What's the difference between handing off a Publisher file and a PostScript file?
If you hand off a Publisher file, your printing service has control over how your publication prints. Printing to an imagesetter is more complex and specialized than printing to a desktop printer. To ensure the quality of the printing and to avoid failed print jobs, commercial printers prefer to set the printing options themselves. A commercial printer can also make any needed corrections to a publication, such as relinking to a picture.
If you hand off a PostScript file, your printing service can only download it to their imagesetter's Raster Image Processor (RIP), or use it to create a PDF file. They have no ability to make changes or corrections to any aspect of the file. A PostScript file is a closed set of printing instructions. Your printing service must trust that you have correctly set the printing options when you saved the PostScript file and that there are no other problems with pictures or fonts.
Use Design Checker to detect any problems with your publication
Design Checker will list all occurences of problems that it detects. These may be such things as an element that is partially off the page, overflow text in a story, or a picture that is scaled disproportionately. In some cases, Design Checker may offer you an automatic fix for these problems. In other cases, you will have to fix them manually.
Design Checker lists problems according to a set of checks, which you can customize to suit your needs. There is also a setting that limits the checks to only those that are needed for a commercially printed publication.
Once started, Design Checker runs continuously. Items that are fixed will disappear from the list of problem items and items that become problems will dynamically appear in the list.
Run Design Checker to check your publication for problems
- On the Tools menu, click Design Checker.
- In the Design Checker task pane, under Select an item to fix, click the arrow next to the item you want to fix, and then do one of the following:
- Click Go to this Item to go to the page where the problem item is.
- Click Fix:automatic fix suggestion to automatically fix the problem with the item.
Note The automatic fix will vary depending on the problem. In most cases, no automatic fix is available.
- Click Never Run this Check Again to disable the check. This affects all instances of the problem.
- Click Explain to open a help topic that more fully explains the problem and offers suggestions about how to fix it.
Set Design Checker to run only commercial printing checks.
By default, Design Checker runs checks according to the type of publication you have set up. If you are checking a publication to be commercially printed, some of the default checks may be unneeded.
- On the Tools menu, click Design Checker.
- Click Design Checker Options, and then click the Checks tab.
- Click Only run commercial printing checks.
- Click OK.
Use Pack and Go to prepare Publisher files
The Pack and Go Wizard will greatly simplify the process of preparing your files for commercial printing. When you use Pack and Go, the wizard creates linked graphics and embeds fonts in your publication so your printing service has access to the graphics and typefaces you want to use in your publication. In addition, the wizard will list any fonts that it can't embed and will report any problems with linked graphics.
Pack your publication using the Pack and Go Wizard
- On the File menu, point to Pack and Go, and then click Take to a Commercial Printing Service.
The Pack and Go Wizard will take you through each step of the packing process.
- Save your publication files to a disk or CD, or to a hard drive, external drive, or a network.
Tips to keep in mind while using Pack and Go
- Unless your commercial printer tells you otherwise, make sure to select the options to embed TrueType fonts and include linked graphics.
- If you make changes to your publication after packing your files, be sure to run the Pack and Go Wizard again so the changes are part of your packed publication.
Unpack and open Microsoft Publisher files for a commercially printed publication
The Pack and Go Wizard names and numbers packed files and then saves the packed files with a .puz extension. For example, the first file will be named Packed01.puz, the second file will be Packed02.puz, and so on. A Readme.txt file and Unpack.exe program also are included with the packed files. Insert the first disk that contains the packed files into the appropriate drive on the computer where you want to unpack the files.
- On the Microsoft Windows toolbar, click Start, and then click My Computer.
- Double-click the drive that contains the packed Publisher files.
- In the destination folder, double-click Unpack.exe.
- Type the path to the folder where you want to save the unpacked files, or browse to a folder, and then click OK.
- If there are multiple disks, insert each disk when prompted, and then click OK.
- When Publisher notifies you that the publication is unpacked, click OK.
- To open the publication in Publisher, navigate to the folder that contains the files, and then double-click the file with PNG in the name and a .pub extension.
If your commercial printing service does request PostScript files, you will need to install the Generic Color PS for Commercial Printing printer driver on your computer so that you can save your publication as a Postscript file.
- On the Start menu, point to Settings, and then click Printers.
- In the Printers window, look in the list of printers to find the printer named Generic Color PS for Commercial Printing.
- On the Start menu, click Printers and Faxes.
- In the Printers and Faxes window, look in the list of printers to find the printer named Generic Color PS for Commercial Printing.
Install a PostScript printer driver
If your commercial printing service provides you with a PostScript printer driver they recommend, follow these steps to install it.
- On the Start menu, point to Settings, and then click Printers.
- Double-click the Add Printer icon.
- Follow the instructions in the Add Printer Wizard.
- On the Start menu, click Printers and Faxes.
- Under Printer Tasks, click Add a Printer.
- Follow the instructions in the Add Printer Wizard.
Install the Generic Color PS for Commercial Printing printer driver
If you want to create a PostScript file that can be used to create a composite CMYK PDF file, you will need to install the Generic Color PS for Commercial Printing printer driver that is included with Publisher, but is not installed.
- On the Start menu, point to Settings, and then click Printers.
- Double-click the Add Printer icon.
- Follow the instructions in the Add Printer Wizard.
- Under Local or Network Printer, select Local Printer, and then make sure that Automatically detect and install my Plug and Play printer is cleared.
- Under Install Printer Software, click Have Disk.
- In the Install From Disk dialog box, click Browse, and then navigate to \Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE11 on the drive where you have installed Publisher.
- Select the file MSCOL11.INF, and then click Open.
Windows 2000 will install the printer driver Generic Color PS for Commercial Printing.
- On the Start menu, click Printers and Faxes.
- Under Printer Tasks, click Add a Printer.
- Follow the instructions in the Add Printer Wizard.
- Under Local or Network Printer, select Local printer attached to this computer, and then make sure that Automatically detect and install my Plug and Play printer is cleared.
- Under Install Printer Software, click Have Disk.
- In the Install From Disk dialog box, click Browse, and then navigate to \Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE11 on the drive where you have installed Publisher.
- Select the file MSCOL11.INF, and then click Open.
Windows XP will install the printer driver Generic Color PS for Commercial Printing.
Before you hand off your files, be sure to ask to your printing service about prepress tasks and the settings you should use for your publication.
Save your publication as a PostScript file
In most cases, you can use Pack and Go to prepare your files for commercial printing. However, if your printing service uses only Macintosh computers, or if they don't accept Microsoft Publisher files, you may need to save your publication as a PostScript file.
PostScript files can only be printed on a PostScript printer, and you cannot make changes to a PostScript file after you have saved it. Before you save your publication in PostScript format, ask your commercial printing service if they want you to set specific print settings. You’ll set these in step 6.
- On the File menu, click Save As.
- In the File name box, type a name for the file. You don't need to type a file name extension
— Publisher automatically adds .ps to the end of the file name you type. - In the Save as type list, click PostScript.
- Click Save.
- In the Save as PostScript File dialog box, in the Name list under Printer, click Generic Color PS for Commercial Printing .
- Do one of the following:Save as a color-separated file
- Click Advanced Print Settings, and then click the Separations tab.
- In the Output list, click Separations.
- In the These plates list, do one of the following:
- Click All defined inks to print a spot- or process-color plate for every ink you have defined in the publication (Tools menu, Commercial Printing Tools, Color Printing).
- Click Used inks only to print a spot-color or process-color plate for every defined ink that is used in the publications.
- Click Convert spot to process to print only process-color plates and convert all defined spot colors to process colors.
- Click Advanced Print Settings, and then click the Separations tab.
- In the Output list, do one of the following:
- Click Composite Grayscale to save a composite PostScript file that will be printed to a black and white printer.
- Click Composite CMYK to save a composite PostScript file that you can use in a third-party trapping or page-imposition program or to print to a CMYK proofing device.
- Click Composite RGB to save a composite PostScript file that will be printed to a color printer.
Note To save a composite CMYK or RGB PostScript file, you must have a color PostScript printer selected.
- To set other print options that your printing service recommends, click the options you want on the Page Settings tab and the Graphics and Fonts tab, and then click OK on each tab.
- Click Save.
Note If you are saving a PostScript file to use in a third-party trapping or page-imposition program, you may need to save a page-independent PostScript file. To do this, make sure that the Optimize for portability option is turned on (File menu, Print, Properties, Advanced, PostScript Options).