As a Customer Education Specialist at �������Ƶ, I get asked plenty of questions by our clients who want to make the prepress-to-print process as smooth as possible. Smooth processes are great for everyone involved, so I’d like to share my advice for custom printing with the top five questions I have answered lately.

1. Do you have PDF Export Settings for InDesign that I should use?

Yes. Our submission guidelines are available as a downloadable PDF on our client tools page for PDF Submission.

2. I’m setting up a new document. What are the most common mistakes to avoid?

Make sure to build the document to a final trim size with a 1/8-inch (0.3175-cm) bleed and a minimum of 1/8-inch (0.3175-cm) margins. Note: Some machinery, like that of our �������Ƶ – Fulton location, requires 1/4-inch (0.635 cm) margins.

See submission guidelines.

3. Do you prefer spreads or single pages as far as covers go?

If you know the spine size, please submit spreads through our insite portal.

• For covers built as a spread, name your document Cover Spread_Name.pdf

If you supply single pages, it’s very important to name your PDFs correctly:

• Name your outside front cover Cover 1_OFC.pdf
• Name your inside front cover Cover 2_IFC.pdf
• Name your inside back cover Cover 3_IBC.pdf
• Name your outside back cover Cover 4_OBC.pdf
• Name your spine Cover.pdf or Spine.pdf

For page content, name documents with page numbers or ranges, such as 01-15_Name.pdf, 16_Name.pdf, 17-28_Name.pdf, etc.

4. What do you recommend for Rich Black?

I recommend 50C, 40M, 40Y and 100K. If there is a different Rich Black you have used in the past, there is no need to change.

Note: Do NOT use the Registration Swatch.

5. With Pantone Color Books’ removal from the Adobe Creative Apps (InDesign, Illustrator and Photoshop), what should I do?

You can create custom Spot Color Swatches, use the Pantone Color Books from previous versions or use (subscription required) to pick Pantone Colors.

�������Ƶ is committed to providing expert advice for best practices for your custom printing project, from planning to prepress to print. Please reach out to me at James.Wamser@�������Ƶ.com or 262.617.8272 with any questions.

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�������Ƶ wants to help ensure that doesn’t happen. The good news is there are measures you can take to avoid those time-sucking edits. Here are six of the most common errors our Prepress department sees, with tips on how to avoid them.

Click on any of the images below to view the larger version.

1. Document Setup
Even though trim size is usually a quick fix, it’s best to get it right the first time. Build your document to the final trim size with a minimum of an 1/8” margin for the Live Area and an 1/8” for Bleed trims. Live Area refers to text or objects that do not extend to the edge of the page. Bleed refers to images and text that do extend to the edge of the page, or “bleed off” the page, where they will be trimmed off the final page size. Images in the bleed area must be extended an 1/8″ beyond trim.

2. Marks Too Close to Trim
Unless the default Offset amount is changed, InDesign generates crop marks that are too close to the trim. For Offset, enter .125 inches in the Marks and Bleeds section of the PDF Export dialog box. Our PDF Export Settings use .125 inches for Offset. Click here to download our PDF Export Settings for InDesign. For more help, our Prepress experts can provide guidance.

3. Image Resolution
Low-resolution images (any image with an effective resolution below 200 ppi) should be replaced before exporting a PDF. You can use Live Preflight in InDesign to be alerted about any images considered low-resolution, or similarly, in the Links panel.

Note: You will have to modify the Preflight settings and the Links panel if you want to be alerted about the inclusion of any low-res images.

4. Inks
Unless your document prints with a PMS (spot color), it should only contain CMYK text and images. You can use the Separations Preview panel in InDesign or the Output Preview panel in Acrobat Pro to see how the colors are built – either CMYK, RGB or PMS – in your document. All colors should be converted to CMYK (RGB won’t work), unless you are printing with a spot color.

Note: Although �������Ƶ will accept RGB images, we recommend converting RGB to CMYK.

5. Font Color
Sometimes fonts intended to be 100% black actually contain cyan, magenta and yellow, the CMY in CMYK. There are several reasons why this happens. Typically, the Registration Swatch is accidentally picked instead of the Black Swatch or an RGB Swatch is selected. Use Separations Preview in InDesign (Window > Output > Separations Preview) or Output Preview in Acrobat Pro (Print Production Tools > Output Preview) to see if black type contains other inks.

6. Font Embedding
To avoid font substitution or output errors, it’s important all fonts are embedded in your document. Use Preflight in Acrobat Pro to check if all the fonts used in the PDF are embedded. If they aren’t, Adobe has on how to embed fonts in a PDF.

Checking for these common issues should cut down on mistakes, but this blog post doesn’t cover everything. If you have questions about your file, please reach out to your Customer Support Representative or you can email James directly at james.wamser@walsworth.com. You can also check out some of our helpful webinars, like Adobe Tips for the Creative Pro.

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But there often isn’t enough time to slow down your workflow and try new things, especially when it comes to layout and page design. In some cases, it might be the InDesign process itself delaying things.

The faster your process is, the more you can try, and the more innovative your layouts become.

The second edition of our Words of Wisdom Webinar Series, Getting it Right, Right from the Start, will give magazine designers the know-how to do just that.

and will cover a variety of best practices for magazine publishers using Adobe InDesign. These tips will help you save time and stay up to date on the latest design trends.

Below are some of the topics we’ll talk about during the webinar. We will also dive into things like Table of Content creation, PDF Export settings, how-to examples and other best practices for magazine publishers. We hope you’ll join us!

Templates — Whether you are creating from scratch or using a template, it’s critical to make sure your magazine is set-up perfectly, with the right trim size, proper margins and bleed. Template advocates say they save time, offer new designs and break a style or design rut we can sometimes fall into. There are literally hundreds of templates available — both free and paid — if you are interested in using some foundational support in your overall creation. We’ll point you in the direction of some good ones and sprinkle in some words of caution so you can avoid pitfalls.

Styles — Most magazine professionals use Character, Paragraph and Object Styles in their document. But are you taking advantage of all the features they have to offer? We will look at how you can use Nested Styles and GREP to save time when formatting your content. A single new technique could more than recoup the time invested in joining our webinar.

Fonts — Every document depends on them and their impact on the reader. The font you choose can impact the messages you’re trying to send — for both good and bad. We will point to fonts to avoid, current trends, and the places where you can find good, quality fonts.

We hope you’ll at 10:30 a.m. Central time on May 25 to see learn more about creating your publication.

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Oftentimes, we do the same InDesign tasks using the same tools and steps over and over, without the time to explore or learn if there are more efficient or more effective ways to accomplish a task.

But we’re here to help. In an upcoming webinar, , we will show you how to use some of InDesign’s features to help you save time and work more efficiently when creating various documents.

This is poised to be the first of many webinars on InDesign, as part of our newly launched Words of Wisdom – �������Ƶ Webinar Series. Overall, the series will shine a spotlight on our subject matter experts, as they provide valuable insights on everything from Adobe products to mailing best practices.

Below are just some of the topics we’ll cover; we hope you join us!

Page Tool

The Page Tool helps when creating letter fold brochures, perfect bound covers and many other documents; it makes them so much easier to modify. This tool also allows you to change the orientation of one or more pages. For example, if you are creating a spiral bound document with full bleeds, the Page Tool lets you separate “Facing Pages,” allowing for full bleed. We will also look at how to change the size of one or more pages in the Pages panel. In addition, we will talk about how Preflight can help you determine if all the pages in your document are the same size, since the Document Setup dialog box will not indicate if pages vary in size.

Scripts

There are many useful scripts for InDesign. Scripts are rather easy to find and even easier to use. In fact, Adobe InDesign ships with some very useful scripts. Learn where to find Scripts and how to help them increase your efficiency. They can save you a lot of time without having to learn JavaScript.

GREP

GREP allows you to use code to find and edit or to style text through the Find/Change dialog box or Paragraph Styles. Although GREP is complex and can be intimidating, it’s not terribly difficult to learn the basics, and InDesign offers tools to make using GREP easy. It can be found in the Find/Change dialog box and in Paragraph Styles. Learn how GREP can help you without having to learn a whole new language.

Table of Contents (TOC)

Creating a Table of Contents is easy with InDesign, but did you know you can have multiple TOC in one document? You can use one for the actual TOC, and another to create simplified bookmarks for Adobe Acrobat.

Placing an InDesign document

When placing an InDesign document into another InDesign document, it appears in the Links panel. You can then modify it just like any other linked file. Learn why you would want to do this and how to avoid common problems.

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Graphic Frames: When you use one of the Frame tools (those are the ones with an “X” in the middle of them), InDesign creates a graphic frame. The X means exactly the same thing in both InDesign and XPress: a graphic goes here. When you use File > Place, select an image and click (or drag) on an empty part of your page, InDesign creates a graphic frame and places the image within it.

Text Frames: The only way to create an empty text frame is to drag with the Type tool. You can also create a text frame by using File > Place and importing a text story. And it’s possible to convert another type of frame, which I discuss under Object Styles.

Unassigned Frames: This is the least understood of InDesign’s frames. All the Path and Shape drawing tools — including the Rectangle tool (that’s the rectangle with no “X” in it) and the Pen tool — draw unassigned frames. These are frames that, by default, are not meant to include text or graphics. They have no content. You might use these for drawing a shape on your page, a background color or part of a logo, just as though you were drawing in Illustrator®.

Object Styles: When you create a text frame, for example, InDesign automatically assigns the [Basic Text Frame]; that is, unless you create your own custom Object Style and make it the default. You can change the default by dragging the icon to your style.

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What’s New in Photoshop (Desktop)

New features include: Cloud Documents, Improved Presets, New Object Selection Tool, Improved Properties Pane, Consistent Transform Behavior,  Smart Objects to Layer and Transform Warp.

What’s New in Illustrator

New features and enhancements include: Path simplification, auto Spell-check, Background save and export, in-app troubleshooting support, faster and quicker Effects and onboarding Resources.

What’s New in InDesign

New features and enhancements include: SVG import, Column rules, more Languages, variable Fonts, reverse Spell-check, Find similar images, Adobe Asset linking, in-app Onboarding, Data merge, removal of Flash Formats, in-app troubleshooting support, stability and performance.

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