have doc need postscript to acrobat distiller to pdf with bleed

[sylvia]

I am trying to send a document to a printer for
commercial printing. They need a postscript file,
converted to PDF thru Acrobat distiller the finished page
is 8.5 x 11 but I need a bleed and crop marks. I have
set up the following in Pub 2003, Windows XP: page
setup>layout>full page, page setup> printer
&paper>printer name>acrobat distiller>properties>
paper/quality> advanced> paper size> postscript custom 9
x 11.5.

when I go to save as a postscript file it goies right to
printing on the acrobat distiller printer. Help, what am
I doing wrong. And do I need to put in the crop marks
manually on the Pub document itself? I did check the crop
marks and bleed on the page settings tab.

I am not a professional just a small business trying to
get started. Please respond in a simple step by step way
or I will be lost.

Thanks!
Sylvia

 

[Sekar R]

Follow these steps mentioned below to save the file as Postscript file:

1. On the File menu, click Save As.
2. In the File name box, type a name for the file. You don't need to type a
file name extension— Publisher automatically adds .ps to the end of the
file name you type.
3. In the Save as type list, click PostScript.
4. Click Save.
5. In the Save as PostScript File dialog box, in the Name list under
Printer, click the PostScript printer or ImageSetter you want. If
necessary, install a PostScript printer.
6. Once the Postscript file is saved, you/your printer could open the
postscript file in Adobe Distiller to generate PDF

No need to put you crop marks manually. Follow the steps shown below to
print the crop and bleed marks:

1. On the File menu, click Print.
2. Click Advanced Print Settings.
3. On the Page Settings tab, do one or both of the following:

Under Printer’s marks, click Crop marks.
Under Bleeds, click Allow Bleeds and Bleed marks.

4. Click OK twice.

If the page size of your publication is almost as large as your paper size,
the crop marks might be in the nonprintable region.

Sekar R
Microsoft Publisher Support Professional
This Posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights

 

[Guest]

I did all of that. The postscript file did eventually
save. My problem now is the crop marks here is what is
currently setup, In page setup > layout> full page, page
setup printer & paper> printer name> acrobat distiller>
properties> paper/quality> advanced>paper size >
postscript custom 9.0 x 11.5.

so the finished document is 8.5 x 11 and I set up the
paper size as 9 x 11.5 to accomodate the crop marks, the
printer said the crop marks did not show up. what did I
do wrong? He said the bleed did work.

Thanks,
Sylvia

 

[sylvia]

I had already set all of that up. I did finally get the
doc saved as postscript then sent as a PDF. the printer
is saying that the crop marks do not show up on the PDF.
What am I doing wrong?

thanks,
Sylvia

 

[Mac]

you need 1" over the cdocument size to allow for these marks. 9.5 x 12.

 

[sylvia]

I am sorry to ask another question. but when I view the
PDF (after changing to 9.5 x 12), I still do not see the
crop marks. is it correct to have the page setup>layout
set as full page? Or is there something else i need to
do in addition to the 9.5 x 12 in order to see the crop
marks?

 

[Mac]

did you get it figured out? I've not been here for the last week (busy with
other things)

or are you still stuck?

 

[sylvia]

I did get that problem figured out. However, now I have
another problem. when I insert either clip art or a jpeg
(my logo), i am having an issue with the color setup for
the commercial printer. the inserted art does not work
as spot color. For example, my logo has a pantone color
in it(4515) but when i set up the color for spot color
the document changes the gold to gray. I have to print
with spot color only. the clip art I inserted which is
black, for some reason shows up as red on the PDF. I need
to use spot color only (which the images are set up
with). Is there something I need to do? I have tried
setting the printer color setting to spot only and then
it changes the color of the art I inserted. If I set the
printer colors as process and spot then the PDF does not
seperate out the colors as spot only. I so need to get
this stuff to the printer. If I knew someone who used
publisher for 2 or three color commercial printing jobs,
I would call and ask. However, the printer has no
experience with it and does not know anyone. I just need
to get it set up correctly and then I can start my
business. Sorry for the wordiness, I am very
frustrated. Every hurdle is replaced with a new hurdle.

thanks for your help,
Sylvia

 

[Jeff Daghir]

What format is your logo & clipart in? EPS, DCS and PDF are the only
artwork formats that support spot colors. Spot color information is not
retained in TIFF, JPEG, GIF, BMP, EMF, WMF, etc. Don't bother trying to
insert DCS or PDF files into Publisher - it won't work. For spot colors to
work in a logo or clipart you need to open the image in your drawing program
of choice (Illustrator, CorelDraw, FreeHand, etc.) and apply your spot
colors to the logo/clipart there (making sure the spot colors are named
EXACTLY the same as the spot colors in the Publisher document), then save
them as an EPS file with a preview. Set your Publisher document for spot
color printing before inserting the EPS file, and again make sure that the
spot color name in Publisher exactly match those in the EPS file. Insert the
EPS file and print. Your on-screen preview may be incorrect, but your
hardcopy print or PDF file should be correct.

However, my best advice for you right now would be to STOP wasting your time
designing your own publications. Pay a professional (either your printer or
an independent graphic designer) to do it for you, and concentrate on
running your business (as a side note, starting your business should not
depend on having final printed materials. Professionally printed
stationary, business forms and marketing material certainly help a business
operate and grow, but shouldn't be a requirement for getting started - just
my opinion). The amount of time required to learn how to properly design a
document for spot color printing is rarely worth it unless it is something
you will be doing very frequently. You should be able to find a printer who
can accept what you have done in Publisher so far and complete the job from
there for you for a small fee. If you current printer is either unwilling
or unable to do this then you need to find another printer. Microsoft's
maintains a list of printers who are members of the Publisher Service
Program at:

http://mspublisher.saltmine.com/printerSearch.aspx

Any of the printers listed in this database should be happy to accept your
file as a native Publisher document and finish the project for you.


Jeff Daghir
MPS Printing, Inc.
The Ink & Paper People!
Madison, IN
www.mpsprinting.com
(e-mail address removed)
Registered Member, Microsoft Publisher Service Provider Program

 

[sylvia]

Not that it really matters, but a graphic designer did
design the artwork. I do need to be able to make
constant upadates so we converted it to Publisher (the
ongoing templates I will need). the letterhead, and
business cards will be printed as a bulk print (that has
lowered the cost) with the other documents and is why I
am trying to do it myself. The designer also designed the
logo and has sent it to me as a Jpeg file. This is the
last thing I need to complete and then I am ready to go.

The logo was sent to me as a JPEG. so is there anything
I can do to make the color corrections? I seem to
somehow have fixed the clip art (which was from the
publisher clip art gallery). As far as a drawing program
is that something I would have with office pro 2003?
Thanks for your help.
sylvia

 

[Odysseus]

Not that it really matters, but a graphic designer did
design the artwork. I do need to be able to make
constant upadates so we converted it to Publisher (the
ongoing templates I will need). the letterhead, and
business cards will be printed as a bulk print (that has
lowered the cost) with the other documents and is why I
am trying to do it myself. The designer also designed the
logo and has sent it to me as a Jpeg file. This is the
last thing I need to complete and then I am ready to go.

The logo was sent to me as a JPEG. so is there anything
I can do to make the color corrections? I seem to
somehow have fixed the clip art (which was from the
publisher clip art gallery). As far as a drawing program
is that something I would have with office pro 2003?

A JPEG image cannot contain spot-colour separations, ever, and having
been designed for 'textured' photographic images the JPEG format is
highly unsuitable for a logo to start with, because it introduces
'noise' into areas of flat colour.

I would ask the so-called designer for a vector EPS version of the logo,
containing correct spot colour names, and preferably including a TIFF or
WMF preview. If such is not available, you may have to settle for
rebuilding your documents using a process-colour 'dummy' for the spot
ink.

 

[Jeff Daghir]

You can recolor the entire JPEG to one spot color in Publisher - set Pub up
for spot color printing, insert the JPEG, right click on it and select
Format Picture, push the Recolor button, Click the Color drop down box, pick
the desired spot color tint, then Ok and Ok. But if you need the JPEG to
print as two or more spot colors, then no, it can't be done. The JPEG file
format doesn't support spot color information - it doesn't matter if it's
Publisher or any other layout application - the spot color information
simply doesn't exist in a JPEG (or any other raster-based format other than
DCS or PDF for that matter). If the designer created the logo as vector
art using a drawing program, then he/she should be able to send you an EPS
of the logo colored with the appropriate spot colors. If it was originally
created with a raster image editing program (like Photoshop), then you're
out of luck - the logo was not designed with spot color printing in mind and
there is no good way of printing it in spot colors other than re-creating it
as a vector graphic in a drawing program.

As far as I know, none of the office suites include a vector-based drawing
program, and even if they did, a drawing program would only be able to
recolor the entire JPEG just like Publisher - it would not be able to change
the colors of individual elements in the logo. This is an inherent
limitation of raster-based images formats (JPEGs, Tiffs, GIFs, BMPs, etc.).
Note that you can open a JPEG in Photoshop and resave it as an EPS file, but
this will not help - this will result in a raster EPS file, which still will
not support spot color info. It has to start as some sort of vector-based
format (a drawing instead of an image).

I think some of the clipart that comes with Publisher might be vector based
and therefore could be colored with separate spot colors, but I'm not sure
as I've never used any of it.

As a side note:
vector = defined by mathematical shapes = an object based drawing
raster = defined by colored dots (bitmap) = a pixel based image

Vector artwork comes from drawing programs (Illustrator, Freehand,
CorelDraw).
Raster artwork comes from image editing programs (PhotoShop, MS Painter,
PaintShop) or from scanned-in images.

--

Jeff Daghir
MPS Printing, Inc.
The Ink & Paper People!
Madison, IN
www.mpsprinting.com
(e-mail address removed)

 

[Mac]

FWIW, among the most clueless people on the planet are "Designers"

So...just because a "designer" did the logo means only that it looks nioce
on their screen. it has nothing to do with how well it will reproduce (if at
all)

 

[Budget Print Center]

hear, hear. written with the sage wisdom of many lovely experiences, i
presume :-}