CREATING A CATALOG FROM A DATABASE

Data Management recently composed a catalog for a large horse sale. The challenges our client faced were a “drop dead” mailing date along with the need to support last minute changes. Sometime horses are withdrawn because of illness, or removed from the sale for other reasons. Supporting last minute changes is difficult using traditional software such as InDesign or QuarkXPress. A simple one-line change can cause substantial reflow with lots of manual edits. The manual edits can be time consuming.

Our client supplied a spreadsheet containing all the necessary data, plus some of the graphic images. Using the data and images we solved the production time constraint and the reflow problem. We wrote custom programming linking the photos and brands directly to the database. The result was a fully automated, database-driven process. Whenever the client made updates to their data, the catalog was updated at the same time. We were able to support rapid changes right up to the print deadline.

Previously the client worked virtually around the clock in order to meet press deadlines. Not this time! The folks “back at the ranch” were quite happy when we easily met the deadline. The catalogs were mailed in a smooth and timely fashion.

Mike Dulaney

Sales Manager

319-373-7773

mdulaney@dbman.com

Basics of Preparing Files for Press

The piece below was prepared as a guideline by two of our staff. If you have questions we would be pleased to respond. Please email questions to:
mdulaney@dbman.com

Thanks

Mike Dulaney
Sales Manager
http://www.dbman.com/


Requirements for documents to be printed on a press are not the same as those used on the web. They need different color, better resolution, and certain other things that aid the printer in setting up the press.

Graphics and Color:
· Color for graphics, background colors, etc. must be CMYK (Cyan/Magenta/Yellow/Black) and not RGB (Red/Green/Blue). RGB is based upon light and is used on a computer monitor. CMYK is based upon pigments and is used for the ink used in the printing process. Using RGB on a printed job will make the colors come out wrong. Converting RGB pictures to CMYK is an easy process in Adobe Photoshop or similar program: just change the mode from RGB to CMYK.
· Do no use color profiles in graphics. A color profile is specific to a particular printer and the colors will not come out right on a press. This is also very easy to do in Adobe Photoshop: just Save As and make sure the color profile box is not checked..
· Use at least 300 DPI resolution for graphics. Anything much lower will not print well. Especially do not take graphics from a website. These will usually be only approximately 72 DPI and will look terrible when printed.
General Consistency:
· Place page components such as running heads, page numbers, etc. consistently from page to page so that they don’t appear to move around as pages are flipped.
Aids to the Printer:
· Add crop marks. These are horizontal and vertical lines that show where the edge of the page is so that the printer can cut the paper to the correct page size.
· Any background picture, color, or tab that is to show on the edge of the page needs to “bleed” past the trim; typically ¼" but some printers require a different amount so check with them.
· Always keep anything (type, pictures, etc.) that does not bleed past the trim at least ¼" away from the trim. This gives the printer a margin of error for cutting the paper and some extra room in the event that the pages need to be cut smaller (undercut); for example: to reduce the weight of the printed piece to save postage.

First!

I'm very pleased to be the first to post on our new team blog. This is a great organization with some very sharp people. I'm confident we'll offer up some pearls for each other and for our reading public.

I may do a quick post later today summarzing our team and what we do. For now, I should niche us somewhere in the pre-press arena. What we do used to be called typesetting, but these days that term seems a bit dated. We're a high-tech group that specializes in taking in structured data, writing custom programs to transform that data into catalogs, books, and directories, and then spitting out press-optimized PDFs. We also route some of this data to the web and some custom directory sites.

We like to think we're innovators in this arena and I'm hoping we can share some of that as we move forward.

More soon.

-Scott
Technology Manager
www.dbman.com