Comments on: Prepress tips for graphic designers

By: David Airey

David Airey — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 09:33:58 +0000

I had been invoicing like you, Andrew, until I took on this book project—haven’t sent an invoice in at least half a year. I have a year’s use of Freshbooks to take up, though, and know quite a few designers use it.

Abbas, have you used the latest Quark? I haven’t, but I’m curious how it stacks up against InDesign. “Don’t use Publisher” is another. Whatever happened to Pagemaker? (The first layout software I used.)

By: Bakula

Bakula — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 22:27:57 +0000

Awesome – Thank you!

By: Sigurdur Armannsson

Sigurdur Armannsson — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 22:21:02 +0000

Making a printable version of the list is as easy as to copy this text and paste into InDesign. But if someone wants to save some time, be welcome to download an A3 version from http://font.is/Prepress/DesignersPrepressChecklist.pdf

By: Bakula

Bakula — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 15:49:33 +0000

A great post and an awesome list that I can share with my students so they can start to make their own checklist. The stamping is a great idea – the number of times I have been on press checks for past projects wishing I knew where the original came from, could have saved myself the headache. Thanks Sigurdur.

By: Abbas

Abbas — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 19:17:11 +0000

17. Don’t use Quark.

By: Sigurdur Armannsson

Sigurdur Armannsson — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 20:36:18 +0000

iBiz and Billings are in a similar quality and price area.
Personally I use iBiz. It was something I took for a 30 day trial and liked. It’s great for a freelance jobs and just suits me fine. I use the network version, where I have the service part on my laptop and a user version on my main work horse.

What I like most about it is the ability to make fast estimates. I never answer directly over the phone how much a job would cost. I rather do an estimate in iBiz and then send it in a pdf format to the possible client. The great thing about this is that when I do it this way, the estimate is about twice as high as the answer over the phone would have been. So, if you look at it this way, the software has paid it self on the first job.

Another thing is that invoicing is quite nice and making a customized invoices is no big deal. I am using preprinted invoices and they were easy to fit in.

By: Andrew Kelsall

Andrew Kelsall — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 20:22:48 +0000

Great article David, some great stuff on here.

@Tracey Grady → I too was interested in the different PDF formats of late, as I was using the 2001 PDF/X-1a export settings. So, I posted out a question on Twitter about it, and I found most designers use this as standard.

@David → Do you recommend iBiz? I use Billings as I received it free, however it is limited in that I cannot invoice from it. I currently invoice via InDesign>Export as PDF, which isn’t as efficient as an invoicing program. Do you do all the quotes and invoicing (+statements) via the iBiz program??

By: Tessa Carroll

Tessa Carroll — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 14:15:17 +0000

Thanks so much for the tips, David. This is a great comprehensive list to have when prepping work for the printer. I absolutely agree that any designer without a set protocol for printing turn this detailed list into a checklist and work directly from it when preparing projects for the printer. In the end, you’ll end up saving yourself and your client money and you’ll be more likely to encourage repeat business.

Tessa Carroll
VBP OutSourcing

By: Sigurdur Armannsson

Sigurdur Armannsson — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 13:18:19 +0000

Yes, I saw that one. A nice one. Seemed to me that it could be Mordy’s shopping corner.
Eps, FreeHand and more, dead but not buried.

By: David Airey

David Airey — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 12:56:47 +0000

Hi Grainne, that's a good idea (a printer friendly version of posts). One for the to-do list. Thanks. Sigurdur, a t-shirt for the Christmas list?