Pressman Printing, Inc. would like to thank you for considering us as your printing partner. Following, you will find detailed descriptions of all our production equipment. In addition, you will find some basic printing and prepress rules which we hope will help you streamline your designs so that we can print them for you with a minimal amount of time and prepress cost.
General
To start, let us tackle the issue which causes the most problems in today's prepress environment . . . the "difference" between desktop printing and offset printing.
"The Difference"
The main culprit is that desktop printing (from a laser or other computer driven printer) involves a mostly digital process that produces tiny dots on a sheet of paper, usually one row at a time. Offset printing on the other hand involves an analog process of merging ink with a plate, then transferring the plate's image to a reverse ("Offset") image on a sheet of cylindrical rubber known as a blanket to a sheet of paper. Additionally, while most color desktop printers can apply four basic colors simultaneously, offset presses require a separate image and plate for each ink color used. These unavoidable differences, plus cutting, folding, binding and the procedures required for proper electronic file transfer from your computer to ours make up the biggest reason why we have created this informational document for your benefit. Not knowing the difference can cause real headaches, both in time and money when it comes time to image your file that you have already successfully printed from your desktop laser printer.
Prepress
Pressman Printing, Inc. is currently Macintosh based. We use both Pagemaker 6.5 and QuarkXpress 4.03 as our main page layout programs. Experience has shown us that we have the fewest errors outputting files to film which have been created using this same environment. However, we are generally able to output files from the PC with few problems when they have been created with one of the aforementioned programs.
Documents which have been created using Microsoft Word, Publisher and Corel Draw can only be used for simple one color documents without images or screens. These programs and other word processing applications were designed with desktop (interoffice) printing in mind and are therefore not appropriate for offset printing. In addition, files created using slide presentation software are also unacceptable unless it is for general layout directions only. Files created using Powerpoint, etc. will have to be rebuilt from scratch.
Fonts are another problem when it comes to converting files from PC to Mac. The PC (Windows) font metrics (mathematics used to draw fonts on the screen or for a printer) are different from that of a Macintosh. As a result, we urge you to send all the fonts used to create your document so we will not have to convert it to Mac format and substitute fonts. It is recommended that you use only PostScript or TrueType fonts in your document. Regardless of the simplicity of the job, we require that you provide a hard copy proof both in composite and color separated form when submitting an order.
Lastly, any time art (logos, drawings, photos, etc.) is used in your file you must send the original file that you imported (placed) into your document. Without this it will be impossible to image your file to high resolution on the imagesetter. All artwork should be either in EPS (encapsulated postscript) or Tiff (tagged image file format) form. A JPG file may also be used but at a loss of quality. Do not however, use any artwork that was simply copied from one document to another and pasted in. Your final output will pixelize in this instance.
Equipment Specifications:
Power Macintosh based PS/M RIP (raster image processor)Scitex Dolev 450 Imagesetter
Raw imaging speed: 232 sq. inch/min. at 2540 dpi
Max Image Resolution: 2540 dpi
Max. Image Size: 19 x 25
Screen Ruling 60 - 250 lines/inch (Pressman, however, only prints up to 150 lines/inch)
Agfa DuoScan Flatbed 8x14 Scanner w/separate transparent media light sourceAgfa ARCUS II 8.5 x 14 Flatbed Scanner
Software Specifications:
Mac/PC: Adobe Pagemaker 6.5 & QuarkXpress 4.1. Recommended for all page layout. Including spot colors, screens and placed artwork.PC: Microsoft Word, Publisher, Corel Draw. Recommended for minor page layout. No spot colors or screens.
Mac/PC: Macromedia Freehand & Adobe Illustrator. Recommended for line art creation including spot and process color separations.
Mac/PC: Adobe Photoshop. Recommended for continuous tone image editing (grayscale and 4-color process).
Presses
(3 ) Ryobi 3200 CD w/T-heads.
Max paper size 12 x 18. Up to 2 spot colors with loose registration.(1) Ryobi 582H 2-color press.
Max paper size 17.5 x 22.5. 2 spot colors with tight registration.(1) Heidelberg Speedmaster SM74 4-color press.
Max paper size 20.5 x 29. 4 color process work.(1) Miehle Vertical Letterpress.
Max paper size 12 x 18. Used for scoring, perfing and numbering.
Bindery
(1) Baumfolder 520B Folder w/right angle
Max paper size 20 x 26.(1) Rosback Score & Perf Machine
(1) Polar EMC 115 45" Programable Paper Cutter
Max paper size 45".(1) Challenge 30.5" Page Cutter
(2) 3 Hole Drills.
(1) Weldon Shrink Wrap System.
(1) Duplo DC10000 Airfed Collate / Stitch / Trim System.
Additional Resources
Adobe Systems Incorporated
www.adobe.comAgfa-Gevaert N.V.
Agfa Educational Publishing
P.O. Box 787
Randolph, MA 02368
Phone 800-395-7007
www.agfa.com/graphics
(Publishes a series of manuals and CD-ROM titles dealing with prepress, printing and digital photography.)Graphic Arts Technical Foundation (GATF)
200 Deer Run Road
Sewickley, PA 15143
Phone 800-910-GATF
www.gatf.lm.comGraphic Communications Association
100 Daingerfield Road
Alexandria, VA 22314
Phone 703-519-8160, 800-742-2666 for information on GRACoL
www.gca.org
(Publishes General Requirements for Applications in Commercial Offset Lithography (GRACoL), an excellent reference for preparing electronic files)National Association of Printers and Lithographers
780 Palisade Avenue
Teaneck, NJ 07666
www.napl.orgQuark, Inc.
www.quark.com