Electronic Pre-Press  Scanning  Electronic File Information  Disk Processing

The electronic pre-press department has modern, state-of-the-art equipment that can fulfill your pre-press requirements. Our experienced and professional staff is equal to any in the industry. 

Pre-press services are available to qualified customers needing our services. Having your job printed in our pressroom is an option, but is not required to utilize our services. 

The following information will be an overview of services that are available. If you do not see a section about your particular need, please do not hesitate to call and inquire if that service is available. 

Typesetting 
We have a large typeface library for you to choose from. When you have selected the typeface(s) of your choice, the next selection would be the point size desired. If you are unsure of the typeface of point size, our professional typesetter will design the job for your approval. 

Materials submitted for typesetting should be presented in a legible manner. This will help to eliminate errors and time consumption when working with a strict deadline. Proofs for all typeset material will be furnished for customer approval. 

Layout/Design 
Once the typesetting phase has been completed, the next step would be layout and design. The copy that has been typeset, either by our staff or furnished on disk by the customer, is then placed within a page layout application. With customer input, the designer determines the precise positions for copy, illustrations, photographs, etc. and imports them into the document. Upon completion of the layout process, the completed document could be processed to film, paper or provided on disk, depending upon your requirements. 

Our scanner has the ability to scan lineart, photographs, artwork, slides (mounted or unmounted), transparencies, etc. They can be scanned in black and white or color. Customers are required to furnish disks (either 3.5" Macintosh formats or 101 MB Zip disks) for furnishing the customer with a copy of the graphic files. Color files are memory intense and will usually not fit on a 3.5" disk. 

Once the images have been scanned, our technicians can use a photo enhancing program to crop, enlarge, reduce, and alter the image to your specifications. The program allows us to do color correcting, silhouettes, halftones, duotones, tritones, etc. Color scans can be saved in RGB for display purposes or in CMYK for process color printing. Files are saved in TIFF format unless instructed otherwise.

Disk Manipulation 
When providing the Print Shop with pre-typed copy on disk, do not assume that the layout or text will be error free. In translating the document from one program or platform to another, it is not guaranteed to be error-free. Some programs, especially when going from IBM-PC to our Macintosh platform, may not honor commands for tabulation, italicizing, underlining, etc. It is required that you furnish a hard copy, or print out, of your document for comparison purposes. If color separating is required, the customer can do it in advance, or our technicians can do it for you. A proof will be submitted to the customer for approval prior to finalizing the job. 

Disk Processing 
Customer provided disks can be processed to film (negative or positive) or RC paper, depending upon your requirements. Be sure to provide a hard copy, either composite or separated, miniature or actual size. Please call in advance to ensure that your documents are compatible with our applications on hand. 

When processing a disk to film, the completed job can be processed at either 1200 or 2400 dpi. Unless otherwise instructed, 1200 dpi and 133 line screens are used for black and white or spot colors documents. Process color separations are standardly processed at 2400 dpi with 150 line screens (additional line screens are available).

When submitting existing files on disk, certain information must be provided in order to process the job correctly. Below is a partial listing of the necessary information. Please be sure to check with the print Shop for compatibility before submitting disks. 

System version: MAC or IBM/PC 
File medium: 3.5" disk, 101 MB Zip 
Provided hard copy: Composite or Separations, Full Size or Reduction 
Applications used (name and versions): PageMaker 6.5, Quark 4.0, Photoshop 5.0, etc. 
Fonts used in publication (be sure to include those required for any EPS graphics), name & manufacturer: Example - Avant Garde Book (Adobe), Benguiat Bold (Bitstream). 
File name and total number of pages 
Graphics/Halftones already existing in file: indicate location page and if color or black & white 
Quantity of graphics/halftones to be scanned and placed into file 
Colors used in file. If more colors already separated or is Print Shop to separate colors for you 
Output desired: Paper, Film Negative, Film Positive, RC paper. 
Line screen desired (85, 100, 133, 150, etc.) 
Dpi desired: 1200 or 2400 
If problems or errors with files occur, name and phone number of contact person. 
Any other information necessary for processing