Author Supplied Image File Tips

Image File Formats
Vicknair Printing is capable of receiving many electronic image file formats from authors. It is preferable to receive file formats that can be placed directly into paging applications in order to eliminate the cost of converting file formats. Word, PowerPoint, and Corel documents are not "native" paging application image formats. These file formats require Vicknair Printing to convert them to a native format. Many times these file formats have missing fonts and missing embedded images that cannot be used for print. We suggest that authors only send image file formats that can be directly placed in the paging application. (TIF, JPEG, GIF or EPS files preferred) Any other formats will require conversion and will incur hourly charges.

Image Resolution
Author-supplied image files should have the correct resolution for all grayscale and four-color images. The resolution for raster images should be 300 dpi for print to 133-150 line screen and 600-800 dpi for bitmap line art scans. Images that are being resized to a larger image size for final print need to be received with enough resolution to print at that enlarged size. Example: If an image is received with a size of 2X3 inches at 300 dpi and the final image size is needed at 4X6 at 300 dpi the image will be resized to 4X6 and only retain an image resolution of 150 dpi . 150 dpi will not be acceptable for print and will need to be rescanned to the 4X6 image size.

Image Cropping
Author-supplied image files should be cropped as tightly as possible as they should appear when printed or a per image cropping fee will be applied.

Image Color-Space
Image files should be saved in the correct color space as they are expected to print. For example: If a scan is line art, it should be scanned in a bitmap format. If scan is a halftone photo, it should be in a grayscale mode. If a scan is four-color, it should be in a CMYK format for print, not RGB. Images that are received in the wrong color space will need to be converted to the correct space and will require a conversion cost.

Supplied Images With Thin Rules
It is imperative that image files have at least a 3 pixel width rule for all submitted line art. If an image is sized down with thin rules in the original, the lines will reduce with the same percentage as the image reduction. Images with hairline rules will lose the line width in final print and could result in total loss of the lines.

Disk Formats
Vicknair Printing has many options for receiving image files from authors including FTP, e-mail, CD, Zip, Jaz, Floppy and DVD.

Graphics Submission
To ensure your files run as smoothly and efficiently as possible through our pre-press department, please supply the original graphic files and fonts. By supplying original graphic files instead of Word or other program files, you will avoid the additional cost associated with IPC having to extract embedded graphics and fonts. Also, with a Word document, there is the possibility that embedded fonts may not be available, and will be replaced with another font.