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Quality Control and Efficiency Guidelines

Quality Control and Efficiency Guidelines When preparing projects to be designed, adhering to the following guidelines will help reduce errors, streamline production, and contain costs:

TEXT DOCUMENTS

  • Send reviewed and finalized copy in a Word document (via email works great). Send copy that is as close to final as possible. Include captions (they are hard to retro fit after the publication is designed).
  • Be sure to run spell-check and proofread before releasing.
  • Format the text to indicate bolds and italics. Identify (in words) headlines, text, sidebars, etc. If you have a preference, indicate (in words) placement of indents, bullets, photos and articles.
  • Refer to the supplied Publication Planning Sheet for your use.
  • It is not necessary to format the text for layout purposes. If you have a particular layout in mind, you may send a hard-copy that indicates your desires, but the text file remains unformatted.

PHOTOS

  • Photos for print materials should be close to the printed size at 300dpi. (Do not resample or upsample images).
  • Jpegs, tiffs, and eps files are acceptable (gifs are usually too low resolution for print materials).
  • For print materials, it is not recommended to reproduce artwork downloaded from the Internet—it is too low resolution and will not reproduce well.
  • Photos may be sent via email (no more than 8MB per email) or loaded onto our ftp site at http://www.go-creative.net/ftp_help. Follow the simple instructions, enter the password 933952$ and put photos in upload. Email us to let us know when they have been loaded.
  • We have a large supply of stock photos and illustrations.
  • Do not embed photos in Word.

LOGOS

  • Existing logos and artwork should be sent as the original Illustrator (.ai) or Corel Draw files. Type should be saved as paths. If you need to manipulate the type on a logo or artwork, do not save as paths, and send the fonts for Macintosh.

GRAPHS AND CHARTS

  • Creating graphs and charts are additional charge.

CORRECTIONS

Alterations are inevitable. To reduce time and cost (billed at $85 per hour) associated with corrections, try the following:

  • Have your first draft text as FINAL as possible.
  • Limit the number of reviewers.
  • Collect and send revisions at one time rather than in small batches.
  • Clearly identify your changes via email on the marked-up pdf. Faxes are also acceptable (301) 949-9033, however, if corrections require much typing, it is best to send those sections as an email or Word document.
  • As a guideline, a normal correction cycle requires 2-3 sets of corrections… more than that probably means you need to look at your process.

PROOFREADING

The purpose of providing proofs is to give you an opportunity to proofread the documents. Although we strive not to make errors, mistakes do happen. We have discovered that whenever the document is touched, you risk the possible advent of an error. Most importantly, allow yourself enough time to carefully proofread the final proof before it releases to press. Ultimately proofreading is your responsibility.

SCHEDULES

Although it is often difficult to plan, working from a schedule is the best way to ensure on-time delivery and, surprisingly, quality. When everyone is working toward the same completion date, it allows for proper planning, staffing, and applapplying the appropriate skill sets.

As a guideline, plan on the following turnaround (rushing these can impact price or quality):

  • Design mock-up (for new projects): 1 week
  • First draft incorporating text (8 pages): 3–4 business days
  • Second draft: 2–3 business days
  • Final draft: 1 business day
  • Release to printer: 1 business day
  • Printing: 8 business days

FINAL FILES

  • Indicate via email when a project is ready to release to the printer. It normally takes several hours to prepare documents to release.
  • If you would like to purchase ownership rights to your document(s), there is an additional charge. Remember that this needs to be agreed upon ahead of time, so that we utilize PC-compatible fonts. There is no guarantee that the fonts we use (Macintosh) will appear the same on a PC.
  • If you decide to print documents off of your desktop printer, we will need to allow for white margins. We cannot guarantee the integrity of color or reproduction quality.

We look forward to making this process as seamless as possible while providing the best quality product and service. Please feel free to contact us with questions at (301) 933–9527 or email mail@go-creative.net.