Four-Colour Booklet from a Customer's Word File
A Cuttack print shop has won an order for 3,000 A4, 16-page booklets, four colours on both sides, 130 gsm art paper, delivery in four days. The customer supplies a Word file containing 18 RGB photographs, most only 120–160 ppi at final size; a logo as a 72 ppi RGB PNG; black body text; and a brand red specified as Pantone 485 C. The prepress operator proposes to place the Word file directly into imposition software, convert all colours to CMYK with one default profile, and send plates to the four-colour offset press. There is no in-line coater. The customer insists that the red logo must not shift and wants an approved proof before printing. The shop has a calibrated inkjet proofer and a spectrophotometer, but the operator has not used them for this job. The pressroom is booked solid for the first two days.
1. List the three highest-risk prepress faults in this job and rank them in the order you would fix them. Justify the ranking by likely effect on the printed booklet and the deadline.
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Ranking
- Pantone 485 C logo supplied as a 72 ppi RGB PNG. This is the customer's stated reject criterion. A default RGB-to-CMYK conversion will almost certainly shift the red, and the low resolution will show a soft or pixelated edge on the printed logo. Fix first because a wrong brand red wastes the whole run.
- Photographs at 120–160 ppi at final size. For a 130 lpi offset job, images should be roughly 195–260 ppi; 120 ppi is below the practical minimum and will look coarse. Fix second because images affect every page, but the job can still be salvaged by sourcing better files or limiting enlargement.
- Direct Word placement and one-click CMYK conversion. This risks font substitution, reflow, missing bleed, RGB black text, and no trapping. Fix third because it is a workflow fault that will compound the first two.
Reasoning: the logo is a go/no-go brand requirement; image resolution is a quality requirement; the Word workflow is a production risk. All three must be corrected before proofing, but the logo decision determines whether the job can proceed at all.
2. Recommend a practical image-resolution and colour-management plan for the photographs and the Pantone 485 C logo. State what you would measure on the proof and what tolerance you would set.
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Images: ask for original high-resolution files. If unavailable, do not simply upsample. Use a minimum of 1.5 times the screen ruling (about 195 ppi at 130 lpi) and keep enlargement below 120%. Sharpen only after resizing. Convert RGB to CMYK with the ICC profile that matches the press and paper, not a default profile.
Logo: because the press has only four units, Pantone 485 C must become a controlled CMYK build or be printed as a spot colour on a separate pass. For four-colour work, use a measured build that matches the approved master, and proof it on the calibrated inkjet with the same profile. If the customer will accept a spot red, a fifth unit or a second pass is technically better but affects cost and schedule.
Proof measurements: measure the red patch with the spectrophotometer against the Pantone 485 C reference and record ΔE. A realistic commercial tolerance for a brand red is ΔE ≤ 2–3, but the customer should approve that number in writing. Also check neutral greys, skin tones, black text, and the 50% dot patch. Reject the proof if the red patch exceeds the agreed ΔE or if images show pixelation at final size.
3. Explain how you would impose and proof the 16-page booklet on a four-colour offset press, including what you would check before releasing plates.
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A 16-page A4 booklet is normally imposed as one 16-page signature: 8 pages on each side of the sheet. On a four-colour press this means four plates for the front and four for the back, eight plates in total. Use sheetwise or work-and-turn imposition according to press size, and keep a consistent gripper and side-guide edge.
Before releasing plates, check:
- 3 mm bleed on all trimmed edges and 3 mm trim marks outside the bleed.
- gutters and creep allowance for the 16-page signature; confirm the fold sequence.
- colour bars, registration marks, and a step wedge on the sheet edge.
- black text set to 100% K only, not four-colour black.
- trapping where the red logo or dark images meet white paper.
- fonts embedded or converted, and no reflow from the Word file.
Proof on the calibrated inkjet using the press profile. The customer signs the proof for content, colour, and layout. The pressroom then checks plates against the signed proof, confirms plate size and punch register, and records the approved ΔE for the brand red before running.