Preparing Files For Your Commercial Printer

…Continued from previous article

3. Have I saved the file and supporting files in a format that my printer can accept? Usually this information is found out before the design is even started, but nonetheless, it is important to know. Usually most printers can handle most of the major page layout programs such as Quark and InDesign. Some can even handle desktop publishing programs such as Microsoft Publisher. We will discuss another time how to use any layout program you like and still get it printed by a commercial printer instead of a color copier or color laser printer.

When using supporting images, mainly vector files (Adobe Illustrator), be sure that the version of .eps you save it as is supported by the printer you use. As of this article, Adobe Illustrator CS2 is the most current but not all printers have that most current version. Find out which one your printer supports and save it down to that.

4. Did remember to include all of my photos and supporting files/images? Just like the fonts, sometime photos/images are overlooked as well. Some page layout programs have a collect for output feature that will gather all fonts and supporting file into a folder that can then be placed on a CD.

It is not a bad idea to include any PSD files if you have done some photo editing in Photoshop. This give the printer more flexibility should they have to make any color adjustments or if there are edits that need to be made to the photos after they output a proof.

There are many other items that I could place on this list, but these are just some a the most common issues and problem that arise once a commercial printer gets a files from their client.

I will elaborate on some of these topics as well as other issues in articles to come.

Till next time…