Definitions:
Artwork Size: This is the size that you create your artwork. It includes the areas that will be trimmed off when finishing the book as well as the area that will be partly hidden under the spiral binding. The artwork size is larger than the page size or half-page ad size to ensure that ink prints right to the edge of the page or ad.
Page Area: Page Area is the finished size of the page, excluding that area that is partly hidden by the spiral binding. Everything not within this area will either be trimmed off or hidden under the spiral binding.
Live Area: All the important elements of the page, including type, must be within this live area. The designated size and positioning of the live area is meant to allow for a safety margin of 1/4" around the edge of the page.
Safety: This is the amount of space at each edge of the page that must contain no type or other critical elements. It ensures that nothing important gets trimmed off the page or hidden by the spiral binding.
Bleed: This is the amount that will be trimmed from the artwork or hidden under the spiral binding to make the page its actual size. It exists to ensure that your ad prints all the way to the edge of the page.
About the Spiral Binding and Bleed Size: The Perfect Wedding Guide is spiral bound and this effects the way you design full-page, 2-page spread, tabbed-page and cover ads. The spiral and necessary perforations come in to the page about 1/4" from the edge of the trim.
For full-page ads, we won’t know whether the binding will be on the right side or the left side of the ad until the final layout of the book is complete. Therefore, we require 3/8" of bleed on both sides of the page to accommodate either eventuality. The 3/8" bleed on the sides ensures that there is enough for the binding as well as normal bleed. See the illustration of a full-page layout for a detailed explanation. It is important that these specifications be followed exactly.
On the tab pages we require 3/8" of bleed on both sides of the page as well. On the left side, the bleed fills the actual tab and on the right side it fills the area under the spiral binding. Cover page ads require 1/8" bleed on one side and 3/8" bleed on the other according to which side the binding is on.
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Creating Digital Files for Your Ad
Quark XPress and Adobe InDesign
Please make sure all placed images and fonts are included with the file. Placed image files should be CMYK and at a resolution of 300–350dpi and placed at 100% size – images should be re-sized in Photoshop rather than in XPress or InDesign. Colours created in Quark XPress must be CMYK as must the colours in all placed eps files. Do not use Pantone, spot or RGB colours. Areas of solid black should be filled with a "rich black", and if images from Photoshop or Illustrator with a solid black background are to be placed on it, make sure that the CMYK values match. The total of the CMYK values should not exceed 300% (i.e. 70C 65M 65Y 100K). Type that has been made bold or italic in the Quark XPress style menu or type pallet may not print properly, always use the bold or italic version of the font with the style set to plain.
Adobe Illustrator
All linked or embedded images must be in CMYK colour and at a resolution of 300–350dpi. The document colour space must be CMYK. Areas of solid black should be filled with a "rich black", and if images from Photoshop with a solid black background are to be placed on it, make sure that the CMYK values match. The total of the CMYK values should not exceed 300% (i.e. 70C 65M 65Y 100K). Black type should be plain black set to overprint. Check that all overprint and knockout settings are correct and that any necessary trapping is correctly done. Test any transparent elements and make sure that the resolution is set to 300 or 350 dpi in the Document Raster Effects Settings. Convert all type to outlines. (It is a good idea to save two versions, an AI file with type and an EPS with type converted to outlines, and send both.)
Adobe Photoshop
Photoshop documents should be in CMYK colour and at a resolution of 300–350dpi at the printed size. Set your colour setting to: U.S. Prepress Defaults, CMYK: U.S. Web Coated (SWOP) V2, [Ink Colours: SWOP (Coated), Dot Gain: Standard 20%, GCR: on, Black Generation: medium, Black Ink Limit: 100%, Total Ink Limit: 300%, UCA Amount: 0]. Be sure to allow for sufficient bleed. Please include a flattened TIFF file and the layered Photoshop file.
Adobe Acrobat (PDF)
If you submit your ad as a PDF file, be sure all the settings were correct for commercial printing. The original document must be CMYK. No image compression for colour and grayscale images. Downsample colour images to 350dpi, grayscale images to 600dpi and monochrome images to 1200dpi. Embed all fonts.
CorelDRAW
We do not support CorelDRAW and any artwork produced in CorelDRAW will have to be opened and printed in another program. Do not send us native CorelDRAW files – export your artwork to EPS or TIF (300 dpi) format after converting all fonts to curves. Colour should be CMYK. Placed images must be 300–350dpi.
Other Programs
Please note that Microsoft Publisher, Microsoft Word, Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft Excel, Corel WordPerfect, Adobe Persuasion and similar word processing and presentation programs do not support high resolution output and CMYK colour separation and cannot be used to create your ad. If you are using a professional layout or imaging program not listed above, such as PageMaker or Painter, you will have to create a file in a format we can use such as EPS, PDF or TIFF.
- Click on an application below to see how to set up your page in each program.
- • Adobe Illustrator
- • Adobe Photoshop
- • Quark XPress
- • Adobe InDesign
Scanned Images and Pictures from Digital Cameras
Scanned images should be 300–350dpi at the size they will be printed. Do not “rez-up” smaller images by increasing the size or resolution. Images from the Web are generally 72dpi and are not suitable for high resolution printing. Scanned line art should be 1200dpi resolution. Images should be in TIFF or EPS format. Use JPEG images only if the resolution is 300–350dpi at the final size and they have been saved at “highest-quality” settings. If your scans are RGB, remember that printing presses work with CMYK inks, so how an RBG file looks on your monitor may not accurately match the printed ad. JPEG images may be usable only if the resolution is 300–350dpi at the final size and they have been saved at “highest-quality” settings.
Digital cameras must be set to the highest resolution (largest size) and highest quality (JPEG with least compression or TIFF). Otherwise, the pictures may not be suitable for use in your ad. A four megapixel camera is capable of producing a full page picture at the necessary resolution as long as the image does not need much cropping. Lower megapixel cameras can only produce pictures suitable for use at smaller sizes. Consider having a professional photographer take your pictures. Pictures taken with a small camera using built-in flash may not have the quality to properly represent your business or product.
Whether scanned or from a digital camera, the smallest picture suitable for filling a full page is 1800 x 2700 pixels.
About Resolution
All scanned images, digital camera pictures, or artwork created in Photoshop are made up of pixels, and therefore have a resolution that is commonly measured in pixels-per-inch (or dots-per-inch, dpi). Each picture has a finite number of pixels; a 4"x6" picture at 300 dpi is 1200 x 1800 pixels, or a total of 2,160,000 pixels. For high-quality printing, a minimum resolution of 300 dpi is required. That means that a 4"x6" picture is 1200 x 1800 pixels, a 6" x 9" picture is 1800 x 2700 pixels, and a 2" x 2" picture is 600 x 600 pixels.
We can “rez-up”, or enlarge a picture in a program like Photoshop so that it has more pixels, or shows more resolution, but the effective resolution of that picture stays the same. By enlarging the picture, we didn’t add new information to it, the new pixels are just duplicates or interpolations of the existing pixels. If we enlarge a 2" x 2" 300 dpi picture to 3" x 3", its effective resolution becomes 200 dpi, and if we enlarge it to 4" x 4" it becomes 150 dpi. As the effective resolution of a picture goes down, its quality suffers – it begins to look rough, clumpy or jagged. It is important to understand and pay attention to resolution if you want your images to properly reflect the business image you want to project.
Colour
All colour files should be in CMYK. Do not use spot colours – convert spot colours and Pantone colours to CMYK. RGB colours cannot be reproduced accurately on the printing press, therefore, how an RBG file looks on your monitor may not accurately match the printed ad. In Adobe Photoshop set your Colour Setting to: U.S. Prepress Defaults, CMYK: U.S. Web Coated (SWOP) V2, [Ink Colours: SWOP (Coated), Dot Gain: Standard 20%, GCR: on, Black Generation: medium, Black Ink Limit: 100%, Total Ink Limit: 300%, UCA Amount: 0].
For solid areas of black in Quark XPress, InDesign or Illustrator, use a “rich black”, made up of all four colours. When placing a graphic with black edges against a black background, make sure that both black areas use the same CMYK values. When specifying or creating colours, total ink coverage should not exceed 300%.
Areas of solid black should be filled with a "rich black", made up of all four CMYK colours. If other images with a solid black background are to be placed on it, make sure that the CMYK values match. The total of the CMYK values should not exceed 300% (i.e. 70C 65M 65Y 100K).
Fonts and Type
Please include all fonts used in your files, including any that are used in placed or imported EPS files. You can eliminate most potential font problems by converting all your type to outlines or curves. Embed all fonts used in any PDF you create.
Type that has been made bold or italic in the Style Menu in your program may not print properly. Always use the bold or italic version of the typeface and set the style menu to “Plain”. When setting type, set your program’s preferences to use typesetter’s or “curly” quotes or use the necessary keyboard combinations to insert proper quote marks and apostrophes (click for an illustration).
Proofs
Send a black & white or colour print-out with your digital file so we can verify that it is printing correctly. Please note that prints from desktop colour printers do not accurately show how colours will look when printed on a high-end press. If you wish to send a proof for colour matching, please make sure that it is a professionally produced contract proof.
Supported Software
- We work on the Macintosh platform but can accept PC (IBM) files from supported programs. We support the following programs:
- • Quark XPress 6.0 or earlier
• Adobe Illustrator CS or earlier
• Adobe Photoshop CS or earlier
• Adobe InDesign CS
Please note that Microsoft Publisher, Microsoft Word, Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft Excel, Corel WordPerfect, Adobe Persuasion and similar word processing and presentation programs are not supported. If you are using a professional layout or imaging program not supported, such as PageMaker, CorelDRAW or Painter, you will have to create a file in a format we can use such as EPS, PDF or TIFF.
We accept digital files in the following formats: TIFF, PSD, EPS, AI, QXD, INDD, PDF.
Getting Your Files to Us
Disc: You can send your files on CD-ROM or a Zip 100 disc. Please mail, courier or hand deliver to
The Perfect Wedding Guide, 1191 Woodbine Avenue, Toronto, Ontario M4C 4E1 (Rear door, main level).
FTP: You may send your files over the Internet via FTP using this settings:
Address: ftp.thepwg.ca Username: artwork.thepwg.ca Password: upload. Please phone or e-mail us after you upload your files so that we can download them right away. For more information about FTP, click here.
Please note: If you have prepared your ad correctly, it will probably be too large to e-mail or fit on a floppy disc.
Technical Support
Please call 416-752-6634 anytime to ask questions or get advice preparing your files,
or e-mail your questions to:
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