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Topic: How are newsletters published using Adobe CS3?
| Author | Message |
| Keith | Posted – 1/27/2008 12:43:32 PM | show profile | email poster I've just gotten a copyediting internship through a friend for a newsletter publication. I need to know how does a newsletter get from Adobe InDesign to the printing press to be published and what other CS3 programs are needed to publish a newsletter? What steps does a copyeditor have to take with the edited newsletter in order to send it to the printing press? I would love step-by-step answers to this question or a website that explains it all. Your answers are greatly appreciated! |
| Lula | Posted – 1/27/2008 4:25:34 PM | show profile A copyeditor does not typically deal with the printer?that's the designer's job, or the pre-press person if there is one (often they're the same person). How a newsletter gets printed depends entirely on the printer and the designer. I create the newsletter by building an InDesign template and importing text and graphics (graphics are edited first in PhotoShop, illustrations in Illustrator). Printers will either want the native files (if you're using CS3, that would be InDesign), but I rarely hand over native files to anyone without being paid a good deal of money. Rather, I'll export to PDF and the printer prints from PDF. But either way, the designer needs to work directly with the printer to establish final output requirements, like color workspace, etc. If you're expected to go beyond copyediting (checking for text errors and correct text formatting, etc), and actually do file prep and pre-press, I would be clear that this is beyond the standard job description. I suppose others may have different experiences with this, but it doesn't sound like you should be handing off files to the printer. |
| Letterbox | Posted – 1/27/2008 11:40:07 PM | show profile Designing a newsletter and then preflighting it for print takes a while to learn. It's not something that can pick up in a few days. Especially if the newsletter is complex. Is it in 4-color? 2-color? Are there photos? Line art? Die cuts? Are there any bleeds? How many pages and does it require and will bindery be needed? What quantity? Five hundred 1-color newsletters can be done on a Docutech printer and 500 4-color newsletters can be done on an Indigo press. Ten million would best be done on a web press. Lots of questions that go beyond just learning the software. Typically, you'd need InDesign or Quark, Photoshop and Illustrator. But if it's pretty basic (no photos, rudimentary line art), you can get away with just InDesign. |
| Keith | Posted – 1/28/2008 5:51:57 PM | show profile Thank you, I have another quesion? Thank you very much lula and letterbox for clearing some things up for me. I have another quesiton for you letterbox, or anyone who can answer it: I know that to preflight something for print, you make sure that the fonts and colors are all intact and print settings are right. In InDesign, I believe that there is a print dialogue box the guides you through preflighting. Please correct me if I'm wrong. But if I'm correct, then what exactly is so difficult about preflighting and why would it take a while to catch on to it? Please let me know. |
| Letterbox | Posted – 1/29/2008 7:00:44 AM | show profile Menu prompts only clean up the really basic stuff. But there's other things you need to know outside of InDesign. Like importing files. What if you're given a logo as a tiff and your boss wants it to knock out of the background. InDesign won't catch that. You actually have to call the source and get a usable eps file of the line art. It's always tough using other people's files because you sometimes have to fix them. Once you get everything together and need to do a press check, will you know what to look for? And how to solve it? What would you do if you accidentally set light colored body type to overprint on a dark background? Or the pictures moire because you set the screen angles wrong. Print can be tough. It's a science. |
| Lula | Posted – 1/29/2008 2:57:21 PM | show profile Yeah, to explain to you what exactly makes preflighting complicated would require teaching you pre-press and design and a whole bunch of other stuff, which is not really realistic. It can take professionals years to learn the ins and outs of different settings, and then your printer might ask for something else all together. The software is a tool - if you don't know how to use it, your final product can easily look like crap. Would you ask your electrician the question, "If I can turn the light on and off with a single switch, what's so difficult about wiring a house?" Don't assume that because the tools are accessible, you can use them successfully without proper training. Here's a book that can help walk you through a lot of this stuff: http://books.google.com/books?id=MfLXgLvRHIcC&dq=printing+designer+handbook&pg=PP1&ots=hNJdPSrudO&source=citation&sig=VERJyLe-V6-jHNI0MweMDjCsx8k&hl=en&prev=http://www.google.com/search?q=printing+designer+handbook&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&sa=X&oi=print&ct=result&cd=1&cad=bottom-3results |
| Keith | Posted – 1/30/2008 3:33:21 PM | show profile Oki doki, now for my final question, I promise!:) Thanks a lot for the printing information. I'm so glad I found I really don't need to know all of it, but will look into it to gain my insight. I've spoken with my internship supervisor and all he expects me to know is how to attach copy to layouts using InCopy and InDesign and how to use other Adobe programs along with InDesign to compose the newsletter. ONE FINAL QUESTION FOR YOU GUYS, AND I PROMISE TO LEAVE YOU ALONE: How do you attach copy to layouts using InCopy and InDesign? I can't find any InCopy CS3 books anywhere! |
| Lula | Posted – 1/30/2008 9:35:24 PM | show profile With all due respect, have you tried finding this information out yourself? Like say, cruising over to adobe.com and looking through their support files? Not trying to be nasty, but if you're an intern you're going to need a lot more initiative and research skills to move ahead. |
| Keith | Posted – 1/30/2008 10:54:18 PM | show profile Yes I have. I believe that attaching copy to layout means to import text from incopy into indesign after the layout is completed in indesign. Now is this correct? I mean I have been doing research. Now with all due respect Lula, If you don't want to answer me then fine you don't have to. Just don't Imply that I've been sitting on my ass asking questions. I thought I could come to this website to gain insight for the career that I want to pursue. If anyone out there knows for sure what attaching copy to layout is then please share, or just don't write anything! Because you would be wasting the posting space that someone who actually has an answer to my question could be using. |
| Lula | Posted – 1/30/2008 11:27:11 PM | show profile Well, first of all I do apologize?you're posting in The "Beginner's Issues" section and I should have respected that. I tend to deal with a lot of people who ask first and try to figure it out for themselves later, and I shouldn't have applied that to you. Your previous questions were very general and seemed to imply that you hadn't actually done much legwork on your own, which added to fuel to the fire. Putting all snideness aside, I would assume that your boss means importing text into InDesign, but I'd suggest asking him outright to confirm if that is, in fact, what he means. I don't use InCopy myself, so I can't be more helpful. Best of luck. |
