What should a magazine ad look like?

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What should a magazine ad look like?
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sally_in_wales
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Joined: 06 Mar 2005
Posts: 20809
Location: sunny wales

Posted: Thu Aug 09, 07 5:24 pm Post subject:
thanks, if they come back and say they got stuck I'll try that!

gil
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Joined: 08 Jun 2005
Posts: 18409

Posted: Thu Aug 09, 07 5:25 pm Post subject:

I'd confirm what Dougal's just said about printers' ability to handle Word vs Publisher files when they use XPress.

Printer I'm using wants pdf files of artwork.

Apparently you can download software free that will turn files into pdf : there's a site called something like cutepdf
In the end I didn't have to do that because a mate of mine works in a printshop and is converting the artwork for me.

dougal

Joined: 15 Jan 2005
Posts: 7184
Location: South Kent

Posted: Thu Aug 09, 07 6:00 pm Post subject:

sally_in_wales wrote:

thanks, if they come back and say they got stuck I'll try that!

Sally, I'd suggest that you try to download, install and use the software I linked (absent any suggestion of a better equally free product).

That should enable you to generate a pdf. (If it asks, tell it that it should optimise for a 1200 dpi output device.)
Having done that, you can then open the pdf with (adobe acrobat) Reader and examine it at high magnification - hopefully everything will be nice and smooth and not grossly pixellated.

In your position, I'd do that ASAP, and if it was OK, then swiftly mail the pdf off to them including the word PDF in the email *TITLE*.
That's the best chance of you getting your design to print in the mag as you'd like it to be... and of minimally pissing off the layout people, that you are depending on, so close to *their* deadline.

sally_in_wales
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Joined: 06 Mar 2005
Posts: 20809
Location: sunny wales

Posted: Thu Aug 09, 07 6:26 pm Post subject:
Ok, did this work?? Click to download file

dougal

Joined: 15 Jan 2005
Posts: 7184
Location: South Kent

Posted: Thu Aug 09, 07 6:32 pm Post subject:
Its a pdf, the pictures and text look nice and crisp (and in appropriate typefaces), but to me that background looks a bit grainy (esp zoomed in to simulate the imagesetter resolution). Anyone else?

sally_in_wales
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 06 Mar 2005
Posts: 20809
Location: sunny wales

Posted: Thu Aug 09, 07 6:48 pm Post subject:
ok, try this background, any better? Click to download file

hedgewitch

Joined: 26 Nov 2005
Posts: 5834
Location: Daft wench GHQ

Posted: Thu Aug 09, 07 7:33 pm Post subject:

dougal wrote:

for example https://sourceforge.net/projects/pdfcreator/
dunno if its the best, but its free and respectable...

I've used this for quite a while and it's worked OK for me.

hedgewitch

Joined: 26 Nov 2005
Posts: 5834
Location: Daft wench GHQ

Posted: Thu Aug 09, 07 7:35 pm Post subject:

hedgewitch wrote:

dougal wrote:

for example https://sourceforge.net/projects/pdfcreator/
dunno if its the best, but its free and respectable...

I've used this for quite a while and it's worked OK for me.

Just realised you've sorted it out.

I'll just carry on talking to myself... maybe over there in the corner...

dougal

Joined: 15 Jan 2005
Posts: 7184
Location: South Kent

Posted: Thu Aug 09, 07 8:03 pm Post subject:

sally_in_wales wrote:

ok, try this background, any better?

Much less grainy! Seems flatter in texture though.
Good to go!

Sorry, supper and Rick Stein...

Helen_A

Joined: 26 Jan 2005
Posts: 1548
Location: MK, Bucks.

Posted: Thu Aug 09, 07 9:28 pm Post subject:
OK- no idea if I'm in time But most publications want ads as Tifs now (jpegs at a push with the pantone numbers!) But I like the ad (although it would be worth stating what your postage is, or what the 'free postage over' amount is. Helen_A

sally_in_wales
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 06 Mar 2005
Posts: 20809
Location: sunny wales

Posted: Fri Aug 10, 07 5:27 am Post subject:

No emails over night from them,and I'm off to work in a minute, so hopefully they can work with what I've given them.

Just thought though, if its still not right for them they can always delay my ad til next issue, they have the article in time, so that was the bit they really wanted.

See what you mean about postage but my shop works everything out by weight, so not sure how to translate that intoa short ad

dougal

Joined: 15 Jan 2005
Posts: 7184
Location: South Kent

Posted: Fri Aug 10, 07 10:01 am Post subject:

Rest assured that supplying your artwork as a PDF is the simplest and most easily acceptable form of presenting high quality artwork.
There are (seemingly always) concerns about colour management of photographs, but hopefully the plain vanilla (technically its probably sRGB) profile that your camera will have attached to your photos is likely to give reasonable (and consistent) results.

The point is that a PDF transfers your document in a form that is accessible, complete, compact and makes no assumptions whatsoever about the future use of the file - the layout artist's software, platform, etc, let alone the imagesetter resolution or platemaking and printing.
PDF stands for Portable Document Format.
It is one of the cornerstones of the pre-press industry.
Its very acceptable.

Helen_A wrote:

But most publications want ads as Tifs now (jpegs at a push with the pantone numbers!)

I'm afraid that I find this comment frankly a bit bizarre on several levels.

gil
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 08 Jun 2005
Posts: 18409

Posted: Fri Aug 10, 07 10:38 am Post subject:

dougal wrote:

Helen_A wrote:

But most publications want ads as Tifs now (jpegs at a push with the pantone numbers!)

I'm afraid that I find this comment frankly a bit bizarre on several levels.

I can see the point of specifying a pantone number where the business placing the ad has a logo that requires a specific colour used elsewhere and integral to the brand (e.g. the Heinz blue-green or Post Office red).
You will not get the same result if the artwork is scanned as RGB (or CMYB in old technology) and then printed as full(4)-colour. The pantone colour would have to be used instead / as well as. Which is one reason why 5- and 6-colour presses were developed : the four process colours (cyan, magenta, yellow, black) + one or more special (pantone) colours. Or metallics, varnish etc.

Barefoot Andrew
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Joined: 21 Mar 2007
Posts: 22780
Location: In the 17th century

Posted: Fri Aug 10, 07 2:35 pm Post subject:

Hi Sally,

Only just seen this... hope it all worked out for you!

Just to echo a few thoughts from Dougal and others: PDF is the definitive way of supplying material for print, but you must: (a) embed any fonts you're using, (b) ensure that bitmap artwork is at 300ppi, (c) include bleed if your advert goes to the page edge.

Should a panic like this occur again, and I'm around, I'l lay it out in Quark Xpress (6.5) and prepare the PDF for you.
A.

Barefoot Andrew
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 21 Mar 2007
Posts: 22780
Location: In the 17th century

Posted: Fri Aug 10, 07 2:42 pm Post subject:

With regard to colours, if your graphics are in RGB format, they will convert to to CMYK for you. You might not get exactly the same colours but unless you have very precise colour requirements an approximation is perfectly acceptable - particularly if the image has many subtle tonal graduations (e.g. a photo of something; this helps to "hide" the shift in colours when going from RGB to CMYK).

You can convert any graphics yourself from RGB to CMYK, but unless you really know what you're doing you'll get no better results than if they did it for you.

Pantone: a colour magazine will mostly likely be four-process (i.e. CMYK) only, and only the poshest of publications would use additional spot colours. Thus any publication asking for contributors or advertisers to use spot colours (or even know about them) would be most unusual IMHO.
A.

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