ARTWORK

PRE-PRESS GUIDELINES

When sending files to our pre press department, please consider every element to be a new project to us. Storage of your jobs remains
your responsibility. Pinetown Printers will store each job for approximately one month after it has been printed, unless otherwise agreed.
At Pinetown Printers we strive to ensure each job is completed correctly and timeously therefore we must eliminate any unnecessary problems
that may arise. While we cannot cover all problems, by following these guidelines you can help us eliminate the most common occurrences.
The information listed below is universal and not specific to Pinetown Printers, but is crucial when supplying us the correct material.

 

FILE NAME

Use the actual file name when referring to a specific file which is to be output.
Do not use special characters or extremely long file names.
Keep all documents together in the same folder or directory, as this will simplify the output.

PINETOWN PRINTERS OPERATIONAL CHECKLIST

Please use this quick checklist to ensure that you have supplied the final artwork correctly:

• “Trim Size” is correct

• Bleed is defined at a minimum of 5mm

• Overprints have been set and checked

• All unnecessary objects have been deleted – on and off the document

• Images are scanned and placed at required resolution, 200 dpi to 300 dpi recommended.

• Black text has been set in 100k and NOT as registration \ All or CMYK

• All pictures / images must be converted from RGB to CMYK at a minimum resolution of 300 ppi. Internet quality images (72 to 96 dpi) are unacceptable for printing purposes, but if that is all you have, then it can be used, but Pinetown Printers cannot be held responsible for the quality.

PINETOWN PRINTERS PDF FILE REQUIREMENTS

• Only print ready PDF files are excepted, which must be composite and not seperated.

• PDF files supplied with crop marks only (No other printers marks)

• PDF files must be supplied centred

• If possible run all PDF files through Pre Flight software and supply certified PDF/x-1a files.

• Do not supply a PDF with double page spreads, they must be in single pages.

• Ensure fonts are embedded or converted to curves / outlines into the PDF.

IMAGES / SCANNED GRAPHICS

Three important considerations when scanning line-art or photos are (resolution) (size) (colour).
All halftone images should be scanned at a setting of 300dpi.
Line-art (solid black) images should be scanned at a setting of between 800-1200dpi at 100% of actual layout requirement. It is important to note that all images for process printing be converted to CMYK, Greyscale or Bitmap depending on print requirement. NEVER use or supply RGB, LAB or INDEX.

PRINTING SPECIFICATIONS

Before sending a job or project to Pinetown Printers ensure you have followed all the PDF file requirements needed.

SAMPLES:

Supplying Pinetown Printers with a sample of what must be output is vital. A previous printed sample for colour matching is always recommended.

FILE UPLOADING

Please send your files / PDF’s via “Wetransfer or Dropbox”. Once uploaded please send the link to us via email. Another way to send files is“Connect ALL” which is Pinetown Printers Uploading and preflighting application. if yourequire further information about Connect All, please contact us.

DIGITAL GLOSSARY

BLEED – An image or area which extends further or beyond the trim edge.

TRIM MARKS – Marks placed on the edge of the page indicating where the page is to be cut or trimmed to final size.

RESOLUTION – Also called (res) as in low res or high res. Measured in dpi or pixels. Resolution controls the quality of the image / scans.

DPI – Dots per inch. Also associated with lpi (lines per inch). Industry standard is dpi = twice the Ipi Example: 150lpi = 300dpi.

PDF – “Portable Document Format”, a file format which embeds all data no matter how complex. Keeps original layout of design and is device independent.

CMYK – Cyan/Magenta/Yellow/Black, (K – Key colour), these are the four process colours used in print.

RGB – Red/Green/Blue, a method used to display colour video by transmitting the three primary colours as three separate signals. Not recommended for commercial printing.

RIP – “Raster Image Processor”, a device which interprets a page description language, converts instructions into dot pattern.

IMPOSITION – The arrangement or layout of pages in a press form to ensure the correct order after printing, folding and trimming.

REGISTER – A process of fitting two or more print images in exact alignment to one another

VARIABLE DATA PRINTING GUIDELINES

Please follow these instructions for setting up variable data names for the personalizing of diaries:

1) Enter the names in the Excel Spreadsheet format as per the template shown below. Use Arial as the font for the spreadsheet, but remember to advise us in your order what font you want to use for the personalization. Please do not use fonts with tails or fancy scripts as examples. (Willian Tell, Karis Carmel Fonts)

2) Enter the full name as you want it to appear on the diary. First names and surnames should be in the same fi eld separated by a space if both are being used, in one line. If you would like the first name on top and the surname below it, and with different font sizes, then you need to put the name in the first column and the surname in the Second when doing the excel spreadsheet. Please check the spelling and capitalization, as whatever you supply us is what will be printed on the diaries.

3) Start entering the names from Row 2. Column 1, Row 1 should be titled Name, if the name is required in one line. If name is over surname then,
Column 2,Row 1 should be titled surname.

4) Do not leave spaces between rows.

5) Save the file as a Text (Tab delimited) (*.txt) file using your company name as the file name e.g. Joe Bloggs Promotions Diary VDP.txt

PLEASE NOTE: Accents and special characters may not print correctly so please advise us if you have any names that include any and we can try to accommodate them.

 

Examples of Variable Data Excel Spreadsheet

Same over surname, in Two Lines.

 

 

Name and surname in one line.

ARTWORK FOR FOILING, EMBOSSING AND SPOT UV

When supplying elements to be foiled, embossed or for spot UV Varnishing, please ensure that files are supplied as vector and not raster (bitmap) files.
Vector images consist of lines and curves. In general they are shapes with outline and fill, and with that you compose everything else. Because you specify shapes in terms of mathematical equations they scale well and look the same in every resolution or size. Raster images on the other hand consist of a regular grid of pixels each of which has a colour. Changing the size of the image degrades its quality as you only have the original pixel grid as a starting point. Converting from raster to vector basically means you’d have to try find out what shapes can be used to approximate the look that was achieved with the raster image. For straight lines this is usually straightforward, but for curves and similar the process gets a little more complicated to get the look right. Also it gets much harder if the raster image only has low resolution, such as images on the web.

Example showing effect of vector graphics versus raster graphics. The original vector-based illustration is at the left. The upper-right image illustrates magnification of 7x as a vector image. The lower-right image illustrates the same magnification as a raster (bitmap) image. Raster images are based on pixels and thus scale with loss of clarity, while
vector-based images can be scaled indefinitely without degrading quality.

Below are examples of how your logo artwork should and should not be supplied to us.
Artwork supplied incorrectly may either be returned or be subject to art charges.

Artwork Guidelines for Material Diary Covers (Foiling, Debossing, etc)

Please ensure that you use a minimum of 8pt type for branding of your covers (text on logo and personalisation). Any smaller type may not be legible especially when debossing. If your font is very detailed or contains fine serifs, use a minimum of 10pt type. 10pt Type 8pt Type 6pt Type

Foiling / Debossing Area

It is important to keep all elements to be foiled / debossed, within the safe area to ensure that the logo quality remains good and also to avoid being foiled too close to the edge of your cover.

Paper Sizes

Paper measurements are based on the International standards Organisation that establishes a uniform, internationally accepted standard. Advantages of the ISO sizes include standardisation, sub-divisions and multiples of the broadsides are in proportion and a large variety of different paper sizes do not have to be kept in stock. The dimensions of size A0 are 841 x 1189mm, the area of one square metre. When the sheet is folded or cut in half, these proportions are retained, as they are for all subsequent sub-divisions. This proportionate reduction is based on the geometrical principle of “one to the square root of two”.

Size in mm
841 X 1189
594 X 841
420 X 594
297 X 420
210 X 297
148 X 210
105 X 148
74 X 105
52 X 74
37 X 52
26 X 37

Sheet designation
AO
A1
A2
A3
A4
A5
A6
A7
A8
A9
A10

If the table is studied closely it becomes evident that the larger dimension is always halved and the shorter dimension is carried down. Example 594 x 841, half of 841 is 420. If you take 420 and multiply by the square root of 2 you will get 594. This gives the next size of 420 x 594.