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Copy Preparation Tips
Our goal at Publications is to get your project through the process
quickly and efficiently while maintaining the highest quality possible.
You can assist us by preparing your text and graphics in our preferred
formats: electronic files for text, and hard copy (prints or slides)
for images.
Text
We ask for electronic files for two reasons:
- 1. To save the time spent in rekeyboarding copy;
2. To eliminate introducing errors into the text.
The preferred format is MS Word. (Windows or Macintosh) We can
accept files in other word processing formats; however, you need
to be aware that incompatible formats
may delay the start of your project. See Timelines and Services.
Use minimal formatting (bold, italics, etc.). Because of the way
professional layout programs work, any elaborate formatting has
to be stripped out first before we can use it.
If you need to visualize an approximate layout of your text using
columns, tables, etc., do that in Word, and print out a hard copy
to send along with your request. Before sending the electronic
file, however, you need to use the "save as" function to save a
second copy of your text on your hard disk or network space. Save
this second copy as "text only," which strips out all formatting,
or as "rich text format," which retains some of the formatting.
Send us this text only (.txt) or rich text (.rtf) electronic file
via email, or on Zip or CD.
For the most professional look in your finished print project,
use the following methods:
- Use single spaces in your text (no double spaces).
- Use two hard returns to separate paragraphs rather than using
a tab or 3-5 spaces for a paragraph indent. Indicate on your
hard copy what type of paragraph separation you prefer (extra
space or an indent).
- Use a single tab stop to separate items in tabular material.
It may not look good on screen, but it will place much more efficiently
in the page layout program.
Please use PowerPoint only for the purpose it was intended: as
a presentation program. It is difficult, and in some cases impossible
to restructure PowerPoint files for a print project. In particular,
PowerPoint applies proprietary formatting to graphs and images
that makes them virtually impossible to extract.
Web pages (html) can be exported from PowerPoint; however, pages
created from separate text files and separate images look better,
and are often faster to do than the time it takes cleaning up the
exported html.
Files created in MS Publisher, Print House, Printmaster or any
similar home-use oriented layout programs cannot be used, because
we do not have the necessary software to translate them.
Files created in Excel usually work in page layout programs for
print or the Web. There are enough glitches that we would prefer
you send these only when they are the only available source of
the copy.
When you send electronic files as email attachments, please indicate
the program used to create the files (name and platform, i.e.,
MS Word, Windows) in the body of the email message, and indicate
if/when you will be bringing/sending a matching hard copy.
Images
We prefer that you bring us original color or black and white
prints, or color slides to use in your publication projects. We
have good quality flatbed and film scanners that we can use to
prepare materials for the web and on-campus printing.
We do use digital photos in many of our publications; however,
we have several high-end Nikon digital cameras which deliver high quality
multi-megapixel images. If you have a digital camera and want
to use the images in your publications, remember that the final
size of the printed image depends on the number of pixels in the
original file. For example, to create an image 10 inches wide in
four-color process printing, you need an original file that's 3000
pixels across (3000 pixels / 300 ppi = 10 inches). If your camera's
maximum resolution is, for example, 1024 pixels across, the maximum
size of the finished print would be 3.4 inches wide at 300 dpi.
If you do decide to use digital images, or scan your own, please
send the files in TIFF format. TIFF (Tagged Image File Format)
files allow lossless compression and are recognized by most image
editing and layout programs.
Most digital cameras save in JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts
Group) format which uses lossy compression. That means each time
you save the file, some picture data is lost forever. To send those
files, either send a copy of the original (don't open the file;
just copy it from the camera to a zip or network drive) or, if
you have a good image editing program (such as Photoshop), open
the file and use the "save
as" function to save the file as a TIFF.
Save your original scanned images as TIFF files also. Again, because
the format uses lossless compression, you can open the file and
save it without losing data. We would prefer to have the raw scan
file, and do any sizing and color correction in our programs, because
every operation on the file results in some data loss.
If your only source of an image is a JPEG, we can work with it.
Again, do not open the file; simply copy the file to a zip or network
drive. Remember that every time a JPEG file is opened and saved,
some information is lost forever; it doesn't take too many such
cycles to result in a visual disaster.
Images downloaded from the Internet: in general, avoid using such
images in your publications for two primary reasons. First is the
issue of copyright (see below); second is the issue of resolution.
Most image files on the Internet have been created at 72 ppi resolution,
and most Web images are less than 600 pixels wide. At 300 dpi for
process printing, that translates to a 2 inch wide photo. Images
can be scaled up in image editing programs; however, quality suffers
drastically when you scale more than about 125%.
Graphics
We prefer to create the non-photo graphic images used in publication
projects. We use primarily Adobe Illustrator to create logos and
other vector graphic images. We do have access to Macromedia Freehand
and CorelDraw if you have existing files in those formats. We also
have a small library of royalty-free "clip art" images we can use
as-is or modify for your projects.
Copyright
A word about copyrights. The best way to avoid copyright issues
is to use original art: either you or we take the photos, or create
the graphics. Generally, anything published (in print or on the
Web) is copyrighted material, and cannot be used in our publications
without permission of the copyright holder. (There are fair use
exceptions, usually limited to classroom use, news articles, commentary
or satire. See Stanford University's "Copyright and Fair Use" web
site (http://fairuse.stanford.edu/)
for more detailed information about copyright issues.)
To sum up, unless it's your own art, or it's in a royalty-free
collection (which isn't really free: part of the price you paid
for the product is a license fee to the copyright holder), or the
image is next to a statement specifically saying it is for public
domain use, assume you have to get permission to use the image,
photo or graphic in your publication...which isn't impossible.
Because we are an educational institution, we can often get permission
to use an image; the main drawback is time, in finding the copyright
holder, contacting them and getting the written permission. The
Copyright Clearance Center (http://www.copyright.com/)
can provide assistance in getting the necessary permissions.
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