placing them in your document. Completing these steps in the page layout program creates excessive imaging time.

Quark Tip—Set picture box background color to none whenever possible.

Gradients Tips (Blends)—When creating blends / gradients add a gaussian blur of 1%. This step smoothes out the digital information in the picture and will help reduce banding (stripes in color on the printed page).

Full Color Printing Tip (FOR THE DI)—Change large areas of black to rich black: 40% cyan, 30% magenta, 30% yellow, 100% black.