Chapter 9 - Goodheart-Willcox

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Figure 9-21. Although CD drives are included with most computer systems, external units are available. modify, delete, or write new data. CDs are currently the most stable storage medium and are therefore ideal for long-term storage. WORM (write-once, read many) or CD-R (compact disc-recordable) disks can be written once and then read any number of times. However, you need a special disk drive to write data onto a WORM disk. This type of media storage is inexpensive and reliable. However, a number of disks will need to be disposed of when they are used for backup of works in progress. Erasable optical (EO) disks can be read, written to, and erased just like magnetic disks. EO disks may be referred to as CD-RWs (compact discrewritable). The CD-RW disks are ideal for intermediate backup of works in progress because they can be erased about 1000 times before their recording capabilities deteriorate. Many of the CD-RW disk drives can be used to read CD-ROMs and are capable of moving two or more megabytes per second. Magneto-optical (MO) drives combine magnetic disk technologies with CD-ROM technologies. Like magnetic disks, MO disks can be read, written to, and removed, Figure 9-22. However, their storage capacity can be more than 200 megabytes. In terms of data access speed, they are faster than floppies and CD-ROMs, but not as fast as hard disk drives. Chapter 9 Electronic Prepress and Digital Printing 187 Figure 9-22. Because of their high storage capacity, magneto-optical disks are an efficient storage medium for image files. Other forms of data storage Tape drives, like tape recorders, read data from and write to a magnetic tape. Tape drives have data capacities ranging from a few hundred kilobytes to several gigabytes. Their transfer speeds also vary considerably. See Figure 9-23. Figure 9-23. Tape drives are a relatively inexpensive storage medium, but because they use magnetism, they are an unstable storage medium and should only be used for temporary backup. 188 Graphic Communications The main disadvantage of tape drives is that they are sequential-access devices. Sequential access refers to reading or writing data records in sequence, that is, one record after the other. To read record 10, for example, you would first need to read records 1-9. This differs from random access in which you can read and write records in any order. Sequential access makes tape drives much too slow for general-purpose storage operations. Tapes are a relatively inexpensive storage medium, but because they use magnetism, they are an unstable storage medium and should only be used for temporary backup. Photographers using digital cameras use a removable storage device known as digital film or PCMCIA cards, Figure 9-24. PCMCIA cards (Personal Computer Memory Card International Association), or PC cards, were originally designed for adding memory to portable computers. The PCMCIA standard has been expanded several times and the cards are now suitable for use with many types of devices, including digital cameras and scanners. Figure 9-24. Many PCMCIA internal reader/writer units can support numerous Type I, II, or III cards simultaneously. (Greystone Peripherals Inc., CA) Whether you are sending your files to the service bureau on disk or via a modem, you must make backup copies. When you make backup copies, you are copying your files to a second medium as a precaution in case the first medium fails or is destroyed. You should always back up your files on a regular basis. Page Composition Programs Page composition programs allow the user to format pages of text and graphics. Many word processing systems support their own page composition functions. However, using page composition software designed specifically for this purpose generally gives you more control over areas such as text flow, kerning, and positioning of graphics. In addition, word processing programs usually do not allow the importation of many graphic file formats, as do page composition programs. There are many page composition programs available; if you learn with one program, you shouldn’t encounter too much difficulty using another. Two popular page composition programs are PageMaker and QuarkXPress. Manuals from the specific manufacturer will provide you with detailed instructions and troubleshooting guides. When creating image files to import into any page composition program, you must decide which format best meets your needs. If you are unfamiliar with color or unsure about your final output device, PICTs and RGB TIFFs may be a good choice. Many page composition programs provide the user with the means for converting colors in these formats. This will assure that output from your color printer will be similar to output from the imagesetter or printing press. If you are using an illustration program to create images, you should probably use the EPS format. It is compact and will produce well-defined output. However, you must be sure the page composition program provides some means of converting colors in EPS files. If it doesn’t, you might need to save different versions of the file and adjust the colors for different output devices. If you are familiar with color and require extensive control over photographs, CMYK TIFF, DCS, and OPI may work best. You should evaluate the merits for each based on your work environment and the quality of the images you need. Software packages that create files to these specifications generally enable you to retouch and color-correct them as well as specify such printer functions as dot shape, dot gain, and screen angles. In most page composition programs, vector graphics can be scaled in the page composition program itself. However, making drastic size
eductions in a page composition program can result in distorted images. You may be better off sizing the art in the graphics software and bringing it into the page at near actual size. When you size art in a graphics program, check the resulting line widths. They should be 0.25 point or greater. Anything thinner will disappear when output on an imagesetter. Preflighting In addition to generating various types of proofs before sending files to the film house or printer, you should preflight your files. Preflighting is an orderly review of files to identify things that could cause problems at the output or prepress stage. To make your preflighting go smoothly, it is a good idea to discuss file format and preparation with the service bureau or printer while the project is still in the design stage. If you know their requirements ahead of time, it will save you and your company time and money. According to the Graphic Arts Technical Foundation (GATF), some of the most common recurring problems with customer-furnished files are: ■ Missing or incorrect fonts. ■ Missing or incorrect trapping. ■ File defined with incorrect color (RGB vs. CMYK). ■ Scans supplied in wrong file format. ■ Graphics not linked. ■ Incorrectly defined or underdefined bleeds. ■ No laser proofs supplied. ■ Missing graphics. ■ Resolution too high or too low in customer-supplied scans. After the documents or pages have been created, proofed, and corrected, they are ready to send to the service bureau or printer for output. At this point, the production department can begin preflighting. Preflighting begins with the printing out of color separations and composite hard copies. The service bureau or printer can refer to these when they encounter problems with production, pagination, color, or even text flow. Chapter 9 Electronic Prepress and Digital Printing 189 190 Graphic Communications Once the separations and composites are printed, all of the graphics should be linked. All page composition programs allow the user to select link or reference options as the art is imported. For example, if you are using QuarkXPress, all of the graphics in the document are linked to the Quark file unless the art was created with the drawing tools in Quark. Benefits of linking art files are numerous. Besides being easier to handle, if a graphics file corrupts, only that piece of art needs to be recreated. In contrast, if all the graphics are embedded in the document file and one piece of art is corrupted, you can lose the entire project. When preflighting files, you should check that every graphic used in the file is on the disk or the art will print as low-resolution images or bitmapped placeholders. If the linked graphics are in a noneditable format, include the original art files in a separate directory. It is advisable to include a printed list of all files included on the disk(s) as well as how many disks are included for the project. To avoid the omission of data, you should prepare a checklist to help verify that all graphic, font, and color components are present and correct. After the basic preflighting is complete and proofs have been output, create a letter that outlines the software and fonts that were used to create the files, trapping requirements, print specifications, and any other pertinent information, Figure 9-25. Preflighting also requires checking fonts and the color palette. Font formats and management are covered in the following section. For detailed information on color management, refer to Chapter 11. The Scitex Graphic Arts Users Association (SGAUA) publishes the CREF II Guidelines to improve prepress productivity. (CREF is the acronym for Computer Ready Electronic File.) Professionals recommend consulting the CREF II Guidelines as well the service bureau before beginning any prepress work, Figure 9-26. Font Formats and Management Most applications that support text allow you to choose from a variety of fonts. The printer or film house should use the same fonts used for the original page composition, provided they can support them. The entire page composition can change if fonts are substituted. Font substitution can cause document reflow, bad word or line breaks, and loss of kerning and tracking. B A CUSTOMER INFORMATION Company name Contact name Address City State Zip Phone Fax Modem Baud rate FILE INFORMATION File Submission Form Book title/Part number Order date Blues date Press date Bill to P.O. number Sales representative Design house Design contact Address City State Zip Phone Fax Modem Baud rate Platform ❑ Macintosh ❑ IBM-PC (or compatible) ❑ UNIX (DEC) ❑ UNIX (Sun) ❑ VMS (VAX) ❑ Other ____ Operating system ❑ Macintosh version _____ ❑ MS-DOS version _____ ❑ Windows version _____ Media ❑ 3.5 inch disk ❑ 5.25 inch disk ❑ SyQuest (size___) ❑ 150 Mb DC (QIC tape) ❑ Bernoulli cartridge (size___) ❑ Zip cartridge ❑ Jaz cartridge ❑ Magneto-optical cartridge (size___) ❑ CD-ROM Fonts ❑ Type 1 ❑ TrueType ❑ Complete font list, including manufacturer names, is attached on a separate sheet ❑ All printer and screen fonts are included on submission media Files Files listed on other side are: ❑ Application files ❑ PostScript files Are files compressed? ❑ No ❑ Yes (if yes, what compression software was used?_______version___) Please complete the file list on the other side of this form. Trapping ❑ Files do not need trapping ❑ Please trap the files for us ❑ Files need trapping, but we have taken the responsibility and done it ourselves Proofs ❑ Single blueline ❑ Folded blueline ❑ Blackprint ❑ Matchprint ❑ Iris Artwork ❑ Digital scanning (to be placed in file) ❑ Conventional scanning (to be stripped into film) Pagination ❑ Total page count _________ ❑ Page map included on separate sheets Other Special instructions attached on separate sheet Bleed No. of Halftone Neg. or RREU or File Name Application/version Trim size amount pages screen Pos. RRED Color separations Chapter 01 QuarkXPress 3.31 8.5x11 1/8in. 16 133 Neg RRED C M Y K/ PMS 467 C M Y K/ PMS C M Y K/ PMS C M Y K/ PMS Figure 9-25. If your service bureau does not provide a form, design a file submission form and file list similar to those illustrated above.
Page 1 and 2: This sample chapter is for review p
Page 3 and 4: Selected line Figure 9-7. When a li
Page 5 and 6: ation of the file, the user is warn
Page 7: you create a standard in-house conv
Page 11 and 12: PostScript Type 1 fonts are device-
Page 13 and 14: Final product Press proof Printing
Page 15: Printing jobs that are distributed

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