[Scribus] Color correction, Bleed, and all that Jaz

[Louis Desjardins]

2007/9/9, Roger <hovergo at net-tech.com.au>:
>
> <snip>
>   a mostly unprecise project, that they have done themselves, without
> caring
> enough about the downstream issues. It costs not much to ask questions
> before
> entering a design process and people should always start by the end, which
> is
> the real beginning of any printed work. Size? Colors? Bleed? Resolution?
> Color
> space? Binding? etc. All these need to be addressed before hitting the
> "New
> document" menu. I've said it many times on this list, it's all about
> communication!
> </snip>
>
> Ok so now you've got my attention, I realised that I don't know anything
> about
> the above matters and in time my b&w newsletter will have to be colour or
> partially colour.
> I'm thinking of trials on a colour laser printer just to get feed back
> from
> readers, does anyone have any comments on this process?
> Size? Colors? Bleed? Resolution? Color space? Binding?.
> I'm pretty good at layout and design but now understand that I know zilch
> about
> how a colour image is made and put together prior to printing.
> Is there a 'laymans terms' informational on pre press / down stream issues
> things and what I would have to be aware of through or with using Scribus
> on Linux.


Hi Roger,

I understand you already go to press with your newsletter, so many common
issues I raised are already taken care of. I would not be so worried in your
case.

In what I wrote, there is nothing that would be "Scribus or Linux
exclusive". I speak generally. Size of the finished work and number of
copies are important to establish the price of the job. Same for the choice
of paper, of course. Whether it bleeds or not, we have to know because this
can also affect (or could affect) the price (and the layout). Only keep in
mind that a 1/4 inch difference in the size of a finished document can make
a huge difference in the price and there you go. Of course, this is less
sensible on a home printer.

I think we do have some interesting infos on the website about resolution
and color space. The minimum everyone should be aware of is to keep in mind
that 300 dpi *at reproduction size* is the industry standard. We can do with
less, but no less than 225 dpi with a linescreen of 133-150 lpi (line per
inch). Note that this is all linescreen related. The most destructive
operation will occur at the very end of the prepress process, where the job
gets its actual linescreen. At that moment, the image will turn into a
halftone and it will not be reusable withoug big quality loss (just think of
scanning a printed image and then check the histogram of that image and
compare it to the histogram of the original, before it went to press). So if
you want to have good image quality in the end, it is advisable to stick by
the rules since the early stages.

Binding (or any kind of post-press operation) affects the layout. Think of a
perfectbind book. In such a binding, just as an example, you would try to
avoir spanning elements in double-pages because part of the element would be
lost in the interior margins. This of course will also depend on the quality
of the binding. So it is important to discuss with your printer to find out
what your playground is, really. It is not as critical in saddlestich
binding (magazines have plenty of full spread elements). Think of a spiral
bind book. You would leave enough margin in order not to get the text
partially disappear in the holes that hold the spiral. Etc.

This is somewhat minimum information but I hope it will help get the sense
of what I mean!

Louis

TIA
> Roger
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://nashi.altmuehlnet.de/pipermail/scribus/attachments/20071008/12523b6e/attachment.html