You may want to take your Microsoft® Publisher 2002 file to a commercial printer (or a quick printer) if your publication:

• Requires a large print run
• Must be printed at a higher quality than you can get with an ink jet or laser printer
• Requires special binding or trimming

A commercial printer is a print professional who will use process color (CMYK) or spot color (black plus one or more special inks) to reproduce your work on a printing press.

A quick printer (also known as an instant or on-demand printer) provides offset printing as well as medium-resolution black and white or process color output on devices such as the Xerox^© DocuColor™ and other digital output devices. Cost, quality, and turnaround are usually quite reasonable.

Publisher 2002 is designed to make it easy for you to work with professional printing services. For example, publications you create in Publisher 2002 are device independent, which means that your currently selected desktop or network printer does not necessarily control the appearance of the job.

Publisher 2002 has many additional features which, if used correctly, will make it much easier for commercial printers and quick printers to handle your printing job. The following tips will help you prepare your jobs for high-quality commercial or quick print output:

• Use a Publisher wizard
• Convert your publication to spot color or process color
• Discuss color matching
• Use images from the latest content CD
• Use high-resolution scans
• Discuss graphic file formats
• Prepare fonts and graphics
• U se Pack and Go to prepare your files for the printing service

Note  If you have questions about your job, it's always a good idea to talk to your printing service before you start your project.

To find printing services that accept files created in Publisher, see the Publisher Service Provider Program referral database .

Use a Publisher wizard

One of the advantages of using Publisher 2002 is that you can easily create nice-looking publications by choosing from the Publication wizards for newsletters, catalogs, brochures, postcards, business cards, and more than 20 additional publication types.

You can start with a wizard, such as the newsletter wizard, and then choose a design and color scheme. You can use the wizard at any time to add additional objects to your publication, such as more pages, or to change the color scheme, font scheme, or even to apply an entirely new design.

To start a publication with a wizard

1. Start Publisher 2002. In the New Publication pane on the left, under Start from a design, choose By Publication Type from the dropdown list.
2. Click the type of publication you want.
3. In the window, click the design you want.

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Convert your publication to spot color or process color

When you print you publications commercially, one of your first decisions will be whether to use spot color or process color (CMYK). Publisher 2002 supports both process-color and spot-color printing and provides all the tools your commercial printing service needs to prepare your color publication for printing.

Before you design your publication and work with your commercial printing service, it's helpful to know the basics of process- and spot-color printing:

• What are spot color and process color ?
• When should I use spot- versus process-color printing ?
• Should I convert my publication to spot or process color, or should my printing service do it ?
• How do I convert my publication to spot color ?
• How do I convert my publication to process color ?

What are spot and process color?

Spot color Custom inks or pigments are combined to create one or two specific colors for your design, or pre-mixed ink colors used. Spot Blue ink, for example, is an actual pigment, not a mix of other colors. Spot color is typically less expensive, because fewer inks are used.

Process color (CMYK) Four standard inks (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black) are used to simulate most of the hues in your design. Blue, in the process color world, is really a combination of Cyan and Magenta. In process-color printing, a full range of colors is reproduced by combining four semitransparent inks. Process-color printing is typically more expensive than spot-color printing. Cost depends not only on the number of colors used, but also on the capacity of the printing press and the complexity of the publication's design.

When should I use spot- versus process-color printing?

• Use process-color printing if your publication includes full color photographs or artwork.
• Use spot-color printing if color appears in your publication only in a logo or as a way to emphasize line art or text.
• Use process-color printing plus spot colors if your publication includes color photographs or artwork, and you also want some objects to accurately match a specific spot color.

For more information about spot- and process-color printing, see Help in Publisher 2002.

Should I convert my publication to spot or process color, or should my printing service do it?

Check with your printing service to see if you should convert or if your printing service prefers to do this themselves.

Typically, if you know you're going to have your publication printed professionally, it's a good idea to convert the publication to spot or process color early on to make sure the right colors are getting used.

By default, colors in Publisher are set to RGB (short for Red-Green-Blue). RGB is ideal for on-screen viewing, such as on the Web, or for printing on a desktop printer. It creates unpredictable or unsatisfactory results, however, when the file is separated for the commercial printing process. An object that looks vivid blue on your screen, for example, will look very different when created using a combination of cyan and magenta inks.

How do I convert my publication to spot color?

When you convert to spot color, Publisher 2002 automatically creates a spot color for each distinct accent color in your publication's color scheme. Publisher 2002 supports up to 12 spot colors. The first color will usually be black.

Important   Choose a color scheme for your publication before you convert to spot color. After you convert, the color scheme options aren't available.

To convert a publication to spot color

1. Open the Publisher 2002 publication you want to convert, or start a new publication from a design.
2. In the pane on the left, click Color Schemes, and choose the color scheme you want to use.
3. On the Tools menu, point to Commercial Printing Tools, and then click Color Printing.
4. In the Color Printing dialog box, click Spot color(s).
5. Make any modifications you want (such as converting spot colors to PANTONE® ), and then click OK.

Tip  If needed, you can delete one or more spot colors from your publication. When you delete a spot color, objects formerly colored with that color are converted to a tint (percentage) of another color.

How do I convert my publication to process color?

When you convert to process color, all the colors in your publication, including accent and graphics colors, are expressed as combinations of cyan, magenta, yellow, and black. You can still change color schemes after you convert to process color.

Your publication may look duller on-screen than it did before but converting to process color is essential for your full color print job to separate and print accurately at the commercial or quick printer.

To convert a publication to process color

1. Open the Publisher 2002 publication you want to convert, or start a new publication from a design.
2. In the pane on the left, click Color Schemes, and choose the color scheme you want to use.
3. On the Tools menu, point to Commercial Printing Tools, and then click Color Printing.
4. In the Color Printing dialog box, click Process colors (CMYK), and then click OK.

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Discuss color matching

Color matching systems, or guides, are large collections of colors that are designed to reproduce well in commercially printed publications. Colors are usually identified by name or number, and solid (spot) colors are often referenced by coated and uncoated color numbers.

When you use a color-matching system, you can pick a color and apply it to text, clip art, and other objects in your publication. Different printing companies that support that color-matching system can then print your publication and get consistent results.

Publisher supports the PANTONE MATCHING SYSTEM^®. PANTONE is one of the most widely used color-matching systems in commercial printing. Before you convert spot or process colors in your publication to PANTONE colors, ask your printing service if it supports the PANTONE MATCHING SYSTEM.

Your printing service should have a reference book or chart that shows you what each PANTONE color looks like when it is printed. It's always a good idea to consult this book, and discuss the use of PANTONE with the printing service before designing your publication. Once you have decided on PANTONE colors with your printing service, you can convert the spot or process colors in your publication to those colors.

To convert spot colors to PANTONE in Publisher 2002

1. Make sure you have set up your publication for spot-color printing .
2. On the Tools menu, point to Commercial Printing Tools, and then click Color Printing.
3. In the Color Printing dialog box, click a spot color, and click Modify.
4. In the Colors dialog box, click the Custom tab.
5. Under Color Model, click PANTONE^®.
6. In the PANTONE dialog box, a PANTONE color will be automatically selected. Click OK twice.
   In the Color Printing dialog box, the spot color you modified will have a PANTONE number assigned to it.

   Tip  You can click another color if you wish. Or, if you know a specific color name, you can type the name in the Find color name box and press Enter.

To convert process colors to PANTONE in Publisher 2002

1. Make sure you have set up your publication for process-color printing .
2. In your publication, right-click the object or text that you want to fill with a PANTONE color, and then click Format <object>.
3. Click the Color and Lines tab.
4. Under Fill, click the arrow next to the Color box, and then click More Colors.
5. Click the Custom tab. In the Color Model list, click PANTONE.
6. Click the PANTONE Process tab.
7. A color will be automatically selected. You can click another color if you wish. Click OK twice.

   Tip  You can choose colors by clicking a color swatch. Or, if you know a specific color name, you can type the name in the Find color name box and press Enter.

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Use images from the latest content CD

The latest Microsoft Office XP Content CD (the second CD included in your Publisher 2002 box) includes low-resolution images that are suitable for desktop printing. However, these images will not reproduce well in a high-quality printing environment. In print, these images may appear rough or jaggy, especially if they are enlarged within Publisher.

The good news is, if your printing service is a member of the Publisher Service Provider Program , they will have access to high-resolution versions of most of these images, and can substitute these for the low-resolution versions in your file.

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Use high-resolution scans

Commercial and quick printers reproduce your photographs and artwork as a series of halftone dots.

To do this well, they must use scans with enough resolution (pixels per inch) to make a high-quality halftone. If the resolution is not high enough, the image will be jaggy.

The higher the scan resolution, the larger the file, especially if you enlarge the photograph in Publisher 2002. Large file size, however, is an inescapable consequence of high-quality photographs.

Use this formula when scanning your own photos:

1. Ask your printing service at what halftone linescreen (in lines per inch) they will print the photos. Typical linescreens are 85 (for newspapers), 100, 133, 150, and 200.
2. Multiply the linescreen by 2.
3. If you intend to enlarge the photograph in your publication, multiply that number by the enlargement percentage.

The resulting number is your scan resolution (in pixels per inch).

For example, if your printing service's halftone linescreen is 150, multiply that number by 2 to get 300. Multiply 300 by the magnification (in this case, twice the original size) to get the resolution at which you should scan the photograph: 600 pixels per inch.

It's a good idea to talk to your printing service about your photographs before you scan them.

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Discuss graphic file formats

In your publications, your graphic files will most likely be in one of three common formats:

• Windows Metafile format (WMF)
• Encapsulated PostScript (EPS) format
• Tagged Image File format (TIFF)

Each format has advantages and disadvantages.

Graphic file format	Advantages	Disadvantages
Windows Metafile format (WMF)	Many of the graphics found on the Office XP Content CD are in this format In Publisher 2002, you can customize these graphics by resizing them or assigning a new color	Some imagesetters don't support WMF. Consult with your printing service before including them in your publication.
Encapsulated PostScript (EPS) format	Supported by virtually all imagesetters In Publisher 2002, you can resize these graphics and they still look good.	You can't assign a new color to EPS graphics EPS images must be linked to the original file or they will be converted to WMF during the Pack and Go process. To link EPS images, on the Insert menu, point to Picture, and then click From File. Locate the EPS graphic you want to insert, and then click the arrow next to the Insert button and click Link to File.
Tagged Image File Format (TIFF)	Supported by virtually all imagesetters In Publisher 2002, you can re-color these graphic files to a single accent or spot color.	If you enlarge TIFF graphics in Publisher 2002, they might look rough and jaggy when printed.

Consult your printing service about the graphic file formats they support before you design your publication.

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Prepare fonts and graphics

Keep the following points about fonts and graphics in mind when you're designing a publication for a commercial printer:

• Use TrueType Fonts
  Although you can use either TrueType or PostScript fonts in your publication, it may be best to use only TrueType fonts. All 200 TrueType fonts that come with Publisher 2002 are fully licensed for embedding and are automatically embedded in the publication when you use the Pack and Go wizard. Publisher cannot embed PostScript fonts or other non-TrueType fonts, and only with TrueType fonts can your printing service take advantage of all of Publisher's advanced features, such as trapping, to prepare you final file for printing. On the Font drop down list on the Publisher 2002 toolbar, all TrueType font names are preceded by a double T symbol.
• Use a different font instead of applying special formatting
  If you are using Arial font, for example, for the body text of your publication, but you need larger, bold-faced headings, use a font such as Arial Black or Helvetica Bold, for the headings. If you simply apply bold formatting to the Arial font, you create a synthetic font and synthetic fonts may not print correctly.
• Avoid copying and pasting text from other programs or from the Web
  If you copy and paste text into your Publisher 2002 publication from another application or from the Web, you may be pasting a font that is not licensed for embedding. If you do copy and paste text, change the font of the pasted text to a Publisher TrueType font before you send the file to the printing service.
• Use original graphics that you import or insert; do not copy and paste
  It's often tempting to simply copy a graphic on a Web page that you like and paste it into your Publisher publication. Graphics copied from the Web, however, are typically low resolution images that will not reproduce well in commercial publishing. In addition, if you don't use original graphics, the Pack and Go wizard won't be able to link the graphics properly and the printing service won't be able to reproduce them accurately.

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Use Pack and Go to prepare your files for the printing service

Publisher 2002 includes the easy-to-use Pack and Go Wizard that helps you collect all the graphics, fonts, and other files your commercial or quick printer needs. Your printing service can unpack your job simply by double-clicking an unpack.exe file that the wizard creates. They will then have an exact copy of your Publisher 2002 file, as well as all the TrueType fonts and graphics required to reproduce the publication.

To run the Pack and Go Wizard

• After you have consulted with your printing service about your print job, and designed and saved your publication, on the File menu, point to Pack and Go, and then click Take to a Commercial Printing Service.

Keep the following points in mind as you go through the Pack and Go wizard:

• Choosing a drive You can easily deliver removable Zip disks and floppy disks to your printing service. If you want to e-mail your job, you can save the Pack and Go files to a folder on your hard drive.
• Including fonts and graphics Unless your printing service tells you otherwise, always choose to embed fonts, include linked graphics, and create links for embedded graphics. Embedding true type fonts will save you and your printing service hours of time.
  

  Note  While linking most graphics in your publication is desirable but not essential, EPS graphics must be linked to the original files.

• Packing the publication When you click Finish, the Pack and Go wizard copies and compresses your publication files for your printing service. The wizard creates the following files:
  • unpack.exe, a small program that your printing service uses to open and decompress your files.
  • readme.txt, a text file that explains how to unpack the files.
  • packed01.puz (and possibly packed02.puz, packed03.puz, etc.), which are the compressed versions of your publication, TrueType fonts, and graphics.
• Printing laser proofs. After your publication is packed, you have the option of printing a composite version and/or a color-separated version to your own inkjet or laser printer. This is always a good idea. You can show these printouts to the printing service to indicate your design intention.

For more detailed information about packing your publication, see Help in Publisher 2002.

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