Preparing Images and Text for Us When Required: The Process
We strive to make it simple to get your project off the ground and running toward completion. Though we often start from scratch with a design, we try to minimize the drag on clients' busy schedules and make it as easy as possible to provide the information we need.
At times, clients already have logos and other branding components created prior to their contracting with us, and will have images and text we can use in new websites and printed matter. In this case, time and expense will be saved when images and text are provided to us in particular formats. Designers normally work with computer programs unique to the design and printing industry, so following these guidelines will make the process efficient for you and us.
We are pleased to accept your files created in the following file formats: jpg, gif, tif, ai, ait, pdf (editable), psd, doc (not docx) and more. Others may be problematic, but we will ask you in advance in what formats you have your documents and make suggestions to convert them to useable formats if necessary.
If you did your work in the following programs, it's likely we can open/work with them:
Adobe Illustrator
Adobe Photoshop
Adobe InDesign
Adobe Dreamweaver
Print-Ready PDF
Microsoft Office: Excel, Word, PowerPoint
Micosoft Frontpage and others
Note that files created in some consumer design programs such as MS Publisher and Corel Draw can not always be converted directly to professional grade files without investing a great deal of conversion time, for which you will be charged the hourly rate. In this case, images must be provided separately please, no smaller than 300 dpi (300 dots per inch) for small printed items, such as brochures and flyers if you desire a high quality final product.
In general, orginal photo images; e.g., those taken by a digital camera and compressed versions; e.g., .jpg's should also be provided in no less than 300 dpi for "file cabinet-sized" printed matter - Do not provide images that you "save as" from a webpage. These images are too small/low quality. Photos taken from websites in particular, are rendered useless for printed matter due to printed quality. [read about raster images >]
NAMING YOUR FILES
Please limit file names to 32 characters or less, and avoid use of special characters such as forward and back slashes ( / and \ ), ampersands ( & ), number/pound signs ( # ), etc. Replace spaces with hyphens or underscore characters.
HOW TO GET YOUR FILES TO US
We accept files supplied on Flashdrive, DVD, CD and via FTP (File Transfer Protocol) in any size, and via email when large files are compressed first (WinZip or ".zip" for a PC).
For very large files, FTP (File Transfer Protocol) is the preferred method to send and retrieve files (please download the free software by Filezilla). To obtain the required username and password from us once you have filezilla on your computer, email Isa. I will also indicate the name of the "folder" into which you will place your files.
Phone: (978) 463-9151 / Hours: 9 am to 6 pm weekdays, and Sat. mornings by appointment
