In our April Overnight Lite issue, we discussed two of
seven important preparation habits Copresco has developed for highly successful
documents.
This month, we offer you three additional
rules that will help you produce your masterpiece. The final issue of our
trilogy will be published next month.
There’s no need to use all the fonts installed on your hard drive. Normally three type faces (for headlines, body copy and captions or special sections) are enough for most documents.
• Consider serif type for body copy. It’s easier to read than
sans-serif, particularly for lengthy books and manuals. The serifs on the
letterforms give the readers’ eyes horizontal guidance through the lines
of text.
• Don’t use large amounts of italics. They’re hard
to read. But in small amounts italics are fine for contrast and impact.
• Avoid lines that are over 40 to 60 characters in length.
•
Don’t use underlining for text. Use bold or italic instead.
•
Don’t double space after periods. Single space only.
• Use
reverses sparingly.
Set a PostScript driver as your printer driver before you start the project. If your printer doesn’t say “PostScript,” it isn’t. Don’t use an HP (Hewlett-Packard) or other driver. We need to know the driver you used to create the document. This will prevent reflow, which may cause page counts to change, text to improperly wrap around graphics...headers to move to incorrect locations...and more. The problem is significantly magnified in text-intensive documents.
Printer drivers are created by all types of companies,
each with its own agenda. For publishing purposes, a printer driver created by
Adobe, creators of PostScript, is a good choice. You may select the appropriate
driver for your operating system and quickly download it from Adobe’s
website.
If you’re creating PDF files, use the Adobe
Acrobat Distiller driver that was installed when you loaded the software on
your computer.
First, don’t use spreads in your layout. Use
single-page format. It will reduce the computer time necessary to prepare your
document for printing.
Your page size should be defined
as final trim size. For 8 1 / 2 ” x 11” pages, crop marks are not
required. For smaller page sizes, you should provide crop marks from your Page
Setup or Preferences menu.
The problem of shingling needs to be considered, but
you can leave the details to us.
Shingling is an
adjustment for the way page images in a folded signature tend to move toward
the outer or the facing edge of a book. The amount of shingling steadily
increases as you move toward the center signatures of the book. This is one
reason why there are limitations on the number of pages a saddle stitched book
may contain.
Years ago, offset negatives had to be
physically moved to compensate for the image shifts. Today, these adjustments
are made digitally by Copresco.
You now have five of Copresco’s seven document
preparation habits. Stay tuned. We’ll wrap up the piece with our final
installment next month.
Meanwhile...call Copresco for all
your digital books and manuals on-demand printing needs.
Copresco will be closed Memorial Day, May 29. Have a great weekend.
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