Digital Printing Application Information

General Guidelines
Be sure to read General File Preparation Tips.

Illustrator/FreeHand
Paste Inside in FreeHand does not work for Digital Printing.

TIFF and EPS files placed into Freehand will not work. Scans placed in Illustrator do work. For best results, place scanned images into your page layout program, rather than these illustration packages. Freehand 7.0x supports OPI linking to, rather than embedding of raster graphics.

Always embed FreeHand information when exporting EPS graphics (to allow editing if necessary).

Set printer resolution to 600 dpi in either program before saving EPS.

Check "Use Compatible Blends" in Illustrator before saving EPS.

Adobe PageMaker
Set Target Printer Resolution to 600 dpi in Page Setup.

Set Link Options to link to, rather than embed graphics. PageMaker 6.5 has a Global Links plug-in that can make this process much easier than prior versions.

QuarkXPress
Avoid complex picture box polygons.

Always specify a picture box fill of White when placing a grayscale or CMYK TIFF to avoid pixelization around the edges of your graphic.

CorelDRAW
In general, avoid placing scans into CorelDRAW. It's color management system can seriously degrade image quality. CorelDRAW 7 supports OPI linking which avoids embedding the scanned image in the document.

CorelDRAW generates bitmaps when creating textured fills. These bitmaps will not print properly for Digital Printing. Build textures in Photoshop or PhotoPaint, save as CMYK TIFF and import them (using OPI) for best results.