ELECTRONIC FILES (e-Files)
Steps to easy printing...
1. READ THIS!
2. ALTER/CREATE your file(s) to match info
3. EMAIL or BRING IN your files
e-Files printed to commercial printing machines give you top quality and options. Printing from hardcopies gives you copies of copies - fuzzy, dark blobs. e-Files can be extra work, but well worth the effort.
COMMON PROBLEMS
1. DOESN’T LOOK THE SAME as at home
2. WRONG PAGE SIZE
3. MISSING FONTS
4. PICTURES - FUZZY/JAGGY, BAD COLOUR
5. BAD COLOUR for anything
1. DOESN’T LOOK THE SAME
MS Word, MS Publisher, and other program files all look different on different computers. The files are instructions to format your document, so every computer follows the instructions a little different. Pages break wildly, pictures end up hidden or on top of text, etc. Your work of art becomes a mess when taken to a commercial printer, or even your neighbour’s computer.
SOLUTION:
Turn your document in to a PDF (Portable Document File).
This is an international standard, basically a frozen version that will be the same on any computer anywhere.
How to Make PDFs
- Some programs allow you to Save As or Export a PDF
- use a PDF Writer (Adobe Acrobat $700, Competitors $50-$100)
- use the allBIZ PDF WIZ PDF Writer, only $9.95!
We sell our own PDF Writer to make printing easy. Once installed, it appears as another printer on your system.
It’s easy to use:
- create your document in your favourite Windows program
- click on PRINT, but instead of choosing your printer, choose allBIZ PDF WIZ
- click PROPERTIES, then ADVANCED
- make sure PAGE SIZE is A4 (or a STANDARD size you have chosen)
- make sure FONTS are EMBEDDED (‘TrueType: Download as Softfont’)
For more info on PDFs and our PDF WIZ, see HELP / PDF Writer.
NOTE: Some PDF Writers are available for FREE on the Web. Many of these place a brand watermark across every page.
2. WRONG PAGE SIZE
Many programs, especially Micosoft, default to USA measurements and Page Size when installed. So every document you create is on ‘US LTR’ (US Letter). LTR is almost the same size as A4, but a little shorter and wider. This can cause many problems when printed to the standard A4: borders are chopped off, pages break differently, pages are pushed to the top or bottom, etc.
SOLUTION:
CHECK YOUR PAGE SIZE (usually FILE / PAGE SETUP ).
When making PDFs, even though the allBIZ PDF WIZ defaults to A4, it can be over-ridden by the document software, so it is important to double-check that the PDF will be on A4. Many customers have carfeully set their document to A4, only to find the PDF changed it to US LTR. CHECK BOTH.
For more info on paper size, see HELP / PAPER
3. MISSING FONTS
We have thousands of fonts, but cannot guarantee we have the ones you used. (There is no such thing as a ‘standard Windows font’ - you may have installed some we didn’t.)
Sometimes customers say it doesn’t matter if the font is not an exact match. But this can cause page and paragraph breaks in strange places, add pages, and put in ‘garbage’ characters.
SOLUTIONS:
- Make a PDF with FONTS EMBEDDED
- If using a drawing program CONVERT FONTS TO CURVES
- Supply a copy of the fonts used*
*NOTE: Fonts are copyright by their creators. Users are licensed to use the fonts but not to distribute copies. It is accepted industry practice (despite Adobe’s objections) to temporarily install a customer font and uninstall after printing.
4. PICTURES - FUZZY/JAGGY, BAD COLOUR
Low resolution pictures will print poorly. Printing resolution (res) is 300 and 600dpi
SOLUTIONS:
- Do NOT use graphics from the Web (copyright aside, they are made for the screen, or 96dpi res, not 300 or 600dpi for printing)
- Use the TIF format (JPEGs throw-away info and compress severely)
- When manipulating graphics, only scale down, NOT UP (twice as big = half as sharp)
- If picture will be printed OFFSET, convert to CMYK colour
See FILE FORMATS on PAGE 2 for more info
5. BAD COLOUR
See COLOUR section (HELP / COLOUR )
GO TO PAGE 2 - FORMAT NOTES