Any specialists out there…
What is the best way to prepare an article for a magazine submission.
What is the most used format to send artwork in.
How big should the images be?
What format should you submit narrative in?
Anything else you know about this subject would be useful.
See ya.
S
I have prepared a few in house publications. I have learned that putting any effort in to the design and layout is a total waste of time. So now I give the text in text file and a printed version in double spacing and a big right hand margin, (for scribbles). The images are usually jpg, although I have been asked for eps.
The editor or sub editor will always want to clean up your text (Translation: cut out hugh and crucial sections) and the graphics people will always want input (to crop your images causing serious damage and then place them somewhere totally inapproapriate to the text.)
I insist on a printers draft and check everything myself. Then I nearly always have to go back and say ‘you can’t put that picture there, it needs to be on page 1’… and on and on…
I hope I haven’t put you off 
Hi Southern,
Well, as you know I am a technician for Quark. We of course, pretty much revolutionized the DTP industry. What am I saying? Well, almost everyone out there making mags etc are using QuarkXpress.
I highly agree with gurgler. If you can, setup an appointment with the folks you are going to make the article for and simply ask what it is they need. Every publisher has there own little specs. Believe me when I tell you this. I get calls everyday from different publishers and everyone of them does have there own little way of doing things. Even when using QuarkXpress.
But here is what I hear most of the time as to how folks prepare docs for articles/print:
QuarkXpress documents with either TIFF or EPS images. Or, TIFF or EPS images with articles written in Microsoft Word 97/98 or 2000 versions.
TIPS: 1. TIFFs are great for photographs and images made in Photoshop. 2. Find out what sort of printer it will printed to. This is good to know for DPI reasons. If the printer can do 150 lpi, then the doc needs to be 300 dpi. If it can do 300 lpi, then doc needs to be 600 dpi etc. Do not worry about EPS images as they are device independent (the resolution does not matter). 3. EPSs are great for logos or clip art. 4. If using QuarkXpress or PageMaker, make sure to send them the fonts used in the docs (True Type or Type 1 fonts). 5. If using PageMaker or QuarkXpress, try using only Type 1 fonts. As these print much clearer at print time. 6. If using Microsoft Word for text/article, try using versions 97/98 or if using 2000, downsave to 97/98 or, contact the folks your writing the article for and see if they are using Word 2000. If so, then keep as 2k. 7. If using QuarkXpress or PageMaker, also send the images used in the docs.
Well, from the horses mouth, that is it. If you have any more specific questions, please ask.
First step: get the specs from the magazine’s graphic department.
If you are just preparing for a general use, here’s what I do:
I have the following prepared for each picture:
Picture size itself is controled my them. Which is why you want no less than a 300 ppi for a 167 dpi print job. It is also helpful to create an alpha split for reference.
If the picture is high rez they can scale to need.
As far as RBG to CMYK (CMYK will be the printers output) I try to handle that myself, but there are magazines that prefer to do it considering their printer’s software (they may be able to handle the conversion better than your stuff) The alpha split will keep them on track.
I usually submit narratives in .rtf or .txt for their ease (cause they are usually porting into something that can’t handle .doc)
BUT ask before you send.
Just for the record, I’ve done work for large display print (6’X8’). Magazines, articles, brocures, IPO/506 documentations,newspaper, and webmags. I’ve dealt with Machouses, and PChouses. So I think I’ve dealt with all the gambuts…not that I’m an expert, but I’ve fought most of the battles at least once.
A note about color images.
As Dragon said, every publisher has different specs. Printing systems can vary. Most likely, they will be using a CMYK or HiFi printing process. So, RGB images will need to be converted to CMYK. Just doing that in Photoshop is not enough. We require color images to be supplied in RGB format so that we may do our own conversion with our own setup, other publishers may require the same.
Of course, if you call the publisher, they may give you the proper setting in Photoshop so you can do it yourself. If you end up doing that, you can’t trust what you see on the screen. Unless you have a fully calibrated system (Monitor, Scanner, Printer), you cant trust what any ogf the colors are going to look like on any other sytem (Monitor, Printer… etc.).
So, let them do all the color work.
BTW, I work in the Yellow Pages industry, so we are used to printing on low quality paper. Some of our issues are not relevent to Mags, but it does not hurt to ask.
THis is cool. What a helpful place this is, I might hang around here for…OOOpps…I already do
OK NEXT…
I already have done the artwork in ZBrush (big stuff 2500x2500 and bigger) and I put a signature on in photoshop as usual.
The I get the E-mail saying the stuff should be… 300 dpi CMYK TIFF files (Photoshop).
I know what a TIFF is but how do I get the files to 300 dpi and CMYK and make them look right for a mag?? Please explain as I have limited experience after the designing stage.
The images seem to be 72ppi when I check in Photoshop
Can I just convert to CMYK and not worry? What about the saturation?
Many, many thanks.
Hey Dragon, can you get me a demo of Quark for my PC I`ll finish the Dragon quicker
S
my two cents,
if this is a professional publication they will have their own design guidelines or “identity”. this identity will control layout, fonts, etc. this gives the magazine a cohesive feel rather than looking like a desktop publishing hodge podge (although i can think of one 3D mag that is always so so ugly i’m embarrassed when i buy it). so anyway fonts really aren’t an issue, neither is the layout of the article since they are going to change it. i would make sure to keep layered psds of any how-to diagrams as they may want to change the font, color or style of arrows etc.
most likely they will want your images at 300dpi tiff format (as said earlier). make sure that your images that aren’t screen shots are rendered at 300 dpi plus as scaling them up in photoshop will just make them blurry. altamira’s genuine fractals may be helpful for raising the dpi on screen shots. i haven’t tried it but it’s supposed to be better than photoshop’s bicubic. but this is all final production stuff i assume you’ll be sending them an outline and samples if you haven’t already landed the job.
i’ve notice some magazines getting slammed by readers for how-to articles they can’t follow along or don’t include steps obvious to more experienced users. you may want to run your articles past a newbie or two just to make sure that the magazine will ask you back for more articles.
good luck
Southern, I’m not sure, but I think PhotoShop will allow you to change the dpi for the image. PaintShop Pro will. Hmm… I just tried something and PaintShop Pro will let me take a PSD file, and resize it by changing only the dpi. There is no noticeable change in the picture size, but the internal image information then shows 300dpi instead of 72dpi. The only problem is that since the image size didn’t change you still have a 72dpi image in a 300dpi image format. I think…
I deleted the rest of this post, as I believe it was erroneous.
This is where you need to consider Print size. When in Photoshop and looking at the Image size menu, notice the settings. a 2500 pix x 2500 pix image at 72 pixels per inch is 34 inches square! If you take Resample Image off and change the resolution to 300, the image size will change to about 8 inches.
The same number of pixels, in a smaller area.
yes you can increase the resolution of images in photoshop but the trick is that bitmap images are pixel based. an image built at 72 pixels per inch has one a quarter of the detail of an image at 288 pixels per inch (ppi). so if you resize a 1 inch by 1 inch 72 ppi image to 288 ppi with resample unchecked it’ll be 1/4 inch by 1/4 inch.
now say you are trying to bump the 1 inch 72 ppi image to 288 ppi but you don’t want it to be 1/4 inch big. if you check resample image and change the ppi from 72 to 288 you are asking photoshop to interpolate or invent 4 times as much detail as is in you graphic. so what photoshop or any other image editor does is compare pixels and say “oh i think this new pixel should be this value and this new pixel should be this value” etc. well as you can guess this isn’t perfect.
here is an image on the left is a screen shot at 100% of a 288 ppi scaled down from a 1000 ppi file. on the right at 100% the same 1000 ppi file was scaled down to 72 ppi and then scaled back to 288 ppi.
the basic info that i wanted to pass across is that you can’t add resolution to an image without making it smaller. 
Hi Southern,
PLEASE READ THE ENTIRE POST BELOW. I HAVE A FIX FOR YOU.
Your 2500x2500 image at 72 dpi comes out to be a 34+x 34+ image at print. If you make it 300 dpi, it comes out to be an 8+x8+ image at print. If you make the doc 10x10 the resolution decreases somewhat blurring your image. You can either run the unsharpen filter on it to make it a little more clear or use the plug-in that Kitsch mentions.
I just noticed that Kaz actually put up a screen shot of what I am talking about (thanks Kaz).
FIX: This is what I do. I first figure out what resolution I want the doc to be (in Photoshop) and put in inches the height and width. Then, I go to image size and change the info from inches to pixels. I write down the pixel dimensions and in ZBrush I put in the pixel dimensions. Then back in Photoshop, go back to image size and change the resolution for 72 dpi to 300, 600 etc (whatever you had specified at the begining). You will see Pixel Demension and file size are uneffected. So, when I bring it back into Photoshop, I have a high res image that is not going to change in size or clarity at print.
Give it a shot and see for yourself what I mean.
This of course will not work for your exsisting docs (need to try the other two tips given above by me and Kitsch) but for future documents, now you know.
Hope this helps.
PS: Let me know if something does not make sense. I can do a step by step for ya (hopefully with screen shots dude).
Hi Southern,
Just wanted to know if ya got this last bit of info?
Hi All,
Many, big, large, topnotch, grand, thanks…all of you. I am away on business but reading all this with my head spinning.
I will try all of the above when I get home tonight and post the results.
(Dragon: thats Sunday morning for you I think).
Thanks for taking the time and I think we need to make sure this thread gets saved or edited and saved as a tutorial. I never even think about print out put when I fire up ZBrush. It`s just opened up a whole new (nightmarish) world for me. And funny thing is, my first job was printing and I owned an Adana 8x5 (any one remember them?)
Once again, ta.
Glen opps. I mean S O U T H E R N
What a dunce I am…
I wasnt un-checkingresample imagfe`. I was getting a massice image every time. Many thanks for the tips on that one.
With the CMYK thingy. Can I just convert from RBG to CMYK and not worrry about it? The images go muddy and reduce in contrast? If I edited them in this mode will It cause a problem?
Cheers,
Glen
Photoshop gives you some preset settings for conversion from RGB to CMYK. They may be just fine, but thats hard to say for sure. You really need to check with the printer. What you see on the screen is Photoshop’s idea of what your image might look like when it prints given the particular settings. Look at these seetings:
File>Color Settings>CMYK Setup
These are the setting that Photoshop uses to convert and to simulate the look on the screen. Your printer should provide you with the proper settings.
I find it easier to color correct in this mode. It makes more sense to me, but everyone is different. But like I said before, you can’t trust the colors on any monitor that has not been properly calibrated. If you have more than one monitor, you will see what I mean. The same image can look vastly different. If you want to get picky, which I usually don’t since we print on toilet paper, the time of day, the light in your office, the color of the shirt you are wearing… can all affect the color you see on the screen. At least for me, it has been a big guessing game…
-kaz
Hi Southern,
To convert from RGB to CMYK (CYK)is never an easy task. Here are some tips to help in the conversion process:
Or, you can make a duplicate, convert the dupe to CMYK and with the RGB version along side it, you can use tools such as (avalible both in Photoshop 5.x and 6.01) Image> Adjust> Curves (tip: can mess around with the channels in the curves palett), Image> Adjust> Levels, Image> Adjust> Hue/Saturation and for precise control you can use the dodge or burn tools. There are other tools in Photoshop you can use for i.e. like adjustment layers etc, but these are some of the tools I use most of the time.
Another thing you can do to get better results from screen to print is calibrate your system. Here is a link at Apples site that gives the name of almost all the companies that make calibration software:
http://www.apple.com/colorsync/
Then go to COLOR PRODUCTS toward the bottom and click on ‘…PRODUCTS that support colorsync’.
Do not worry, these companies also make calibration software for Windows. I like to use MonacoEZcolor as the software is easy to setup and the manual explaines step by step on how to set it up. Again, this is what I use but I am sure any other software is just as good.
Also, here is a link on successful Soft Proofing by Don Hutcheson (even though it is written for those on the Mac, you can get the idea of calibration and it’s benefits): http://www.apple.com/colorsync/stories/hutcheson/
With a good calibrated system, you can do softproofs real well.
If you would like me to go more into detail about CMS (Color Management System), just let me know and I will. Almost all printers have links to ‘how to CMS’ at there sites. Check it out.
Again, hopes this helps.
Dragon.