Making PDFS for Newpapers in InDesign

Welcome aboard.

That's a lot of info you're asking for - I would suggest you discuss the situation with the individual printers. They probably have settings they would prefer you use and can send you a pdf file with screen shots of whatever programs you use to show you exactly how they want the files prepped for their particular imagesetters.

Generally - however - you set the image resolution in whatever program you use to make the pdfs. The image resolution should be 1-1/2 to 2 times the final linescreen you desire (so 100lpi = 150-200dpi images). The actual linescreen will be set at the imagesetter - the film or plates your printer uses to make the final piece. So you don't have to be concerned with that anymore (and you can probably use the same settings on multiple files if the only difference is linescreen).

Dot gain and ink density can be set or adjusted in many ways. I personally set mine in Photoshop and then tell my pdf program to ignore it so the psd settings flow thru untouched. But that's an old school way to do it and I'm not sure if that's recommended these days - again - ask whoever is printing your final piece. They can tell you how much gain (30% is ridiculous, btw) and how to address it for your particular job.

Hope that helped.

ADR hits many points spot on.

PPI = 1-1/2 to 2 times LPI. Generally, everyone uses x2. I like to use the term PPI (Pixels Per Inch) rather than DPI (Dots Per Inch). I just think it's a more accurate term.

30%TVI (Tonal Value Increase, usually known as Dot Gain) for Newsprint is indeed too high. In the days before desktop publishing, when presses did the separations themselves, 30%TVI was probably accurate. Today, I believe it is closer to 26%, likely because Newspapers was being given separations for U.S Web SWOP with the shadow points pulled back to 240%TAC (Tonal Value Increase, formally known as Ink Density). 26% became a reasonable compromise from the 22%TVI of SWOP and the 30% of Newsprint.

It's true creating curves in Photoshop is a bit old school, but for most designers, it's the only tool available to them.

Asullivan will likely be publishing ads to multiple newspapers. Many of which really have no idea what to tell you if you ask for print specs or an ICC Profile. However, try this profile from www.color.org. http://www.color.org/registry/SNAP_2007.xalter

SNAP stands for 'Specifications for Newsprint Advertising Production'. It's like SWOP, but for Newsprint. Briefly, this is how you use the ICC profile,

Be sure to place the SNAP2007 profile in your profiles folder so it's available to all applications. Open every graphic file in the ad that is going to Newsprint and CONVERT into the SNAP2007 profile (under the File Menu in Photoshop).

This will automatically bring the TVI to 26% and the TAC to 240%. Save your files with '-TAC240' in the file name. These are the images that you'll want to place in the layout and send to the press.

If you do in-house proofs, remember to make a queue in your inkjet RIP using the SNAP2007. You don't want to see how prints separated for Newsprint behave when sent to SWOP press. You want to send Newsprint separations to Newsprint proofers.

Cheers and much luck.

DOH! Yes I made the classic mistake - mixing my dpis with my ppis. There is a VERY REAL difference between the two which we cannot stress enough because I see this mistake on the board here all the time (someone once even argued that there was NO difference). Just for clarification's sake...

DPI (dots per inch) is the measurement of a printer's output capability OR what appears on the actual printed page. IE: "My printer prints up to 600dpi" or "The image on this page was printed at 300dpi"

PPI (pixels per inch) "Pixel" is short for "picture element" which tells you exactly what it is - the individual square elements that make up an entire raster image. It is an entirely different animal than a "dot". Go into photoshop - enlarge until you see only the squares that compose the art - those are the actual pixels. PPI is exactly what it says - how many pixels can fit in an inch of the graphic in question.

The common misconception is the pixels are actually printed on the final piece (ergo pixels = dots). No - you are NOT printing the pixels when you go to the imagesetter. The imagesetter is using them to create the dots (dpi) that will actually end up on the page.

Good catch there, Cao.

I think we pick up from others without even thinking about it - she asked about dpi and I answered in dpi. This is how the problem gets started and spreads so easily. But on a board like this, we really should take the time to be accurate since we're supposed to know what we're talking about.

Thanks for your reply. I did indeed break down and ask to be sent a preset or for them to let me know if I can just send them a pdf exported out of InDesign or if I have to run it through distiller (which I haven't had to do in book publishing for about 10 years). I'm excited to report that half the production depts. for the printers got back to me and said as long as I send in a high quality pdf, I don't have to set any specific stuff (which was my thinking in the first place). From that, I assume as long as I sumbit a high quality editable pdf, then the final output to plate process would make the final adjustments.

Why they give all those requirements in their spec sheet is beyond me, I guess to give them an out should the print job not look good. I am going to submit my pdfs as high Quality print (unless you can give me a setting that you think would be best) and see if they get rejected from those production depts I did not hear back from.

The person I am replacing is retiring, and she has been her quark files in distiller and manually setting the requirements for each printer spec sheet then saving a pdf. But, seeing that she was using Quark 4 (I abandoned Quark at version 6 for InDesign over 7 years ago and I did not recognize the program as "Quark" when I saw her working....it only had a handful of tools in the tool bar....YIKES!) Anyway, seeing that lead me to assume her pdf making process might be outdated too, just a bit. And thank heavens I asked.

I appreciate the profile. I will read up about it and see about plugging it into use. It will be good to know my images will have automatic adjustments/limits for ink density, etc. I am not sure this company would notice any difference because they often use images pulled from the internet for product they have in their stores (YIKES! What am I getting myself into...It's hurts so bad just thinking about it!) and run a one time only ad in many different papers statewide. I am doing my best to get the largest image I can find and use unsharp mask to help boost it's clarity (what else can I do?)

Can I use the profile for grayscale and get the same density limits? Or would I need a different profile for grayscale then cmyk?

I am so stressing about this, probably for no real good reason, the person retiring doesn't seem to worry about how the final ad looks, her attitude is "it's just advertising" YIKES! I just know I wont sleep at night unless I know I've done it right.

First thing, grayscale....

SNAP2006 profile won't help with making a grayscale. In this case I'd do what ArtDirector does and create a manual grayscale profile in Photoshop using 26TVI and convert the images over.

Secondly, I do not believe PDF presets would contain 'convert to profile' functionality. In other words, images separated to 300TAC, 22TVI would still be the same after the PDF is created.

If I'm reading you correctly, you're only doing a grayscale ad.

If so, the only thing for it is simply not worry and let it go as is. At least for the first run.

Seriously, running 'as is' guarantees your ad won't look any worse than any other ad and you've obeyed the instructions from the pressmen. Full CYA. Important thing that. Furthermore, it's exactly what the guy did before he retired. Consistency is a good thing in this case.

However, if you want to, I'd evaluate the job after it's printed and see if it looks too dark. If it is, then it probably makes sense to tweak up to a 26TVI grayscale separation for your next run.

Keep in mind, newsprint printing is like unfurling a roll of toilet paper at the speed of sound and attempting to print pictures on it. Dot gain varies widely. As much as 5% up or down. Newsprint is never 'right' by any reasonable standard so we have to accept we can only control so much. Still, we can increase our chances.

Hey, it's only advertising. Good luck! ;-)

I'll be making the same ads in both color and grayscale. Thanks for the info. I realize I need to really investigate this....mainly for a clearer understanding of the info you are presenting me, probably by finding some tutorials on image prep for newsprint. Any suggestions?

You're overthinking this imho. Cao had it right - run one ad and if something goes wrong - THEN worry. Your printer can be a huge help in this respect and - believe me - he WANTS clients who ask questions and want to do it right. The people in their graphics department will walk you thru any problems. Besides that - this is one of those Ron Popeil things... set it and forget it. If your company has been getting along fine with the ads so far, chances are you don't need to adjust anything anyway - it's all set up ready to go. I sincerely doubt you need to read any books on this matter.

Consult your printer, listen to him - then go have a drink or two at happy hour.

Ha Ha. Actually, the owners and managers all are telling me how excited they are to see someone with more experience, so the quality will be improved. (I may be a more experienced designer, but unfortunately, I am not up on output with today's technology. But I have past experience (though it be way back in the days of 4 color stripping), but I remember how tricky it was to get good contrast on newsprint, and especially in grayscale.

And of course the first ads I have to turn next week are for a grand opening ad campaign for a new store, so the same ad will be going out to ALL medias (Color & B&W newspapers, high end slick coated paper magazine, low budget uncoated paper magazines, postcards printed to a laser printer) which all require different image treatments to yeild the same result. And of course, everyone will be wanting to see the ads when they come out, so I feel a bit nervous to at least apply correct settings when doing the images for the different output, so I get decent results and consistent results.

For the last 15 years I have been dealing with LARGE printers who send profiles and presets so I have had little concern as to output...and I also had a prepress department that made adjustments for final outputs in most cases for me, or I sent high quality pdfs or packaged live design files and the printers took care of it...I have been spoiled all these years. But like I said earlier, I worked doing newprint and magazine ads prior to that, and know what poor results you get if you don't adjust images for the paper it is printed on.

Today I visited my friend Lynda.com and found a tutorial on Photoshop CS5: Prepress and Printing. It was good to see many of the color correction methods I do are still current (phew). And learned a few new extra things that have been added since CS3 (which is what I was using...the company bought me CS5.

One question I have is. When I have converted my photoshop images and done my corrections, what file format should I save them as? Is it OK to save as a psd file, which I'd prefer, or should I save them out as Tiffs or photoshop pdfs to place in the InDesign document? I'll be making my final PDF from there.

Thanks a lot i got some help..thanks everyone..

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