Product Description

Translating inspiration to the printed page has always been a challenge. The advent of desktop publishing granted new levels of power and control to the layout artist and graphic designer, but it hasn’t eliminated the traditional pitfalls. In fact, it’s introduced a few new ones. Sometimes managing the disparate elements of fonts, images, colors, and more, while dealing with the quirks of various layout applications makes even the bravest designer and production editor long for the hands-on days of moveable type. Creating a great layout on your monitor is only half the battle; how do you make it work on paper? Print production expert Claudia McCue takes on the challenge of putting ink to paper, offering clear, authoritative guidance to print professionals and anyone else who has been frustrated by the obstacles of getting electronic documents to print perfectly. In this book, you’ll learn how to

• Get the most out of page layout programs such as Adobe InDesign and QuarkXPress, and decide which is right for your needs
• Use image applications such as Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, and Macromedia FreeHand to reproduce the most complicated raster and vector images flawlessly
• Understand how ink and paper work together, and learn how to prevent unwelcome surprises in tricky situations such as overprinting, trapping, and color registration
• Use Adobe Acrobat to distribute your document in a universally accessible format while preserving your layout
• Wrangle your fonts, and choose the best ones from among the huge array of available typefaces
• Preflight, or prepare your job for submission to a printer or service bureau

“Claudia offers a deadly combination of wit and wisdom. If you’re involved with print, buy this book!”
—David Blatner, co-author Real World InDesign CS2 and Real World Photoshop CS2

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #346542 in Books
• Published on: 2006-08-04
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 368 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780321410184
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

About the Author
CLAUDIA McCUE is a prepress pro with more than 20 years of hands-on experience. She is owner of Practicalia, an independent training provider specializing in Adobe and Quark products, retouching and color correction, and resolving general issues relating to prepress and printing. She frequently presents on these topics at industry conferences.

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Customer Reviews

Buy it
Every designer who wonders why the print shop refuses to run their work without a ton of extra setup fees and then wonders why nothing looks right in the end needs to read this book.

Every photographer who wonders why the cut rate coffee table books they order from China don't look as good as they did on their computer screen needs to read this book (and probably Real World Color Management as well).

Every print shop owner who refuses to upgrade any of his or her 20 year old equipment/software and expects to stay in business for the next 20 years needs to read this book.

Every prepress worker who relies on a free copy of Acrobat Reader for PDF jobs needs to read this book.

Every print shop sales representative who relies on the advice of prepress workers who rely on a free copy of Acrobat reader for PDF jobs when writing up quotes needs to read this book.

Every average Joe who suspects the print shop sales representative who relies on the advice of prepress workers who rely on a free copy of Acrobat Reader for PDF jobs when writing up quotes is ripping them off needs to read this book.

I don't think it's necessarily perfect, but if everyone involved in buying and selling of printed materials would at least thumb through this thing long enough to pick up some of the basics on the myriad ways ink can be smeared on paper, I'd like to think that there would be at least a few less hideously glossy, full-color business cards with Sears portraits on them in the world.

SHE NAILED IT. THIS BOOK IS FANTASTIC.
I've been design print material on the desktop for almost two decades and I wish I had this book since my first day. EVERYONE WHO WORKS WITH DESKTOP PUBLISHING SHOULD HAVE THIS BOOK AT THEIR SIDE. The author really knows what designers go through, and really knows her stuff. As I was reading it, I couldn't help but mutter aloud every few pages, "Wow! This is great advice!" It's like Claudia McCue was sitting next to me during all the DTP issues I've ever had-- and answered all my questions. And, she's not application-isolated in her approach... the author writes separate chapters for each major DTP app and intertwines hints when necessary. If you're not learning lots of new things from this book, you're not from this planet. I love this resource, and I'll be referring to it often!

Answers the questions you didn't know enough to ask
I'm an old pro. Every paragraph either taught me something I didn't know, or clarified something I was sure I did know.

Claudia, somehow, gets into the reader's head, the user's hands, and asks the questions you didn't know were actually questions. Then she answers them.

You know everything? Buy this book. You'll know more. You're a beginner. Keep it on your desk as ready ref.

Also she has a droll, dry sense of humor. And writes with the kind of simplicity and clarity that makes the book fun to read and easy to read. Inferior writers try to write fancy to impress people. Good writers know how to write simply and are not afraid to do so. Claudia is one of the latter.