7. Simplify the EPS image If you want to say the final reason, in the PostSript file, the overly complicated path is the culprit that makes the file not print correctly. Too many nodes with paths or smooth settings will increase the complexity of the file, causing the laser printer or imagesetter to crash, resulting in fatal "Limitcheck" or "VMError" PostSript errors. In particular, when sending files to high-resolution output devices, you should split complex paths and set high smoothness in Illustrator or Macromedia, or use the eeHand instruction to simplify the path. When using Adobe Streamline strokes, use path simplification to reduce path complexity. Use high tolerance readings in Photoshop to reduce the number of nodes when the selection becomes a clipped path. Do not nest EPS images in other EPS files. Like this: Several EPS images are imported into an Illustrator file, stored as EPS, placed on a QuarkXPress page, stored as an EPS, and placed into another QuarkXPress file. If you are lucky, that file happens to print. However, as each layer is put into the EPS, the chance of success will be less and less. If you have to convert a full-page QuarkXPress EPS to a file that can be dot-patched by Photoshop. Let Photoshop turn the file into a bitmap and save it as Photoshop's EPS or TIFF. Neither of these two formats adds extra layers to the PostSript language.
Smooth Gradient Gradations using mathematical operations by QuarkXPress and Illustrator will work well over short distances of a few inches, but PostSript's limitations may lead to banding if you try to make the entire page a slight gradient. Make gradients into bitmaps (using Add Noise) in Photoshop and type them into other applications. However, you can't use Photoshop to handle layers made in Illustrator. Compared to gradients created directly in the Photoshop palette, Illustrator files processed by Photoshop do not produce the ideal intermediate gradient.
9. Use good fonts Many output centers do not want to see TrueType words. PostSript has become a standard. TrueType usually has the same word name as the corresponding PostSript word, causing conflicts. TrueType must be manually downloaded into the RIP of the imagesetter. This is a time-consuming task. Contact the export center in advance. Do not use font commands to create bold or italic effects. It is best to select the desired font effect directly from the application font menu. If the font does not have the desired bold or skewed effect and the font command is used, the MAC will forge a bold or italic effect for each character - but this is only on the screen. If it is output on the printer, the final printing effect looks as if it has not been used at all. So what's the effect of using the underline? Don't use fonts that do not have the effect that the font itself has. If you are using a beautiful serif or fine-brushed font (Bodoni is a good example), and the size of the word is set to be very small, do not separate the words. Otherwise, even slight misalignment of the plates will cause overprinting of the most sensitive parts.
10. Color Conversion Before sending the file for output, convert the RGB color to CMYK. Of course, RGB colors look great on the screen, and many professionals prefer to use RGB mode, but do you know? What does the image of these RGB modes look like after being color-separated or printed (many previous publishing software couldn't even separate RGB images). Before the images are placed into the layout software or sent to the output center, they are converted into CMYK format (in Photoshop or other software that can do this conversion). To make sure that you did not specify a spot color as a separation, or vice versa, assign a separation as a spot color. One such mistake may destroy a film. If your time is precious and you spend money on your own film, this is definitely not what you want. Be sure to define the colors you have defined in your typesetting software. Use the same name as used in image processing software. Otherwise, the layout software will treat the separations defined in Illustrator and FreeHand as spot colors. QuarkXPress and PageMaker can now recognize this color and put in the color list any color names contained in the EPS file placed into it. Therefore, this danger is not too great, but here I still mention it to you.
11. Using numbers Now there are two ways to determine the size and position of page elements in each typesetting software. One method is clicking the perceptual method of dragging the mouse, and the other is an objective method of entering numbers from various dialogs and control panels. To make sure that the exact width of a box is exactly one and one-half inch, the only correct way to do this is to enter 1.5" in the width column instead of using the head or aligning the guides and dimensions.
12. Set the layout page to the actual size In the previous unsatisfactory days, prepress workstations and imagesetters cannot record the bleeding beyond the page range. If you want to get the right bleeding, you have to change the page size in the layout software to adjust the actual page size and bleeding. This must have a larger page size in order to manually draw and place cutting lines, which is easy to make mistakes. Today's prepress equipment is no longer hampered by these restrictions (the imagesetter now can record a larger format and use a wider film). Most printing devices recommend setting the file size to the actual size of the page, allowing the application software to automatically generate correct positioned cutting lines.
13. Organize the documents Talking about this may be superfluous for the veteran, but it will no longer be necessary for the novice. In addition to carrying all the image files used in the file, you also need to bring the PostScript word lattice words (screen display) and outline words (printer) used in the file to the output center. Now that most typesetting software is similar to the QuarkXPress Collection and Output Document command, you can get a detailed report about the file and automatically copy the file to a folder, floppy disk or SyQuest disk. If the output center has a higher configuration, they will have Adobe fonts so that you don't need to bring the words together.
14. Checking the files In Steps 10 and 13, you mentioned what you can do and what you can not do. Are you confused? In fact, it is a very simple check. The checks should include: checking each page element that was missed, colors and PostSript errors that were not properly defined. The inspection tool is simply like the Lepton Technology's documentDoctor for QuarkXPress or Adobe's CheckList for PageMaker, and the sophisticated ones like Systems of Merritt's LaserCheck or Acquired Knowledge's Dowmload Mechanic. Panther Proof or Adobe PrePrint Pro can perform low resolution output screen previews so that you can check and resolve common Postscript errors before exporting.
15. Print document Proofing output file, to indicate separation. If you can't find a color printer around you, then the color annotation method used in the past is very useful. It also needs a large number of separations, which is very useful for hollowing out and overprinting!
16. Make a call to the Outgoing Center. Don't contact the Outgoing Center in the last step of the workflow. Contact at the beginning. By contacting the person responsible for the final output, many output problems can be avoided. Do not think that the files that look good on the MAC screen must meet the requirements of the output center and how good it is after printing. Be sure to find out the resolution (number of lines per inch), ink, and paper used for printing. Then set the corresponding number of network cables in the application software. When you have a negative film, you should explain it to the output person, otherwise the output person will give you a positive film as usual. Time is valuable to every publisher. Is the secret of several of the above graphic experts saving you some time? Hopefully, through the introduction of the above articles, we can bring some inspiration to you. The original output is not terrible.
***** How to get the best film output**********
As a design maker, anyone who wishes to complete an electronic document can output smoothly and quickly at the output center and get a satisfactory film. For many people who have recently joined the publishing and printing industry, the output center always seems to be against them. It does not mean that this is not okay, that is not enough, that is, it cannot deliver films on time, and even it will be re-released because of mistakes. In fact, when problems occur in the output, many of them are the cause of the design. These problems occur in the output center. The design and production staff may not see these problems at all. In fact, these problems are not complicated. Once they have experienced it, they know it. How to avoid, if the design and production staff can be considered at work, try to avoid the problem, you can save a lot of money and valuable time.
The trouble of the font business is that when the design and production personnel work, they will choose various fonts to meet their own design needs, but because of the variety of fonts, the output center cannot have all the fonts, and when the production designer uses the output center does not have In the case of fonts, problems arise. The films that come out are not as expected. The carefully selected fonts become other fonts, random characters, or simply blank.
Therefore, first of all, the design and production personnel should use Chinese characters such as Hanyi, Wending, and Founder. Secondly, the design and production personnel should contact the export center to understand the fonts they use, and make their Chinese and English fonts consistent with the existing fonts in the export center. If you use a font that is not available in the output center, don't forget to copy a font to the output center. In addition, the output of the output center should be understood using Chinese PS fonts. These fonts are used preferentially because TrueType words need to download a large amount of font information during output, and PS words only need to transmit simple codes, which can save a lot of output. time. Be careful not to use the screen display (visible jagged edges are visible after zooming in) because files with screen display words will not be given a warning when they are opened in the output center, so they are often ignored until the file is output as a film. Found that these fonts are dot-matrix.
There is also a frequently occurring problem. The design maker remembers the fonts used in the layout file, but often forgets the fonts used in the layout of the graphics file (usually the EPS format), resulting in the graphics file The font is missing and the text becomes a messy character. Therefore, when such a file containing an EPS graphic is delivered to the output center, it is better to convert the text used in the graphic file into a path to make it a graphic, so that the text can be normally printed. Of course, such a file will inevitably cause some pressure on the output device due to the inclusion of a large amount of curve information.
In addition, some design makers prefer to arrange text in image processing software so that the text and the image become a whole, which can also avoid font problems. For larger titles and texts that require special effects, we can do this, but for smaller contexts, it's not enough, because the dot matrix image will be linked to the output, and the black text will not be automatically imprinted, so it will Causes the edges of the text to be blurred, and the overprinting is not allowed.
There is a processing method that can eliminate the need for font matching, and also avoid the problem of missing fonts at the time of filming. That is to generate the PS file by itself and to generate the PS.
Smooth Gradient Gradations using mathematical operations by QuarkXPress and Illustrator will work well over short distances of a few inches, but PostSript's limitations may lead to banding if you try to make the entire page a slight gradient. Make gradients into bitmaps (using Add Noise) in Photoshop and type them into other applications. However, you can't use Photoshop to handle layers made in Illustrator. Compared to gradients created directly in the Photoshop palette, Illustrator files processed by Photoshop do not produce the ideal intermediate gradient.
9. Use good fonts Many output centers do not want to see TrueType words. PostSript has become a standard. TrueType usually has the same word name as the corresponding PostSript word, causing conflicts. TrueType must be manually downloaded into the RIP of the imagesetter. This is a time-consuming task. Contact the export center in advance. Do not use font commands to create bold or italic effects. It is best to select the desired font effect directly from the application font menu. If the font does not have the desired bold or skewed effect and the font command is used, the MAC will forge a bold or italic effect for each character - but this is only on the screen. If it is output on the printer, the final printing effect looks as if it has not been used at all. So what's the effect of using the underline? Don't use fonts that do not have the effect that the font itself has. If you are using a beautiful serif or fine-brushed font (Bodoni is a good example), and the size of the word is set to be very small, do not separate the words. Otherwise, even slight misalignment of the plates will cause overprinting of the most sensitive parts.
10. Color Conversion Before sending the file for output, convert the RGB color to CMYK. Of course, RGB colors look great on the screen, and many professionals prefer to use RGB mode, but do you know? What does the image of these RGB modes look like after being color-separated or printed (many previous publishing software couldn't even separate RGB images). Before the images are placed into the layout software or sent to the output center, they are converted into CMYK format (in Photoshop or other software that can do this conversion). To make sure that you did not specify a spot color as a separation, or vice versa, assign a separation as a spot color. One such mistake may destroy a film. If your time is precious and you spend money on your own film, this is definitely not what you want. Be sure to define the colors you have defined in your typesetting software. Use the same name as used in image processing software. Otherwise, the layout software will treat the separations defined in Illustrator and FreeHand as spot colors. QuarkXPress and PageMaker can now recognize this color and put in the color list any color names contained in the EPS file placed into it. Therefore, this danger is not too great, but here I still mention it to you.
11. Using numbers Now there are two ways to determine the size and position of page elements in each typesetting software. One method is clicking the perceptual method of dragging the mouse, and the other is an objective method of entering numbers from various dialogs and control panels. To make sure that the exact width of a box is exactly one and one-half inch, the only correct way to do this is to enter 1.5" in the width column instead of using the head or aligning the guides and dimensions.
12. Set the layout page to the actual size In the previous unsatisfactory days, prepress workstations and imagesetters cannot record the bleeding beyond the page range. If you want to get the right bleeding, you have to change the page size in the layout software to adjust the actual page size and bleeding. This must have a larger page size in order to manually draw and place cutting lines, which is easy to make mistakes. Today's prepress equipment is no longer hampered by these restrictions (the imagesetter now can record a larger format and use a wider film). Most printing devices recommend setting the file size to the actual size of the page, allowing the application software to automatically generate correct positioned cutting lines.
13. Organize the documents Talking about this may be superfluous for the veteran, but it will no longer be necessary for the novice. In addition to carrying all the image files used in the file, you also need to bring the PostScript word lattice words (screen display) and outline words (printer) used in the file to the output center. Now that most typesetting software is similar to the QuarkXPress Collection and Output Document command, you can get a detailed report about the file and automatically copy the file to a folder, floppy disk or SyQuest disk. If the output center has a higher configuration, they will have Adobe fonts so that you don't need to bring the words together.
14. Checking the files In Steps 10 and 13, you mentioned what you can do and what you can not do. Are you confused? In fact, it is a very simple check. The checks should include: checking each page element that was missed, colors and PostSript errors that were not properly defined. The inspection tool is simply like the Lepton Technology's documentDoctor for QuarkXPress or Adobe's CheckList for PageMaker, and the sophisticated ones like Systems of Merritt's LaserCheck or Acquired Knowledge's Dowmload Mechanic. Panther Proof or Adobe PrePrint Pro can perform low resolution output screen previews so that you can check and resolve common Postscript errors before exporting.
15. Print document Proofing output file, to indicate separation. If you can't find a color printer around you, then the color annotation method used in the past is very useful. It also needs a large number of separations, which is very useful for hollowing out and overprinting!
16. Make a call to the Outgoing Center. Don't contact the Outgoing Center in the last step of the workflow. Contact at the beginning. By contacting the person responsible for the final output, many output problems can be avoided. Do not think that the files that look good on the MAC screen must meet the requirements of the output center and how good it is after printing. Be sure to find out the resolution (number of lines per inch), ink, and paper used for printing. Then set the corresponding number of network cables in the application software. When you have a negative film, you should explain it to the output person, otherwise the output person will give you a positive film as usual. Time is valuable to every publisher. Is the secret of several of the above graphic experts saving you some time? Hopefully, through the introduction of the above articles, we can bring some inspiration to you. The original output is not terrible.
***** How to get the best film output**********
As a design maker, anyone who wishes to complete an electronic document can output smoothly and quickly at the output center and get a satisfactory film. For many people who have recently joined the publishing and printing industry, the output center always seems to be against them. It does not mean that this is not okay, that is not enough, that is, it cannot deliver films on time, and even it will be re-released because of mistakes. In fact, when problems occur in the output, many of them are the cause of the design. These problems occur in the output center. The design and production staff may not see these problems at all. In fact, these problems are not complicated. Once they have experienced it, they know it. How to avoid, if the design and production staff can be considered at work, try to avoid the problem, you can save a lot of money and valuable time.
The trouble of the font business is that when the design and production personnel work, they will choose various fonts to meet their own design needs, but because of the variety of fonts, the output center cannot have all the fonts, and when the production designer uses the output center does not have In the case of fonts, problems arise. The films that come out are not as expected. The carefully selected fonts become other fonts, random characters, or simply blank.
Therefore, first of all, the design and production personnel should use Chinese characters such as Hanyi, Wending, and Founder. Secondly, the design and production personnel should contact the export center to understand the fonts they use, and make their Chinese and English fonts consistent with the existing fonts in the export center. If you use a font that is not available in the output center, don't forget to copy a font to the output center. In addition, the output of the output center should be understood using Chinese PS fonts. These fonts are used preferentially because TrueType words need to download a large amount of font information during output, and PS words only need to transmit simple codes, which can save a lot of output. time. Be careful not to use the screen display (visible jagged edges are visible after zooming in) because files with screen display words will not be given a warning when they are opened in the output center, so they are often ignored until the file is output as a film. Found that these fonts are dot-matrix.
There is also a frequently occurring problem. The design maker remembers the fonts used in the layout file, but often forgets the fonts used in the layout of the graphics file (usually the EPS format), resulting in the graphics file The font is missing and the text becomes a messy character. Therefore, when such a file containing an EPS graphic is delivered to the output center, it is better to convert the text used in the graphic file into a path to make it a graphic, so that the text can be normally printed. Of course, such a file will inevitably cause some pressure on the output device due to the inclusion of a large amount of curve information.
In addition, some design makers prefer to arrange text in image processing software so that the text and the image become a whole, which can also avoid font problems. For larger titles and texts that require special effects, we can do this, but for smaller contexts, it's not enough, because the dot matrix image will be linked to the output, and the black text will not be automatically imprinted, so it will Causes the edges of the text to be blurred, and the overprinting is not allowed.
There is a processing method that can eliminate the need for font matching, and also avoid the problem of missing fonts at the time of filming. That is to generate the PS file by itself and to generate the PS.