You know those people that send out email forwards like it’s their full time job? Well, every once in a while there’s a hidden gem amongst all the unwanted spam. This collection of amazing ads created for AT&T were one of those forwards that landed in my inbox this week. Usually, I won’t even read past the subject line, but this one jumped out with it’s vibrant colour and awesome design (at least in my opinion) and the play on global landmarks. Take a look, what do you think?

I came across this collection of adds from “not too long ago” and had a good laugh at how ridiculous they all are as I’m sure most of you will on first glance. Then I went back and read them all again paying closer attention to the details, the message, style and all the other wonderful things that we as designers look at when picking apart someone else’s work. I’m a sucker for vintage artwork in advertising which is primarily what caught my eye, but take a look at the message and opinions expressed in these ads. Obviously this was acceptable then, do you think that any of these ads would make it to print today? Anyone watch Mad Men?

It’s common knowledge that PDF files have become the standard in just about any field of presenting a digital document. It is cross-platform and browser compatible, and it serves as a great tool for presenting a multi-page document.

Acrobat is much more robust than this of course, with capabilities for form creation, interactive PDFs, video and audio, annotations, digital signatures and even capable of starting a meeting with a slideshow. But for the purpose of this article we’ll focus on creating a regular PDF that you would send to press. For tips on preparing your artwork for print, see our post on Good Practices for Delivering Print Files.

This PDF is created from InDesign and as mentioned in our last article on print preparation, should be the last point at which you prepare files for delivery, whether a proof for a client or a file for a printer.

Making the PDF

Once your file is all ready to go, go to File > Export. Select Adobe PDF in the format drop down menu at the bottom of the window, then press Save. This will take you to a window that looks like:

I suggest you keep your compatibility setting to Acrobat 5. Some printers running older RIPs may ask for the file in Acrobat 4. Do not use version 4 unless absolutely necessary, since it flattens all your transparent objects, and can sometimes yield unexpected results when printed.

Compression

Keep all images at 300dpi with JPEG compression at Maximum quality. Note on this page there are the two check boxes at the bottom. Those nifty little checkboxes allow you to compress your PDF even further. The one to the left is self explanatory, but to the right we have a genius feature. This takes whatever image you have imported into InDesign, and crops out and discards any excess image from the file when it converts the files to PDF. So if your image was originally 8.5” by 11”, and you only used 6” by 10”, it will only convert the 6” by 10” visible area, significantly reducing file size. Just note that this only applies to raster images, not vector artwork.

Marks & Bleeds

The only printer’s marks you will need are crop marks. Offset the crop marks to 0.25”, to ensure they will stay clear of the bleed in the file. Also, make sure you include a bleed in the file of 0.125”.

Output

If you’ve read the previous post on best practices, this is where the aforementioned conversion to CMYK should take place. Occasionally your printer will supply you with a custom colour profile depending on what press they will run your file on. In the event that a profile is not provided, I suggest using the “U.S. Web Coated (SWOP) v2” which is pretty dependable for accuracy.

Once you have gotten all the settings to your liking, don’t forget to click on the Save Preset button at the bottom left of the window, to save your presets.

I have compiled a list of good practices and basic guidelines to ensure that your jobs are delivered efficiently. This is, of course, assuming that you are using InDesign as your final delivery vehicle (which I recommend) regardless of which application you used to design the piece.

1. Ensure The Document Size is The Size of The Document

If you are designing a 5” x 5” card, don’t design it on an 8.5” x 11” document. Make your document size 5” x 5”. There is the case where some agencies require that the artwork have file info on it, in which case you can use the bleed and slug area in InDesign. This is a perfect area to place any relevant ad or file information, that will not print in the final version of the piece. A big advantage of setting up your files this way is that, if a third party is going to be using this file (publication, printer, etc.) once they place the file, they will not have any issues with repositioning or alignment, since the document size will always be constant.

2. Convert All Images to CMYK

This one is a matter or much debate, which I have argued with people even at Adobe. The common practice is to work on your images in RGB. Why RGB?

Well think about it – cameras take pictures in RGB; your computer screen is RGB; scanners create RGB images – does it make sense to design in CMYK? not so much. This statement came up in a conversation I had with an Adobe engineer (specifically Acrobat and the PDF Technology) and to me it makes total sense. The CMYK color space should not come into play until the very last moment of production, right before the file gets to final delivery. Now, one little thing I left out about this conversation with the Adobe person was that he said that one should not even convert the file to CMYK at delivery, that one should leave the color conversion to the printers RIP profiles, which have more specific color profiles, catered exactly for the printer, and, to quote them directly, “and if they don’t have the technology, then find a new printer.”

Now we all know, especially those of us who have worked in production, that building a relationship with a printer that delivers, is really hard to let go sometimes. The bottom line is that you find the best system that works for you, as long as you and the printer are in agreement as to how to deliver those images. One thing that I have done in the past is to talk to the pre-press person handling your job (NEVER THE SALES GUY< THEY ARE CLUELESS), and ask them for their ICC profiles, which you can then in turn assign to those images. They will be more than happy to give it up, especially if it is going to make their jobs easier.

3. Never Paste Images Into Indesign

This is a common mistake I have encountered numerous times, which can become an extreme clock drainer and hassle to try and remedy. The InDesign folks had the good sense of allowing designers to paste images directly into an InDesign page, thereby embedding these images into the file, as opposed to the more traditional way of linking them. Although this was a very noble “feature”, if there is any issue with that image, there is no real way to fix it, outside of copying it, pasting it to a new Photoshop document, and re-pasting once the image has been adjusted. Never ever ever paste your images into InDesign. Stop being lazy. Save the image file and then link it. Embedding images also significantly increases the size of your InDesign file, which can cause more delays if there are any revisions to the InDesign file itself.

4. Always Add Bleed – Usually an 1/8th of an Inch (0.125”)

I know most of you are like “DUH!”, but you would be surprised how many times I’ve seen files, from some big agencies, be delivered without bleed. Add to that the numerous people I have supervised throughout the years that don’t account for a bleed in their design from the get. Create the bleed when you create the file. Make sure as you design your piece, you make sure your graphics or images are bleeding if they are meant to. Again, don’t be lazy. It takes a second to add it in the beginning, but it can take hours to add it prior to delivery.

5. Deliver Your Fonts With Your Files

This one is pretty self-explanatory. I will add that I have seen cases in which jobs have been delayed a day or two due to a missing font.

6. Never Color Body Copy in Four-Color Black

When coloring your body copy, which in my book is anything that is basically under 18 point (depending on the font) never do it in a 4 color black. This is a nightmare for pressmen to register, and there is sometimes no way to fix it, but to get a new file. A 4 color black is a black made up of all four colors, CMYK. This rule, of course, has an exception, which takes me to the next rule.

7. Always Bump Your Blacks

What this means is that, when doing large areas of black (boxes or type), make sure the black has been bumped, or supplemented, with the other four colors. A good formula that has worked for me throughout the years, across both offset and digital printing, is C:50 M:40 Y:30 K:100. Of course, I always suggest that you talk with your printer to get a black bump that works great on their presses, especially since each press has it’s own personality.

8. Always Include A Proof (Digital or Physical)

Traditionally, I like to include a Press Ready PDF with all my jobs, just in case all else fails, and as a means for the printer to go back to something final that they can use as a reference once they run the file through their RIP.

Content in part by: fontografist.com

Just as we did with the Winter Olympics in Vancouver this year, let’s take a look back at the history of Word Cup poster design. It’s pretty interesting to see the progression of design throughout the past century in relation to the geographical location of the games. Which is your favourite?

1930 – Uruguay

1934 – Italy

1938 – France

1950 – Brazi

l

1954 – Switzerland

1958 – Sweden

1962 – Chile

1966 – England

1970 – Mexico

1974 – Germany

1978 – Argentina

1982 – Spain

1986 – Mexico

1990 – Italy

1994 – USA

1998 – France

2002 – Korea/Japan

2006 – Germany

2010 – South Africa

With the Winter Olympics now going full steam ahead in Vancouver, I thought it might be interesting to take a look back at the history of poster design throughout the history of the Winter Olympics. It’s pretty interesting to see the progression of design throughout the past century in relation to the geographical location of the winter games. Which is your favourite?

Chamonix 1924

St. Moritz 1928

Lake Placid 1932

Garmisch-Partenkirchen 1936

St.Moritz 1948

Oslo 1952

Cortina d’Ampezzo 1956

Squaw Valley 1960

Innsbruck 1964

Grenoble 1968

Sapporo 1972

Innsbruck 1976

Lake Placid 1980

Sarajevo 1984

Calgary 1988

Albertville 1992

Lillehammer 1994

Nagano 1998

Salt Lake City 2002

Torino 2006

Vancouver 2010