Preparing files for magazine print

[badboo]

Hi @ everybody,

yes I am a noobie - so please be patient with me.

I need to prepare my Illustrator files for magazine printing. If I use effects such as drop shadows and I have to rasterize those effects prior to printing what is the "usual" ppi that you use? I know I would have to get that info from the actual printing place - but I thought there might be a "standard" out there.

Am I right by assuming that my file will be "simple" CMYK for a magazine print? I am not using Pantone colors or other special colors.

Do images with 300 dpi satisfy quality needs for good magazine printing?

I know these questions sound dumb - but I have never prepared files for magazine printing - only digital printing and 4-color printing. So before I do something wrong I wanted to be sure that I get that stuff right from the beginning.

thanks in advance - I appreciate your comments

badboo

[Satchel]

I've never printed for a magazine either but your best bet would be to give your contact at the magazine a call and find out exactly what they need. They will, or I guess they should know what they need!
S.

[Craig B]

I would imagine that 300 dpi at full size should be fine though. But, I'd still check as Satchel said.

[badboo]

yeah - I thought so, too - I was just curious if long established standards have developed in that area.

Alrighty thx

[greyghost]

I mostly deal with magazine publication.
What program are you using to lay out the final document?

300dpi is fine - that's pretty standard, and is what I use.
Simple CMYK.

Little confused by your Illy comment - are they artworks you included into your document in Quark or InDesign, or did you lay out the thing in Illy?

I still use Quark most of the time. The easiest way to send it all off to the printer is to distill the files to PDF. Your printer should be able to give you the settings they need, which makes the whole process very smooth.

[PrintDriver]

300dpi at PRINTED size is most important to understand. It's actually an arbitrary, production-oriented standard to keep you designers from sending in multi-gig image files. :D

[The_Black_Knight]

300dpi at PRINTED size is most important to understand. It's actually an arbitrary, production-oriented standard to keep you designers from sending in multi-gig image files. :D
...or 512K full page, full bleed image files ("but, it looks good on screen")...

On a serious note, do what these guys said.

Most publications that I have dealt with actually prefer PDFs. Make sure that you either receive a document that tells you what their preferred settings are, or have them e-mail you a .joboptions file to use with Acrobat Distiller.

If you are using special effects in Illustrator, you will probably want to flatten any transparency before you create a PDF from the file.

[PrintDriver]

Good point.

[byte4byte]

I have a related question... I just sent an Illustrator illustration to a sign shop. It was built as a tshirt design at 12" x 14", all vector except for a couple of drop shadows and there were a couple of warped [envelope] elements. It was being blown up to approx. 4' x 5' and placed on a 4' x 8' sign with some phone #'s.

I sent them a flattened EPS. Should i have changed it to a PDF?

Should i have started another thread with this? I'm relatively new to forums as well... apologies in advance if I've hi-jacked this thread.

[rickself]

Hey b4b
I've been in prepress for 15 years or so...the best advice can't be a blanket yes or no. Check with the printer. Every printer does something a little different the moment you send'em a file the way that you sent it to the last printer. Talking with each and every printer, tho it seems like a royal pain in the butt for some people, is the very best thing you can do. I am more than happy to talk to someone BEFORE I get the file so I can do my job the right way, right from the get-go.

[PrintDriver]

You shoulda probably sent them a layered .ai file.
Native is always best in large format.
Flattening anything with transparency in it is not cool.
But Rick is right. Call first.
Saves on tears. Yours and theirs.

[byte4byte]

Thanks rs & PD... usually i do call... in fact, print bureaus love me cuz i'm so anal when it comes to pre-flighting, and I always remain available for any problems they may run into. This job was different in that it was a rush job and I was requested to send the file asap... I gave them the option in the email to call me if there were problems.

Good to know about enlarging transparencies... what happens to them?

[PrintDriver]

It's not the enlarging, it's the flattening. Transparency and opacity can flatten weird and where wide format printing is concerned, the colors sometimes can't be corrected for process and we like to apply an output resolution to things like glows and fuzzy drop shadows that is machine dependant. Every machine prints colors differently and each machine prints on each type of substrate differently. It's much easier to tweek colors and apply profiles to a layered file with linked images than to a flattened one with embedded images. Doesn't mean you can't send it flat, just don't expect miraculous color matching.

[badboo]

Awesome comments - thanks

Now some more questions - is it more convenient to provide the printer with an InDesign file than an Illustrator file?

I don't care which software I use to do the layout - whichever is better for the printer.

Now concerning delivering a distilled Hi-Res PDF for printing - I did that before but then the printer I went to wanted me to send him a single PDF for each printing color. I'd rather send them a Illustrator EPS, AI or InDesign file before that happens.

And also I am happy to hear that I (hopefully) don't have to bother about rasterizing drop shadows - those were my biggest concerns - as PrinterDriver recommended to me once before that drop shadows can cause nasty effects afterwards. Nobody wants that ;)

Oh and what about bleed? Uhm let's say for a full page magazine ad - I suppose I have to get the precise magazine proportions as well before i start laying out everything - right? Oh god I sound like a doofball - well still when I have the page dimensions I suppose they need a 1/8" bleed???

cheers

[PrintDriver]

I'm only speaking sign shop or wide format.
Even in Illy you are using raster effects when doing fuzzy drop shadows. You need to be aware of your raster effects settings when doing so even for a magazine sized ad.

Ask the printer what format he likes best. Always attempt to make the printer happy when it comes to file prep.

Sounds like your printer is requesting seps. Someone else needs to help you there.

[PersonasBinar]

When you flatten everything in Illy, goto your document settings and make sure your vector/rastor balance is set to vector for best quality. This is very important if you're using Illy9. This will prevent vectored objects from becoming rastorized inadvertantly into the background. If the printer supports Indesign I'd give him that with a good proof. Let him deal with making sure the effects reproduce properly, it's what he does after all. :D

[PrintDriver]

If you are using fuzzies, or any other raster 'effect' you need to go to
menubar>effects>document raster effects settings and make darn sure your raster effect resolution is set for final output size. VERY important when scaling up for large format.

[badboo]

ok thanks so much for your help - it helped me a lot - i will touch base with the printer and take it from there. Worst case scenario: I will be back here on the forums posting my problems - thanks again!

badboo