Microsoft Publisher
Planning Your Print Project
Before you lay out your publication, plan ahead for printing. Will you want copying or printing? Do you want black and white, spot color (Pantone colors), or process color (cmyk)? Your answers to these questions affect the way you create color in your Publisher file, the size and margins of your page, number of pages, the folds, and more. Discuss your plan with an Econoprint Sales Representative early in the design process. If you have a $500 budget to print and distribute a newsletter, you don't want to find out at the last moment that you've created a $5,000 design. Your Sales Representative at Econoprint can suggest ways to keep the design you like and reduce printing costs. Each printing option is not always clear. You may have to make a series of trade-offs before you can reach a decision on how you want to produce your publication.
Understanding Color - CMYK or PMS
Process-color offset printing is also called CMYK or four-color printing because it uses four semitransparent process inks--cyan, magenta, yellow, and black (abbreviated as K), to reproduce a full range of colors on a printed page. Process color printing is typically used when your document includes full-color photographs or multicolor graphics. Process color printing is typically more expensive than spot-color printing.
In spot-color offset printing, one or two colors (or tints of colors) are produced using premixed inks, typically chosen from standard color-matching guides, like the Pantone Matching System® or PMS. The Pantone color-matching guide is a set of colors that you can choose from in Publisher when creating a spot-color document. Choosing colors from a color-matching library helps ensure high-quality results because print professionals who license the libraries agree to maintain the quality requirements of the manufacturer.
Unlike process colors that reproduce color photographs and art, spot colors are typically used to emphasize headings, borders, and graphics, and to match colors in graphics, such as logos. You can create screen tints of spot colors to get color variation without increasing the number of color separations, and thus without increasing printing costs. Before you decide on printing or copying, consider the following factors:
- Turnaround - How quickly do you need your project printed?
- Quantity - How many do you need?
- Quality - Is your project an informal publication or a corporate identity piece?
- Color - Are you using color in your piece?
- Convenience - Do you have time to explore methods that might offer higher quality?
- Cost - Are you willing to pay more for better resolution?
- Distribution - Are you mailing or hand delivering your piece?
Why won't my Publisher file work with a Commercial Printer?
Here is a list of the 10 most common reasons why a Publisher file doesn't make it through preflight, the prepress process.
- Publication is set up using one of the Quick Publication templates. See General Publisher File Set Up, next page.
- No composite printout is provided. See General Publisher File Set Up, next page.
- Image area doesn't allow for 5/16" margin or (does not bleed to 1/8"), or text crosses over the folds. See General Publisher File Set Up, next page.
- Graphics and photos are low resolution (less than 300 dpi for photos, and less than 1200 dpi for line art graphics). See Photos and Graphics, next page.
- Fonts are embedded and not included on the disk. Any fonts used in your Publisher document need to be included on the disk.
- Graphics are embedded and are not included on the disk. See Photos and Graphics, next page.
- Photos and graphics are sized and adjusted in Publisher (ie., a color photo converted to grayscale in Publisher instead of Photoshop). See Photos and Graphics, next page.
- Publication uses RGB color instead of spot or process color. Remember, you must use spot or process. RGB won't separate correctly to produce the color you desire. See Color, next page.
- Pack and Go file is incomplete or corrupted. See Pack and Go, on back cover.
- Postscript errors - these are printing errors as a result of poor quality graphics, fonts, or memory errors.
The Preflight Process
Before your job is printed, it typically goes through prepress production or preflight. During this prepress process, your files are checked for:
- Missing fonts
- Graphic file availability and format
- Resolution of photos and graphics
- Color set-up
Once the prepress process is complete, your publication is sent to a high resolution printing device, like an imagesetter, DI Press (Direct Imaging), or CTP (computer-to-plate) that creates color separations of your file on film, paper, or plates. These devices translate the contents of your Publisher pages into a series of "dots" on a page. Each color is separated onto its own unique plate, for example your red and black document would yield two plates. One red plate and one black plate.
Resources and References:
- www.microsoft.com:80/office/publisher
- www.chalksoft.com/school/mspub
- www.tipsdr.com/publisher
- www.bcschools.net/staff/publisherhelp
- www.printingforless.com/publishertips
Books:
- Microsoft 2002 Publisher Basics, Third Edition - by Mary Alice Eisch
- Microsoft Publisher 2002 Complete Concepts & Techniques - by Gary B. Shelly
- Publisher 2000: Get Professional Results - by Roger C. Parker
Tips for Creating a Print-Ready File from Microsoft Publisher
General Publisher File Set Up:
- Upgrade to Publisher 2000 or higher for reliable results. Earlier versions of Publisher don't have the commercial printing tools that printers need to output your file.
- When creating a file, allow a 5/16" or greater margin around the entire document for gripper. Gripper is the non-imageable area that the press needs to feed the paper. (This does not include files that are smaller than the paper they will be run on such as business cards.)
- If you desire a graphic to run off the edge of the paper, or bleed, then the image must cross over the edge of the page by 1/8". Bleeds on documents may require printing on oversized paper, which may mean additional charges. Your Econoprint Sales Representative can help you determine if you need oversized paper.
- Folded pieces such as brochures and newsletters should have gutters (or the space on each side of the fold) between the panels of two times the margin. (For example, if you have a margin of 1/2" on your brochure, then the space between the panels should be 1".)
- Whenever possible, avoid using the Quick Publications in Publisher. These predesigned templates can produce unreliable results when sending the file to a high resolution output device.
Photos and Graphics:
- Place photos at 100% or smaller. When you enlarge (or scale) a photo you lose resolution resulting in poor quality. If you need to enlarge a photo, it should be rescanned at the correct size to maintain at least 300 dpi.
- Do all adjustments to photos in Photoshop or your scanning software. DO NOT use the features that Publisher offers for converting color to grayscale or adjusting brightness and contrast. These adjustments may not output on high resolution equipment like they appear on screen.
- Graphics should be created as spot colors or grayscale, if your document will be printed in spot color or copied in black and white. Conversely, if the document will be printed in process color or color copied, then your graphics should be created as CMYK.
- Create links for your photos rather than embedding. This feature is found in Tools/Commercial Printing Tools/Graphics Manager. By creating links you will make it much easier to deal with photo changes.
- Avoid using graphics and photos obtained from the web. They will almost always be low resolution (72 dpi). Always scan your own photos at 300 dpi and scan graphics (clip art) at 1200 dpi or higher. If you don't have a scanner, Econoprint offers scanning services. We also have a large selection of stock photos.
- When placing a graphic, such as a logo, be sure to create links in the same way you would for photos.
- Line art (like logos) print best if created in a vector-based program, like Adobe Illustrator or Macromedia Freehand. As a second option (but less flexible), line art graphics can be scanned at least 1200 dpi, but cannot be enlarged (or scaled up).
- Screens or tints (other than photos) should be between 20% and 80% for RC paper output, between 5% and 85% for negatives, and between 5% and 95% for process color printing. Contact your Sales Representative for information about RC paper vs. negatives.
- Photo ranges for RC paper are 10% to 85%. Anything below or above will drop out or fill in. Photo ranges for films are 5% to 90%. Anything below or above will drop out or fill in.
Color:
- Colors should be set up as spot color (PMS), single color or two color printing.
- Color should be CMYK for process color printing or color copies. Color can be changed to spot or CMYK by going into Tools/Commercial Printing Tools/Color.
- The color name for placed graphics should be designated in the program that they were created in, like Adobe Illustrator or Photoshop. Again use spot colors or CMYK when appropriate. Be sure to name the colors in the graphic creator file the same as what you use in Publisher.
Publisher Tips
As with any page layout program, there are certain things that need to be done with Publisher Files to make them printable in a Commercial Printing environment. Following these tips will help your file go as smoothly as possible, ensuring a quality final product.
- Econoprint needs all associated files to be included for proper file preparation and output. This means you need to include all fonts, photos and graphics along with the Publisher file. Use the Pack and Go feature in Publisher -- it will package all linked files and fonts into one convenient compressed file. Remember to include the Unpack file that Publisher creates for each packed file.
- When using the Pack and Go feature avoid using multiple floppy disks. Copy your Pack and Go files onto a Zip disk, CD, Econoprint's ftp site, or e-mail. If you must use multiple floppy disks don't use the Pack and Go feature because it may corrupt the files. If you only have a floppy disk drive (ie., 3-1/2") you will need to collect all related files manually.
- Include both a composite and a color separated printout of your file for Econoprint to properly prepare the file. Without samples it is impossible for us to be sure the file looks the same on our computers as it did on yours. This could cause delays or even additional charges.
- Use a limited number of fonts in your document. Limiting your document to two or three fonts improves legibility and readership.
- Use an impact font for headlines, titles, and headers to command attention.
- Use a body text font weight that is medium. (Not too heavy, not too light.)
- Captions and callouts - use a font that is in the same family as the body text or header font, only smaller, like 8 or 9 pt.
- White space is to text, what air is to people; add space between lines and paragraphs.
- A general guideline for leading (the space between lines of text) is 120% of the type size. For example, if your text is 10 pt., then 12 pt. leading gives the reader maximum legibility.
