In order to help every job go as smoothly as possible we have devised Awareness Guides for you to help you in your projects to help you save time, stress and money. Here is a list of some of the various technical issues our clients have encountered and the queries we are asked about most often.
About Us | Careers | Contact Us | Join Our Mailing List | Technical Issues
BLEED is the term that printers use to describe text and graphics that need to extend right up to and off the edge of the printed page. For more information on this subject please request a copy of our Consumer Awareness Guide No.7.
COLOUR: If you haven’t encountered the problem before, there is probably more confusion with specifying colours correctly than anything else for the beginner. And it goes without saying that if colours are not specified properly then your printed work will not appear as you intended it to. For more information on Pantone Colours, Colour Profiles and Colours that you see on screen. For more information on this subject please request a copy of our Consumer Awareness Guide No.7.
COPYRIGHT: Copyright is a legal concept, enacted by government, giving the creator of an original work of authorship exclusive rights to it (usually for a limited time). Prior to 1989 it was considered safe to be able to copy material that did not bear the copyright mark. Following the Berne Convention ruling it is now safer to assume that everything is protected unless you have evidence to prove otherwise.
Some projects may requiring the use of other parties’ work such as maps, texts or pictures for example. It is therefore required, legally, that the terms of copyright are honoured. Amongst other things, those terms will require the user to have the written permission of the copyright holder to use his or her material. If permission is granted then proper acknowledge of the source and author of the material will have to be made in the new document and the terms of their copyright observed.
For more information on the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 please click this link www.opsi.gov.uk
ENVELOPE & PAPER SIZES
FILE FORMATS: A number of file formats are used here at Fineline although, our preferred method for printing finished artwork from is nearly always from PDF format (portable document format). Different file extensions do different things - some are better for certain things than others. ANS, ASC, CSV (Comma Separated Values, used in most spreadsheets such as Microsoft Excel), DOC, DOCX, ODT, OTT, PAGES, PUB, TXT, WPD and WPS are document extensions that refer to documents comprised mainly of text - normally created in home desktop publishing software such as Word, Publisher and Processor. Here at Fineline - we can use such files - but work mainly on more industry-standard applications (mainly Adobe as we are Adobe Service Providers). See below for information on different GRAPHIC FILE FORMATS or request a copy of our Consumer Awareness Guide No.7.
GRAPHIC FILE FORMATS: There are many graphic file formats to chose from - each one having different properties and characteristics. It is these differences that makes their choice important when deciding which type is most appropriate for on the task in hand.
The PNG (Portable Network Graphic), JPEG Joint Photographic Experts Group), and GIF (Graphic Interchange Format) file types are most often used to display images on the Internet. TIFF (Tagged Image Format Files), PSD (Adobe Photoshop Document), AI (Adobe Illustrator) and EPS (Encapsulated Postscript) are the preferred choice for Printing.
These graphic formats can be separated and defined into two main families of graphics: raster and vector. These two groups are a vast topics in their own right - but essentially, Raster (or Bitmap) files store images as a group of pixels. This means that as these images are enlarged or reduced the pixels move further apart or closer together making blurring of the image a problem as the image is enlarged.
Vector Graphics use geometrical measurements to describe the image and instead of a Bit (see above) for each bit of a line drawing a vector file describes a series of connecting points. Because of this, vector graphics are usually much smaller than Bitmap files for example. The main advantages of a geometric type file like this are that the image can be enlarged without loss of quality and ... very large images can be saved within a document without it becoming difficult to handle (memory hungry) and transfer to other applications or systems.
AI (Adobe Illustrator) files. Whereas Photoshop is more geared to photographic and photo realistic manipulation Adobe Illustrator is more suited to typesetting and logo creation applications.
EPS files can contain text, graphics and images - or all three. Due to the very nature of being written in Postscript language this file type is probably the most versatile graphic file format available. Because EPS files contain a preview of the saved image they can be printed on non postscript printers as well. Although, when this is the case, it is the preview that is printed and not the actual EPS itself. The printed image will not be of the same quality as the postscript file but at least it can be viewed.
JPEGs are perhaps the most widely used graphic file format but one of their disadvantages is that they are subject to data loss every time they are opened, edited and saved. If a lot of editing work is required it is probably best to choose a file format that does not lose data in this way such as TIFFs.
PSD files are created in Adobe Photoshop and are advantageous when users wish to change colours of certain elements and add or remove different layers too.
TIFF files are larger than JPEG files, but they retain the full quality of the image and can be compressed or uncompressed without losing information in the process.
LAMINATION & ENCAPSULATION: These two terms are often confused and although it appears that they are very similar processes ... their function is not. Both processes involve adhering a clear film to the surface of the paper or board after printing: with lamination, film can be applied to either one side or both whereas encapsulation requires that both sides are covered with film. Where documents are laminated the film is trimmed back flush with the edge of the sheet. Encapsulated items usually have a 3 to 5mm margin of film that extends beyond the page boundaries. Films come in both Matt and Gloss finishes.
LOGOS: It is important that you use only high resolution Corporate and any Trade logos in a document to ensure the very best reproduction. If you use logos captured from the web they are likely to appear fuzzy and blurred when printed even though they look ok on screen. For more information on this subject please request a copy of our Consumer Awareness Guide No.7.
PAGINATION / IMPOSITION is the term printers use to describe how multiple images of the same document are laid out on a sheet for the most cost-effective production. Normally, you don't need to worry about imposition because we do it for you. If you are supplying work on disk all you need to do is to give us one single copy of your document and our software systems will do the rest for you automatically.
PAGE LAYOUT: Page layouts for booklets and folded leaflets can tricky. If you are unsure about how to set up page layout parameters such as columns and margins give us a call and we'll give you some pointers to follow. For more information on this subject please request a copy of our Consumer Awareness Guide No.7.
PAPER & BOARD: What is the difference? The subject of paper, its history, where it is come from and the different processes that go into making all the different grades is a huge one. To help you gain a little understanding of this fascinating subject we have put together another one of our Consumer Awareness Guides (Paper: 73 Essential facts for the Serious Print Buyer) which you can request and read at your leisure.
SPOT VARNISHES: Varnishes are a great way to put a clear protective coating over the printed image and they can also provide a high Gloss or Matt finish if used over pictures for example. For more information on this subject please request a copy of our Consumer Awareness Guide No.7.
TEMPLATES: Folders and folded leaflets are the number one areas that trip up the unwary as far as pay layouts are concerned. To help you get started we have a number of templates readily available for you ...
