Village Press » Support » Print/Artwork/Ad Specifications

Technology moves forward, and nowhere more so than in print advertising. At Village Press, many of our customers prefer to send us their advertisements on disk - the method we prefer, provided our technology can talk with your technology. So, for worry-free and snag-free results, here are the things we require to be able to do the best job with your ad - and your business.

Electronic File Submission Form:

Please submit your file specifications directly, to ensure accuracy, by using our easy submission form. Click Here ^(PDF)

Fonts:

Include all fonts; never assume your font will match a Village Press font.

Images:

Include all electronic images except FPOs.

100% Hard Copy:

Village Press checks the Irises and films directly from your supplied hard copy. We are much more likely to catch possible problems when 100% hard copy is supplied. Pages should be tiled if necessary. Please do not staple, tape, or glue hard copy together.

Crop Marks:

Make your page layout document the actual trim size. Do not draw your own marks. If you have to draw your own marks, please specify them as registration color. Making your document actual trim size allows for inpagination.

Scans:

Village Press offers top quality scanning services; however, if you choose to do scans yourself, please follow these guidelines: If images are to be printed in four color process, save the scans as jpg with the image quality set to 12 maximum in CMYK mode, not RGB! You can also save your scans as Photoshop eps or tiffs; however we prefer jpeg. Do not save images as separated eps's (DCS) because it will make file format translation costs necessary.

Duotones:

We have a unique way of making duotones and tritones. Please call us and we will provide you with the proper method for use with our specialized equipment.

Lines:

Do not use hairline as a line weight. Designate the proper weight in points. This hairline weight looks much thicker on low-resolution printers than on image setters and may not show at all.

Bleed:

Village Press requires 1/8-inch bleed.

Cropping Photos and Slides:

Whenever possible, show cropping on hard copy even if it is just a line drawing showing what is important. Reflects (prints)- show cropping with Post It notes. Slides- show cropping with reflective proof when possible or with drawing (scanner operator has to remove slide from sleeve to scan).

For more information on electronic ad submission please see the Electronic Submission Guide.

Please feel free to call our prepress operators at 1-800-773-7798 if you have any questions in preparing an electronic file for output.

Electronic Ad Submission Guidelines

Publication Specifications

Digital Ad Requirements

Ads submitted in digital format must meet the Village Press Production guidelines.

Document Elements To Supply:

All fonts used in layout documents and linked graphics must be supplied. Use JPEG (preferred), TIFF or EPS formats for all images. Do NOT send files in RGB color mode.

Dimensions:

All ads must be configured to fit the paper size as indicated in "Mechanical Requirements." Be sure to create documents in the proper trim size, not bleed size, of your ad. However, be certain to include bleed. There is no need to add registration marks manually; we prefer to use the automatic crop mark feature of the page layout software.

Black-and-White Ads:

All black-and-white ads must be set up to output as one-color art. No color specifications should be applied to any type or art elements of a black-and-white ad. This will prevent any unanticipated screen tints from appearing in final film.

Color Ads:

PDF Preparation (Preferred):

A simple reliable way for you to send your files to us is by sending a press quality PDF file. You can view our specific preferences below.

Non-PDF Preparation:

It is highly recommended that you double-check your fonts and linked graphics before submitting digital ads. Quark users should use the "Collect For Output" feature under the file menu. InDesign users should use the "Preflight" under the file menu. PageMaker users should use the "Display Pub Info" feature under the Aldus Additions menu. If Village Press production department considers a digital ad to be incorrectly set-up by the advertiser, the advertiser may correct and re-submit the ad - or - the advertiser may request Village Press to alter the ad to meet specifications at an additional charge to be quoted.

Media

You can send us your ad as an e-mail attachment or you can send it to us on the following:

If you send your copy on disk, include a hard copy. If you submit your file via e-mail, please send a hard (paper) copy as well. We want to ensure that our copy looks like your copy!

Software*

We are unable to accept Corel, Microsoft Works, Microsoft Publisher files. Please distill ads designed using these programs using Acrobat Distiller. You can download our specific preferences from this site: www.villagepress.com/pdfprep. Please do not use RGB colors.

When creating lines in your images, do not use the line thickness (weight) called "hairline." This thickness does not have an industry standard measurement and is interpreted differently by different equipment.

Scanned Images

If you are going to send us scanned images, they must be scanned in 300 dpi (dots per inch) for color and grayscale and 600 dpi or higher for line art. The scanned images must be in CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow, black) and not RGB (red, green, blue). We can accept the following file formats:

Fonts

Include both Screen and Printer fonts with your electronic submission. If you are unable to include them then we will not be able to use the file.

Compression

If submitting files to us that are compressed, please send us a single archive file using the following:

A Quick Checklist

Quark Express PDF Preparation

Please send your files to Village Press using our FTP File Transfer Utility - Click Here

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Electronic File Submission Guide