printing brochure... help!

ChicoMendez

Hi,
Ive got a brochure designed by someone that has left me up s**t's creek. Now i gotta find a printer. As i dont want to be talking nonsense to the printer i tought id ask ye lads some questions first.

I have 4xA4 to be printed in full color (basically A3 front and back). I want the paper to be nice but not too expensive. Do I have to give weight specs of the paper? Does it matter if a provide a QXD or PDF?
Can any one phrase my quote request with all ur designer lingo please!

Tnx

Figment

You need to ask your printer what formats they will accept the file in.
Am i right in thinking that you are PC based? if so then you will have problems with fonts and the printer will be Mac based. In which case a PDf will be better format for you.

Whats the brochure to be used for. How heavy/light/strong do you want it to be? magazine cover strength? photocopy paper strength?

ChicoMendez

no not photocopy paper strength.
a bit stronger... with a glossy look!

will the fact that i give him pdf (as opposed to qxd) in anyway sacrifice quality?


i had the qxd (v5) originally in mac but when i opened it to do changes it converted it to pc. is ther any way of converting it back?
if i send the pc version to a lad with mac will quark auto change it into mac format like it did for pc?

tnx alot for ur help

Figment

You are talking about 150 gram paper. Ask for glossy.

It depends on what fonts you used. If you use the common ones that are also on a mac the there will be no problem with them opening it. With a quark file make sure that you have all the images at cmyk and bundled with the file you send as quark doesnt embed images, just reference them.

PDF is not lower quality. You can set the quality. Be sure to set up the PDF for press.

ChicoMendez

how do i set up the pdf for press?
got any good link that will show me how to do it?

tnx

Figment

How are you creating it? Acrobat?

ChicoMendez

from quark ill export as pdf

Figment

Sorry, i dont know the new quark at all and the old quark couldnt export for PDF.

In Indesign its as easy as selecting "export for press" but thats probably no help.

ChicoMendez

Figment,

I've just been fiddling with quark and yes i use Adobe (distiller) to print out a pdf.

What do i do then?
do i select Press for Conversion settings??

anything else important?

tnx

Figment

Embed fonts, make sure all image are high enough resolution and CMYK and specify bleed and crop marks if any.

DadaKopf

I think they helped you out on www.creativeireland.com