Resources & Help Files

• Supply PDFs as composite PDFs, using v1.6 and higher.
• Supply PDF files as one document or as multiple documents.
  • If you send multiple documents, use page ranges (padded with zeroes, i.e., 001–020, 021–130, etc.) as part of the naming convention for easy and concise sequencing of files.

• All pages must be oriented in the same direction—for instance, no landscape pages mixed with portrait orientation.

• Page size should be the final size of your book, with all margins at final positions—including front matter and back matter.
  • (For example: if your book is 6" × 9" with a 3/4" head margin and a 7/8" gutter margin, do not send a PDF that is 81⁄2 × 11, with 1/2" margins all around).
  • If your PDF file does not match your output specifications, a prepress service charge will incur.
• If there are bleeds, they should extend at least 1/8" beyond the final trim (page size—with or without crops—must reflect this).
• If included in the file, crop marks should be a minimum of 9 points (or 1/8") from trim.
• Type should not be within 1/4" of final trim, 3/8" is preferable.

•  Layout should reflect a cover spread, i.e., cover4 | spine | cover1. If there are inside covers, include those as a spread as well: cover2 | spine | cover3.
  • Contact customer service to determine the correct spine bulk for the stock on which your project will be printing.
• Include crop marks and bleeds—always.
  • Spine marks should be added to your layout if at all possible (drawn in beyond the final trim using the “document bleed” feature in your layout program). Please make them at least .5 pt, registration color.
• Bleeds should extend at least 1/8" (more is not necessary) beyond the final trim.

• Best practice is to embed all fonts—including TrueType and Base 14, but subsetting will be accepted.
  • Make sure to use fonts that allow embedding. Some TrueType fonts do not contain the proper permissions to allow embedding.
• Avoid menu-stylized fonts, i.e., clicking “B” or “I” on your menu—use the actual bold/italic font: Helvetica-Bold. (Some fonts do not have a bold or italic version or you may be missing one of the components of your font. If this is the case, even though you can click bold or italic on the control panel menu—a true bold or italic will not print!)

• 300 DPI for either grayscale or color images (Lower resolutions will result in “bitmappy” or fuzzy images, extremelyhigh resolutions produce unnecessarily large files and may result in moiré).
• 600–1200 DPI for monochrome [1-bit] images (line art).
  • Use Bicubic Downsampling: 300 DPI for color/grayscale; 1200 DPI for monochrome.
  • Compression should be ZIP for 8-bit tones, CCITT Group 4 for 1-bit monochrome images.

• Color space must conform to print specifications for the title: Grayscale Composite for black and white printing. CMYK Composite for process color and/or spot color printing.
  • RGB or LAB color spaces are unacceptable.

Do not embed color profiles (ICC or otherwise).

SPOT COLORS

• Must be defined as PANTONE color, not randomly named—i.e., PANTONE 186 C, not “spot red.” (For offset press spot color printing or PANTONE color matching on our digital press.)
  • If you are not matching to a specific PANTONE color and will be printing to our digital press, color names do not need to be as specific. Our digital press prints as CMYK.
  • The same applies if you are printing 4-color to the offset press, but are utilizing spot colors in your document. All color converts to CMYK in the RIP.
• Gradients/blends must be created spot-to-spot (i.e., 5% PANTONE color to 100% PANTONE color).

COLOR MANAGEMENT

• Files should be free of custom color functions, including color management, transfer curves, halftone screen assignments, and black generation functions; files must not include ICC profile tags.
• Total Area Coverage (TAC): Dark/black elements or areas within color images should not exceed 300% (total combined CMYK values). Create Rich Black with this formula: C30 M30 Y30 K100
• Minimum tone: Reproduction is not guaranteed for tone values less than 5%

TRAPPING

• White/reverse text and objects must be specified as a knock-out.
• Black text (24 points or less) and lines should be specified to overprint.
• Supplied files should not be trapped (trapping will be done by Kase).
• All rules should be specified at least .5pt. Do not use “Hairline.” It will not print at high resolutions.

TRANSPARENCY

• Use consistent CMYK color spaces for overlapping transparent elements or blends, to prevent color shifting.