I know it's been a subject that flares up often but after starting my day today I feel I must bring it up once again.
We often receive requests from our local college to produce foamcore "posters" to advertise their upcoming events. The files are designed by the "graphic design" students. They're given to us via a download link. No problem. Drop the zip folder to my pc and unzip. The files are 8 posters and right away I can tell they're from MAC. Not that I care but...we don't use the over bloated, overhyped mercedes computers. There are 8 pdf's. Work request say's "they're all to size" already but calls for a finished size of 24'' w x 35" h. Actual size = 24.7516w x 35.7536h.
First thing I try to do is import them into cd as I'd like to keep any vectors as vectors. Nope! Fonts weren't converted (school mistake #1). Fine! Import as curves. Fonts are vectors but the image behind is "chunked" i.e. comprised of several rectangles. I'm not entirely sure the reason. Maybe a pdf fault that can't handle making a file that size? Anyway, let's move on. Many will tell you to "not worry about it", it should still print fine. I will tell you from experience that it will not print fine! I know a workaround that I'll get to in a moment. At the same time that I see this "chunked" problem I notice to that the pdf files have "Prepress Marks" (school mistake #2). I have told the instructor several times that we prefer not to use them. Something else I could explain, and have in other posts.
On to the "workaround". I don't mind workaround's but it does add to the "art time". I'm the only designer in a very busy sign shop with a crew of 7 or 8 employees not counting the owner. Our shop sits about 3 miles from the largest USAF base in the world, about 10 miles from another AF base, 3 miles from a major college, blah blah blah. It's dang busy! "So I open each of them in photoshop. Oh and btw they're 300 dpi (school mistake #3). I created an action in photoshop to flatten, save as tiff, then close that file, do the next etc. Once I run the action on each I then import them to cd and powerclip them into rectangles and press on.
In conclusion I'd just like to get opinions as to what the instructor could do differently. I know, for one, would I'd like them to teach to always convert text on pdf output. You're just asking for trouble if you think embedding works. I'd also like them to teach that not every print shop uses prepress marks.
Thoughts?
Sorry, Myron, but I don't agree with some points.
The school mistake #1 is to use CorelDRAW or Illustrator for edit a PDF. CorelDRAW is not a PDF editor, specially if you don't know the settings used for create the PDF. You should use Acrobat for this purpose, and I'm quite sure that the results will be be better.
Convert fonts to curves on PDF? it's the school mistake #2, NEVER convert fonts to curves if it's not neccesary. That will produce a bigger and complex file that maybe most RIPs can't handle. Imagine that you should send a more than 500-pages files of text for a book, and convert it to curves... such as monster file could collapse several computers. Moreover, PDF files includes fonts files (of course if you didn't disable the font embedding), it's secureand you can edit the content if you need.Bleeds and cropmarks? yes! Always! How you can measure the file, without check cropbox, bleedbox, etc? Drawing a rectangle? it sounds primitive, sorry. School mistake #3 it's produce a PDF without cropmarks or bleed. Yes, i know we can add cropmarks on Acrobat, but with the same logic we can remove it if we don't need it. And it takes just a second to enable or disable cropmarks from the entire document, so it's not problem to include it.
Those are worldwide settings for develop PDF for printing industry (offset machines), for books, magazines, brochures and any other material. That was used since the beginning of the Desktop Publishing software (PageMaker, Ventura..) and it's still used on the present. And this is one of the reason why some companies blames against Corel users and Corel files, since they don't follow the industry rules.
I know that printing on plotter and/or digital printers it's not the same and they have other needs. But on this case, you should ask exactly what do you need, since it's the exception of the rule, and not all companies want the same settings.
The problem is not what workflow the output provider utilizes, it's the inability of those sending files to follow instructions. In my area of the United States a vast majority of file creators are so poor at their job that they have no understanding what so ever of file formats, resolution, basic color management or file transfer options.
#1 - I can't generate a layout/proof within acrobat i.e. show dimension lines, generate a proof file etc.. Also, I need to be able to pre-nest files for print as the RIP has limitations.
#2 - I understand that converting fonts will bloat the file but most "signs" have fewer than 5 lines of text and rarel consist of more than 1 page. So yes, always safer to convert. And remember I instructed you to do so.
#3 - Crop marks and/or bleeds will make for a limited number per sheet of material. You can get 10 18 x 24's on a 4 x 8 sheet but not if you have the "prepress marks" or bleeds. We use our own crop marks. Tell the "schooled" designer that you need to know the finished size and you'll always get "They're to size already". Again, I instructed you to not use "Pre Press marks" or bleeds.