Decide Before You Design
Before you can choose File > New Document you must make crucial decisions about the content and output of your printed design. The below, used as a checklist, can help you ask yourself and your print provider the right questions, make the right decisions, and begin your project already halfway to producing a top quality InDesign document efficiently before you've even launched InDesign.
What kind of paper are you printing on? Or are you printing on plastic, fabric, or another substrate? Each of these require special printing processes.
What is the color of the substrate (see "White isn't Always White" below)?
How heavy is the substrate?
Is it coated or uncoated?
What type(s) of ink will be used—process CMYK, premixed spot colors, Hexachrome, screenprint ink (typically for fabrics and other non-paper substrates), or another media?
Will the final piece be flat paper, multi-dimensional (like a box printed flat and then folded), or non-flat (such as directly labeling a bottle or can)?
If printed flat, will the final piece require folding or perforating?
Do any colors touch the side of the page? If so, you'll have to set up a bleed.
Will the final printed shape be a rectangle or will it require cutting dies?
If the document will be bound, how will it be bound—perfect bound like a book, saddle stitched or -stapled like many magazines, wire- or GBC-bound to lay flat when opened, or another type of binding?
Because of the binding method, what are the required inside and outside margins?
If the artwork will run ink-to-edge (bleed), what size bleed guide do you need—how far out from the page edge will you need to extend your artwork?
What is the required live area inset? (That is, how close to the edge of the page is it okay to print text or important details?)
Will you need a slug area, and, if so, what will be its dimensions?
What is the ideal image resolution?
Does the printer have a PDF Print Engine (such as APPE) which can handle native transparency, or will you need to supply a flattened PDF version?
Files to Get
Before you begin each project, ask your printer for the files listed below. The printer will have at least some of them ready, though you may not need the rest, depending upon your output options and file delivery methods.
The ICC/ICM color profile for the output device and selected substrate. This is updated frequently, so get a fresh copy for every job, for every different medium you're printing on.
While few printers want PostScript files anymore (it was an old 90s thing), if they do, ask for the output device's PPD (PostScript Printer Definition file).
If you'll be sending a PDF instead, ask for a custom PDF preset. If your printer doesn't have one, he or she should be able to tell you what settings to use in the Export to Adobe PDF dialog box. Alternately, they might tell you to use PDF/X1-a, X3, or X4, which are standard presets that ship with InDesign.
A trap preset file. It's pretty rare that the printer would have one of these for you, as they will likely prefer to handle trapping themselves, usually in- RIP. But it never hurts to ask.
Decide Before You Design
Before you can choose File > New Document you must make crucial decisions about the content and output of your printed design. The below, used as a checklist, can help you ask yourself and your print provider the right questions, make the right decisions, and begin your project already halfway to producing a top quality InDesign document efficiently before you've even launched InDesign.
What kind of paper are you printing on? Or are you printing on plastic, fabric, or another substrate? Each of these require special printing processes.
What is the color of the substrate (see "White isn't Always White" below)?
How heavy is the substrate?
Is it coated or uncoated?
What type(s) of ink will be used—process CMYK, premixed spot colors, Hexachrome, screenprint ink (typically for fabrics and other non-paper substrates), or another media?
Will the final piece be flat paper, multi-dimensional (like a box printed flat and then folded), or non-flat (such as directly labeling a bottle or can)?
If printed flat, will the final piece require folding or perforating?
Do any colors touch the side of the page? If so, you'll have to set up a bleed.
Will the final printed shape be a rectangle or will it require cutting dies?
If the document will be bound, how will it be bound—perfect bound like a book, saddle stitched or -stapled like many magazines, wire- or GBC-bound to lay flat when opened, or another type of binding?
Because of the binding method, what are the required inside and outside margins?
If the artwork will run ink-to-edge (bleed), what size bleed guide do you need—how far out from the page edge will you need to extend your artwork?
What is the required live area inset? (That is, how close to the edge of the page is it okay to print text or important details?)
Will you need a slug area, and, if so, what will be its dimensions?
What is the ideal image resolution?
Does the printer have a PDF Print Engine (such as APPE) which can handle native transparency, or will you need to supply a flattened PDF version?
Files to Get
Before you begin each project, ask your printer for the files listed below. The printer will have at least some of them ready, though you may not need the rest, depending upon your output options and file delivery methods.
The ICC/ICM color profile for the output device and selected substrate. This is updated frequently, so get a fresh copy for every job, for every different medium you're printing on.
While few printers want PostScript files anymore (it was an old 90s thing), if they do, ask for the output device's PPD (PostScript Printer Definition file).
If you'll be sending a PDF instead, ask for a custom PDF preset. If your printer doesn't have one, he or she should be able to tell you what settings to use in the Export to Adobe PDF dialog box. Alternately, they might tell you to use PDF/X1-a, X3, or X4, which are standard presets that ship with InDesign.
A trap preset file. It's pretty rare that the printer would have one of these for you, as they will likely prefer to handle trapping themselves, usually in- RIP. But it never hurts to ask.
Before you can choose File > New Document you must make crucial decisions about the content and output of your printed design. The below, used as a checklist, can help you ask yourself and your print provider the right questions, make the right decisions, and begin your project already halfway to producing a top quality InDesign document efficiently before you've even launched InDesign.
What kind of paper are you printing on? Or are you printing on plastic, fabric, or another substrate? Each of these require special printing processes.
What is the color of the substrate (see "White isn't Always White" below)?
How heavy is the substrate?
Is it coated or uncoated?
What type(s) of ink will be used—process CMYK, premixed spot colors, Hexachrome, screenprint ink (typically for fabrics and other non-paper substrates), or another media?
Will the final piece be flat paper, multi-dimensional (like a box printed flat and then folded), or non-flat (such as directly labeling a bottle or can)?
If printed flat, will the final piece require folding or perforating?
Do any colors touch the side of the page? If so, you'll have to set up a bleed.
Will the final printed shape be a rectangle or will it require cutting dies?
If the document will be bound, how will it be bound—perfect bound like a book, saddle stitched or -stapled like many magazines, wire- or GBC-bound to lay flat when opened, or another type of binding?
Because of the binding method, what are the required inside and outside margins?
If the artwork will run ink-to-edge (bleed), what size bleed guide do you need—how far out from the page edge will you need to extend your artwork?
What is the required live area inset? (That is, how close to the edge of the page is it okay to print text or important details?)
Will you need a slug area, and, if so, what will be its dimensions?
What is the ideal image resolution?
Does the printer have a PDF Print Engine (such as APPE) which can handle native transparency, or will you need to supply a flattened PDF version?
Files to Get
Before you begin each project, ask your printer for the files listed below. The printer will have at least some of them ready, though you may not need the rest, depending upon your output options and file delivery methods.
The ICC/ICM color profile for the output device and selected substrate. This is updated frequently, so get a fresh copy for every job, for every different medium you're printing on.
While few printers want PostScript files anymore (it was an old 90s thing), if they do, ask for the output device's PPD (PostScript Printer Definition file).
If you'll be sending a PDF instead, ask for a custom PDF preset. If your printer doesn't have one, he or she should be able to tell you what settings to use in the Export to Adobe PDF dialog box. Alternately, they might tell you to use PDF/X1-a, X3, or X4, which are standard presets that ship with InDesign.
A trap preset file. It's pretty rare that the printer would have one of these for you, as they will likely prefer to handle trapping themselves, usually in- RIP. But it never hurts to ask.
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