Color Printing Production Tips

Page layout should be in native program format (i.e. Quark Xpress, InDesign, PageMaker, FreeHand, etc) instead of .eps or postscript files.

Color Matching is in the eye of the beholder.
Our printing systems are high-end reproduction systems and generally produce very pleasing prints.
If color matching is critical to your project, please obtain color charts or samples from General Type. Proofing is an essential step to producing a color-critical finished product. You should allow time for this in your production schedule.
We use ICC profiling, mechanical calibration, and environmental controls for our printers and computers to help us produce repeatable color. For some projects we may be able to supply you with ICC profiles to use with your files.

Photos or continuous tone art should, ideally, be in uncompressed Macintosh RGB TIF format for digital printing. Our printers support other formats, including Windows and CMYK formats. (This does not apply to photos headed for film and traditional printing presses. CMYK TIF format is best for four-color seperation.)
Internet formats like .gif and indexed color palettes should be avoided for print applications. We can convert internet formats, but they will generally have a low-focus, bitmapped appearance in print.

Logos and line art will reproduce best if they are vector art, .eps format from programs like FreeHand and Illustrator.

Type should be set in a page layout (like Quark Xpress or InDesign) or illustration program (like FreeHand or Illustrator) and not in a paint program (like Photoshop). This will ensure clear, defined edges regardless of the reproduction size.

Continuous tone data can be scanned as low as 50 dpi at full size and may not pixellate, but it depends on the nature of the image. For instance, images with straight lines in any direction tend to show pixellation at low resolutions.

Vector art (line drawings) should be saved in .eps format. Paint images (photographs) can be saved as RGB tif or PhotoShop .eps files.

Images can be scanned up to 400 dpi at full size, but this can create very large files which are slow to work with and move between computers. In PhotoShop there is a 30,000 by 30,000 pixel size limit on images.

The imager prints at 200 and 400 dpi resolution. Since it uses photographic emulsions to produce the image, the finished print is continuous tone with an apparent resolution of 4000 dpi.

ICC profiles are used with this system. General Type's house profiles are ColorMatch RGB and SWOP (files named ColorMatchRGB.icc and SWOPM18.ICM on Macintosh). We also offer Adobe PhotoShop's 6 default system: Adobe RGB 1998 and US Web Coated SWOP v2 (files named AdobeRGB1998.icc and USWebCoatedSWOP.icc on Macintosh). If other ICC profiles are used in your workflow, include those data files with your art files.

Continuous tone data can be scanned as low as 72 dpi at full size and may not pixellate, but it depends on the nature of the image. For instance, images with straight lines in any direction tend to show pixellation at low resolutions.

Ideally, for DisplayMaker 6000 output scan to 150 dpi at full size.
For Giclée and DMXII output scan to 300 dpi at full size.

RGB formatted photos are recommended, but this system reproduces CMYK and PC formatted images accurately, too.

Scanning at 200 dpi at full size is a good rule of thumb for this printer. It is best not to oversample the scans (higher resolution images will "muddy" and darken during printing).

Page layout should be done at full size without trim marks -- these are added during printing -- in reader's spreads. The maximum sheet size is 12 x 18 inches (this allows finished prints to be 11 x 17 with bleed). This system can print simplex (one-sided) or duplex (two-sided). It can also impose the pages and set up printing signatures automatically (for duplex book or phamplet printing).