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PREPARING FILES FOR OUTPUT AT TULIP GRAPHICS

Tulip Graphics accepts most major file formats including the following:    (click here for additional PDF preparation guidelines.)     Acrobat / PDF Files Adobe Photoshop Adobe InDesign Adobe Illustrator QuarkXPress Macromedia Freehand
	Sending files for full-color printing at Tulip Graphics
		The following information covers all supported applications files. For additional details on preparing PDF files, click here This information also applies to both Macintosh and PC format files. These guidelines are for 4-color (cmyk) output only. If your job requires spot color inks or spot varnishes, please contact a Tulip Customer Service Representative.
		General guidelines for layout/graphics files and fonts: If your artwork goes all the way to the edge of the page, you need to make sure you include 1/8 inch "bleed" in your artwork on all 4 sides. Make sure you include ALL font files, including fonts that are used in linked graphics. For extra insurance against font errors, you can convert fonts to paths in Illustrator or FreeHand, but this will eliminate our ability to make any late changes. Screened text can be difficult to read, especially if it is a light color or reverses out of a light color. If you are designing with colorized type, especially small type, avoid using light screens. Instead try to make screened values at least 60%, and try to make at least one of the inks (preferably cyan or magenta) 100%. Set up large areas of black coverage with the following values: 60 cyan, 40 magenta, 40 yellow, 100 black. Small black text (under 18 pt) and rules (under 6 point) should be left 100% black only. If your design requires perforations or folds, please indicate them in the bleed area of your artwork with a small tick mark. Convert all spot colors to process colors (mixes of cyan, magenta, yellow and black). Convert all RGB colors to process colors.
		General guidelines for image files: Images need to be in the cmyk colorspace. In Photoshop, look under "Image Mode" to confirm. Grayscale is also acceptable. Images should be at least 300 dpi in resolution. Look under "Image Image Size" to confirm, and make sure the image isn't enlarged more than 125% in your layout application. Lower resolutions will result in poor output quality. If you are saving images as JPEGs, make sure they are set to the highest quality compression level. If you are saving images as TIFs, do not turn on LZW compression (or tell us if you do). If you are saving files as EPS, make sure that preview is set to TIFF, 8-bits per pixel, and Encoding is set to Binary. If you are building your entire layout in Photoshop, make sure the image size is set up to include 1/8" bleed all the way around. If you are typesetting in Photoshop, avoid using type smaller than 18 pt, especially if it is to be colorized or reverse out of a colorized background. Hint: You can "Save a Copy..." as an EPS out of a Photoshop layered file and check "Include Vector Data" to maintain crisp text from a Photoshop file. This works only in version 6 or higher, and the type layer must not be rasterized. If you send us a Photoshop EPS that contains vector data, please also include the layered file that it was generated from. Set up large areas of black coverage with the following values: 60 cyan, 40 magenta, 40 yellow, 100 black. If you are creating gradients in Photoshop and are seeing banding on screen, please know that it will probably look even worse when printed. Try to avoid using subtle gradients, especially with light screens. If you do build gradients in Photoshop, it's a good idea to use the "Noise" filter to break them up a little bit. Make sure you apply the noise only to the channels that hold color. 1% Gaussian is usually sufficient.