Topic awaiting preservation: Printing for magazines

Hi all, this is a relatviely new area for me. I have actually done some posters before, even an A0 poster which turned out ok.

Magazines however i have not yet touched on, and it seems to cost quite a bit to advertise in them so i really want make sure i know what im doing.

The first question i have is regarding Bleed / Trim / Type i guess you call them margins.

From what i gather:
>Bleed is the largest margin, you actually print onto areas that will later be trimmed, this is how you get color right to the edge of the page.

>Trim is the actual cutting margin where they trim the magazine once it has been printed.

>Type im not sure about this one but im guessing this is the margin that contains content/text etc?

So you would have, where the

Well I will attempt to answer as many of your questions as I can. But some how got realy long. Sorry for the long read.

Most relay depend ob the magazine, process and workflow. Most magazines should have a document sometimes called a "Spec" sheet. A Spec Sheet lists should list all important information for the purchase and placement of advertising. Items such as panel size, direction, file formats, max ink density, color spaces should all be listed along with bleed, and trim requirements if any.

Bleed; is excess area to be later trimmed off. This allow for elements to extend to the trim with out the chance of paper showing if there is a miss register, press drift., or the job is trimmed incorrectly. Bleed is often 1/8 to 3/16 inch but not necessarily always present on all sides the job. In some instances such as envelopes and some perfect bindings there is No-bleed or no-print area.

Trim: This is location of the final cut or trim size. Printing and bindery is no always the most accurate of processes. The trim size will mostly be correct, but it can drift 1/8 inch or more from the trim marks. This is why bleed and the Inner or Type margin.

Type or Inner margin: Is the inside margin. It?s a safety zone where no type or important elements should fall beyond. The printers I have used suggest around 3/8 inch inside from the final trim. Any element falling outside this are run the risk of being trimmed off.

Q1: You thinking correctly. The always should be a dialog between printer, or prep


Q2 a: It depends on the magazine and type of ad space. A full-page ad or spread may require bleeds. Bleed for Half, fourth, eighth page panel ads will depend on the magazines and there workflow, and position and placement. I would play it safe and plan on supplying bleed, that way you can supply it if needed. But It?s important to ask as it could adversely effect positioning either way.

b: Again it depends on the magazine spec's and workflow each one will be different. Even magazines under the same publisher have different working spec's.

Q3: Again it depends on the magazine. There are many different workflows but generally if you provide bleed, you ad trim marks, which lay outside the bleed as not to interfere with anything. Bleed marks generally convenient and not really necessary.

For best general results, try the following but please check the spec?s

Supply 4-color, dual tones, and Grayscale either as TIFF or EPS format. Sometimes you will find that (DCS1 or 2), Scitex CT, PDF among others are accetable useable but I would ask before supplying them. Avoid JPEG, Gif, PNG, PICT, WMF and BMP
I would stick with 300 dpi, for job run at 150-175LPI, Most magazines I have worked with fall in that range, Sometime you will see it spect as 304 dpi, this is do do with the metric conversion to inches, 300dpi will do fine.


You could be asked to supply either RGB or CYMK. I would avoid converting images to CYMK unless you know proper settings. Items such a GCR/UCR, Max Density, Black Generation, and Dot Gain are all process and device dependent. While you may get actable results with general settings. It?s best to target your conversion.

As much as possible should remain vector. Especially Text and logo?s with complex shapes and sharp edges. It not only makes the file smaller it allows scaleabllity and increases the quality of edges as vector elements are the RIP rasterizes vector elements at the imagestters resolution, unless specified. Often in the range of (800-2400dpi)

All type should remain vector if at all possible!!!! 300dpi is simply not good enough for type unless it's heavily anti-alised. It may look good on an inkjet at 300dpi but tn it tends to turn into mush on press.

Supply all fonts of then the magazine will ask you to convert all fonts or non-body copy to outlines (Strait vector as opposed to the Vector Font descriptions).

This addresses two issues.

1.) Management and legal problems caused by dealing with customer owned fonts.
2.) It prevents problems with unsupplied, missing, or broken font descriptions.

Keep in mind some problem can still occur. Converting fonts to outlines has it?s own problems as it removes the hinting provided by the Font. This reduces the quality of type at smaller sizes. Large amounts of body copy should not be converted to outlines unless you have to.

Ask if they prefer linked of embedded images. I prefer linked images; much easier to deal with is something goes wrong. Remember to supply all linked images.

I personally flatten all work Photoshop layers, remove extra channel and unused clipping paths. Anything that could go wrong it will. Murphy had to be a prepress guy. The less the variables the prepress operator has to deal with the better.

I would start by getting the spec?s, work the images in Photoshop, convert all images to CYMK according to the printer. Then set any type and combine images, tint boxes etc? in InDesign, Illustrator, or Quark.. I would then supply the document as an EPS, PDF, RAW postscript or even the working files. It would all really depend on the specs?s

One other thing, You may run across a format called a TIFF/IT it is not the same as the TIFF savable via Photoshop. It?s a special high end format consisting of 3 separate but linked files. The three files consist of a (300-600dpi) file for all elements such as image and blends. A text resolution file at (800-2400dpi) that contains Type and monotone element like tint blocks. The third file basically links the two.


Hope it will help, If you have more question or need help with specfic spec?s. Just ask. I can try to help.

J. Stuart J.

Thanks for that, absolutely brilliant. I still have a few things to investigate it seems.

To give you an example on what im looking at, this is the kind of magazine im thinking of.
http://www.acp.com.au/magazinetitles/Action%202/StreetMachine/specs.asp

They dont really say alot except that images need to be saved in cmyk, 300dpi and a few other things like:
(some of its a bit confusing, im not sure if these requirement are just if you submit a pdf or for all formats)

b.All pictures and logos that appear in the advertisements must also be supplied either as tiff, eps, JPEG or Illustrator files
c.All scan sizes to be 300 dpi and @100% when placed, not above or below these sizes
d.All colour files to be saved in ?CMYK? mode. The document should be set up to print as ?process separation colours?.
e.All typefaces/fonts used must PC or converted to outlines in Illustrator (where possible), or ideally should be the same as the font that we run on our system. If in doubt please phone to confirm your font. Only Postscript Type 1 fonts supported.
f.Type below 10pt should not be used in reverse, or made up of more than two colours.

so b and c are straight forward, d is mostly, but im not sure about wether say using photoshop do you design in rgb then convert to cmyk when your done, or do you design in cmyk? Also the 'process separation colours' im not sure what that is, does it have something to do with converting to cmyk?

e, i think is what you were refering to with the font. Im assuming this means it puts your font into a vector outline, as though you had gone over each letter with the pen tool?

Also in that link is the margins etc, so that seems pretty straigh forward. Although strange that vertical half page has a bleed margin but horizontal half page doesnt?


Anyhow appreciate any light you can shed on this. Thanks very much.

I think you have a good understanding so far.

I'll start with the term ?Process Separation Colours.? It refers to standard process inks. CYMK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and (Black or at one time referred to as Key.)

They are saying you may only use four-colour process. No spot colors such as special inks, foils, varnishes, or metallic inks. Everything must be converted to CYMK or process.

Here?s the pitfall. Often designers specify colours using Pantone books. Most Pantone books are spot colour references, so programs that define Pantone swatches by default set them as spot inks. Be sure to check each one and set it to ?Separate or Process?. I would also check all converted pantone colours to a process tint guide as a majority of Pantone colors can not be reproduced in CYMK.

I prefer: TruMatch, http://www.trumatch.com and Pantone?s process color guide.

Another useful tool is a process color tint chart book. Similar to swatch books above, but organized differently. It shows all possible combinations of CYMK in 10% increments. Really accurate ones are hard to find and can be expensive, mine cost around $1000 US. You might find a consumer level one at a Graphic supply houses or art stores around $30-50 us. It might be slightly off but should get you close.

You are correct about convert to outlines, it is the process of converting the font to vector outlines as you said. It is a specific function in programs like Illustrator or InDesign.

I can only guess about the half page bleed difference. Maybe they have a side bar or some other element that doesn?t allow the ad to reach the bleed.

I mostly design and work in CYMK, but I always have a good Idea how and where job will print. I do a lot of swatch matching. Where tints in InDesign or Quark have to match those in Illustrator and Photoshop. I mostly follow the SWOP standard (An American Print Industry Color Standard.) as do my printers. It?s basically color compromise to ease workflow between multiple printer vendors.

I do work in Photoshop in (ColorMatch (RGB) or Adobe(RGB) and sometimes in LAB mode. When I don?t know the final destination for output. All my personal work and freelance retouch is done and archived in RGB. That way if I decide to do a poster or postcard or even a tee shirt. I can separate the image for the best quality.

You may wish to visit; www.creativepro.com they have lots of good articles relating to print and color.

Thanks alot for that info stuart, i really appreciate it.. I'll take a look at those links and read a bit more into it but things are starting to clear up. I use photoshop for most my stuff, i havnt done much illustrator which probably isnt a good thing. I guess i will have to set up my color pallets in photoshop or something.

So considering i know that my required output is CMYK, its best for me to work in CMYK to start with? this is the main bit im still confused with... If you set your monitor up to correct brightness etc with swatches or however its done, does that mean the CMYK you see on the screen should print pretty much the same? And do you loose anything if youve been working with RGB but then convert CMYK?

I have a feeling i've lost the plot on this bit and am just confusing myself :P..

There are many schools of thought on that subject both method of working RGB or CYMK have valid advantages and disadvantages. Everything seems to be moving towards RGB as Profiles become easyer to use and intergrate.

I guess I would work in CYMK, at lest that way when you choose 20% cyan 10% yellow. You know you will get 20%cyan and 10% yellow. It just makes life a little easyer and there are less suprizes. I would RGB for new photos for overall color corrections and edits such as cast or dust removal. Then convert to CYMK for matching specfic colors and adding color critical tints. Any artwork I would need to create from scratch in Photoshop or Illustrator I would just do as CYMK.

I did forget one term, Total Max Density. This is used when specifing a CYMK set-up. it is the max density of ink that can placed on a the page with out causing problems on press. It is the total of C, Y, M, and K noramlly it ranges from 280-320 percent. Say if you had a total density limit of 310, nothing in your image should exceed 310. For instance my darkest netural black would be C95%, M80%, Y79%, K55%. The ratio of inks varies for press type, paper and ink.

I finally rembered the other site I give like: lots of good advice and tutorials here.
http://www.dtp-aus.com/

Some day I will get of my butt and finish my site.

J. Stuart J.

Great, thanks for that alot of awesome information in there, should get emp to make a faq out of it.

Since im starting from scratch as you said ill start in CMYK... Its going to be my frist magazine ad and i dont want to mess it up since they cost so much ..

I was thinking when im done i could maybe get you to take a look at it, but it would be a big file so its a bit hard ;(.. I'm wondering if there is really anything major i can mess up that would ruin that add, maybe some mistake that people have made?

I guess the publisher would most likely tell me if there is any issue with the file or colour, so the worst that could happen is probably the tone of the inks being slightly different to what i expected...

Well i hope thats the worst that can happen =/,

Thanks for your help, appreciate it.