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1. What Type of Files can I upload to Paragon Printing & Graphic's?
We recommend that you save your file as a PDF/X-1A. This is a print ready pdf and will help to eliminate most PDF workflow problems. To learn more about PDF/X-1A please go to Adobe.com©. Remember, the better you prepare your file; the less chance there is that there will be any problems.
We will also accept the following; .ai files that have been converted to outlines, .jpg files, .jpeg files, .psd files and .tiff files. Please remember, that when you convert a file, to maintain the colors of the original file. Any small type that is in rich black (made up of more than just black) may not register very well. For more information on Rich Black please visit printernational©.
2. What color mode should my full color files be set up in?
All 4 color process jobs should be set up using only CMYK colors. Please select the CMYK color pallet in your design program and stick with it Do not use any spot or RGB colors while designing your project or you may end up with unexpected results in your final printed piece. There are several websites that explain this. For a brief description of this problem please visit Marvin's Corner©.
3. What color mode should SPOT color jobs be set up in?
All spot color jobs should be set up using only one Pantone Matching System® color pallet in your design program. Most programs have several pallets available such as Pantone CV of Pantone CU and many others. Wichever one you choose, you must use the same one throughout the design. If you do not you will end up with one color being output to more than one plate. An example of this would be if you were to start with a color pallet and choose the color PMS 201 CV and then later switch pallets and use PMS 201 CU. Even though you only used PMS 201, you may still end up outputting 2 plates. A simple way to avoid any problems with spot color jobs is to check them before you send them. Make sure that if you are printing a two color job that only two colors show up in your separations preview. For single color jobs is is probably easiest to use black. Please do not use registration black as it contains all 4 colors.
4. Can I use Rich Black when creating a full color job?
This is a somewhat tricky question to answer. To keep it as simple as possible, for sheet fed jobs yes and for web jobs no. All of our placemats and menus are run on high speed web presses and do not register as well as our sheetfed machines. So if you are creating a job that would run on a web press we do not recomend using Rich Black. Please be very carefull when converting your file from your native program to an acceptable format that your conversion does not convert everything to all four colors as so often happens in our industry. Please know your programs settings before trying to convert any files. Once again there are several websites available to help you here. For a quick description you can visit Marvins Corner.©
5. Should I overprint black instead of trapping it?
Generally overprinting black is good practice as long as it is overprinting a color that is significantly lighter or screened at 25% or less. Once again Marvins Corner © is a good website to get a brief description and illustration of overprinting black.
6. What Resolution should my file be?
Placemats and Menus should be no less than 150 dpi. Any scans or web image downloads that are less than 150 WILL print blurry and very pixilated. These images must be created at 150 dpi or greater. Converting them to a higher resolution in a design program does not change the original quality of the image. You can send us files up to 300 dpi for placemats but it really does not improve the quality of the mat much as we are running our web presses at a 110 line screen.
Sheetfed products such as brochures, posters, business cards etc. should be sent to us no less than 300 dpi. These products are run at 150 to 200 line screens and must be sent at 300dpi.
7. How do I set up bleeds?
Please see Template for Business Cards. Please include crop marks with all jobs that bleed so that we know where your job gets cut.
8. How do I keep my blues from turning purple?
This is a very common problem in the printing industry. A blue looks wonderfull on your screen and perhaps even ok on your desktop inkjet printer but when you send it to the printer it turns purple. First of all, please remember that your inkjet printer does not use the same technology as a post script RIP and, therefore will NOT produce the same reults as an imagesetter or platesetter. Also keep in mind that blue and purple are very close in the CMYK Spectrum. We recomend no more that 50% magenta be used with 100% cyan if you want an object to look blue. Using more than 50% magenta will most likely make the oblect appear to be purple.
9. How do I export a .pdf correctly?
This depends greatly on the program you are using to export your file to a pdf. Some basic guidelines to follow are:
1. Export pdf back to adobe acrobat 4.0 version 1.3 as this version will flatten the file and help to avoid
any issues arrising from the use of layers.
2. Set the compatibility to PDF/A-1a
3. Do not use any compression when converting your file to a pdf
4. Set color management to prserve native colors. As long as your file wsaa set up correctly this setting
is the best setting. If you must convert your colors to CMYK here, please be sure to check them
carefully as they may change greatly when printed.
5. Make sure all fonts are either converted to outlines first or embedded.
The ablove list only covers the basics. Please follow this link to learn more. Adobe.com©. This is probably the most important step in preparing your file to send to us for print. Please taethe time to learn all you can about .pdf/x-1a files as this will save us all a lot of headaches processing your job.
10. How do I avoid registration issues on my placemats?
Remember, Our placemats are run on high speed web presses and will not register as well as our Sheet Fed equipment. With that in mind, by simply following a few simple rules, your mat will look just fine.
1. DO NOT use any rich black in your file.
2. Overprint black whenever possible.
3. Avoid colored type that is smaller than 6 pts.
4. Avoid knocked out type that is smaller than 6 pts.
5. Avoid fine lines made up of more than one color.
11. How do I keep my mats from coming out too dark or curling on the edges.
Our mats are printed on 50# offset paper which will absorb some ink. This causes the ink to bleed slightly as it is absorbed into the sheed. The printing term for this is Dot Gain. When the dots swell they tend to run together slightly darkening your art. Simply lighten your images slightly and they will be fine. As for the edges curling slightly, less ink will also help this problem but may not fix it completely. Again, since placemats are run on an offset sheet and not a coated sheet they are susceptible to moisture and ink absorbtion. We do the best we can to keep this to a minumum, but sometimes, especially in the summmer months with high humidity, there is not much that can be done about this. Do your best to store your mats in a cool dry area and do not open the boxes until needed.
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