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Posted on 14/03/09 2:18:56 PM |
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katew
Virtual Virtuoso Posts: 681 Reply  |
Sizing for print
Can anyone help me here? I'm preparing an advert for print. I measured the space in the magazine, and it's 6.5cm x 9.5 cm. So I created a new file in photoshop and set it to those sizes. Since it's for print, I selected 300 dpi, and changed the colour model to CMYK. So far, so good. But it's enormous! It needs scaling down to print on an A4 page and it's supposed to be a quarter page of A5. I know the resolution has something to do with it, but how on earth do I use CMYK and the proper print resolution and get it the size I want it so I can see what it looks like at the size it'll be showing at in the magazine? |
Posted on 14/03/09 2:50:16 PM |
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Nick Curtain
Model Master Posts: 1768 Reply  |
Re: Sizing for print
I'm no expert Kate, but would have thought that the image size should be as you've set it, providing you set the measurements to cm and not inches? Will the printers allow you to give them an RGB image and then they do the conversion?. |
Posted on 14/03/09 2:55:29 PM |
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katew
Virtual Virtuoso Posts: 681 Reply |
Re: Sizing for print
Umm, I don't know, Nick. I'm seeing the advertising chap from the magazine this week, so I'll ask him. I did check that I'd chosen cm, so I'm not sure what went wrong. |
Posted on 14/03/09 4:43:07 PM |
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katew
Virtual Virtuoso Posts: 681 Reply |
Re: Sizing for print
I think I've figured it. I've changed the print settings and it's come out the right size! |
Posted on 14/03/09 4:59:12 PM |
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Nick Curtain
Model Master Posts: 1768 Reply |
Re: Sizing for print
Ah, that would explain it. When I used CS, printing was so easy however, with CS3 I end up with prints appearing in the corner of the paper, to big, too large, in fact all over the place. It seems to be ok when setting to premium glossy, but a nightmare when using the film setting. Given the cost, I send my prints to a lab now. Nick |
Posted on 19/03/09 03:15:50 AM |
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tank172
ThreeDee Thriller Posts: 692 Reply  |
Re: Sizing for print
Are they printing on Heatset (glossy magazine stock) or Newsprint? Also, try to keep all text in vector formatting as it will produce a far higher quality print of the characters. Illustrator or InDesign would work better for producing the ad layout and copy -and leave photoshop to the images, if those programs are at your disposal... |
Posted on 19/03/09 1:50:50 PM |
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katew
Virtual Virtuoso Posts: 681 Reply |
Re: Sizing for print
Thanks Tank. I've got the chap from the magazine coming round this afternoon, so I can ask him what they prefer. It's printed on glossy. |
Posted on 19/03/09 10:34:39 PM |
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Ocker
* Posts: 54 Reply |
Re: Sizing for print
OK, let's settle this one. katew, you were perfectly correct to set the file's dimensions in Photoshop, set the resolution to 300dpi, and the colour to CMYK. If this is to be a full page ad, then it may have to have a bleed, but that could be the subject of another discussion. Beautiful, lovely, Photoshop has absolutely wonderful text editing and type-setting capabilities now, and if I'm producing an ad for professional publication I don't even bother going into Quark, I can do it in PS. Work in a PS .psd file as normal. Keep your text layers as 'text', don't rasterise these layers. If your text is smaller that (about) 9 point, then keep the ink to one colour, preferably black. But remember, you only have cyan, magenta, yellow and black to work with. As an example, if you have 'red' text, at 8 point (red is 100% magenta, 100% yellow), and the final print registration is ever-so-slightly out, then this print will look fuzzy. Now imagine that you choose a colour that is a mixture of all four inks? Four times as fuzzy! Small text is better black. And I mean 100% black, not 'rich black' which is a mixture of all four inks. (Check when you set your colour to 'black' in PS, that it is actually 100% black — it's a good swatch to set for yourself.) Anyway, to continue, design your ad in whichever way takes your fancy. I always sharpen the photographic images just a touch more than you think is 'right' to take dot-gain into account (the ink spreads on the page). When you're finished, save your .psd file. Then 'save-as' a Photoshop EPS file. (It may warn you that it must save 'as a copy'. that's OK.) I am presuming that you have Acrobat Professional here, by the way. If you are designing ads for professional lithographic publication, then, yes, you will have this. Open Acrobat Distiller, and set to PDF/X-1a:2001 Plop your EPS file into Distiller. The resulting PDF file will be suitable to send off to the publisher. You can do a Pre-Flight in Acrobat to check the result, choose Magazine Ads as the Pre-Flight Profile. If you've followed the advice above, you should get a lovely green 'tick' — no problems found. Do not concern youself with the type of paperstock the ad will be printed on — let the publisher worry about that. If you follow the above advice, the ad will look terrific, all the text will be sharp and you can be happy with a job well done. |
Posted on 20/03/09 02:11:42 AM |
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tank172
ThreeDee Thriller Posts: 692 Reply |
Re: Sizing for print
Very nice post, Ocker. Personally, I would prefer rich black on magazine stock (except ultra small copy) and 100%K on newsprint. I asked which type of stock because it's a small, but important consideration. Your directions should eliminate many problems. And while black point & ink density limitations (another bear all together) are important - the publisher "should" notify the client if there's a problem... I'm sorry to partially disagree, but relying completely on the publisher to identify problems on an ad can leaves alot of room for error. Typically, when an advertiser sends an ad to the publisher, that file is put into a folder with all the other advertisers (unless specifically requested by the advertiser to have the production designer double check the ad). Those ads sometimes aren't even touched until the designer is ready to build the book, and simply links the file to the space on the page layout. If there's an obvious problem, they'll notify the client, but usually the book is sent to pdf - and FTP to the printer on the day of deadline. You'd be amazed at how often many of the publishers can care less about fixing ink densities, 400% blacks, etc. Often the commercial printer fixes them in-house just before plating, but many ads simply cannot be corrected without the original design files - which goes to the publisher - then back to the advertiser for a "charged" correction....(but that rarely happens if the book is hard on shipping deadline...) That said, I would rather build the layout within industry spec first - instead of relying on the publisher & printer to hold deadline and charge me to send a corrected layout, pay to have them fix it, or let it print out of spec. Even if they do fix the layout; the conversion itself runs the risk of color shifts and layers knocking out of whack. Personally, I would request a hard copy (color ripped) proof prior to approval. So if there's a problem with the final print, I can point to the proof and request a credit. 
Kind Regards, Chris |
Posted on 20/03/09 08:44:24 AM |
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Steve Caplin
Administrator Posts: 7068 Reply  |
Re: Sizing for print
Some great comments here, and valuable suggestions. Ocker, I don't see the point of the eps/Acrobat Professional stage. Creating a PDF is essential for combining type and images, certainly; but if these are both created together in Photoshop, then there's really nothing for Acrobat to preflight. The front cover of How to Cheat in Photoshop is created entirely in Photoshop, along with all the text, and saved out as a TIFF file. Which means the text is rasterised in the process. So why doesn't it look ragged? Because when any artwork is printed the RIP (raster image processor) takes the line art and text and converts it into a bitmap. So it ends up rasterised anyway. My solution would be simply to export as a Photoshop PDF in CMYK, and I think that would be sufficient. |
Posted on 20/03/09 11:01:48 AM |
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katew
Virtual Virtuoso Posts: 681 Reply |
Re: Sizing for print
That's exactly what the magazine publisher said, Steve. We met him yesterday and he's happy with what I've got - just need to convert it to PDF. |
Posted on 20/03/09 7:59:53 PM |
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tank172
ThreeDee Thriller Posts: 692 Reply |
Re: Sizing for print
To add a little tidbit, most ctp will rip at 1200 - 2400 dpi and flattened artwork from the client restricts the commercial printer's options for making last minute adjustments.. 
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Posted on 20/03/09 8:42:39 PM |
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Ocker
* Posts: 54 Reply |
Re: Sizing for print
What dpi do you save the TIFF file as then? I produce magazines. When an advertiser sends me a TIFF file rather than an EPS or PDF, I can tell in the finished printed magazine which is which. Admitedly, with slightly failing eyesight as I get older (!) you may have to put a glass over it to see, but the text is definitely sharper on a PDF/EPS than on a TIFF. Of course you can save as a PDF from within Photoshop, and you can set it all up for industry standard Pass4Press, Ghent, etc, but my preference is to distill the EPS. Works for me. And especially the covers of the magazine I do are also all done in Photoshop (although the magazine is set up in Quark). Typically a cover can be a 500-600MB PSD with 20-30 layers, That would be one hell of a TIFF. The resultant PDF is about 10MB and of course the text is sharp as a tack. tank172
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Posted on 20/03/09 11:45:31 PM |
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tank172
ThreeDee Thriller Posts: 692 Reply |
Re: Sizing for print
Very true, but it depends on the individual publisher/printer relationship. If the publisher makes a clear effort on their book and makes a strong point to the printer that the job is color critical - prepress will make a real effort to fix all issues and the pressmen are more likely to stop the press and have prepress attempt to fix the problem, or contact the publisher (even if it's 2:00am)... But if the publisher consistantly sends crap files, and the printer gets away with printing them unchanged - the printer will be less inclined to spend time (and money) at prepress fixing the pages before plating. And the individual advertiser is less likely to be notified if their's an issue with their layout to begin with... ..I think I've strayed from the original post. Sorry Katew! |