Fonts tend to be the biggest cause of conflicts and errors. The best way to avoid font problems is to follow these suggestions: Use only Adobe Type 1 Fonts. To avoid font problems use Adobe fonts. Adobe has a library of over 2000 fonts and you should be able to find one that suits your needs. Most printers support all Adobe Type 1 fonts. Most page layout programs like PageMaker include the Adobe Type Manager software that allows you to install, view on screen, and print Type 1 fonts. Do not use TrueType fonts. TrueType fonts are not PostScript and are not compatible with many output devices that expect PostScript information. Though TrueType may work fine on many personal laser printers, when outputting to film on an imagesetter, font problems may occur. TrueType is included with many software packages and is automatically installed into the system without alerting you. You should remove TrueType fonts from your System Folder completely and work only with Type 1 Adobe fonts. If you are an MS-DOS user and you must use TrueType fonts in your files, it may be necessary for you to activate the 'Substitute PostScript Fonts' or 'Send to Printer as: Adobe Type 1' option to stop the downloading of TrueType fonts into your PostScript file. You should know that this substitution may cause your line breaks to change. Commonly used TrueType fonts in Windows like Arial or Times New Roman should be avoided when preparing a file for imagesetter output. Instead, correspondingly use the Type 1 equivalents: Helvetica and Times. Do not use stylized fonts. Most software programs allow you the option of highlighting a word and applying italics, bold, outline or shadow to the type characters. This feature was meant to be used with laser printers only and may cause problems with high resolution output. Use the actual Bold font that is provided if you want bold. Adobe Type Reunion is very useful the collecting entire family of a font for easier access. Also, if you 'bold' an already bold font to get a 'heavy' appearance, it may default to either the plain bold font or to Courier. Effects such as shadow or outline, should be created in Freehand or Illustrator. Include all linked graphic files. Be sure all the files required to complete the job are available. Avoid nested EPS files within EPS files. Nesting EPS happens when an EPS file is placed into a second EPS file which is then placed into a layout program or another EPS file. Nesting files within files causes longer processing times and color separation conflicts where spot colors from different files have slightly different names. Image files are at the appropriate resolution. Typically a pixel's resolution of twice the line screen the image is being printed at is needed. For example, a job printing at 150 line screen (lpi) needs no more than 300 pixels per inch (ppi). You may go as low as one and a half times the resolution which would mean the above example would only need 225 ppi. Label files for specific jobs and remove extra files. Unrelated files take up time and disk space. Copy only those files needed for the completion of the job at hand. If files for more than one job are to be sent together, be sure they are in separate folders, clearly labelled. Save images as either TIFF or EPS only. Clip art, illustrations, stylized text, complex lines and curves can be saved in EPS vector format using CorelDRAW, Illustrator or FreeHand. All other bitmaps like photos and scanned images should be saved as TIFF. Specify SPOT or CMYK colors in the file. Please indicate which colors are to be printed as spot and what colors will be four-color process. Often spot and CMYK color are mixed when only one or the other is required. Delete any unused colors from your palette, and make sure all colors are defined correctly, either SPOT or PROCESS. Providing color-separated laser proofs will help determine if the file has been prepared correctly. Both screen and printer fonts are available. If you need to use custom fonts be sure they are Type 1 and are included with the job files. Both the SCREEN font and the PRINTER font are necessary to image your file properly. Do not rename or renumber fonts. When you rename your fonts you often get font conflicts as a result. The manufacturer of your fonts has given each font a particular name and it also has a PostScript number assigned to it. If you rename a font the system may not be able to identify it properly and it will cause a fatal error. Include fonts that are in your EPS graphic files. It is easy to overlook the fonts contained in EPS files created in Illustrator or Freehand. This is called nesting fonts, and can cause problems at film output time. If you do not provide these nested fonts these characters may default to Courier during output. Provide a hard copy proof with the job. Provide 100% sized proofs. If pages are reduced on the laser printouts, please indicate the percentage of reduction. Check to make sure proofs are final version. Proofs that are not the final version will cause confusion about the full project and delay production of the job. Mark any FPO (for position only) images on the proofs. If low-res files are used, be sure to check that high-res files are linked during final production. Use proofs to indicate color breaks. Creating laser separations of the document shows where color breaks are needed. Do not rotate nor scale images in a page layout program. Even though QuarkXPress and PageMaker allow you to rotate and resize images within their applications, it causes an increase in time to image the film or in some cases, causes the file to 'crash'. Rotate and resize images in their native applications. If they are bitmaps, it may be necessary to rotate or resize them in Photoshop, or have the images rescanned to the right size or rotation. Do not specify rules as hairline. Many high resolution output devices interpret Hairline to be the minimum thickness of a line the device can draw. Compared with a laser printer a high resolution imagesetter can image an extremely thin line that is unprintable on press. If you want a thin line specify the rule as .3 or .5 of a point rather than hairline. Indicate if trapping has been performed. In most cases it is easier if the prepress department performs any trapping required for output since printers have more information available to make proper decisions regarding the tolerances of the printing presses. Are bleeds set properly? Any element that extends beyond the final trim edge needs its image extended at least .125" (1/8"). Check with bindery for more information about amount of bleed required. Note if there are special folding or trim issues. Allowances for the final folded piece can get complicated, when printing multiple signatures. Bottling or the rotation of pages should be noted of they are required during the production process. Include a folding dummy. How a job folds is a very important guide for proper imposition and a folding dummy provides information on page position and folding. Create .pdf files to reveal hidden fonts. Using Adobe Acrobat create a .pdf file to analyze and soft proof the PostScript file. Output a sample of the PostScipt files. Use your postscript laser printer to print a sample of the files. If it won't output to a low resolution laser printer, chances are it won't output to an imagesetter either. Following these above-mentioned tips will make sure that what you send to your service bureau will get you what you expect and with the complexity and the immense potential of programs and their diversity, the bureau will appreciate your taking these precautionary measures and give you good cooperation in return - besides a job done to the best of their ability.
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