Western Printing uses the latest graphic design software to better serve your printing needs. We are happy to design and setup your project for you but if you desire, we will accept digital files on a disc or uploaded to our FTP site.

If you choose to submit a file to us for printing, here are a few guidelines to keep in mind:

MAC or PC versions of the following programs:

• Adobe Indesign CS2 V 4.0.2 or older

• Adobe Photoshop CS2 V9.0 or older

• Adobe Illustrator CS2 12.0.1 or older
  

• Adobe Pagemaker V7.0 or older

• Adobe Acrobat 6.0

• Quark Xpress 6.5

  
  

* Although we support the following software programs, we don’t recommend them as they do not give quality printing solutions.

• Microsoft Word
  

• Microsoft Publisher

• Microsoft Excel

GENERAL GUIDELINES:

PREFERRED FILE TYPES: Quark files; Indesign and Pagemaker files; Adobe files: TIF, EPS, PSD, PDF (Acrobat 6.0 or older). Please be sure when submitting files in Quark or Indesign that you include all support files & fonts (both screen & printer). PDFs should be created under the Print Quality setting in your Adobe Distiller settings.

CYMK COLOR MODE: Be sure all support files are CYMK mode, not RGB. Pantone colors will be converted to CYMK unless job requires spot color printing; in this case, be sure spot colors are designated. Conversion of RGB to CYMK can cause output color to change.

RESOLUTION: For an image to print properly, the image must be at least 300 dots per inch (DPI) at the final output size. DO NOT change a low resolutation image to a higher one by increasing the DPI in your imaging program. The exception to this would be for any wide-format printing (ie. banners, etc on our Epson printers). Please call for information.

OUTLINE & EMBED FONTS: When possible, outline and embed all fonts -- this will eliminate sending the incorrect fonts as well as conversion problems in the printing process. This is especially helpful in the conversion of PC programs to the Mac format that we will use to output.

RICH BLACK: When you have a large solid black area within a document, please use the following 4-color separations to create a rich black (just 100% black will not be a nice solid black): Black100, Cyan 40, M 40, Y 40 -- DO NOT USE 100, 100, 100, 100! Please be sure black type is just 100% Black only.

BLEEDS: Any time an image or color is printed to the edge of the trim size, it must extend at least .125” beyond the final dimensions of the job -- called a “bleed”.

MINIMUM LINE THICKNESS: If you are using a line as border or within a document be sure to make it at least a .25 pt thickness -- DO NOT USE HAIRLINE SETTING, as this usually does not print.

Please feel free to call with any questions you may have before designing a project or before submitting files to us to help eliminate any problems in the printing process...
866-714-1559 or 507-537-1577.