Guidelines for Submitting Artwork 

Paper Artwork

Art furnished in paper form should consist of a clean black image on white paper. Color images are generally not acceptable. Some colors (gold, silver, some reds and blues) don't scan or photocopy very well, if at all. Images on colored or patterned paper can also be a problem - in some cases it can be very difficult to extract the image without retaining some of the background color or pattern. 

Digitized Art - Supported Media

We can accept your digitized artwork on the following types of media:

• 3-1/2" DS/DD or DS/HD diskette

• CD-ROM

• Iomega ZIP cartridge, 100 MB capacity only

• Iomega Jaz cartridge, 1 GB capacity only

• SyQuest 5-1/4" Cartridge, 44 MB or 88 MB capacity

If you'd like your media returned to you after completion of your order, please have your return address clearly marked on the media or its case.

File Compression

If you compress your files, please use one of the following:

• WinZip, PKZIP or compatible

• Stuffit

About File Formats

If possible, we'd like to have your digitized art in either a TIF or EPS format. For single-color decoration (one color foil stamping or screen printing), TIF works well if the art you're sending will be used at or near 100% of it's original size. If we're going to have to increase the size of the art to fit the cover, EPS works best because it's a vector-based format that scales well without deteriorating the image quality. Try to avoid using platform-specific bitmap formats such as Mac PICT or PC BMP. 

Note that if you're thinking about taking a graphic off of a Web site, please understand that we can't use highly compressed formats such as GIF or JPEG. They're great for creating small images that load quickly on a Web page, but their resolution is far too low to allow them to be used in any kind of cover decoration.

If your decoration spec calls for multiple spot colors (2 or more colors), your artwork must be in an EPS format to allow us to output spot color separations. If you're using an illustration program such as CorelDraw or Freehand, please export your art to a generic EPS format that can be read by Adobe Illustrator before sending it to us.

Scanned (Raster) Images

When scanning line art with a desktop scanner, scan at the highest optical (not software-interpolated) resolution that your scanner supports. For most desktop scanners, this will usually be either 300 or 600 dots per inch (dpi). The minimum acceptable resolution is 300 dpi. Art that's going to be used for foil stamping will be output on our imagesetter as a film negative with a resolution of either 600 or 1200 dpi depending on the complexity and native resolution of the image.

Outputting an image at a resolution higher than what it was originally scanned at does not improve the quality of the image.

Scanned Images and Size

Scanned (raster) images are comprised of a series of small squares known as pixels. If you've ever edited or touched up an image in a program such as Photoshop or even a simple "paint" program, you've seen these little squares and know what we're talking about. The number of pixels in a scanned image that comprise an artistic element - a straight line, for instance - is fixed. If the line is 200 pixels long and 10 pixels wide, it will always be 200 pixels long and 10 pixels wide no matter how much the image is scaled up or down in size. Raster images are "resolution-dependent" - as the size of the original image is increased or decreased, its resolution increases or decreases by the same ratio.

When you take, for example, a 2 inch by 2 inch raster graphic and scale it up to increase its size to 4 by 4, you're not increasing the number of pixels that make up that image. You're merely "stretching out" the pixels that make up the various elements of your image - making them span a larger area than they did in the original version. The areas between the squares, or pixels, are then filled with "white space", or background. This has the effect of making the image appear broken-up or jagged, and is especially noticeable on curves and angles.

Here's another way of explaining it. A 2" by 2" image that's scanned at 600 dpi and then subsequently scaled to 200% of its original size will yield a 4" by 4" image with a resolution of 300 dpi. The image size was doubled while the resolution was reduced by 50 percent. Conversely, a 4" by 4" 600 dpi image scaled  50% will produce a 2" x 2" 1200 dpi graphic.

For best results, try to determine what the final size of your artwork should be before scanning. If possible, start with an image that's close to the required size for your project, then set your scanner's software to scale the image as necessary to achieve the desired size. If your scanner is capable of 600 dpi optical resolution, take advantage of it. It may significantly increase your file size, but you'll get a better looking image for your trouble!

Vector Art

Vector images are created in illustration programs such as Adobe Illustrator, CorelDraw and Macromedia (formerly Aldus) Freehand. Vector graphics are comprised of lines and curves (vectors) that are mathematically plotted by the illustration software. Rather than go into a lot of detail on vector-based images, we'll just cover the high points and explain a couple of the caveats of dealing with this type of file format.

One of the main advantages of vector images is that they are resolution-independent. They can be resized - even drastically - with no loss of image quality. The software simply plots the new coordinates of all of the elements in the image and redraws them. Vector graphics are also easily edited - changing fills, line weights, text, etc. is relatively simple.

Now for the caveats - fonts and file formats.

Using Text in Vector Images

When you use text as a graphic element in an illustration program, you're using one of the fonts, or typefaces, installed on your computer. If your graphic is to be used on another computer (i.e., you're sending it to us to be output on film and used in your cover decoration), that computer must have the same font installed on it to correctly print or output your image. This is where things can get a little complicated, but there are workarounds for the problem. The answer depends, in part, on what computer platform (Mac or PC) you're using.

If you're working on a Mac you have two choices:

• Send us the fonts used in the graphic and we'll install them on our equipment prior to outputting your file. If you're using Postscript fonts we'll need both the font suitcase (screen font) and the printer font. For TrueType fonts, send the font suitcase only.

• Convert all of your text elements to outlines or curves (the terminology depends on which illustration program you're using). This eliminates the need to send the fonts along with your graphic. The drawback to this approach is that the text in your image will no longer be editable. If a typo is discovered or some other situation arises that requires a change in the text, you'll have to make the change and resubmit the art to us.
  

If you're doing your work on a PC, your options are more limited. All of our film outputting is done from Macs. While we do use PC's for some graphic arts work, we do not have a PC interface to our imagesetter. Fonts designed for PCs cannot be used on Macs. For this reason, text elements in vector graphics that are done on PCs should be converted to curves or outlines before being submitted to us for final output.

Vector File Formats

Most illustration programs have their own proprietary file format but will also allow you to export or "save as" a generic EPS format that can be read and interpreted by other illustration software or page layout programs. If you're using a program other than Adobe Illustrator, please save your art in EPS format prior to submitting it to us. When saving or exporting your art to EPS format, most programs will give you the option of creating a screen-displayable image header with the file. If your software gives you this option, please include a header with your art.

Please be aware that vector files with an excessive number of paths, objects and curve control points have a tendency to "choke" printers and other image processing equipment. They may take an inordinate amount of time to print and often will not print at all. Wherever possible, try to remove redundant elements in your art prior to submitting the file to us for outputting.