Art Submission Requirements

Grnofslt

Well-known member
I work for a company that doesn't have any artwork submission requirements for any customer supplied (supposedly) camera ready art. We get MS Word files, PDFs and occasionally a native Illustrator file. The PDFs are made from a mixed bag of applications, and many times are low resolution scans of an older version of what the customer wants us to print. Some of the PDF files really are a dream to work with and easily converted back to Illustrator files, while others made from programs like MS Word, MS Excel, MS Publisher are total terrors and sometimes impossible to bring into Illustrator. We have to convert PDf files back to Illustrator files because our service provider for our flexographic mats will not accept PDF files. After being in this department for 2.5 years, I can well understand.

I am trying to put together a proposal to the management of my company about putting into place a series of submission guidelines for any artwork submitted by our customers.

If there are any of you out there willing to take the time, could you please tell me what the art submission requirements of your company is. Any input and insight you can provide would be very gratefully appreciated
 
I can't give you the whole list but very important are:

- images (resolution)
- color (ban RGB, Lab, and other exotic color spaces)
- fonts (embedded)
- color management (icc profiles)
- fine lines and strokes that cannot be printed
...

This probably already covers about 75% of all preflight errors.

If your customers use Distiller or other recent Adobe apps then you could send them a settings file that has some of the basic options set correctly to create the PDF. Sounds silly but can save a lot of problems and discussions.

Also note that Illustrator is not a PDF editor, it can only edit it's own files in a good way.
If you want a really good PDF editor then consider buying Neo from EskoArtwork or Enfocus.
Also, PitStop from Enfocus is a great tool to preflight your files and you can automate it with PitStop server. These are not incredibly expensive products.
 
First I want to thank you for your replies. I was purposefully a bit vague because my company thinks everyone wants to steal their manufacturing secrets. But now I don't care, if they want to censure me for trying to get enough knowledge to get things done right, Let them.

We manufacture custom file folders. Some of the printing is done flexographically and some of the printing is done using offset presses. All of our offset plates , masking sheets and negatives are done in house. We typeset the customer's artwork, printout the artwork via laser printer and do line shots using an old camera in a darkroom (Did I mention my bosses name is Mr. Slate?).

Our mat manufacture is outsourced to a company about 40 miles from where we are located. Their requirements are EPS graphic or Illustrator file with all type converted to paths. We have Illustrator CS 3 but we have to save any file we have back to CS2 for them. They will accept nothing else. And they will not accept PDF files from us either.

At present, our customers, many of them, small businesses from all over the country, create the form that they want on their folders in their own offices using programs like MS Word, Excel, PUblisher and then convert the artwork they created into a PDF file and send that to us. We have received PDF files that are actually scans that had been turned into PDF files. Then there are the faxes that we get tht are also called camera ready artwork which look like 50 ppi bit maps, horrible.

Working with PDF files and converting them into Ai files is an adventure. You never know whether you will have it easy or a major reconstruction to do. When we are doing the work in-house, usually we put our job identification number on the PDf and print it out. Then shoot the line shot and make the masking sheet(s) and plate(s).

The adventure starts starts when the customer sends us a Word file, and we know that the job is going to be printed flexographically. Converting a Word file into an Illustrator file is not a matter of copy and paste even though that can be used every once in a great while. Let me list the problems that I have run across converting Word files into Illustrator files. Problem one being Word is an RGB program, every Word file we get, going into Illustrator has been RGB even if coming from a PDF. I always have to check the color space and convert to CMYK and then begin the laborious process of turning everything from the separations black to 100% K.

A second major headache are the clipping paths that are generated when converting. You can't ungroup any objects or text objects in order to manipulate the artwork in any way, including changing the colors to 100% K. Clipping paths that show the page size of the originator's file, clipping paths for groups of things the original author grouped together, sometimes transcending multiple pages of artwork.

Of course there are the missing font issues when opening PDF files into Illustrator and having to replace fonts with ones system fonts. First printing out the customer's original PDF and then printing out the Illustrator conversion and comparing the two to see where the fonts in the two might be different. It would be great if Acrobat would embed entire font suitcases rather than just the subset of just the characters that are used within the PDf file.

Next are logos. When the customer sends a sample folder they want us to recreate, and it has a logo, we usually have to redraw it. Or they send us a JPG file that is about the resolution of a web graphic. My boss tells us that the jpg looks crappy and to make it look better, the customer tells us that's the best he has…

Well, you see the kind of mess we are up against. This is our every day battle. That's why I asked what everyone's art submission guidelines are. Because of our local office mentality clientele we do have to allow some flexibility, but we do need some major guidelines too.

So thank each and everyone of you who respond. I hope that one day I might be able to give back to you in some way.
 
You can have supplied art guidelines, however, in this industry they often don't mean much even in the professional art creator world let alone with the folks you're dealing with.
I might have one tiny bit of help regarding:
"Or they send us a JPG file that is about the resolution of a web graphic. My boss tells us that the jpg looks crappy and to make it look better"
Have a look at this tutorial using PShop's Smart blur:

http://av.adobe.com/russellbrown/SmartBlurSM.mov

best, gordo

http: //www.creativebc.org/thumbnails.php?album=lastupby&uid=34
 
Well, you can have all kind of requirements, but 9 times out of 10 they never get listened to.

In a perfect world (HA!) this is what you should get with every job.
• Disc with NATIVE Files as well as PDF. PDFs aren't a be all end all. I fix PDF files CONSTANTLY due to major errors. (Thank god I have Pitstop and have an expertise in using it!)
• All images on disc 300 DPI or better
• All Images CMYK or appropriate spot. If they send RGB, Lab, etc, you can't be held responsible when colors don't match up.
• All fonts need to be packed with native files. If no fonts, all type should be converted to outlines.

Avoid Microsoft Word and Corel Draw at all costs.

Getting the right files can be the difference between charging 15 minutes of time and charging an hour and a half to 2 hours to fix their files.
 
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Sounds to me like you you have two problems:

1. You need to come up with some standards for file submission.

2. You need to convince the folks who run your company that standards are a good and necessary thing to have.

Here's where I would start:
Go to your competitor's websites and find their file submission requirements. Since your competitors deal with the same client base, it's very likely they will have a set of requirements that match what you should have.

This achieves two things; 1) you'll have a set of standards to use and 2) your company will probably recognize that there's a reason your competitors have standards.

Don't make the mistake of telling your bosses "we no longer accept Word, or Publisher, or whatever" if you find that your competitors don't accept those files. Your company will see this as turning down business they already have. Forget that it may be cost-ineffective the way it's being done now, there are solutions available (PDF/Pitstop, etc. Pitstop or something similar should be part of your proposal if you need it.)

Ideally, come up with some things your competitors are NOT doing, that's a selling point. If done correctly, standards increase profitability and customer confidence, and that's the bottom line that any smart business person will understand.
 
Avoid Microsoft Word and Corel Draw at all costs.

I agree to avid all kinds of MS Office applications, but why should we avoid Corel Draw? :confused: We use it quite a lot and never had very serious issues with it. I find it easier to receive an open cdr file with fonts in curves that I can adjust to be suitable for print, then to receive a PDF saved fromillustrator that has plenty of problems due to tranpsarency and zillions of layers. :rolleyes:
 
We avoid Corel Draw due to the lack of files coming in from it. We used to spend the money to upgrade to newer versions but only received files once every few years. It wasn't worth the time, energy and money. We told the client to switch to InDesign.
 
Hey, I just want to thank each of you who responded to my question. Your thoughts will help give us some direction as I try to awaken those who do not have any clue as to the problems and difficulties that prepress people have to go through when taking any kind of computer file from a customer and calling it Camera ready art. At this point, the honchos in charge are looking for a one day turn around, from typesetting, and pasting up samples plus keeping up with all the other chores one has in pre-press.

Anyway, thanks again, I really appreciated hearing from all of you. You all had a lot of good suggestions.

Bill J
 

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