Pre-Press

Equipment

This section of the printing trade has seen the most change in the past five years, gone is the need to produce film, proofs are made from print ready imposed files, computer and software upgrades are constantly changing.

We have kept pace with these changes, installing direct-to-plate, purchasing new G5's, installing the latest software and proofing systems.
We have calibrated our proofing and computer screens to ICC profiles, and calibrated plate output from press profile tests to match the proofs.

Software

We have installed the latest software for both, Apple Macintosh and IBM based platforms. Computer operating systems are updated as soon as they become available, as we firmly believe, that to keep pace with industry changes, technology and software updates are imperative.

File Sending

With the advent of broadband, we can except files by email to stephen@impress.ie or upload to our FTP site where you will require user & password, ring Pat Cotter for details, or send files to any of the account managers (see the sales section of this website). We also accept files on DVD's, CD's and Zip disks, and by ISDN +353 1 4097140.
Email: Stuffing the files before sending will keep all bites together and reduce file size.

Helpful Tips

We are including in this part of the web-site some helpful tips without going too technical, also any comments would be welcome to stephen@impress.ie who manages our pre-press department.

Fonts
Most of the problems we find are font related, and the industry is now firmly directed toward supplying PDF files with embedded fonts. If using Illustrator, outline the fonts. Avoid using text in Photoshop as they will appear unsharp.

Images
Convert EPS images to Tiffs. When converting RBG images to CMYK, darker images need to be brightened before conversion.

PDF files
Tips on making PDF files to our settings are included here.

H&J settings
If you have changed your settings include them in "collect for output"