More Preflight Profiles

So far we have discussed Color, Transparency, Resolution, and Spot Colors. In this section we are going to talk about fonts and glyphs as well as trim and bleed settings.


Notice that I've only checked Font Missing and Glyph Missing and right above that, just out of the screenshot, is Overset Text. I purposefully did not check dynamic spelling (kind of a nightmare when used as a preflight profile) or anything to do with styles or types of fonts not allowed but you may want to consider these for projects. By choosing Glyph missing I am tagging something that burned me once. I used a dot leader from one type face while my copy was in another typeface and that turned into a nightmare. Glyph characters can be very useful but typically may only be one character in a string of text.

In the next section I'm going to talk about "live matter."


Notice how I've created a trim hazard 1/4 inch from the trim edge (the size of the document). InDesign defaults to a 1/2 inch margin but I find the 1/4 a more useful reminder. Nothing that must be in the final print can be outside of this line (except for full bleed images). Page numbers, inset photos, text frames, etc... all must be inside of the trim hazard or else they may lose part or all of their appendages. That being said, the bleed section, below, is just as important.


The standard bleed is 1/8 inch on the top, bottom, and outside edge of a facing pages document. It would be 1/8 inch on all 4 sides of single page documents. Any image the you want to be trimmed must be pulled out to the bleed line. Failing to do this may result in a white strip as part of your page.

When you create a new document in InDesign you create it at the size it will be trimmed to. Placing a business card on an 8.5x11 document is just crazy. If you follow rules that keep live matter 1/4 away from the trim and use 1/8 bleed you should have no problem, even if the paper shuffles a full 3/8 of an inch.

One more thing to remember is adding Printer's marks. If the offset for Printer's marks is less than the 1/8 bleed (and by default it is), then your marks could end up in your final print. Take the time to change the marks to offset at least 1/8 inch

Preflight Profiles Continued

The above graphic shows tags for Profiles and scaling of placed objects. With the mention of the International Color Consortium (ICC) many eyes start to glaze over. What is an ICC profile and how do you use it? ICC profiles are a set of standards that are agreed upon by about 70 vendors attempting to bring consistency between devices. When an image is taken with a digital camera, downloaded to a computer, manipulated with software, and sent to a printer there is some chain of command that dictates the transition of that file from one medium to another. There are many variables and the conversion of one profile to another has many other variables. Suffice it to say that if your printer has a profile for you to use then use it.

Notice the first item is non-proportional scaling. When you drag the corner of an object to shrink it down and don't use the shift key you and skew or squash the object. Sometimes even when using the shift key if you let your finger off the key a fraction of a second before you unclick then the file may be skewed. The contextual pop-up menu (by right clicking or control clicking) can bring up the "fitting" menu (along with edits, transforms, effects...) and one option that may help is fill frame proportionally.


The next section on Resolution, the above graphic is sure to stir controversy. 300 ppi (Pixels Per Inch) has been the standard for many years and still should be. However, depending on the output method, the subject matter of the photography, the physical size of the place image, and the source of the file this may not be realistic. A crowded shot of a Victorian home my be fine at 200 ppi but sagging telephone lines against a clear blue sky may look jagged and pixelated at that resolution. The biggest problem I usually see is that an image placed from Photoshop at 2x3 inches at 300 is often scaled up to 4x6 inches in InDesign. As the image size doubles the effective resolution drops to 150 ppi from 300 ppi.

Taking a small image in Photoshop and scaling it up to a larger size, while leaving the resample button checked, is only adding pixels based on their neighbors. It would be like taking a neighborhood of 100 homes and doubling it to 200 homes but using cardboard cut-outs instead of actually building new homes. Not a good idea!

Preflight Profile

Creating a preflight profile is a good way to manage your files for print. You can tag resolution, color space, fonts, links, trim and bleed, etc... The following is a discussion on some of the settings you may want to consider when creating a preflight profile in Adobe InDesign. Of course you will want to check with your printer to make sure these values are appropriate or they may even have a profile they can send you.

One of the first sections you can check off is the links section. In addition to issuing a warning about missing links you can also flag the transparency blending space. The Transparency Blending Space is the color space (RGB or CMYK) that all colors in the document must be in order to insure consistency. If you are going to use blending modes, drop shadows, Bevels, Gradient Feathers, etc... you need to understand how that object will interact with the other elements on the page. Type can be unintentionally rasterized if it is too close to an object with transparency (for this reason it is a good idea to have ALL type on a separate layer and have the type layer on the top of the stacking order, in the layers palette).


Color is always an issue and many printers no longer want "native" file formats and will only accept PDF files for print. That being said, I cannot tell you how many discussions I have had with students about color and how many complaints I have fielded about the printer ruining a project... Designers just remember that as much as you complain about how printers are destroying your projects; Printers are laughing about your lack of print savvy!

When I teach Photoshop I tell my students to always work in RGB, even if the final destination is print! Why, because CMYK and Photoshop layers are not always on good terms, because you won't be able to use your plastic wrap filter, because not all of your adjustment layers are available, because none of your digital photography profiles will match your color space... The list goes on and on. I teach my students to work in RGB and when they are done save their RGB file and maintain their layers. THEN flatten a version of that file and convert to CMYK. So the result is a file in RGB space with layers intact that can be edited if need be and a flattened version in CMYK that can be placed in InDesign. Why go to all this trouble? If you convert to CMYK in Photoshop you have a better color engine and you won't be surprised. Also if you convert the flattened file you will marry all of your composites AND blending modes change from RGB to CMYK so it's best to "bake" the look into a flattened file. Finally, if you start with RGB, with it's larger color gamut, you will have a more vibrant image for your website (because of course you are going to use this piece for print and web...).

Spot colors are a different story. You will notice that my profile only allows for one spot color. Your project may have more but I have seen files with 25 spot colors (not intentionally). Be aware that when you specify a Pantone color for a swatch that you can choose spot or process and process, for the most part, is the way to go.

I also have warnings for overprinting and registration. You NEVER use registration in a project. It is there to be used by the software to print the Printer's Marks and is mixed from 100% of CMYK. No paper can hold 400% ink but on a tiny registration mark it does the trick. If you need a "rich" black ask your printer. An example would be C 70% M 40% Y 30% K 100% and this would only be used on large background areas and never for type (unless it's huge).

Overprinting is tricky. By default when you place one color on top of another the top color "knocks out" the bottom color, where they overlap. If you apply a blending mode like multiply of you set the Attributes of an object to overprint you and telling InDesign to let these objects blend. All ink is somewhat translucent so blue over yellow will produce green. If you do this it is importing to turn on Overprint Preview from the view menu. Lastly, white or paper is not a color in off set printing so be careful on how you use it. In general it is the color of the paper so if you paper is not white neither will the swatches assigned to paper be white.

What is Over Printing?

Overprinting is a technique that allows you to set the color of one object to mix with colors below that object. For example, without overprinting, a magenta object placed over a cyan background knocks out the cyan and prints as magenta. But with overprinting turned on, the magenta object mixes with the cyan background to create blue.