The Following points are recommended guidelines
that if followed will save time and money for everyone involved
in your project and will expedite the output process resulting
in faster turnaround times:
1. Missing Fonts – Make
sure all fonts and their variations are included with your project.
Substituting fonts can result in type reflow and may not give
your project the look you desire.
2. Trapping – Our Kodak® Prinergy Evo®
workflow creates traps when necessary in the refining process
to our specifications, therefore it is unnecessary to set traps
for your project.
3. File House-Cleaning –
Cluttered files can slow your project down and lead to errors.
Unused images with no link can lead us to think something in your
project is missing. Remove unused images, colors, and fonts. Make
sure color names are consistant across all programs.
4. Missing And Unlinked Graphic Elements –
With missing links, graphics in your document will output in low
resolution or not at all. Make sure all links are up to date.
5. Page Size – Make sure your document
size is the final trim size.
6. Inadequate Bleeds – Images that extend
off the edge of a document should bleed by at least 1/8 of an
inch.
7. Hard Copy Proofs –
Please send a laser output of your project with the files. Make
the printout 100% of the finished size if possible or indicate
what percentage of the final size is represented. Sending a hard
proof helps us check for discrepancies and clarifies how you intend
the layouts to look. For multi-page projects, include a mock-up
to show folding and binding layouts. A common error is pages backing
up incorrectly or pages bound out of sequence.
8. “Collect For Output”
– If your software has a preflight feature, it is to your
advantage to use it.
This feature will help gather all font and image files, search
for missing items and create a report for us. Please double check
that all files are present after you collect for output because
at times this feature can mistake fonts and their variations.
Link
for Final Prepress Production Checklist
Spectrum provides our customers with couple options of electronic
file transfer. Depending upon what you’re sending, your
connection speed, and your own comfort level, we suggest following
these general guidelines. General guidelines for file preparation
We recommend you use your application’s collect utility
whenever possible. This will guarantee all necessary support files
have been included in the collection. We also suggest you create
a PDF of your document from the collected file for proofing purposes.
Although all files should be compressed to speed up the transfer
process, email attachments must be compressed or they will often
become corrupted. You may also want to check with either your
company’s IT department or your service provider to determine
if there are size limitations for email attachments or firewall
restrictions with FTP access.
Preparing &
sending a file to Spectrum via FTP
using Windows/Mac
Uploading & Downloading on Spectrum's
FTP server
NOTICE: FTP client software is required
to access Spectrums FTP site. Selected network
firewall restrictions may prevent users from accessing anonymous
file transfer protocol servers. General guidelines for accessing
FTP servers
There are a number of inexpensive or free FTP clients available
for both Windows & Mac users. The most common Windows application
is CuteFTP
and for Mac users, you may use Fetch
Software. Once you’ve downloaded and installed an FTP
client, follow the directions listed below. NOTICE: please be
aware that some Mac customers have experienced problems using
our FTP server. Please Note: When
sending files please make sure the file name doesn't have any
spaces or special characters like: "\ / . : ; * # &,
etc.."
Connecting to Spectrum's FTP server
Launch your FTP client. Enter the following login information:
Server:
ftp.spectrumftp.com
User Name: customer@spectrumftp.com
Password: Email
us for password
Path or Directory: leave blank
Select the file for transfer based upon your FTP client’s
instructions. After you’ve uploaded or downloaded your file,
please call Prepress
Department at (630) 766-7673, ext. 215. Please
Note: When sending files please make sure the file name doesn't
have any spaces or special characters like: "\ / . : ; *
# &, etc.."
