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Guidelines for Electronic Ordering

Posted on by OWOSSO Graphic Arts, Inc.

By following the tips included in this section you can enjoy cleaner, crisper images on your dies.

See the following links for more details:

If it all still seems a little intimidating, call us! We are here to help and we want to make the entire ordering and production process simple for you!

Give us a call at 1-800-444-5552 or email us!

Software Program Compatibility—Copper and Magnesium Dies

To send your order electronically to OWOSSO you can use any of the following programs
to create your files:

  • CDR– Corel Draw
  • AI– Adobe Illustrator
  • FH– Freehand
  • PM– Pagemaker
  • QXD– Quark
  • IDD– In Design
  • PSD– Photoshop
  • EPS– Encapsulated Postscript
  • PDF– Portable Document File
  • JPG– Jpeg, only in 100% black and white, 600 DP (Jpeg’s not acceptable for certain applications like hot stamping, embossing, soap & pottery stamps)
  • TIF– Tiff bitmap, only in 100% black and white, 600 DPI
  • Microsoft Word and Excel files need to be saved as a PDF. We do not accept MS Word or Excel files.

Here are a few important software tips to remember:

  • When using PageMaker or Quark Express you need to also send OWOSSO your fonts. No big deal! Just find that font folder on your hard drive, make a copy of that folder, and put it in the same folder that will hold the file you are sending us.
  • With Corel Draw, Illustrator or Freehand you do not need to send fonts, however you need to change your type into “outlines or paths”.
  • Don’t forget to always include your placed images unless they have been embedded in the file.
  • When setting type, avoid using the control palette to create bold or italic fonts. It may print okay on your computer’s printer, but it will not translate on our postscript imagesetters. PDFs created in this manner will also default. Yikes!!
  • Remember — always avoid typesetting in Photoshop. It’s a great program but does not produce clean, crisp type.

Software Program Compatibility—Brass Dies

All Brass dies need to be vector based. Preferred files are:

  • CDR– Corel Draw
  • AI– Adobe Illustrator
  • EPS– Encapsulated Postscript
  • IDD– In Design
  • Colors may be used to show the different levels.

Scanning Instructions and Recommendations

Although original files are preferred, high resolution tiffs are also acceptable. Scanning poor copy with ragged edges will produce a file with, you guessed it, ragged edges. Printing it to your ink jet or laser printer may not tell you the whole story on the quality of the file.

At OWOSSO, we use computer-to-plate technology. It is not as forgiving as your printer. Every little jagged line will look like a jagged line. Some good rules for scanning include:

  • Scan line art at 600 to 1200 dpi and save as a “bitmap tiff” to remove the screens around the edges of the image.
  • Scan halftones at a dpi of 2 1/2 times the linescreen you want to print at. Save the file as a “grayscale tiff”.
  • Crop the image down to just what you need to send to us. Scanning a small piece of art on an 8 1/2 X 11 page will be a huge file because all of the empty page around the image will be part of the scan and will be represented by pixels. The more pixels, the bigger the file. Monstrous files go nowhere via e-mail.
  • Refuse Jpegs and Gifs from your customers. They are great for viewing on your computer screen but are rarely high enough quality for printing.

The Importance of Compressing Your Files

Compressing your files will help avoid the dreaded call from OWOSSO’s Imaging Department letting you know that we were not able to work with your file because it didn’t come through the internet safely. Compressing your file to a “ZIP” file is a better way to get your files across the types of server/computer platforms. Your PC & MAC’s have this compression utility built-in (Win 7 or newer and Mac’s OS10 versions), allowing you to compress your files/folders safely.

Right “clicking” your file (where you have saved it) on a Mac or PC, you’ll have a little window open and one of the options will be “compressing” your file to a “ZIP” file. Windows and Mac’s word this a little differently, but you’ll figure it out.

Another advantage to compressing your files is you can add more files to you order than attached file limit of 10, as long as your “ZIP” file isn’t larger than 50mb.

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