The world can be divided into 2 camps: People who LOVE checklists and those who have yet to come to their senses about checklists. Clearly, I am one of those Checklist people. Checking items off a list is one of my favorite activities. (And yes, when I’m feeling down I have been known to make a list containing things I’ve already done just so I can cheer myself up by having something to cross off.)
So, as we come into the final stage of what it takes to create an awesome brochure, we are going to walk through our checklist for prepping a file for print.
You see, we’ve been doing File Preps for quite a while and regularly receive feedback from print vendors that they never have to worry when we send files because they know that it’s going to sail right through production. While it’s nice to hear, it didn’t really register what they ultimately meant until we were working onsite with a client.
We were hired to work onsite to help a client transition through a busy season (it’s one of three ways we partner with our clients). When we work onsite we are inevitably working in files that have been created by someone else. Our job is to pick up the file and see it through the next stages of the project.
On one occasion we had a file that had previously gone to print and were making some modifications to the file creating a second version of the brochure. When I opened up the file I was surprised by how many things were unaddressed in a file that had already been sent to print.
It got me thinking what working in that file must have been like for the printer vendor. There were definitely issues that needed to be resolved. For a printer to address those issues translates into a cost of time or money (and sometimes both).
It was then that I realized there are working designers out there who did not have a defined process for prepping their files.
Which then explained why printers were passing along kudos to us, because they have plenty of experience with the headache that a poorly prepped file can bring.
SPOILER ALERT: If you are one of those people who loves to just dive in, go ahead and scroll to the bottom of this post in order to download a free copy of the checklist. For the rest of you, let’s walk through the checklist to see how to apply it to when prepping your own file. There are 5 sections in total and each section has several items to check off. The first one we will start with is Format.
Format
There are three items to address in this section. The first is Confirm Page Size. This may seem like a no-brainer and an unnecessary step. However, for projects that are larger or long-term there can be a variety of stages that it goes through.
It’s not unheard of throughout the course of a project for dimensions to change, even slightly. So it’s better to be safe than sorry and verify that the document is set to the correct dimensions.
Next, make sure if you have any art that “bleeds” (meaning it goes to the edge of the page), that it extends .25” beyond the edge of the page. The reason for this is that the file is printed on a larger sheet of paper, to accommodate the bleed, and then trimmed down. In order to compensate for any potential shifting on the press, there needs to be enough “extra” image to still reach the edge of your page. Otherwise, you may have some unwanted white area at the edges of your page.
Also, be aware to not have any important information too close to the edge of the page. You want to keep important information within the “Safety Zone,” which is between .25”- .125” from the edge. If you are more cautious, go with .25″, if you feel a bit more daring go with .125”. Of course, to remove any doubt you can always talk to your print vendor about which spacing they would recommend.
Lastly, confirm the page count. Similar to Page Size, this may seem like a given. But as we discussed in our post on Finishing, certain types of Binding require specific page counts. Make certain during revisions that pages weren’t removed or added, throwing off page count.
Color
Depending upon the project and how you will be printing it, the use of color can vary. There are 3 general types of color uses to keep in mind. Full or 4-color, Grayscale, and Spot Color. Regardless of which you may be using, you do not want any images to be in RGB mode.
When you look in the Color Window you will see each color swatch identified. To the right are icons that show what color mode is being used. If any color swatch is showing RGB, just double click on it and a window will open allowing you to adjust the mode.
Also in the Color Window you can see if a swatch being used is a Spot Color. A Spot Color is any color generated by a single ink that is not CMY or K. You may see this done in cases where a very specific color needs to be used (for example, when printing a company logo).
When printing with a Spot Color, a plate is created that contains only the elements that use that color. If you have artwork that uses a Spot Color, make sure it is applied correctly. If you aren’t working with a Spot Color, make sure that no swatch in the Color Window is identified as a Spot Color by deselecting the Spot Color box and verifying it is CMYK.
Your final action in the Color Window is to delete all Color Swatches that you aren’t using. You do this by choosing “Select All Unused” in the Color Window dialogue box and then deleting those swatches. Doing this removes unnecessary data and keeps the file streamlined for the printer.
Speaking of unwanted colors, if you are printing a project as Grayscale, then there would only be the Black swatch remaining. All other colors would not be used and therefore should be removed.
Images
This is a step where lots of designers get into trouble. It doesn’t have to be difficult, but if you have not being staying on top of your images throughout the project, it can become a bit challenging.
There are a number of ways to work through the images. A simple way is to open up the Links Window because it contains all the information you need for this area. This single window lists every single graphic in the file and provides detailed information for each.
First, confirm that all of your files are linked. This means that the program can identify where each file resides. This is one of the bumps you may run into if you aren’t careful. For example, you may place artwork in the file, but aren’t mindful of keeping images together. If anything image related is amiss, InDesign will identify it in this window. Make sure that every image is accounted for.
Next, you need to make certain that all of the artwork is CMYK, not RGB. Further down the “Link Info” section of the window you can see more information on each file. If any of them are still in RGB mode, you need to open the file in Photoshop and convert it to CMYK.
Finally, you want to make sure that the artwork is at the correct resolution. One place you can find that information is at the bottom of the “Link Info” window next to the label “Effective PPI”.
DPI and PPI can get a little confusing. DPI stands for Dots Per Inch which is the resolution settings of the printer, while PPI means Pixels Per Inch and refers to the resolution of the artwork on a digital display.
We could do an entire post about image resolution and things that you need to keep in mind when working with images. For the purposes of prepping a file, the only thing you need to keep in mind is that the “Effective PPI” should be 300 or higher. Anything less than that will not print clearly and will look either soft or pixelated.
Fonts
Another simple, yet important, task is running spell check. Regardless of how many people have review the project, and even if there was a dedicated proof-reader who combed over the pages, it is always a good idea to run spell check. In addition to death and taxes, the other certainty in life is there will always be another misspelled word.
Depending upon how closely the file was being reviewed, Spell Check may not catch anything. However, we can tell you from experience, it is much more enjoyable telling a client we corrected an additional misspelling than one being discovered in the finished brochure.
Similar to Images, you need to make sure that all of the fonts are linked and that InDesign is not reporting any conflicts or problems with the font. Just select “Find Font” under the Type Menu and you can see a list of all fonts and whether there are any issues.
File
Now that you have checked every element of the file, you want to select “Package” under the File Menu so that InDesign can compile all of the necessary files and put them together in a single organized folder.
This is an extremely important step even if you aren’t sending the file to be printed. When you Package a file you know that everything is accounted for and that anyone can open up the file and find what they need to work with that file. If you don’t Package a file, the potential for a font or piece of artwork to get missed increases. So don’t sweat it, let InDesign do the leg-work on this one.
Finally, confirm with the Printer how they would like to receive the files. Some vendors always want the native InDesign and supporting files. So just take your Packaged folder and send it along. Other Printers prefer the ease of working with a Press Quality or Hi-Res PDF. Discuss with them whether there are particular settings they want used. Some Printers have specific print setting requests, while others may be good with the standard PDF presets within InDesign.
That concludes our process for prepping a file to go to print. We know it’s a lot of information, but we hope it has been helpful. If you would like to get a FREE single-page summary of the File Prep Checklist, please click on the clipboard icon to the left or on this link to sign up and receive the download.
As always, if you have any questions or if there are any topics you would like to hear more about, just let us know. We want to bring value to these posts, so don’t be shy about saying what would help.
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