Prepress Survival Guide (Full Online)
Are shadows and highlights in your images losing detail? Are your 300-ppi images pixelated on press? Are transparent backgrounds printing solid white? Is there a color cast in your CMYK monochrome images? Are your grayscale photos too dark? Is your line art getting fuzzy at the edges?
The scary thing is, most errors don’t show up until print time. We all find out the hard way that the road from screen to print is not as WYSIWYG as we thought. In fact, the road is lined with snares and pitfalls that can trip even artists experienced in computer layout and image editing.
This hands-on class on digital prepress will show you proven remedies and preventive measures for producing publications that look the way you want them and eliminate or reduce problems at press time.
Who will benefit
- Graphic artists, desktop publishers, layout artists, art directors
- Prepress artists and supervisors of printing houses
Method of Teaching
Students follow step-by-step instructions from a live online instructor, with explanations on the problems and solutions faced by the graphic designer. Assets for the exercises are provided, as well as a digital workbook in PDF format. The class will be held in Zoom and Google Classroom.
What will be covered
Preparing Color for Press
- How to avoid plugged shadows and blown-out highlights on different types of paper
- How to applying the correction to an entire publication in one step
- How to use GCR and UCR to control the amount of ink hitting porous paper, and in CMYK images with large areas of neutral color
- How to prepare images for newsprint
- How to apply the correct dot gain adjustment and how to create a custom dot gain compensation
- How to use spot (Pantone) colors correctly in a four-color workflow for creating duotones, tritones, quadtones for spot varnish
Transparency Problems
- How to work with transparencies in InDesign
- How to ensure transparencies print correctly, even if your monitor doesn’t show a problem
Trapping
- How to trap colors in Illustrator and InDesign
- How to keep reverse text sharp on a rich black (2–4 color) background
- How to keep transparent pixels from interfering with text on a rich black background
- How to export traps in Windows and Mac OS
- How to locate and fix and fix low-resolution images throughout a publication
Preparing Scanned Images
- How to use scanners correctly (explanation only)
- How to process line art (1-bit) for different paper types
- How to add color to line art, applying the method used in the U.S. comics industry
- How to ensure line art does not lose its “edge” in the conversion to PDF
- 2 ways to remove moiré
Pages and Panels
- How to size multifold panels without a calculator or ruler
- How to correct for crossover images and text in perfec-bound publications
- How to deal with the hinge in perfect-bound publications
- How to prepare magazine covers with gatefolds and spine
- How to correct for saddle-stitch creep
Prerequisite:
- Attendance in the Prepress Essentials seminar (for those with no experience working closely with print suppliers and with limited knowledge of print production terms and processes)
- Working familiarity with Adobe InDesign, Photoshop, and Acrobat.
Requirements:
Students must have the following: Zoom application, Gmail account (for Google Classroom) and Adobe InDesign, Photoshop, and Acrobat. Assets to be used in the exercises are provided. Stable Internet connection is required.
Benefits
- Includes e-certificate of completion
- Lifetime Free Refresher (You may attend again the same course, free of charge, on a space-available basis.)
- Alumni discount
- Enroll in our L2C (Learning to Certification) programs and get a globally recognized certificate. This course is part of:
- Adobe Certified Professional (ACP) Visual Design: Foundations of Design & Print Production certificate program
- Visual Graphic Design NC III certificate program