The last 10 hours of your day was just spent creating the most beautiful brochure in the world. You logged on to the internet and downloaded photos. Triple checked with spell check. Printed it out on high quality paper with your color inkjet printer, saved it to disk and brought it to me only to hear..."what you SEE is not what you'll get!"
Let's face it over the years computer technology has changed printing dramatically. We are now able to create our own marketing materials with the use of home and office computers. Is this for the better? We say designer beware! In order to achieve a beautiful full color brochure, postcard, product information sheet or any other marketing material you must address the "Sub-World" of pre-press production.
Let's backtrack to how we can save you time and money. The determination of use will be first and one of the most important question you will have to answer. If you intend to duplicate thousands for marketing distribution we need to offset print. If the intention is for 1 to 500 we have other options to discuss depending on the quality you choose.
You have decided to create a company brochure that identifies your product and/or service using photographs to help tell the story. These photos can be obtained one of three ways: (1) Use that 35mm camera which has been in the closet collecting dust and hope for the best when the film is developed. (2) You received a really cool digital camera for Christmas and can't wait to use it. (3) Hire a professional photographer.
For obvious reasons you are taking a big chance if you take them yourself. Should you choose option (2) please remember the digital files need to be captured in high resolution (300 dpi or higher) or they are only good for the web. Option (3) can be somewhat expensive but truly in the long run cost efficient. We have names and numbers of photographers in town that we work with which will give you outstanding visual aids for your brochure. Remember a picture is worth a thousand words!
Acquiring visual aids first can be beneficial in creating the verbiage for your brochure. They help direct your focus when telling the story about the product or service. Your input is critical here. You are the expert, and as such the provider of vital information and statistics that need to be incorporated in the brochure. A professional copywriter can also be hired to help with this step. We have names and numbers give us a call.
You have photos, you have copy now all you have to do is put it together in your word processing program. Right? Not so fast. We need to talk. In the graphics industry we have a "SUB-WORLD" called pre-press production. If you are in anyway familiar with this world you understand knowledge and patience are your only saviors.
The proper selection of software program is crucial. When developing printed materials 80% of the time we use a high end graphics program called QuarkXpress. Quark caters to the printing industry with fewer output problems than most. We ask for everybody's sanity, PLEASE do not use Microsoft Publisher (any version). Every time we have encountered MS Publisher files there have been very costly and time consuming problems involved. Adobe Photoshop is #1 when color correction and special effects to photos and type are used. Adobe Illustrator is very user friendly for creating graphics. All of these programs are available for the Mac and PC. [Note: These programs were originally designed for the Mac, using the PC versions sometimes presents little quirks that are not detected until later.]
Selection of typestyle has its own impact. There are basically two forms of typefaces:
1) Postscript and 2) Truetype. With literally thousands of typeface choices we ask that you keep three things in mind:1. Always include the printer and
screen fonts on the disk.
2. Never mix Postscript and Truetype.
3. Sometimes fewer typestyles are better.Let's return to the photos for a moment. The internet is a wonderful source for photographic images. You must remember that just because you downloaded the image ok you may not be able to use it. The important variables here are that you are NOT infringing on copyright laws in any manner, and the resolution of the file is 300 dpi or higher. Should you only have reflective prints, pay the extra money to have them professionally drum scanned. All files should be saved in either EPS (Encapsulated PostScript), TIFF (Tagged Image File Format), JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group), or BMP (Bitmap).
Shall we go through our check list.
1. Photographic Images. (Saved in the correct format and resolution.)
2. Copy written, proof read and spell checked.
3. Proper software program used to compile the brochure.
4. Saved to disk, not forgetting to include all images and typestyles.
5. Sample output on a color printer.
Oh no! How come what I see on the monitor doesn't match the sample?
We guarantee one thing in the graphics industry. Unless the scanner is calibrated to the monitor, to the printer, to the imagesetter, to the press none of these will match in color. We have solutions! There are calibration software programs and equipment available. (We suggest winning the lottery before acquiring everything.) The most commonly used method is to present you with a color key which shows with 95% accuracy the finished printed product. After examination of the color key, YES we can go back and do color correction when the proper software programs were used in the beginning.
Now that we have overwhelmed you with information from the "SUB-WORLD" let us reassure you that we have the technology, equipment and staff to help you produce that beautiful brochure or any printed communication or marketing material you need. At Continuous Printing we have one mission - "Continually working for you!"Call or e-mail us for the latest issue of "News & Services throughout the seasons."
E-Mail contprt@ix.netcom.com [ Home / Introduction / About Us / Products / Our Philosophy / Map & Testimonials ] [ More Information / On Line Re-Order Form / News & Services ] Clubs and Affiliations Rotary Club of Poway Printing Industries Association LeTip of San Diego North Special Acknowledgements and Gratitude R.W. Swanson & Associates Inc. Visual Photography Larry McClellan S. Stiegelmar
