 |
|||||||||||||||||||||
|
 |
Electronic Prepress: Postscript Files General Information Postscript is the page description language that includes the instructions for an imagesetter to replicate pages on your computer to film or printing plates. These instructions can include fonts, printer’s marks, text, graphics and halftones. When you print a page from your computer to a laser printer, imagesetter or other postscript-compatible device, the application converts your page from its native format to the postscript language. This data is processed and discarded by the printer once it has finished imaging the page. However, you can capture this data by “printing to disk” or “print to file” to take to another location for “remote printing.”Since your file will be output on a postscript imagesetter or platesetter, it is important that you initially set up your files following postscript guidelines—even if you will be proofing on a non-postscript device. Changing to postscript later can cause page reflow and other problems. When creating postscript files, it is important that you set parameters compatible with our imagesetter, which may be different than you would choose for your own laser printer. |
|
|
|||||||||||||||||
| Following are some basic rules for Macintosh and Windows users |
|||||||||||||||||||||
• |
Specify a postscript printer driver. For Macintosh, you must select a postscript output device such as “Linotronic 530” or “Agfa Accuset” in your chooser. For Windows, you must use the postscript printer set up as a “print to file” driver. If you do not have a postscript printer listed, you will have to install an additional printer. Information to set up new printers is described in our Printer Driver Information sheet. These printer drivers should be available on your computer’s setup disk. |
||||||||||||||||||||
| • | If your pages do not contain images that bleed past the trim of the page, you should select a paper size that matches the trim size of your book and do not use the crop or trim marks. If your pages do contain images that bleed, then select a paper size
.25” larger than the trim size of your book, .125" all
around, and elect to “center image” on page.
Please do not use printer’s marks. If your software will
not allow you to print bleeds without printer's marks, please
offset the marks 18 pts. so the converging marks do not print on the corners of the page. In Quark, you must also specify the amount of bleed, preferably .25”, to be saved in the postscript file. |
||||||||||||||||||||
| • | When creating the postscript file, please download all fonts. |
||||||||||||||||||||
| • | Please elect to “print blank pages.” Our imposition software uses these pages as placeholders when calculating the individual page addresses. PageMaker users should also select “page independence.” |
||||||||||||||||||||
| • | Print your postscript files to your hard drive rather than to a floppy disk—it will be faster and will provide you with back ups should your transport media get lost or damaged. |
||||||||||||||||||||
| • | Your dpi (dots per inch) output
for text should be set to 1693, and your lpi (lines per inch) or frequency should be set to 133.
For covers, your dpi should be 2400 and lpi should be 150. |
||||||||||||||||||||
Tip: If you have trouble printing the entire file to postscript, you can try creating a few smaller files of around 100 pages each. If you have any questions regarding postscript creation, please contact one of our Preflight Specialists or your Account Representative.
|
|||||||||||||||||||||
  |
Electronic Prepress covers these topics: Preflight Compatibility Creating Pages Fonts Scanning Graphics Working with Color Postscript Files PDF Files Creating Covers Electronic Transfers |
||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
||||||||||||||||||
 |
|||||||||||||||||||||
