Chapter 18

Not Quite Ten Things to Check before Printing

In This Chapter

bullet Pack for the print service

bullet Run the Design Checker

bullet Verify the correct printer driver

bullet Keep your endings intact

To make your printing process roll smoothly, check out the following advice before you try to print.

Give Color Separations to Your Print Service

Print a set of color separations for your publication and give it to your print service. To do this, set up your publication to print to a print service and choose File⇒Print to open the Print dialog box. Click the Advanced Printer Setup button on the Printer Details tab of the Print dialog box. On the Separations tab, select Separations from the Print Colors As drop-down menu and then click OK. Publisher prints one page for each color in your publication.

Show Your Publication Around

Show your publication to several people. The more eyes that see it, the greater the chance that mistakes will get noticed.

Use the Pack and Go Wizard

You can use the Pack and Go Wizard to prepare your publication to take to a commercial printer. You can choose to have the wizard embed TrueType fonts and include your graphics so that you don’t forget to take them with you. (Chapter 13 has more on the Pack and Go Wizard.)

Give Your Print Service All Original Materials

Make sure that you collect in your submission all the original materials your publication needs. If your print service requires a photograph or drawing for reference, don’t forget to include it.

Run the Design Checker

I don’t like hidden objects, empty frames, and other page elements that don’t print properly. And, I have a devil of a time finding them without this useful tool. Choose Tools⇒Design Checker to run the Design Checker. It does an excellent job of identifying problems in your publication and helping you fix them.

Specify the Correct Printer Driver

Ensure that you have specified the correct printer driver for your publication and your printer. In other words, make sure that you’re submitting the print job formatted for the printer that will print it. The current printer driver shows up in the Name list box of the Print Setup dialog box.

Use Printing Marks on Master Copies

Make sure that your master copies have crop marks on them. Crop marks let the print service know exactly where the paper will be cut. These marks help immensely in preparing the final printed matter quickly and correctly.

Check for the End of the Story

As you reformat text boxes, you can easily — and accidentally — move text at the end of your story so that it’s out of view. To keep this situation from affecting your final publication, ensure that all story endings are properly included on their last connected text boxes. One way to do this is to check the continuation mark on the last frame of a story. (And no, this is not the end of this story.)