ORDER > FILE SPECIFICATIONS

Following are the necessary printing specifications that will help us start your order on the right track. If you have any questions, our Resources section will provide you with more information than you ever wanted to know!

BASIC SPECIFICATIONS

COMPUTER APPLICATIONS
We support the following computer programs in PC and Mac versions:

• Adobe: InDesign, Acrobat, Illustrator, Photoshop, PageMaker
• QuarkXPress (save as Version 4.0)
• Microsoft: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Publisher

FILE EXTENSIONS
We accept files with the following extensions:

• TIF
• PDF
• EPS
• GIF
• JPG
• PNG
• BMP
• AI
• PSD
• INDD
• PUB
• DOC
• TXT
• XLS
• CSV

IMAGES
Please make sure you submit high-resolution images (200 dpi minimum). This ensures that your photos, logos, illustrations and graphics will print at the best possible quality. If you are sending digital camera photos, set your camera at the highest resolution and then take the pictures. Do not assume that images that appear sharp on your computer screen will print out clearly. Not sure if your logo, photo or illustration meets these standards? Call us and we will work with you to get the optimum image rendered in your order.

DESIGN ISSUES

If you are submitting a fully designed file to us, following the specifications below will save you time and greatly reduce print quality problems.

COLOR FIDELITY
If you are printing a color document, make sure your all photos, graphics and colored objects in your document are saved as CYMK, not RGB. CYMK (cyan, yellow, magenta, black) are the colors that all printers use. RGB is the color spectrum used for computer screens. You will notice some slight color differentiations when you convert RGB images to CMYK. For example, an RGB blue this color on your screen will appear more like this color in CMYK. The lesson here is if you design in CMYK, the colors you see on screen will match much more closely to what colors you'll see in the final prints.

EMBEDDING IMAGES
If you are laying out your document in an advanced publishing program such as InDesign, or if you are a design novice using Microsoft Word, please be sure to provide us with the image files you've incorporated. It's better to have all your bases covered in case we need to change anything in your file before printing, as we cannot guarantee that images laid out on your computer will print correctly. Our printing systems require that we have all image files linked to the document in order to print clearly.

FONTS
Our designers have hundreds of fonts, but there is a chance we may not have the one you used in your layout. Our design programs do alert us if there are any missing fonts, however we still need the individual font file to install it on our system, enabling your document to print as you designed it. On PCs, font files are typically located in C:/Windows/Fonts. If you are using an Adobe font, Adobe Type Manager will help you locate the proper file. On Macs, font files are usually located in Library/Fonts (OS X or higher) or System Folder/Fonts (OS 9). If you are having difficulty submitting your fonts, call us while at your computer and we will do our best to walk you through it.

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