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10 Prepress Mistakes to Avoid
Prepress is the process and procedure that occurs between the creation of a print layout and the final printing. In today’s prepress shop, the form of delivery from the customer to the printer is usually electronic, either a PDF or application files created from such programs as Adobe InDesign. Whether the project is an entire book or a simple newsletter, you’ll save time, money, and a major headache if you avoid these ten common customer prepress mistakes.
- Files without bleed, when bleed is needed.
- Low resolution images. Your print vendor’s standard high resolution is 300 dpi.
- Confirming that images are Grayscale or CMYK instead of RGB or Index Color.
- Missing images and fonts.
- Assigning “overprint” to a white element. Unless white ink is used, which is rare, any element that is assigned white is knocked out. If it’s set to overprint, it will not knock out the color it’s on top of.
- Incorrect color assignment to elements within the file. This includes having or using colors that are not part of the specifications of the job.
- The use of spot color transparencies for jobs that print CMYK process.
- Placing multiple pages in one oversized document. Print vendors prefer each file or page to be the correct final size and the bleed option used when appropriate.
- Providing imposed or multiple-up files. Your print vendor has software that imposes files to their preferences and will prefer single page files.
- For jobs that fold and have one or more panels that nest inside another panel, the nesting panel needs to be narrower than the one it’s folding into.
Have additional prepress customer tips to add to the list? Leave it in the comments.
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