Absolutely fantastic! Thanks!

x

How about in CS2 for a stone-age Repro Man like myself?

(Not by choice...)

I allow for 20-30 minutes per part to be included in the setup costs quoted by sales.

I have very clear specifications explaining how to supply print-ready PDFs and I even list all the kinds of things that designers get wrong that can delay a job. I call this an official document. The sales team seem to think it's designed to scare customers away...

If artwork is not supplied to spec or looks like it's going to take longer than 20-30 minutes I throw it back. If I can fix it I will offer to. I charge a minimum of £35 for amendments based on up to half an hour's work and a further £35 per half hour after that. I try and charge £20 per part if the client re-supplies for any reason.

(A pet hate of mine is the way clients don't finish their artwork before they supply it to us. They wait until we've prepared it and preflighted it, set up print and approval files, then take it to a committee or whatever to approve the design! Why not do that first? Fools!)

It's up to CS and Sales to decide whether a charge gets passed on to the client. Either way, I get a percentage as commission. Doesn't add up to much, but every little helps.

I'm kinda working against myself in this situation because I have my specs to try and help the client supply something that can just fly through repro and not waste any time or money. However, I'm quite happy to do lots of amendments because I get paid more!

Everything I do. Literally everything. Goes onto a spreadsheet with start and finish times and any relevant notes. I have these spreadsheets going back almost four years now and can get accurate info on any job during this period.

I have no memory in real life (years of various chemical abuse) so I use excel as a substitute brain...

Naaah... Pushed it back onto the client. Our specs say what software we support and booksmart ain't on the list.
Only 45 minutes 'til the weekend begins! Yay!!
 :grin:

Hey guys... Here's a new one...
Just had a client supply their brochure artwork as a booksmart (.bookexport) file.
This is from the free software you can download at blurb.com specifically to design books to be printed and distributed by blurb.com
I'm guessing this means that only blurb.com can print from these bookexport files and the the booksmart software isn't going to allow my client to save something more useful. Such as a PDF.
Any of you come across these before? Is there anything we can do other than tell the client to go home and start again on some proper software? Like Publisher or Quark for example? Or maybe Word...
Cheers!

Thanks all! Doesn't look like there is a completely straight answer to this question. Think we'll be going for 68% Magenta.
Cheers! 

Cheers guys. Any idea what Pantone themselves would recommend at this time? Would be coated.

Arrr! Indeed it is a trick question...
I'd like to know what Pantone's official breakdown is today. I have a client who's insisting it's one thing when my software says it's another. I think their breakdown is out of date but I want to be sure!
And I'm interested to see what every one else thinks.
I don't have the Pantone colour bridge swatch book, only the C, M and U books and Adobe CS2 software...
And I am well! Thanks! Been very busy, as usual! When I get a moment I'll drop you an email to catch up.
Cheers!

Hello!
Maybe you can help me settle an argument before I start it. Maybe you can confuse me some more...
What is the CMYK equivalent of Pantone Orange 021 according to you?
RM

PS. I may as well wait for CS4 before I upgrade, hadn't I?

Cheers David. I can now say with confidence that it's a CS2 downsampling PDF problem and advise on how to avoid it.

I have found another method that works most of the time. If I have the original Illy files I can go in and apply the rasterise effect at 300dpi to any rotated images. Et viola, the resolution doesn't get squished! No massive files either, if the image is large.

Thanks all!

Hello. It's definitely resolution. And it's fairly common.

Heres one in Acrobat with PitStop:



And in Illy (see PPI top left):



I've only ever seen this happen to rotated images in PDFs from InDesign or Illustrator. Any ideas?

No one else seeing this then?

Hi All,

I keep seeing this in PDFs from clients that have been created in Indy or Illy. It's always images which are upside-down, having been rotated 180 degrees. I think it's always occurring when these images are downsampled to 300dpi when the PDF is created.

The images literally come out with rectangular pixels.

Anyone else seeing this?

Anyone know why this happens?

Is it fixed in CS3?

(I'm stuck with CS2 for now...)

Cheers guys.

Oooh! Can I have one too?

I've been working on a large poster showing how various resolutions compare, text sizes, raster vs vector, rich Blacks etc... Elements of a CMYK colour chart would be useful too!

Much appreciated if anyone has one to hand.

Cheers...