Conventional Prepress - Guidelines for Input Media

To avoid schedule delays and additional charges, please submit all specifications and copy together, including art, illustration negatives, digital files, and any needed proofs.

Provide a pagination list that notes frontmatter pages, part openers, unfolioed and blank pages, index pages, tips, wraps and inserts with your specifications. Include all special instructions, such as those that pertain to screens and dropouts.

Be sure to supply head and gutter margins with all disks, negatives or copy. Pages with non-standard format require accurate corner marks to indicate placement by head or gutter. Use reproducible (black or red) ink to note corner marks on your reflective copy.

Please be sure to note the existence of bleeds as part of your print specifications. (Note: A bleed is any image that prints to the trim, or is less than 3/8" from the trim edge.) Bleed images require a larger paper size than non-bleed images for the same trim size. Therefore, bleed pages must be identified in advance so that the proper sheet size can be ordered. Extend the trim by 1/8" on all bleed pages.

Please transmit all text copy at the same time, including frontmatter and backmatter. Note that all copy is shot at 100%, unless otherwise noted as a percentage clearly marked on the copy. Supply the copy in single pages. Any pages received after film is created will be billed as corrections.

Please be aware that only one average exposure is used to shoot each job. Line art, screen lines or copydotted halftones requiring other exposures would be charged individually.

Blank space around type for reflective copy (mechanicals and repro) should be no less than 1/2" on all sides.

Copy larger than 20" x 25" at Maple and 30" x 44" at Vail is beyond our parameters to shoot, and requires subcontracting at additional cost, as well as longer processing time.

All two-color copy must be plainly marked to differentiate color breaks in non-reproducible blue pencil on reflective copy. Clearly written instructions for common elements (such as chapter opening pages) is a satisfactory alternative.

When tissue or acetate overlays are used to indicate style, more than three repetitions of one pattern will incur additional charges.

When acetate overlays are used, please provide register marks on both base copy and overlay.

Please indicate screened text background by rubylith overlays or windows cut in correct position to the reflective copy.

On reflective artwork, please indicate final size as a percentage of the original, including any required reduction or enlargement of text copy.

Identify reflective art by figure number and/or page number, using reproducible (black or red) pencil or individual tags. An art log noting placement, percentage of reduction or enlargement, and whether each is to be shot as a halftone or as line art is helpful.

Note that if artwork is to be reproduced from a bound book, the book will be cut apart unless requested otherwise. If the book must remain intact, additional processing cost will be incurred.

Indicate the size and placement of illustrations by exact size FPOs or ruled boxes with figure numbers. It is satisfactory to supply illustration corner marks (tic marks) for FPO prints or black boxes in the exact size for proper placement.

If ruled boxes on copy are used to indicate placement of illustrations, please note whether the rules are to print. Specify the weight of any rules that will print when the illustration is supplied for scanning.

Please note that illustrations will be considered combinations if line art or text is within an illustration, or if the text, such as a photo credit line, is 1/8" or less from the illustration window.

Note that illustrations larger than 11-1/2" x 17", transparencies (slides), and continuous tone negatives may require extra processing time if they need to be subcontracted to an outside source.

Unless you request otherwise, all halftones from art will be shot at 133 line screen and at a 45° angle.

Any supplied film halftones may be subject to photoprints being made and billed; consult with your Sales Representative or CSR prior to providing film.

Be sure that all negatives without bleeds are trimmed no closer than 3/8" from any image area and no larger than the trim size.

On two-color negatives, identify each page by color and page number outside the image area. Normal convention is to have the identification reversed out of the solid, circled for deletion, and positioned at the bottom outside edge of each negative.

Supply register marks on two-color negatives within the trim size of the negative film, but out of the image area. Registration marks should be consistent for the entire book and positioned on the top, on the thumb edge, and on the foot trim of each page. Do not double-burn or drop them out of the image area.

If supplying two- or four-page negative film images to be tiled, ask for a Maple-Vail imposition from your CSR. Image a center cross-hair registration mark to provide a 3/16" head trim for web titles and a 1/8" head trim for sheetfed titles. Confirm that the head and gutter margins on the negative film tiles match the written specifications for the title.

All specifications from the previous section, Single Page Negative Film, apply to supplied imposed negative film flats.

Supply imposed negatives plate ready as one piece (cropped) composite per color in exact register, stripped to a stable base, hard-dot carrier.

Please supply negative film in eight page units or larger to Maple-Vail imposition, with register marks and fold marks clearly imaged and opaqued as needed. Your Customer Service Representative will provide the proper imposition template for each specific title upon request. Imposition templates include placement of color bars, dot gain scales and pins. Supplied negative film flats that do not conform to our specifications will require adjustments at additional costs, including complete restripping if not imposed properly and punched to our pin register system.

Impose your title on single-burn negative film flats. Double-burn negative film flats will require special pricing, and limit Maple-Vail's ability to ensure proper page registration and backup.

Please do remember that jobs which possess full bleed pages require larger size sheets for the same trim size. It is necessary to compensate for bleeds on two-page spreads for grindoff papercovers by 1/8" so that important image areas in the gutter are not lost.

Rev. 09/01

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