WORKING WITH YOUR GRAPHIC DESIGNER©

Outlined below are general suggestions that will help you prepare and proof documents for layout and typesetting of annual reports, capability statements, manuals and other complex documents for which you are providing the copy. You may know this information already or some of it may not apply to you, but bear with us. If your document is prepared in this way, it will help us to give you a cost effective, high quality and accurate job within the established schedule. If some of it is not possible, just let us know, so we can accommodate you. Thank you!

GRAPHICS

Photos should be supplied as slides or photo prints that we, or the printer will scan. Attach the name of the figure, e.g., <Chapter 1, Figure 1: Aerospace Plane>, to the photo on a separate piece of paper that is taped to the back of the photo. Group the photos together in chapters or sections.

Safety tip: Don’t write on the back of the photo in ballpoint or felt tip pen. Ballpoint indentation shows up on the front of the photo, and felt tip smears and wind up on the front of your photo.

Digital files for offset printing should be 300 dpi. The scans should be close to the same size they are to be used in the document or somewhat larger. 72 dpi files can be used for offset printing only if they are 4 or 5 times larger than they will appear in the printed document and are of good quality (not a “dirty” or pixilated image.

We prefer photos as TIFF images and cannot accept photos pasted into word documents. They should be straight photo files.

Important safety tip: It violates intellectual property rights to copy photos from other companies’ web sites. You must have permission from the owner of the image to use it in your document or on your web site.

Charts and graphs
Editable Adobe Illustrator or Macromedia Freehand vector files.

COPY

Clean approved copy
Please give us clean copy that has gone through your entire approval process.
Our pricing is based on this assumption. Approved copy reduces the amount of time we spend on revisions. If we start the layout with rough copy, then get the approved copy at a later date, we have to go back and reformat the copy, doubling the work. This is possible, but we must revise our price and charge accordingly.

Please provide us with all the copy at one time.

If you can’t get copy approved all at once, provide copy to us in major sections, preferably in order from front to back. In the case of multiple publications, giving us one complete publication including text, photos and art at one time is mandatory.

Spreadsheets
Supply in Microsoft Excel.

Hard copy
Please provide one printout of your Microsoft Word document and any spread sheets, in color if needed.

COPY PREPARATION

When you prepare a Microsoft Word document, there are ways of formatting your document that simplify typesetting for the designers at LSDI.

1. Prepare an accurate Table of Contents for all long documents. Exactly match the headings in the Table of Contents with the section, chapter and subchapter heads in your document files. This will act as an outline for your designer as well as for the reader.

2. An example of document formatting would be:

Document title—24 point Arial Bold
Section heads—20 point Arial bold
Chapter heads—16 point Arial bold
Subhead level one—14 point Arial bold
Subhead level two—12 point Arial bold
Subhead level three—10 point Arial bold
Run-in head—10 point Arial bold formatted as run-in
Body—10 point Times Regular with bold, italic and bold italic as needed

To obtain a visual example of the formatting that works best for Linda Sherman Design, you can download either a Word Document or PDF for reference.

3. Type all copy left justified, one return between paragraphs, one space, not two, after sentences. Each chapter, introduction, glossary, etc. should be its own Word file.

Do not type in caps unless the copy MUST be in caps. We can’t change Word caps to upper and lowercase in Quark.
Do not format text in columns.
Don’t put hard returns at the end of every line, only at the end of paragraphs.
When using bullets or numbers, please type the bullet character. If you use the bullet or numbering formatting tool in Word, it comes into Quark as a different character, or no bullet at all.
Use tabs, not the space bar, when creating tables.
Don’t use page breaks unless you are using it as a dummy tool to show exactly what goes on each page.
Do not put text in text boxes. When we import text, the text boxes are lost.
Authors notes to designer within the document should be in carats and in bold and in a color, such as <box begin> and <box end>
If you are using special or scientific symbols, be aware that they sometimes disappear or change when they are imported from Word into Quark. It is very helpful if you type words in brackets that we can search and replace such as <<non-breaking space>> or <<Greek Symbol Capital Delta>>. This helps to clarify things for the designer, thereby reducing errors.
Indicate the location of a photo within the text by using a naming convention such as <Chapter 1, Figure 1: Aerospace Plane> in bold and in a color. Then name your figures the same thing.
Place all the captions at the end of each chapter, labeling them the same as their corresponding figure or photo.
The document layout will change, don’t put locators such as “see figure on the next page.” Use “See Fig. 1 on page xx.” We will insert the correct page number.

Three proofs are included in the price of the job. If you have provided clean copy, the first proof will have the most changes, the second proof will have far fewer and the third proof should have only a few minor corrections. Since we have a professional proofreader on staff, our proofs will be as clean as possible. If there are layout changes to be made, ideally, they should be discussed with the designer after the client receives the first proof. These changes will appear on the second proof. Making changes between proofs as you think of them complicates the typesetting and layout process and may result in additional charges.

Proof one: You will receive a proof as hardcopy or by PDF.

IF MAKING CHANGES ON A HARDCOPY BY HAND:

Mark all changes on the proof in RED pen (unless faxing changes, then use black pen).
Print all corrections to assure readability.
After you are done proofing, make a copy of your corrections. Since much proofing is now done by transferring PDF's, keeping a copy of your corrections can save messenger or FedEx charges. If we are providing a hardcopy for the second proof, we will automatically include the corrections with the proof, but it’s best to make a copy anyway.
If you need to change an entire paragraph or section, please provide a new Word document for just that section. Do NOT submit a Word document with “track changes” because it can cause transfer problems between Word and Quark Xpress.

IF MAKING EDITS ON THE PDF:
If you use the little yellow “notes” markers, we can print out your changes and corrections and have a visual reference of the document as well.

Proofs two and three follow the same procedures.

SIGN OFFS

Before release of the job to the client or the printer, the client is required to sign our Pre-press Approval Form that indicates the job is complete to their satisfaction and that Linda Sherman Design is released from further responsibility for any errors that might have been missed by the client or their associates. The form will include the date, time and place of delivery and other pertinent information.

You may be asked to sign off on the proof provided by the printer.