PPC s Layout Guide Tips and information for Publications - revised July 2010

Transcription

1 PPC s Layout Guide Tips and information for Publications - revised July 2010 Pacific Publishing Company 636 South Alaska Street, Seattle WA Phone: (206) Toll Free: (877)

2 Contents Formats and sizes... 3 Photos & Graphics... 5 CReating spot colors in Photoshop... 6 Dealing with Color and Registration... 7 Placing Photos & Graphics... 8 Dealing with Text... 8 Creating a Postscript file from Adobe PageMaker... 9 Creating a PDF file for printing (not from InDesign) Tips for checking your InDesign files Making PDF files directly from InDesign Color Models CMYK vs RGB, Color Gamut and Dot Gain/TVI Total Area Coverage (TAC) RICHARD FAZAKERLEY Operations Manager opsmanager@nwlink.com STEVE YIP Bindery Supervisor ppcbind@nwlink.com CONTACT NUMBERS This booklet tries to put together the basic information and technical tips you will require to layout your publication in a way that will facilitate its printing. Using this guide should make your publication easier to design and lay out, and should also help to eliminate many of the problems that can cause delays in the production as well as problems with quality. Since there are so many ways things can be done, we have tried to be as specific as possible, but some things are discussed in principle only. If you need further information on anything in this guide, please call us and we will endeavor to help you in any way we can. Since the first edition, there are some changes which we have found to work a little better, please use them. We look forward to working with you to produce the best possible work at all times. Good Luck! TERRY FAIN Sales Manager ppcsales@nwlink.com PREPRESS DEPT comprint@nwlink.com Scheduling and technical questions. Inserting, Deliveries, Booklet trimming. Pricing, Mail Processing & Special Projects. Digital files issues, FTP server details. TOLL FREE: Fax Number: After hours Prepress Dept: & comprint@nwlink.com Pacific Publishing Company, 636 South Alaska Street, Seattle WA Website: DOWNLOADS, FORUMS AND LEARNING RESOURCES In order to get the best results from your desktop publishing software, it is recommended that you find and join user groups. They are not only useful resources, but will help in keeping you in touch with the latest tips, tricks and techniques used by others, often full time professional users. It is also useful to visit the software developers websites to see if they have any useful stuff periodically. Here is a list of links for the most commonly used software packages and other useful links including Drivers, patches etc: Look under RESOURCES/STUDIO - this includes PageMaker, Photoshop, Illustrator, In-Design and Adobe Acrobat. A very good site with loads of information about scanning techniques. Drivers and patches for Hewlett Packard Laser printers. SNAP Coldset printing standards National Scholastic Press Association website. Washington Newspaper Publishers Association. Washington Journalism Education Association. If you should come across any links that are useful, please contact us so we can share them. 2 PPC s Layout Guide 2010

3 Formats and sizes Met (Broadsheet) Tabloid Page Size: 13¾ x 22 12¾ x 21 left/right: 0.5 top/bottom: 0.5 Page Size: 12½ x 22 11½ x 21 left/right: 0.5 top/bottom: 0.5 Page Size: 11 x 17½ SEE SPECIAL NOTE BELOW 10¼ x 16 Inside: 0.45 Outside:0.3 top/bottom: 0.75 Page Size: 11 x 17 10¼ x 16 Inside: 0.45 Outside:0.3 top/bottom: 0.5 Page Size: 11 x 16 10¼ x 15 Inside: 0.45 Outside:0.3 top/bottom: 0.5 Multiples of 2 pages i.e 2/4/6/8/10/12 etc Multiples of 2 pages i.e 2/4/6/8/10/12 etc Multiples of 4 pages i.e 4/8/12/16 etc Multiples of 4 pages i.e 4/8/12/16 etc Multiples of 4 pages i.e 4/8/12/16 etc This runs on a 27½ Web and is available in the following grades and weights of paper: This runs on a 25 Web and is available in the following grades and weights of paper: This runs on a 35 Web and is available in: 60# Book Stock This runs on a 34 Web and is available in: 28# Newsprint 34# Electrabrite This runs on a 32 Web and is available in: 28# Newsprint 34# Electrabrite 28# Newsprint 28# Newsprint PLEASE NOTE: MET papers can also be run on other sizes and grades of paper. Call for more information SPECIAL NOTE ON DOCUMENT SETUP These are the Standard sizes of products that we run. There are other size options based on these products. If you have a requirement that does not fit these sizes, please call us with the information and we will happy to discuss the available options with you. When setting up TABLOIDS, please use the page size and margins as indicated in the Formats and Sizes section, except for the 35 web (17½ Page size.) This should still be set up as a Tabloid 11 x 17 in document to allow the pages to be printed on a standard 11 x17 printer. PPC s Layout Guide

4 Formats and sizes Tabloid... cont d Booklet Large Standard Page Size: 11 x 14 10¼ x 13 Inside: 0.45 Outside:0.3 top/bottom: 0.5 Page Size: 11 x 13¾ 10¼ x 12¾ Inside: 0.45 Outside:0.3 top/bottom: 0.5 Page Size: 11 x 12½ 10¼ x 11½ Inside: 0.45 Outside:0.3 top/bottom: 0.5 Page Size & Trim Size: 8 3 / 8 x 10 7 / / 8 x 10 1 / 8 l/r:0.375 top/bottom: Page Size & Trim Size: 8¼ x 10 5 / 8 7½ x 9 7 / 8 l/r:0.375 top/bottom: Multiples of 4 pages i.e 4/8/12 etc Multiples of 4 pages i.e 4/8/12 etc Multiples of 4 pages i.e 4/8/12 etc Multiples of 8 pages i.e 8/16/24 etc Multiples of 8 pages i.e 8/16/24 etc This runs on a 28 Web and is available in these grades and weights. This runs on a 27½ Web and is available in this grade and weight only. This runs on a 25 Web and is available in this grade and weight only. This runs on a 35 Web and is available in the following grades and weights of paper: This runs on a 35 Web and is available in the following grades and weights of paper: 34# Electrabrite 60# Book Stock (Bookstock requires 3-4 weeks notice for this size) 28# Newsprint 28# Newsprint 28# Newsprint 34# Electrabrite 60# Book Stock Use this size for Booklets that have no bleeds. 28# Newsprint 34# Electrabrite 60# Book Stock Use this size for Booklets that have bleeds on all three sides, (top, bottom and right-hand edge) Doubletruck (Centerspread) Page Height will depend on web size. Page Width:22 Image Width:21.4 left/right:0.3 top/bottom: 0.5 Doubletrucks or Centerspreads run across the middle of the sheet, this means that your image width will be 2 x (center margin) giving you a total of The ONLY place where you can do this is the middle two pages of your paper. Booklets require a different setup: When setting up BOOKLETS, please use the Trim size as the page size. This is configured using the Custom setting in the Page Size dialog box. Use margins as indicated in the above Booklet section. Please remember also that because these booklets are glued in the middle, it is not possible to run a centerspread since the glue would prevent the image from running across the center of the pages. 4 PPC s Layout Guide 2010

5 If you are using either a digital camera or a scanner to create your photographs and graphics for printing, they will normally need some form of digital preparation to make them ready for placing in your document. Here are some useful tips in their preparation: 1 Scanning Scan your photographs and/or images at 300dpi, and set the size as close to finished size as possible, allowing a little extra for cropping and clean-up of edges. Some scanning programs only allow scanning as RGB, these must then be converted. If your scanning software allows, select the image type as one of the following, and save the files as TIFF or JPG (Always set the JPG quality at MAXIMUM) files: 1) Color pictures = CMYK 2) B&W pictures = Grayscale 3) Line drawings = Bitmap If your scanning software does not have these options, use the steps listed below. 2 Correcting Convert all Black and White pictures using: IMAGE/MODE/GRAYSCALE in Photoshop. Photos and Graphics You may have to convert to GRAYSCALE first and then to BITMAP. There should be NO RGB images of any type. Adjust the levels to compensate for 30% dot gain - This is done in Photoshop as follows: Go to EDIT/COLOR SETTINGS/CMYK SETUP. (Older Photoshop version see FILE/COLOR SETTINGS) Under the Ink Options/Ink Colors choose SWOP (Newsprint). You should see the DOT GAIN change to 30% - if not change it manually to read 30%. Convert all Color pictures using: IMAGE/MODE/CMYK in Photoshop. After you change the CMYK setup, go to FILE/COLOR SETTINGS/GRAYSCALE SETUP. Under GRAYSCALE BEHAVIOR choose Black Ink INSTEAD of RGB, this will use the CMYK settings. Convert all line drawings to BITMAP mode using: IMAGE/MODE/BITMAP in Photoshop. Adjust the midrange level if necessary and compress the Shadow and Highlight settings to maintain the contrast in the picture. As a general rule of thumb, if the picture looks right on the screen or on a printout, it will print too dark. (Continued next page) PPC s Layout Guide

6 Photos and Graphics...continued To adjust the levels in a photo go to: IMAGE/ADJUST/LEVELS Use the slider under the left side of the histogram to adjust the shadow levels. Use the middle slider to adjust the midtones. Use the slider on the right to adjust the highlight levels. You should try to make the photo look even, the shadow and midtone areas shouldn t be too dark and the highlights shouldn t be too light. Keep in mind that the photo will look darker once it is printed. Creating Spot Color Graphics in Photoshop 1. Open the Grayscale or Color document that you will be working on, or create a new document. If you want to add a spot color to a black and white graphic, you should be working in Grayscale mode. If you want to add a spot color to a full color graphic you should be working in CMYK mode. 2. If the Channels palette is not visible, select Show Channels from the Window menu. 3. Open the Channels menu by clicking on the arrow at the upper right hand corner of the Channels palette. Now select New Spot Channel... from the Channels menu. 6. Anything created in this new layer will automatically be created in the spot color that you chose. 4. This will bring up a dialog box asking you to select a color for the new spot color. To change the color, click on the color swatch in the lower left protion of the dialog box. 7. To save your graphic for importing into a page-layout program, choose Save As... from the FILE menu. For the format select Photoshop DCS Clicking the Color Swatch will bring up the Color Picker. Be sure to pick a color from the PANTONE Uncoated book. The PANTONE Uncoated book can be selected from the menu labeled Book at the top of the dialog box. 6 PPC s Layout Guide Select the options for the file format as shown here. OTHER FILE FORMATS Spot color graphics created in drawing programs such as Illustrator or Freehand should be saved as an EPS file. The spot colors in your graphics should match the colors used in your page-layout program. If you are using PMS 032 CVU in your page-layout program, then you should also use PMS 032 CVU as the spot color in any graphics that you create outside of the page-layout program. This will insure That when the separations for your document are printed, the colors will come out on the correct separation.

7 Dealing with Color and Registration There are two types of color format used in the printing of publications here at PPC: 1) SPOT COLOR These colors are based on the Pantone Color Matching System, and are used as their name suggests in spots or areas. They are often referred to as PMS colors. Use ONLY Pantone uncoated colors. They can be set up and selected in almost all desktop publishing or layout and graphics software packages. The important thing to remember is that if you are using Reflex Blue (for example) there should not be any items of your job colored with anything except BLACK or REFLEX BLUE. It is often good to remove all colors from your color palette except for BLACK, PAPER, the COLOR you have chosen to use and REGISTRATION. Spot colors are best used when Headlines and other simple shapes are required in one or two colors only. Tints (patterns of dots used to create the appearance of lighter shades) of the SPOT COLOR can be used as background panels behind BLACK type, and by varying the tints, it would appear that several different shades of Blue are being used, but you are actually only using one color. 2) PROCESS COLOR (CMYK) As this name suggests, these colors are built using a 4 color process set of Cyan (Light Blue), Magenta (Pinkish- Red), Yellow and Black. By printing groups of tiny dots next to each other, many colors can be SIMULATED. For example, Yellow and Cyan dots next to each other will appear GREEN to the naked eye, and the shade of GREEN will depend on the size and spacing of the dots. Process colors are best used when you are trying to reproduce COLOR PHOTOGRAPHS and make them as lifelike as possible. This system does not match the Pantone system, and trying to make Pantone colors using CMYK will almost certainly give a disappointing result. Colored type and Headlines made using CMYK are quite difficult to reproduce well, unless the type is big and bold to allow for some mis-registration. There are several really important things to be included in your preparations for COLOR work. A) Choose either SPOT COLOR or PROCESS COLOR depending on what you are trying to reproduce (if you are not sure please call us and we will be happy to advise you on the best color mode to use). B) DO NOT use RGB, LAB, CIE, HLS or any other color models offered by your software in the end they will all have to be converted to either SPOT COLOR or PROCESS COLOR, and the translation between these models is likely to be inaccurate and give you a disappointing result. Key to Color Modes CMYK RGB SPOT PROCESS DO NOT use the color Registration for any purpose other than these targets since it prints the selected item on ALL color separations. If you are submitting fully digital files for imagesetting, targets may not be needed, check with us first. REMEMBER to delete the color AUTO if you see it in your color palette. this is a sample of 10pt text printed in color, out of register by only (This is the average thickness of a human hair) this is a sample of 10pt text printed in one color only this is a sample of 10pt text printed in two colors only C=60 M=0 Y=100 K=0 This is a 4 point rule, printed in Cyan, Magenta and Yellow, out of register by only For more details go to and get a copy of the SNAP coldset standards. Here are sample strips of Black and Pantone Reflex Blue, each box is tinted 10% more than the previous one. This is done by selecting the color and then using a TINT of the color from the color palette - 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% DO NOT create each tint as a separate color. This is a test of type over color This is a test of type out of color NOTE how the type looks, we have used a BOLD face to make it more readable, and kept the FONT to a sans-serif style and This is a test of type over color used 11pt as the size. This is a test of type out of color PPC s Layout Guide

8 Placing Photos and Graphics in Pagemaker When you begin to place photographs and/or graphics into your pages, please DO NOT embed them. ALL images should be linked. It is a good idea to keep all of the graphics and photos used in you publication in one folder. This will make sure that you don t lose the linked files in you publication. Never place a file directly from a CD, disk, or internet site. The best file types to use for graphics are TIFF, JPEG and EPS. You must use EPS for images that contain spot color, are duotones, contain text that is not a bitmap or have a transparent background. You must also make sure that the name of spot colors used in an EPS match exactly the name of the spot colors used in your publication. It is also a good idea to not use Windows Metafiles or Word Art. Although you might type some of your text and articles directly in your layout program, it is often easier to prepare them using a word processing program. Here are a few tips to make the preparation and subsequent placement of your text easier. Step1 Do not format your text in the word processing program, keep the text to a default setting like 12pt Times Roman. Do not apply Tabs, Indents, Font or style changes or color changes within this program. Use Layout Software to do that. 8 These files behave unpredictably when printed to a PostScript printer and may not print at all. There are some default settings in Adobe Pagemaker that will make things easier, these are shown below: GO TO: File/Preferences/General CLICK ON: More... CHANGE: Alert when storing graphics over 256Kb TO 64Kb. Dealing with Text Step 2 Do not Copy & Paste these articles into your layout - use the Place or Get Text functions only. Step 3 Do not use Auto as a color! If you see the color Auto appear in your color palette in the layout program, then anything that appears in that color WILL NOT PRINT (except as an extra color). In PageMaker and InDesign you can simply delete the color from your palette and you will be offered the option to turn all elements from Auto to Black, select YES. One way to avoid this happening is to PPC s Layout Guide 2010 Now that these defaults have been set, you can begin to place your photographs and graphics. Never copy and paste these images from other sources, even if using the same image several times, always go through the process of placing them using the FILE/ PLACE command. After your selection, this window should pop up, the reply should ALWAYS be NO. save all word processor documents as.txt files instead of docs. Step 4 Never Update your article s link within your layout program UNLESS you have made changes to the original text file in a word processing program. If you do Update, all the formatting you have applied since Placing the article will disappear and it will revert to its original text condition.

9 Creating a PostScript file from Adobe PageMaker Virtual Printer Using the Adobe PS* driver, select a Postscript Printer. It is important to use the Adobe driver to ensure that the Postscript file is produced correctly. 2. If you don t have a Postscript Printer available, you can create a Virtual Printer using the Adobe Printer Utilities Now use the Print command to open the printing dialog box. Select the Acrobat Distiller PPD. It is important to use the Distiller PPD so that the file is created with all the information we need to print your pages successfully. 5. In the Print Options screen, set Send Image Data to Normal and set the Data Encoding to ASCII. 6. In the Download Fonts option, select Postscript and Truetype. This will insure that all fonts used are included in your file. 7. Select Write Postscript to File and click on the Save As... button. 8. This will bring up a box in which you can name your file and choose a folder to save it to. Make sure your file name ends with the.ps extension. When you are done naming your file, click on OK SAVE In the Print Paper screen, select the appropriate size of paper for your publication. This will probably be letter for Booklets or Tabloid for Tabloid size publications. For 14 and 133/4 page sizes, use a Custom page size for those dimensions e.g 11 x In the Print Color screen, select Composite and Color. 10. Now click on Save. You ve just successfully created a Postscript file, ready for printing or convertng to a PDF file. PPC s Layout Guide

10 Creating a PDF file for Printing (not from InDesign - see next pages) To create a PDF you will need Acrobat Distiller 4.0 or higher (5.0 and above if you use any Transparency in your document.) and a Postscript file generated from your page layout program. Acrobat Distiller works better than the PDF Writer printer or the builtin PDF creation devices found in some software. For information on creating a Postscript file from PageMaker or Quark XPress, see the previous pages. If you are using Adobe InDesign, GOTO FILE/PDF Export Presets, and then modify the Press settings as shown here, you can then save this new Preset with the name of your Publication to make it easier to find each time 1. If you have a more recent version of Acrobat, you can set the compatibility as High as Acrobat 6.0, but please do not set it any higher than 6.0. This will reduce file size. 1. The first step is to open Acrobat Distiller. In the menu labeled Job Options select Press and then make the following changes: 2. Under the Settings menu select Job Options. This will allow you to set the options to create a PDF that works best for printing. 4. In the Compression settings everything should be set like this. This will insure that the PDF is created at the optimal resolution for printing. Warn and continue 3. In the General options, the settings should look like this. Change the resolution to 1270 dpi and the default page size to the same size as you are using for your publication. 10 PPC s Layout Guide In the Fonts options, everything should be set like this. Be sure that Embed All Fonts is checked. This is the most important setting. If this is not selected, some of the fonts in your PDF might default to Courier.

11 Creating a PDF file for Printing... continued 6. In the Color options, everything should be set as you see it here. This will insure that the colors in the PDF are the same as the colors in your original document. 8. There are two ways to start the Distilling process. If your Postscript file was saved to the desktop, you can just drag-and drop it right onto the Distiller Box. If it was saved in a folder somewhere on your Hard Drive, you can use the Open command to Browse and locate the Postscript file. PLEASE UNCHECK PRESERVE OPI COMMENTS 7. In the Advanced options, everything should be checked as seen above. Now click OK to save your changes and return to Acrobat Distiller. Now you re ready to create a PDF file. 9. Distiller will now start creating your PDF. Watch the information box at the bottom for any errors during the process. If there are any Fonts missing, it will warn you here and will stop creating the PDF. If this happens, you will have to locate and include the missing Fonts, and then remake the Postscript file, and re-distill it as above. 10. Once Distiller finishes making the PDF, you re done. Congratulations, you ve just created a PDF file ready to send to us to print. PPC s Layout Guide

12 Tips for checking your InDesign files If you are using InDesign to lay out your printing job here are a few things you can check before you give the files to us to see if we ll have trouble with them. LINKS: If you don t have a tab on the right-hand side of your monitor to check links, you can go to Window/Links to get a box listing the links. If there are no symbols next to the names of your links, only page numbers, everything should be fine. If you see an exclamation point in a yellow triangle, the link has been modified. You need to go to the arrow in the upper left of the links palette where there are menu options and pick Update Link. If there are any with a red circle and a question mark, the link is missing. You may have to find out where you have that link stored and move it to a folder of links for that issue. Then you can click on it in the links palette click on the arrow to get Link Information, click on the Relink button and find the link. There s another symbol for embedded links and you can try to relink them, but only files smaller than 48kb will be embedded and that will be OK. FONTS: If there are any fonts highlighted in pink, the font may be missing. You can go to Type/Find Font to see if you are missing fonts. If there are any triangles with exclamation points, you are missing those particular fonts. 12 You can click on the font and click Find First and Find Next to see where the font is. You can either go back and change them manually or you can look for a font where it says Replace With: and pick a font (it may be as simple as choosing Times New Roman PS instead of Times). Then you have to click on Change All. You may have to repeat for other fonts or versions (like bold or italic). If you change any big blocks of text, you may want to go back and look to see if the text flow changed and if the ends of any articles were cut off. SEPARATIONS: If you go to Window/ Output Preview/Separations you can get a Separations Preview palette. If you change the View option from Off to Separations, you ll see a list of colors in the job. Before you do this, go to Swatches, pick Select All Unused and select the trash button. In the Separations Preview, click the check box next to Black to turn off the Black separation. Everything that should be black should disappear. If there s anything left, you can see what might be in RGB or CMYK color or a spot color PPC s Layout Guide 2010 that shouldn t be there. You should not use the color named Registration as that prints on all the separations. You should also check for the color Auto and use the Swatches tab to delete the color and change the items to Black. If you re using 4-color, you can turn off the Cyan, Magenta and Yellow and see if everything disappears. If there are any spot colors left that should be process colors you can go to your color swatches and double click the color and change it from spot to process. If you have spot color, you can turn off the spot to see if everything that should be the spot color disappears. If you have any color pictures that should be black and white, you can open them in PhotoShop and change them to Grayscale (Image/Mode/ Grayscale). Then you ll have to go to your links palette and update the link.

13 Making PDF files directly from InDesign MAKING A PDF: You can make a PDF directly from InDesign and then you don t have to give us all the fonts and links. You can set up a PDF Export Preset and then use that to make it easier. Go to File/PDF Export Preset and select Press (if you start with the Press preset, you re almost there). In InDesign CS, Go to the Advanced tab and under Color pick Leave Unchanged and under Profile Inclusion Policy select Don't Include Profiles. If you are using CS2 or CS3, Go to Output, under Color Conversion pick No Color Conversion. If you are using any Macromedia fonts, they usually will not embed in PDF files. Macromedia Freehand uses these fonts. If everything looks good, this PDF is what we ll use to print the job. If you have time to make a PDF of just one page before your deadline, you can send it to us as a test to see if everything looks right. Save the file somewhere where you ll be able to find it. Go to the General tab. Change the Compatibility to Acrobat 7 or 8. Uncheck Optimize for Fast Web View. In the box for Subset Fonts if percentage of characters used is less than enter 2%. Finally make sure that nothing is checked in the OPI section. (Depending on which version of InDesign you have, this should be on the Advanced section) At the bottom left corner click Save Preset and name the preset so you can use it next time (something like PPC Press or For Printer so you ll remember.) After you ve made the PDF, open it up and take a look at it. If anything changed, you want to catch it now. Double check the overall look and see if anything s missing, any fonts changed, or any text is cut off. Be careful to check punctuation marks, sometimes font problems can cause apostrophes or other special characters to change into boxes or disappear completely and leave empty spaces. If you get any warnings when you make the PDF that a font cannot be embedded, you need to go back to the file and change the font (go to Type/ Find Font to locate and change it). IMPORTANT We cannot stress enough the importance of taking the time to check the final PDF file very thoroughly, to ensure that the PDF is correct. Take special care to check fonts, typos, and the quality of linked images like Advertisements, graphics & Photos. It is also a good idea to check page numbering and dates, especially if the paper is created on multiple computers. What you see in the final PDF is closer to what the press will print than your actual InDesign file. PPC s Layout Guide

14 Color Models NOT GOOD FOR PRINTING 1. C.I.E L*a*b* - Based on the human perception of color. L*a*b* describes color in terms of luminance or its lightness component (L) and two chromatic components: the a component (green and red) & the b component (blue and yellow). Describes how a color looks - device independent 2. HSB - hue, saturation & brightness HSB is derived from RGB color spaces & is device dependent. 3. RGB - also called additive colors Additive colors are created by mixing spectral light in varying combinations. Adding all colors together creates white--that is, all visible wavelengths are transmitted back to the eye. Additive colors are used for lighting, video, and monitors. 4. Indexed Color - used for multimedia/web Indexed Color mode produces 8-bit image files with at most 256 colors. By limiting the palette of colors, indexed color can reduce file size while maintaining enough visual quality for certain applications like a multimedia presentation or a Web page. GOOD FOR PRINTING 5. CMYK - (four color, process color, full color)- also called subtractive colors The CMYK model is based on the light-absorbing quality of ink printed on paper. As white light strikes translucent inks, certain visible wavelengths are absorbed (subtracted), while others are reflected back to your eyes. In theory, pure cyan (C), magenta (M), and yellow (Y) pigments should combine to absorb all light and produce black. Because all printing inks contain some impurities, however, these inks produce a muddy brown. For this reason, black ink (K) is used in addition to the cyan, magenta, and yellow inks in four-color printing. The K stands for Key color. 6. Grayscale - used for photos & graphics with gray Grayscale mode uses up to 256 shades of gray. Every pixel of a grayscale image has a brightness value ranging from 0 (black) to 255 (white). Grayscale values can also be measured as percentages of black ink coverage (0% = white, 100% = black). 7. Black-and-White - best used for line art (no shading) This mode uses one of two color values (black or white) to represent the pixels in an image. Images in Bitmap mode are called bitmapped 1-bit images because they have a bit depth of Spot Colors - premixed inks The standard for spot colors is Pantone, and for newspapers, the solid uncoated set is the one to use. Coated papers reflect more light and therefore look brighter. 2x colors are printed twice to give more depth and cannot be used on a web press, neither can metallic inks. 14 PPC s Layout Guide 2010

15 CMYK vs RGB, Color Gamut & Dot Gain (TVI) CMYK Model RGB Model M G B R Y C C G Y R M B Dot Gain (TVI) Dot Gain/TVI gain/tvi is an increase in the halftone dot that results from different stages of the reproduction process. Every Dot stage of the Gain process--from (TVI) film through platemaking is an to the increase stages of final printing--contributes in the to dot halftone gain/tvi. Total dot gain: Mechanical (physical) plus optical (visual) dot gain dot that results from different stages of the Total Dot Gain/TVI is defined as the combination of mechanical (physical) and optical (visual) growth in the reproduction halftone dot. As the dot transfers process. from the plate to the Every paper, it physically stage increases of in size. the After the process, dot is printed on newsprint, the eye and densitometer perceive it as larger than the physical growth alone because light is scattered within the paper and some of the light is trapped below the halftone dots in addition to being absorbed by the ink. from film through platemaking to the satges of final This effect is called optical dot gain/tvi. Optical dot gain/tvi can increase if light scattering and reflection is more pronounced due to surface characteristics of the stock. printing - contributes to dot gain/tvi. Dot gain/tvi is measured with a reflection densitometer. Although dot gain is stated as a percentage, it is not really a percentage value. For example, if a dot area or tone value of 50 percent in the image area measures 80 percent when printed, it is said to have a dot gain/tvi of 30 percent. That number is simply the difference between the two percentages, not a percentage value of the original number. Total dot gain: Mechanical (physical) plus optical (visual) dot gain Disks of Cyan, Magenta and Yellow overlaid, the overlapping colors generated approximate RGB. In the center all color has been subtracted, hence the appearance of black Color Gamut Disks of Red, Green and Blue overlaid and the overlapping colors generated approximate CMY. In the center all Colors have been added, hence the appearance of white Total dot gain/tvi is defined as the combination Page of 38 mechanical (physical) and optical (visual) growth in the halftone dot. As the dot transfers from the plate to the paper, it physically increases in size. After the dot is printed on newsprint, the eye and densitometer perceive it as larger than the physical growth alone because light is scattered within the paper and some of the light is trapped below the halftone dots in addition to being absorbed by the ink. This effect is called optical dot gain/tvi. Optical dot gain/tvi can increase if light scattering and reflection is more pronounced due to surface characteristics of the stock The visible spectrum contains far more colors than either CMYK, RGB or Pantone Spot colors can reproduce. It is important to make sure you are not trying to use colors outside the gamut of the CMYK process as those colors will not reproduce accurately and will instead end up at the outer limits of the gamut nearest to your chosen color Dot gain/tvi is measured with a reflection densitometer. Although dot gain/tvi is stated as a percentage, it is not really a percentage value. For example, if a dot area or tone value of 50% in the image area measures 80% when printed, it is said to have a dot gain/tvi of 30%. That number is simply the difference between the two percentages, not a percentage value of the original number. How to compensate As a general rule-of-thumb, if your photo/graphic/colored type looks right on the monitor - it will reproduce darker than this. Adjustment to the levels is needed to reduce the value, so that Dot Gain will raise it back to the visual level on your screen. Both color and grayscale images are affected by Dot Gain. PPC s Layout Guide

16 Total Area Coverage (TAC) This is also known as TVS (Tone Value Sum) in other US and International standards. This is calculated by adding the percentages of all components of a color together. C=0 M = 65 Y = 100 K=0 C = 75 M=5 Y = 100 K=0 C = 15 M = 100 Y = 100 K=0 C = 15 M = 85 Y = 85 K = 65 TAC = 165 TAC = 180 TAC = 215 TAC = 250 The Maximum TAC for any color or portion a color photograph should not exceed 240%. Values above this are likely to reproduce poorly since there is so much ink on the paper, it will tend to look muddy and smear and mark easily. Before checking the TAC as listed below, change the Simulation Profile in either the InDesign View/Proof Setup screen or the Acrobat Output Preview to Japan 2002 Newspaper and then select Simulate Paper Color - this will give a more accurate picture of how these colors print on Newsprint. Note how dark the colors become, especially those over 240% TAC. The Maximum TAC for any color or portion of a color photograph can be checked in the following manner: 1. From InDesign, go to the Separation preview menu, in the view box choose ink limit and then type 240 in the percentage box. Any colors that exceed the 240% value will show up as Red, the values below 240 will turn gray. 2. From Acrobat Professional versions 6 through 8, go to the output preview screen and check Total Area Coverage in the bottom left-hand corner and select 240 from the drop-down next to the green square. You can change the highlight color if necessary by clicking the green square (e.g. if your picture is naturally high in Green, choose a contrasting color) TAC Preview OFF 16 TAC Preview set at 240% (maximum for coldset web jobs) PPC s Layout Guide 2010 TAC Preview set at 280% (maximum for sheetfed print jobs)