Southwestern Printing Checklist for Electronic File Submission

In order to better serve you, we have prepared this brief checklist of requirements for jobs which are submitted digitally. Please refer to the following items when creating digital files. By doing so, you will reduce the possibility of incurring unnecessary costs and or delays in completing your job. You can download a pdf copy of these requirements or use this printer friendly version.

Applications

All output files are saved in the following versions (or lower): Corel 10, Freehand 10, Illustrator 10, InDesign 2, Pagemaker 7, PDF 5 or Quark 6. If submitting PDF files they have been distilled with "Press" job options settings (with .125" bleed on all 4 sides where applicable).

Bleed

All items in the document extending to the edge(s) of the sheet continue past the edge(s) of the sheet at least .125".

Colors

All unused colors in the file are deleted. Colors used in support files are named exactly the same as colors named in output file. File does not contain duplicate colors (i.e. PMS 185 CV & PMS 185 CVC).

Fonts

All necessary fonts are included (both screen and printer fonts for Type 1 fonts).

Page Size

Documents are built the exact size of the page. In other words, if the final page size is 8.5x11, then the document size is 8.5x11. Crop marks or registration marks are not present, (i.e. - artwork for an 8.5x11 page is not on an 11x17 document). On folding pieces, panels that fold in should be 1/16" smaller in width than the panels they are folding into.

PageMaker

All output files are saved in the following versions (or lower): Corel 10, Freehand 10, Illustrator 10, InDesign 2, Pagemaker 7, PDF 5 or Quark 6. If submitting PDF files they have been distilled with "Press" job options settings (with .125" bleed on all 4 sides where applicable).

Photoshop

All extra channels are deleted. DPI equals twice the desired linescreen (example: 150 line screen = 300 dp1). 4 Color Process artwork is saved in CMYK mode as a tiff or eps file. Spot Color artwork is saved in Multichannel mode as a DCS 2.0 eps file. Black & white (grayscale) artwork is saved in Grayscale mode as a tiff or eps file. Monotones should be saved as grayscale and colorized in the page layout application. Type is not used in Photoshop files unless it is the only way the desired effect can be achieved. If type is used an unflattened copy of the file in addition to the tiff or edp file is included with the document.

Proofs

All jobs are submitted with current lasers. Absolutely no changes were made to the file(s) since the lasers were printed. If the printed piece is to be folded then the mockup supplied has been folded accordingly.

Quark

Not using hairline stroke to any rules. Not using fill of "none" on any boxes containing support without a Photoshop clipping path.

Multipages

In multipage document (s), all pages are included in one file. Page order should be Front Cover, Inside Front Cover, Guts, inside Back Cover, Back Cover. Have not created individual files for each individual page. Have not built two pages into one page to create a simulated spread.

Support

All support files are saved as either flattened eps or tiff files only, and included with the job. No duplicate support files are included. No support file(s) are named the same as any other support file(s). No support files are embedded in the output file (where applicable, we realize this cannot be avoided with Corel and PDF files). any artwork outside of page (not being used) is deleted. All filenames are not longer than 31 characters (counting the ".ext" on pc platform).

Trap

No items in document are set to overprint.

Transparency

No items in non-Photoshop files use transparency filters. Transparency effects are used in Photoshop only. Programs like Illustrator and InDesign will allow you to place unflattened Photoshop files in them and apply transparency filters which will print correctly to composite printers but they will not print correctly to high end prepress rips used to image the files. It is understood that Transparency options used in any other program than Photoshop will produce unexpected results and are done at the client's own risk.

If all the above requirements are not met then the files are not ready for output and additional labor (costs) as well as additional time (new deadline) may be required. We preflight all jobs free of charge and make every possible effort to catch any errors that may arise as early as possible in the workflow. If you are unclear on any of the requirements listed above we will be happy to discuss them with you. Please call 405-525-9411 or 800-356-9905 and ask for Prepress. Thanks!