Advice needed for generating magazine adverts...

[shiphen]

The subject title concerns Magazine adverts. The first sentence mentions "newspaper magazine."

Which is it? Newspaper or Magazine? Meaning, what type of paper is this being printed upon? The answer makes a difference.

<snip>

Personally, I'll use QXP, ID or PP and output from those applications if the output has to be an image. And it will eventually hit Acrobat if I need grayscale with a certain dot gain.

It will be both in a newpaper AND in a magazine (that falls out of a newspaper).

QXP = QuarkXpress?
ID = InDesign ?
PP = Portrait Professional ?

I have no idea how to "adjust tonal curves" or do "dot gain" or anything of that nature.


FWIW, the newspaper will include the Financial Times (in the UK) and I have just discovered this page:
http://www.fttoolkit.co.uk/2014rates...ec_ft_mag.html

Which says:
>>>
File Requirements: Acrobat distiller PDF-full specification can be found at www.pass4press.com.
Proof: Digital cromalin or other industry standard proof should be supplied originating
from PDF supplied.
Live matter area: Type matter or other illustrative material on a bleed page, but not intended to
bleed, must be positioned at least 5mm within specified trim size.
Ink density: Combined colour ink density should not exceed 300%
Printer marks: PDF supplied must include trim marks set to trim size of publication. Crop marks
should be positioned outside the bleed and printed area.
Printing process: Heatset Web-offset.
N.B. Trapping, Overprint & Knockout - The FT will not alter the overprint and knockout settings on your
document, beyond removing any white overprint. If inappropriate overprint is used in a document (eg a lighter
colour set to overprint a darker colour), The FT will not be held responsible for incorrect printed results.
The creator should apply any trapping requirements if necessary, but must be aware of the various application
software limitations. The printer will not apply trapping.
>>>

This sounds intimidating!

And when I click on www.pass4press.com in the PDF I am taken to
http://www.ppa.co.uk/resources/guide...on/pass4press/

Which talks about InDesign, Illustrator, Quark Xpress but makes no mention of Xara !

Pass4press v10 Complete Brochure
Pass4press v10 Workflow overview
Pass4Press v10 InDesign CS4
Pass4Press v10 InDesign CS5
Pass4Press v10 Illustrator CS4
Pass4Press v10 Illustrator CS5
Pass4Press v10 flattener
Pass4press v10 Quark Xpress 8 Export

Perhaps we can just print to PDF using say Adobe Illustrator CS5 settings and hope for the best ??

[mwenz]

It will be both in a newpaper AND in a magazine (that falls out of a newspaper).

QXP = QuarkXpress?
ID = InDesign ?
PP = Portrait Professional ?

Perhaps we can just print to PDF using say Adobe Illustrator CS5 settings and hope for the best ??

Yes on the others, PP = PhotoLine. That is my most used bitmap editor.

For the newspaper, this is the proper link, I believe:
http://www.fttoolkit.co.uk/2014rates...pec_print.html

Do pay attention to their details for the newspaper. They are likely way out of date on them. Welcome to the world of print design.

The insert (the fallout bit) will be printed on better paper. The PDF for the FT times is:
http://www.fttoolkit.co.uk/2014rates...specs_2013.pdf

Most of their requirements Xara is simply going to comply with by default, so no worries there when going to PDF. Xara has no control on trapping. It's crappy they don't do in-rip trapping. They ought to. Depending upon your design, it may not matter.

In short, the requirements are different for the two output intents. You may get better/more information emailing the person indicated in the PDF. I would inquire whether that have a profile for PDFs, for both the news rag and the magazine. I have done several ads for a company in England that specify a profile for all their newspaper outlets (specifically, ISOnewspaper26v4).

If you are going to be preparing print work regularly, I recommend you picking up Adobe Acrobat. I cannot imagine doing print work without it. It has a small learning curve as regards what you would be using it for--like checking TAC (Total Area Coverage), overprint preview, ensuring anything set to overprint really is, etc.

Be ready to ask questions as you go. It isn't rocket science but lessons are best learned when doing either a dry-run design or the real thing. But early enough that you don't have to redesign. There are a few people here that likely would be happy to check your PDF.

Mike