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What is Prepress?

Prepress is the area where your submitted electronic files are examined to anticipate and avoid any problems when printing, finishing, and/or mailing. All offset and digital printing requires some degree of pre-press work. This can be as simple as reviewing your electronic file for printing or as complex as design alterations. Our Pre-press Department's rate is $75 per hour, with a 30-minute minimum. The minimum prepress fee covers the time to examine your submitted file(s) and providing a proof for your review.

Please call if you have any questions concerning software, links, and/or fonts. We may be able to accommodate your electronic file and/or suggest ways to use the application that will meet your printing goals.

Prepress Proofing:

Two Types:

• PDF Proof

• Color Laser Hard Copy Proof

*(please note: colors and paper not exact)

What to Check for:

• Overall layout of piece

• Placement of photos

• Use of fonts and graphics

• Spelling and grammar

*(ideally, files should be checked before submitting)

Approvals:

• Respond by email

• Sign, date and return hard copy proof

• No job will be printed without approval from customer

Corrections:

• Sent by email

• Sent back on hard copy proof

• Faxed

Submitting Electronic Files for Reproduction:

• Colors need to be CMYK or Pantone spot colors

• Fonts used should be packaged along with file/s

• Graphics should be at least 300 dpi and packaged along with file(s)

*(please note: web graphics are usually much lower resolution images)

Production Timelines:

• Allow 1-3 days in prepress

* will make every effort to accommodate your schedule

• Complications with files may delay original completion date.

Prepress Staff
Prepress Services The Prepress staff, has a vast knowledge and understanding of various layout and art applications. Their understanding of the *UNC Identity Guidelines* and print file preparation will insure your projects are properly created or reviewed for optimal printing. Each team member has the knowledge, talent, and ability to prepare your file to print.

Variable Data
Personalized Mailing and Customized Printing Printing Services routinely mails out printed material using customer-supplied address lists (usually in the form of an Excel spreadsheet). We bundle the mailings in pre-sorted order as required by the US Postal Service to obtain the most economical postal rate. Printing Services can do even more with an "enhanced" database; that is, a database containing fields that are not merely address information. Such a recipient list could be divided into multiple categories based on criteria of your choosing (alumni and non-alumni, as a simple example). Then, recipients from different categories could receive a mailing piece with text and graphics tailored to which category they fall into. To continue with the simple example, alumni could have a graphic of the Old Well or the Bell Tower printed on their letters, and/or a phrase of text that would be appropriate only for alumni; non-alumni could get a different graphic and/or phrase, or none at all. This is just a hint of what is possible - it could grow into a quite customized mailing.

Prepress Q&A
What type of file formats do you accept? UNC Printing Services supports most graphic design applications for both Macintosh and Windows. These are applications that we support and are known to work well for printing: Adobe Acrobat PDFs Adobe Illustrator Adobe In-Design Adobe PhotoShop QuarkXpress Freehand These are applications that are accepted, but have print limitations: Adobe Pagemaker Microsoft Excel Microsoft PowerPoint Microsoft Publisher Microsoft Word What about sending a PDF? Adobe PDF files are accepted and supported, but are limited when corrections or alterations are requested. Submitting a PDF (Portable Document Format) for printing does not negate prepress or proofs. A PDF can have color, link, font, resolution, finishing and/or mailing issues if not properly prepare. How can I send my files to you? You have many options when sending your files to us. You may bring your files with you into the shop with your print requisition, or send them through campus mail. You may also send your file to us electronically through our web page or email (please discuss email submissions with your CSR ). If you would like your order to be pick up from your office, please contact Bernie Oakley at 919-201-1318. You may also send an email requesting Bernie's assistance at Bernie@unc.edu. What is the difference between CMYK, RGB, Index, and Spot colors? CMYK: Cyan, Magenta, Yellow & Black inks, make up the colors known as 4-color process. These colors are used in varying percentages to create the spectrum of colors for full-color reproduction in offset printing. RGB and Index color modes are not supported in the offset printing industry. RGB (Red, Green, and Blue) allows a larger percentage of the visible spectrum to be displayed than in CMYK. The RGB color mode is dependent on light being emitted through red, green, and blue phosphors. Monitors, film recorders, and video cameras display color using the RGB mode. Index color is based on a palette of 256 colors. This limited palette is useful for multimedia applications and Web pages. Spot color usually refers to Pantone® specified colors. The Pantone Matching System® assigns numbers to specific ink mixes that are printing industry standards. A Pantone® swatch book can help you chose an appropriate color. Don't judge colors by the way they look on your monitor, you'll be surprised how different the color looks once printed. What resolution do I need for the best reproduction of photos? Whether you are reproducing a photo in grayscale or full color (CMYK) In Adobe Photoshop's image size dialogue box, at least 300dpi (dots per inch) or more should be displayed. Remember you can't really increase the number of pixels per inch without a loss of crispness. So images must be scanned or created at your target resolution or higher. If you are unsure or are unable to scan or create your photos to the specs needed, please give us the original photos so that we can scan them in to the appropriate dimensions.


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What is Prepress?

Prepress Staff

Variable Data

Prepress Q&A