Jan. 2005, Digial Queue Newsletter—It is one of the oldest complaints in publishing—a file came in all wrong and either has to be fixed in-house or sent back to the designer. But it doesn’t have to be that way. There are several things printers and designers can do to ensure a perfect print every time.

The Printer
As a print shop owner, there are a few things you can do to ensure your files always come in ready to go. The first and most important thing is to set up a spec sheet for every printer you own and use. This should include such information as bleed, crop marks, page size, or color space (CMYK, RGB, or Pantone?) Give this to every designer for every project. To make it easy, make the document into one PDF that can be sent out to anyone who may be involved in preparing the file.

The second big thing you can do is talk to the designers or, barring that, talk to the client representative. Make sure they know about your specifications and make sure that if they or their designer have any questions, they can reach someone at your facility. This opens the line of communication and creates an atmosphere where everyone is working together toward the same goal.

The Designer
As a designer, there are several things you can do, too. First, if a print shop does not provide you with a spec sheet, ask for one. Before you even start to brainstorm ideas, make sure you know how big you can go, what colors you can use and what paper stock and weight will be used, for example. Don’t just guess and hope you are right.

Second, use a preflight program. There are several out there that will do the trick. Some of them integrate with the actual print shop, which means the printer sets up what is and is not acceptable, and won’t let you upload a file that doesn’t meet the qualifications. Other programs require you to set up the parameters yourself, which it then checks against. Don’t just look for faulty pictures! Use your preflight program to its fullest extent. Program every variable you can think of, as, while this may take time in the beginning, it will mean far less work on the back-end fixing files.

According to Mary-Gay Marchese from Markzware, there are a few other things to keep in mind for a perfect print. First, keep you files organized and simple. Second, use fonts from the original source. Downloaded or third-party fonts may be corrupted or missing pieces. Finally, if you are creating a brochure or other piece that will need to be bound or folded, ask what techniques the print shop plans to use.

The Perfect Print
Above all, the best thing to avoid confusion and frustration on both ends is to talk to communicate. Ask questions and know that just because a file looks nice on your screen, that doesn’t mean it will print properly. Every print shop and every printer have different capabilities and requirements, so before starting any job, ask, ask, ask.

"There is a correlation between when an error is caught, and how much time and money it will take to correct," said Marchese. "If errors are detected during the actual creation of a document, it costs virtually nothing to fix. If they are detected on a proof, new proofs must be made and a time delay is incurred. If the error is detected on film or plates, new proofs, files, and/or plates must be purchased. If the error is caught on press, you must eat the press run and pay for doing the whole job over."