WORKING WITH DIGITAL FILES

 

When planning to prepare files – What do you need to consider?

 

When anyone is planning to prepare files, you are required to consider various things depending on the purpose of the file, it could be for a website, logo, or print. Proper file preparation is essential for your digital print job to run smoothly and print as expected. After building your artwork using Adobe Illustrator, InDesign, or Photoshop now it's time to prepare your file for submission. Once the creative elements of your design are finalized and approved by the team, it's time to ensure that each element is print-ready. We’ll have to check the file for the following: - 

Image Resolution: - All images must be minimum of 300 dpi for best results. If one has pulled down a copy of your logo or artwork from the web, it may only be set to 72dpi (web resolution). This resolution is not high enough quality for digital print. If the images are at a lower resolution, they may print blurry and pixelated. If your jpg is 900 pixels wide by 1200 pixels wide, it is sized to print 3” x 4”. 

Outline All Fonts: - You must be sure to convert all fonts to outlines to ensure that your specific typeface can be replicated in production. 

CMYK: - Whenever possible, ensure you are using CMKY colour space for optimal colour output. Since digital printing uses the CMYK colour spectrum, your file must be in CMYK colour mode. All spot colours will be converted to CMYK, and including Pantone, swatches could have unintended results. 

Crop Marks: - Not all files will require crop marks. Crop Marks are typically required if you are sending your file already imposed. If you are sending it this way, crop marks should be offset from the finished image by 1/8”. 

Bleed & Safe Zones: - If images or colours bleed, be sure to include a 1/8” bleed on all sides. Your project will need to bleed if the print needs to extend to the edge of the project/page, i.e., no white border. Also, must stay cautious of the “Safe Zone” on any project involving cutting and have to make sure any text or other item you don’t have to cut is at least 1/8” in from the trim line. 

Spell Check: - You also have to be sure to run spell check before converting your file. It is always a good idea to have a second pair of eyes proofread your project. 

Fonts: - Whenever possible, you must send your pdf document with outlined fonts or flattened. If you are sending a Word Doc, Publisher, Illustrator, Photoshop, or InDesign File, it is important to also send font files. 

File Type: - For best results, send the file as a print-ready pdf. Adobe PDFs are a universal file format that can be viewed on virtually every computer, regardless of fonts or software that might be installed on the computer. PDF is an ideal format for print documents as they will most accurately reflect the printed outcome. Depending on the software you are using to create your file, you can usually convert your file by looking for something that says, “Save As” or “Export As” and setting the outputted file type to pdf. Some programs have a “Convert to Adobe PDF” button built in. You can also use free pdf conversion software. 

 

FILE STORAGE

 

 

 

Once you have prepared the file, there are various places you can store your file, the most common place to store your files would be on the internal hard drive of the computer by creating a file and saving it there. However, there are other ways to store the file like USB, which is a flash device used for data storage that includes flash memory with an integrated USB interface. It's typically removable, rewritable, and much smaller than an optical disc. The second is the External hard drive, also known as a portable hard drive, which is a device that is connected to the outside of a computer through a USB connection that is often used to back up computers or serve as a portable storage solution. Third, Google drive is a free cloud-based storage service that enables users to store and access files online. These syncs store documents, photos and more across all the user’s devices, including mobile devices, tablets, and PCs. Fourth, Dropbox is a file hosting service, often referred to as a cloud storage service. This allows you to store your file on the Dropbox app on your PC, mobile device or both and would be copied to the dropbox server as well. Fifth, one drive iCloud, is a part of the Microsoft suite of online services and it allows files to be synced to a desktop or laptop computer. OneDrive allows users to access their hosted files from any web browser or mobile device, providing greater freedom and flexibility. 

 

Why? 

 

While working for any company or running a business you should be able to limit access to internal documents. Sensitive internal documents that are contained within these archives should be secured against unauthorized access. Companies tend to keep documents/ work portable to make it easy to share with other team members and retrieve the work easily. PDF password protection acts as an effective access control measure and renders them useless. Password-protected PDF helps from files being alerted, protect your intellectual property, Use digital signature to encrypt PDFs, protect sensitive financial information, and publish without fear of pirating.

 

How?

 

Upon completing the work and protecting it with a password, you would download the file to send it to your team or manager for reviews. You can share documents in various ways, however in the digital era uploading to the cloud would be the easiest and most effective way. But while sharing you also have to ensure that platform is used by your entire team in order for everyone to be able to see the changes. 

 

 

 

FILE NAMING

 

A file naming convention is a framework for naming your files in a way that describes what they contain and how they relate to other files. Developing an FNC is done by identifying the key elements of the project, and the important differences and commonalities between your files. These elements could include things like date of creation, author’s name, project name, name of a section or a sub-section of the project, the version of the file, etc. An advantage of using unique and standardized filenames is the ability to follow path names and link to other systems that require unique filenames. You have to find the right balance of components for your FNC. Too few components create ambiguity, and too many limit discovery & understanding. Use meaningful abbreviations. File names that contain too many characters can be unwieldy and cause problems in transferring files. Dates should always be yyyy-mm-dd to organize files chronologically. An example for files with a naming convention is, Project_DesignDocument_Smith_20130503_v2-01.dox. 

 

 

FILE FORMATS

Compression is used to reduce file sizes and change various attributes of an image file. These attributes include file type, resolution, dimension, and bit depth. There are several types of compressed image files. These include the following: - 

 

PNG: - This is a lossless compression type. It is often used where graphics might be changed by another person or where the image contains layers of graphics that need to be kept separate from each other. It is of high quality. It supports transparency and is mostly used for graphics like icons or logos amongst others. 

 

JPEG: - This is used for digital camera images because it has a fairly small file size for the quality that it displays. JPEG is a lossy format that offers a higher compression rate than PNG in the trade-off for quality. 

 

GIF: - This compresses images to a maximum 8-bit colour depth, making it unsuitable for high-quality photographs. GIF is often used where transparency is needed on the graphics. GIFs can also be used to store simple animated images. 

 

PDF: - This is good for documents and can be read-only. They embed fonts and images. A file format is used to present and exchange documents reliably, independent of software, hardware, or operating system.