Common File Issues

This is usually caused from imported text either from a Word document, email or similar text composition software. On occasion, this isn't discovered until late in production and requires extra time to go back to the file and fix it. If your job requires 'black only' type, we'll do our best to catch it in the preflight stage but don't always have the time to check all of the text in a multiple page document.

Occasionally we'll open a document that displays a dialogue that says 'missing links' or 'missing fonts' when this is not the case. After inspection, sometimes we find that they are not missing at all, they are just hanging around on the pasteboard, or outskirts, of your document. Cleaning up the pasteboard on your document is a simple fix that will save us time, and save you money. Items that you don't need in the actual layout of your job should be deleted.

By extending your image or color beyond the page border in your layout, when your job is trimmed to its final size, there won't be a small white gap between the color or image and trimmed edge. In most cases, we can usually add the bleed for you, or under trim a job if it is necessary. There are occasional files where adding bleed is difficult because the edge of the image ends at the page trim. In this case, we will contact you to see how you would like us to remedy the problem either by a slight adjustment in layout or building the bleed into your image.

Our file server (and most others) will only accept file names up to 31 characters. We do have a renamer utility that will shorten names for us quickly, but occasionally there are multiple files associated with a document that have similar names and since only characters from the end of the file name are truncated, this can cause confusion when processing the file. The solution to this is to keep your file names under 31 characters.

For years, printers wanted customers to provide their layouts in 'printer spreads'. In the past, that was ideal, but not today. With our imposition software, it is much easier for us to prepare your files if you build them as single page 'reader spreads'. For example, if your finished piece is supposed to be a 4 page newsletter, trimmed to 8.5x11, simply build it as pages 1,2,3,4 in order as 8.5x11 size pages, not pages 1 and 4, pages 2 and 3 as 17x11 pages.

Please keep in mind that type placed in the gutters or too close to the trim edges can cause problems not only in our Bindery department, but may be hard to read and create an unpleasant look to your piece. For saddle stitch booklets, keep your type at least 1/4" from the binding edge, and perfect bound, a minimum 1/2" is usually sufficient, although more space may be required depending on how many pages you have.

Checking your color palette for unused, duplicate or renamed colors may seem like a trivial undertaking, but it will save us time, save you money and remove confusion from the situation. We always check these before processing a file, but if there are 2 or more 'pantone 185' reds in your color palette, we'll have to go through the whole document to see which one is the correct one and map the others to it.