When a new job enters the workflow, like a raft on a river, it heads downstream with the current to its ultimate destination: completion and customer satisfaction. There are many “ports” along the way that can aid in a successful outcome and a few key practices can be observed to ensure that the job is completed to the highest standards and with maximum efficiency. 

 

A smooth workflow in the digital graphics workplace has a lot to do with good planning. The job begins well before entering the print shop. During the creative phase, the purpose of the piece and its production standards are initially determined by the art director and/or design team in discussions with the client. 

 

DETAILS, DETAILS, DETAILS

At this stage there are numerous details to consider. When the purpose of the piece is firmly established, the development of a concept begins. Often, concepts are developed and presented to a design team where a brainstorming session ensues in which ideas are put on the table and accepted and refined or rejected. During the session(s) key production, factors like size, quality and quantity are established. During subsequent sessions, artwork is presented that supports the concept. Usually multiple layouts and versions of the artwork are developed and presented to the design team who critique and further refine it.

 

The design team may consist of a photographer, an illustrator, a graphic designer, copywriter and a production artist, who all contribute specific aspects of the piece, and the art director, who orchestrates the entire process into a cohesive whole. 

 

The creative phase of a graphics project also can be tightly integrated with the production phase. Where at one time the job divisions were quite specific, carried out by individuals with unique skills who were assigned specific tasks, it is not unusual now for many of the processes to overlap and be performed by a single individual. Frequently a graphic designer, for example, will set type, configure a layout, choose design elements and colors and prepare images for print or other media. The integration of tasks is primarily due to the accessibility and compatibility of the various software programs that are utilized in the workflow.

 

There are several features in mainstream graphics software that neatly combine and integrate the information that constitutes a print job. The software modules in the Adobe Creative Design Suite become integral parts of the scheme to prepare complex files with many formats for ultimate output. Graphic arts production software—like Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign, Acrobat and Bridge—functions in a non-linear workflow that allows image elements to be independently accessed and altered or converted back to former states with little effort and without affecting other elements. There are features in all these programs that support a dynamic workflow. 

 

 

SYNCHRONIZING COLOR

Interestingly, the first step in the dynamic production workflow consists of a form of insurance. An environment must be established where colors are consistently predictable on all equipment. This includes the scanner, monitor and printer. This system of calibration is called Color Management (CM) and is a feature in all key software in Adobe CS5. If multiple programs are part of the workflow, it is important to synchronize CM in each of the programs so that the image content enters the same “color working space” in every phase of its production. Synchronization is simply a matter of ensuring that the color working spaces of all the software are the same. Here’s how to synchronize all Adobe products to the same working space: launch Adobe Bridge and choose Edit > Creative Suite Color Settings (see Figure 1). 

 

Synchronization doesn’t automatically convert files to the current working space as they are opened or pasted into another program. The Color Management Policies dialog box in the Color Settings feature within each program in the suite determines how the files are processed when opened (see Figure 2). By default, the document’s embedded color profiles will be preserved but there are options for automatically converting files to the current color working space or, even more useful, programming a dialog box to appear that offers choices to convert or not convert when opening or pasting images with mismatched or missing profiles.

 

FORMATS THAT MOVE

An image format consists of a configuration of data that supports its placement in a software program. Among the 40 that Photoshop opens and the 21 formats that it saves to are the most common and versatile formats specifically designed for preparation to printing environments. There are also others for the formats used in computer aided drafting (CAD), multimedia 3-D rendering and Web output. Because of this versatility, Photoshop can be quite useful for opening and converting files for placement into specific editing environments. 

 

The Save As dialog box enables file conversion on the fly. An image can be opened and saved as a different format by choosing a specific format from the pull down menu, as shown in Figure 3. When a format is selected, the dialog box presents checkboxes with the individual characteristics of the document that the format supports (see Figure 4). 

 

For example the TIFF format supports layers, but the Layers box will only be checked if the document contains layers, otherwise it will be grayed out. To flatten the image when saving the file, uncheck the Layers checkbox. When the box is unchecked the file name will automatically add the word “Copy” to prevent discarding the original layered file. Flattening an image destined for print is recommended to greatly reduce processing time.

 

PSD—Among the most versatile and reliable formats is the Photoshop native format with its extension, PSD. The native format supports all of Photoshop’s potential characteristics including alpha channels, layers, notes, spot colors, proof setup, and color profiles.

 

Another advantage of the Photoshop format is that an image can be dragged and dropped from one Adobe application to another for fast compositing. The disadvantages are that PSDs cannot be published to the web and are not compatible with certain non-adobe software products. In addition, the compression scheme for PSDs is not terribly efficient and therefore the files are relatively large.

 

PSB (Large Document Format)—This format is very similar to PSD and supports all of Photoshop’s features with the exception of a few plug-ins and filters. The advantage of PSB is that it is designed specifically to support images destined for large-format printing. PSB supports images up to 300,000 x 300,000 pixels where PSD documents support images of only up to 30,000 x 30,000 pixels. PSB is useful for large image applications like wall graphics, large high-resolution art prints and billboards. 

 

Figure 5: When an image is saved as a TIFF, a dialog box presents choices for compression schemes.

Processing time can be quite slow on enormous documents however, especially when the document contains numerous layers. It is therefore suggested that in the initial design phase where experimentation is critical, a low-resolution mock-up be created and a History Log maintained so that the settings and operations arrived at during the creative process can later be efficiently applied to the large-format document. It is also recommended that Large Document Format images be flattened before printing.

TIFF (Tagged Image File Format)—The TIFF format is the tried and true alternative to either PSD or PSB formats. The advantage of TIFF images is the useful compression schemes that are presented in the TIFF dialog box when files are saved that can significantly reduce file size (see Figure 5). 

 

PDF (Portable Document Format)—

The PDF format is another flexible, cross-platform, cross-application file format that is useful for documents destined for print. Based on the classic PostScript (PS) imaging model, PDF files accurately display and preserve fonts, page layouts, and both vector and raster graphics. PDF supports 8 and 16‑bits-per-channel images. Multiple page documents that are saved in PDF can be opened in Photoshop as multiple files and individual pages can be saved as Photoshop PDF files. Illustrator and InDesign can also save to PDF format.

 

Ultimately the successful integration of images generated from multiple software programs and combined into a single printable document relies on the knowledge of artist or technician as how best to unite the data into a cohesive whole. Brilliant design concepts can only be realized if the big picture is taken into account and that means engineering documents whose color is synchronized and whose formats are compatible.