THE KEY TO SUCCESSFUL PRINT PRODUCTION is an understanding of the entire workflow, from scanning and file creation through prepress and print production. Fully updated by author and publishing consultant Brian Lawler, The Official Adobe Print Publishing Guide, Second Edition, brings together the collective knowledge and wisdom of the experts at Adobe Systems in a simple, elegant presentation of the fundamental concepts and issues related to producing high-quality printed output. The book includes succinct, expertly illustrated explanations of the basic concepts and terminology of print production, along with Adobe’s tried and true guidelines, tips, and checklists for ensuring a successful print job.

This well-written, full-color guide from Adobe teaches managers and designers the relevant issues and problems that need to be considered with any professional-level print job. It helps weigh the benefits of doing particular tasks yourself against assigning them to a prepress professional. The first chapter describes color, print, and prepress terms; computer graphics; and various printing processes. Next, the guide explains how to construct a publication, teaching you about color-management systems, special printing techniques, color correction, registration, resolution, dot gain, scanning, duotones and tritones, and vector graphics. This section introduces you to image editing, interpolation, graphic file formats, type, and font formats. The third chapter discusses how to convert to Postscript, color proof, print via the Web, and archive files in PDF form. The final chapter focuses on project-management guidelines: you assess your budget, schedule, and other goals and consider prepress tasks, vendors, printers, page-layout files, and file-handoff checklists. Each chapter ends with a case study that explores the decision-making processes behind the production of an award-winning publication. An appendix provides a table of Postscript error messages, their meaning, and common solutions. A second appendix displays process-color charts, and a glossary of printing, desktop-publishing, and computer-graphics terms rounds out the book. --Kathleen Caster