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HELP

What happens if there's a problem with my artwork?
How do I send in artwork which is to be Spot UV varnished?
If I am ordering a Booklet - do RCS sort out pagination / creep etc... ?

I work in Microsoft Word or Corel Draw on a PC or In-Design on a Mac, etc - can you print from a file in this format?
I have downloaded some images from the internet - can you print from them?
Will colours print as vibrantly on Executive Paper or Equest as they do on Gloss Art Paper?
Will the colour of my Full Colour Printing match the colours shown on my monitor?
Will the colour of my printing match the colour hard copy I have printed out on my desktop printer?
What is the difference between Full Colour Printing and Spot Colour Printing?
Why do you need jobs supplied in CMYK?
Why should Black and white images be supplied in greyscale?
Why do you recommend images need to be 300/400dpi size for size?
I want a really fantastic print job shall I send my images at 1200dpi size for size?
Why do you require fonts embedded in PDF files?
What is Bleed and Quiet Border?
Why do my lines print fine on my desktop print but look much too fine on my finished print?
How do I prepare Artwork for Spot Colour?
My PDF is A4 but I would like it printed at A2, can you do that
How can I achieve bleed in Word?

What happens if there's a problem with my artwork?: If you prepare your artwork in accordance with the advice in our Artwork Preparation Section (which is one of our top tabs) then everything should proceed smoothly. If you have paid for a Pre-Print Check then any problems there may be will be advised to you and the problem solved, either by new files or a correction at RCS. If you opt out of the Pre-Print Check your artwork will go through an automated system and not seen by 'human eyes' until it reaches the press. Errors at this stage can be costly or impossible!
How do I send in artwork which is to be Spot UV varnished?: Please send a separate file, with each page exactly like your CMYK file but containing just the areas you would like Spot UV varnished in black.
If I am ordering a Booklet - do RCS sort out pagination / creep etc... ?: We actually prefer booklets to be sent as individual pages so that we can allow for creep and control the imposition.
I work in Microsoft Word or Corel Draw on a PC or In-Design on a Mac, etc - can you print from a file in this format?: At RCS we require all files to be sent to us in PDF format. However there is absolutely no restriction on the programmes you can use to create your artwork. Microsoft Word is fine and even though many purists would not call it a 'design package' we receive some really great work produced in this programme. The same goes for Excel, PowerPoint, Publisher, Serif Page Plus, Xara..... the list goes on. Please refer to our Artwork Preparation section for details about how to prepare your files successfully for print. Whichever programme you use the important final step once you are happy with your design is to make a PDF of it. This is a very easy procedure but will require PDF creation software. The 'professional choice' would be Adobe Acrobat, buy at www.adobe.com however there are some excellent, and much cheaper PDF creation software available and we have found that DeskPDF Standard is an excellent programme for PDF creation on the PC. It is available from www.docudesk.com and costs about £13.00 (paid for in dollars). The final step is to view the PDF you have created to make sure everything is as intended. The good news here is that most computers have a PDF reader installed. If your computer doesn't then just go to www.adobe.com and download Adobe Acrobat Reader. This programme is completely free!!
I have downloaded some images from the internet - can you print from them?: For best results we need pictures to be supplied at 300/400dpi and saved in CMYK colour. Most images found online are saved in RGB colour at 72 dpi, so whilst we could print from them the results would be very poor. For more information on how we like artwork to be supplied please go to our Artwork Preparation section.
Will colours print as vibrantly on Executive Paper or Equest as they do on Gloss Art Paper?: Unfortunately there are two reasons why colours will never look as vibrant on Uncoated Materials such as Executive and Equest as they do on Coated Stocks such as Gloss, Silk or Matt Art paper. The first relates to the absorbency of the paper which means that the ink dots will spread more (Dot Gain). An extreme example of what happens can be seen if you place a dab of ink on blotting paper! This ink spreading has the effect of darkening images and colours especially colours which are dark to start with. We take measures to counteract the Dot Gain but there will always be a loss of vibrancy. The second reason is that the very nature of the material means that it reflects light differently and this will always dull the vibrancy.
Will the colour of my Full Colour Printing match the colours shown on my monitor?: Unless your monitor has been accurately calibrated to match our press then the colours on your printing will almost certainly not match what you see on screen! We produce two RCS Swatch Sheets (or booklets) - one for Coated Materials (Gloss, Silk or Matt Art) and the other for Uncoated Materials (Executive and Equest). Each contains many hundreds of colour swatches and each one is marked with the CMYK mix used to produce it. The advantage of our Swatch Books is that they are actually printed on the presses which will eventually be used to print your work. Whichever programme you are using for your design you can be sure that if you use the CMYK values shown on our sheets then that is the colour you will get on your finished job (within printing tolerances). The RCS Swatch Books also contain a Hard Copy of the calibration image 'Ole No Moiré'. This can be used to greatly improve the colour accuracy of your monitor. If you are interested in Monitor Calibration please go to our Monitor Calibration Section.
Will the colour of my printing match the colour hard copy I have printed out on my desktop printer?: Unless calibration between your desktop printer and our presses has been carried out the answer is most likely to be no! It is really dangerous to print something out on an un-calibrated printer and 'assume' that is how it will print. Our RCS Swatch Books (which can be ordered) are useful for this too. They contain a hard copy image which can also be downloaded. If you print out the image on your printer and compare it with the image in our Swatch Book you will be able to see how closely matched they are. Most desktop printers allow calibration to adjust the colours and by altering the amount of Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black it is possible to make the printouts match the calibration hard copy supplied in the Swatch Book. After that you can have more confidence that the output from your printer will match the finished print.
What is the difference between Full Colour Printing and Spot Colour Printing?: Full Colour Printing uses four inks mixed in different quantities to produce multicolour images. The colour of these four inks is Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black. Colour produced using these inks is referred to as process colour, CMYK or Full Colour Printing. Almost any colour can be produced by mixing these four inks but the gamut of CMYK (the range of colours which are possible to produce) is much more limited than the gamut of a Monitor or the gamut that you can see with your eyes. Spot Colour Printing is a method that uses a different ink for each colour required. By using a single ink for each colour it is possible to achieve exceptional fidelity between print runs and good matching to either existing printing, or to colours from the Pantone (Pantone is the company which produces the standard colour definitions used throughout the print industry) Spot Colour swatches. If your printing only requires one, two or three colours, spot colour printing may have an economical advantage over full colour printing. However the main reason to opt for Spot Colours is if a colour needs to be extremely precise or falls outside that range of colour which can be produced using CMYK printing. For example, if you need to reproduce a very specific colour for a corporate logo or to match an existing piece of printing, Spot Colours Printing may be the best solution. Information about preparing artwork for Spot Colour Printing can be found at Design for Spot Colour under Artwork Preparation. It is also possible to print using CMYK printing for images and most of the text plus Spot Colour for a particular colour which needs to be especially vibrant. If you have a project like that and would like to get prices please go to Non Standard printing.
Why do you need jobs supplied in CMYK?: Our Full Colour Printing Process uses Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black inks to produce Full Colour. If you design in RGB and supply files in RGB we must convert them to CMYK to print them. We can, and do, make this conversion. However the change from RGB to CMYK can change colours (because they are outside the CMYK gamut). It is better that it is done on files before they are sent so that you have complete control of the conversion and on how your finished job will look.
Why should Black and white images be supplied in greyscale?: Black and White images can be sent in CMYK Format but then the blacks will be made up of elements of Cyan, Magenta and Yellow as well as Black. If there is even a tiny shift in the colour balance during printing the images can end up with a cast (a yellow or magenta or cyan hue). If Black and white images are sent greyscale then they will only ever be made up of shades of black.
Why do you recommend images need to be 300/400dpi size for size?: Whilst we regularly print work with images at lower resolutions we always advise clients before doing so (if a Pre Print Check has been requested) because images which are lower resolution do not print as well. Edges can appear jagged and the picture is simply not as crisp. If you are aware that lower resolution images have been used but the 'fault' cannot be rectified please mention this in your order Special Instructions. This will save you being contacted unnecessarily.
I want a really fantastic print job shall I send my images at 1200dpi size for size?: Our Stochastic Screening gives perfect, near photographic quality but it will not be any better if the files are 400dpi or 1200dpi. Working at a higher resolution simply means images are 'oversampled'. It means you are sending more information than is required. Files end up being much bigger that needs be and take longer to upload to no gain. Please do bear in mind that it should be 400dpi size for size. If you enlarge a 400dpi image to twice the size in your design, it effectively becomes a 200dpi image. You would need an 800dpi image to enlarge it to twice the size and still be 400dpi.
Why do you require fonts embedded in PDF files?: Before PDFs we had a huge issue with fonts. People used to send us the fonts they used in their design even though, legally, we should have bought every font we used. This was an impractical proposition which was widely recognised in the print industry. With PDFs all the font information required to print the document comes encapsulated in the file. This means we do not need the fonts used in the document to print it. If a PDF is sent without fonts embedded we are back to the start, needing fonts again which is not a productive way forward for RCS or yourselves. Please refer to our section on Preparing your PDF. The reason that we ask for uneven panels is to allow for the loss of length of paper as it stretches around a 180 Degree bend. This becomes a bigger and bigger issue the thicker the paper used. If even panels are used there is simply not enough material after the two folds to make the third panel!! We strongly recommend downloading the appropriate template from our Artwork Guides and Downloads section.
What is Bleed and Quiet Border?: Please refer to our Design Requirements. section to understand these two important design considerations. We have more issues with Bleed and Quiet Border than any other single pre-press issue.
Why do my lines print fine on my desktop print but look much too fine on my finished print?: Most Desktop printers work at 300dpi, this means the thinnest line they can produce is 0.083mm. If your artwork has a line of 0.007 mm then it will still print as a 0.083mm line because that is the thinnest it can go. But our Platesetter works at 3800dpi so the thinnest line it can draw is 0.0065mm! In this case the line will look ten times thinner on our Platesetter. If you want to see a true representation of lines on your desktop printer do not go thinner than 0.083mm.
How do I prepare Artwork for Spot Colour?: Preparing artwork for Spot Colour requires different techniques to preparing artwork for Full Colour. Before embarking on a Spot Colour project we recommend you talk to us first.
My PDF is A4 but I would like it printed at A2, can you do that?: We are happy to enlarge (or reduce) from one 'A' size to another (eg A4 to A3 or A2 to A4), there is an additional charge of £20. Please bear in mind when enlarging that the resolution of images is being reduced. We will not undertake differential enlargements or reductions (where the job must be reduced more in one direction than the other (eg conversion from American letter to A4). In our experience this can lead to unexpected consequences. Such changes should be made by re-tasking the original design. Please clearly state your requirements for reduction / enlargement in special instructions.
How can I achieve bleed in Word?: There are ways in which Word can be used to successfully produce designs with bleed, but this is not always easy and generally not recommended.

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HELP