Product Description

THE KEY TO SUCCESSFUL PRINT PRODUCTION is an understanding of the entire workflow, from scanning and file creation through prepress and print production. Fully updated by author and publishing consultant Brian Lawler, The Official Adobe Print Publishing Guide, Second Edition, brings together the collective knowledge and wisdom of the experts at Adobe Systems in a simple, elegant presentation of the fundamental concepts and issues related to producing high-quality printed output. The book includes succinct, expertly illustrated explanations of the basic concepts and terminology of print production, along with Adobe’s tried and true guidelines, tips, and checklists for ensuring a successful print job.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #143995 in Books
• Published on: 2005-11-04
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 200 pages

Amazon.com Review
This well-written, full-color guide from Adobe teaches managers and designers the relevant issues and problems that need to be considered with any professional-level print job. It helps weigh the benefits of doing particular tasks yourself against assigning them to a prepress professional. The first chapter describes color, print, and prepress terms; computer graphics; and various printing processes. Next, the guide explains how to construct a publication, teaching you about color-management systems, special printing techniques, color correction, registration, resolution, dot gain, scanning, duotones and tritones, and vector graphics. This section introduces you to image editing, interpolation, graphic file formats, type, and font formats. The third chapter discusses how to convert to Postscript, color proof, print via the Web, and archive files in PDF form. The final chapter focuses on project-management guidelines: you assess your budget, schedule, and other goals and consider prepress tasks, vendors, printers, page-layout files, and file-handoff checklists. Each chapter ends with a case study that explores the decision-making processes behind the production of an award-winning publication. An appendix provides a table of Postscript error messages, their meaning, and common solutions. A second appendix displays process-color charts, and a glossary of printing, desktop-publishing, and computer-graphics terms rounds out the book. --Kathleen Caster

From the Back Cover
Official Adobe Print Publishing Guide explores the processes and issues involved in preparing color publications for reproduction on a commercial printing press -- a set of tasks known as the prepress process. Such tasks, previously only performed by skilled professionals, can now be accomplished by a wider range of people using the desktop. This book introduces the flexibility and direct control offered by this new technology and outlines the issues involved in preparing electronic files for commercial printing. It also gives information on when to perform a prepress task and when it is better to leave it in the hands of a prepress professional.

About the Author

Brian Lawler founded Tintype Graphic Arts in San Luis Obispo, CA, in 1973. Since 1992, he has worked as a consultant to the graphic arts industry, specializing in prepress and color management subjects. Currently, he is a featured lecturer in the Graphic Communication Department at Cal Poly in addition to his active consulting practice.

Customer Reviews

New to print? You need this book
I know a teeny tiny bit of print. Spot colours - hmm I did know that one, but since I don't do much print (or haven't til this year) I was always at a loss when it came ready for the printer. This book is an essential guide for the non print designer.

Terms, project proofing, even what a colour bar is (you know that strip of colour on the prepress and press proofs?) - it's all covered. There is a world of difference between making something for screen and print. If you have ever had someone ask to have a business card made, or a more complex print piece, and you usually export a 300 dpi TIFF and hope for the best this book helps take you further. Every introductory design course, not just a print course, should be covering this book to ensure that designers are well versed in all the verbage, processes and production issues that print demands.

A great chapter in this book covers project management which most will not think of to be in a book like this. The added value of having this chapter allows one who is not familiar with print to understand ones responsibilities to the client, the printer and themselves. Do not waste time creating something the client may love and the printer will not deliver - at your quoted budget anyway. It all intertwines and knowing what questions to ask is the key to a better project. And don't forget that File Checkoff List.

Not what I'd expected.
This book wasn't what I'd expected from the reviews. It is largely a reference guide and less of a learning resource. Definitions are presented clearly, but then the application of things wasn't fully explained. For someone new to print publishing, this isn't a 'how-to' guide. It's more of a reference material and to discover new things about print publishing you may not have known about. I would recommend this tentatively to anyone who wants to bulk up their reference library on print publishing, but wouldn't recommend it to a absolute beginner wanting to know more about print publishing.

Every graphic designer needs this book!
This book was better than I had ever expected! I am a recent graduate and working in graphic design, and throughout school they never taught us much about pre-press. Now that I have to send my jobs to a commercial printer I realized that there was a lot that I had to learn. This book is great - it has interesting graphics and is set up in a way that makes it easy to read. It is a great tool for the beginner who needs to learn more about pre-press and printing issues, as well as the experienced designer for whom this would make an excellent resource book. It goes through the printing process and explains all aspects of pre-press, including how you should prepare your graphics before sending them off to a commercial printer and what you should leave for them to do for you. It also explains how to cut costs with your projects. I guarantee that no matter what your skill level, this book will become an important piece in your design library.