Preparing Print-Ready Files for Magazine Printing

Why File Prep is Key to Print Success

Preparing a magazine file for printing helps ensure your design is printed beautifully, legibly, and error free the first time. It prevents delays caused by file problems. It also helps you to take the necessary time to fully review your work, guaranteeing the final product is exactly how you need it to be. So then, how exactly does the file prep process work?

In this blog, we’ve collected some of our best resources discussing the different methods used to review, refine, and format a print file for submission to your printer. You’ll learn what the key terms used during this process mean. You’ll also find a copy of our pre-flight checklist that you can easily follow when finalizing your magazine file for print.

Print-Ready File Settings 

The first thing to know about getting your magazine file ready for print is how to format it. Each professional printer may have different requirements in these categories, so it’s always worth confirming their parameters before completing this step.

Resolution and Color Settings

To ensure accurate, clear results, printers typically require all submitted files to:

• Have a minimum resolution of 300 DPI (dots per inch). Note that PPI (pixels per inch) is not the correct resolution setting.
• Be formatted in CMYK color mode. Additional PMS (Pantone Matching System) color formatting may be required if you are using that color system.

Bleed, Margins, and Trim

Bleed refers to a portion of a print design that extends past the final trim lines/crop marks. It’s required for designs that are meant to extend right up to the edge of the page. The amount of bleed that extends past each trim edge should be at least .125”.

Margins are spaces between your critical design content and the edge of the page. Regardless of whether your design requires bleed or what dimensions it's formatted in, it should always include margins to prevent content loss once the pages are trimmed. There is no standard margin size, instead you should determine the appropriate margins for your content based on factors like legibility, design balance, and the amount of content you need to include.

Fonts, 

Print files may be formatted as either raster or vector files. To understand the difference between these two formats, you can check out our blog post on preparing artwork for offset printing. 

If your file is a vector format, there’s an extra step you need to take to ensure that your fonts don’t get altered during the file transfer process. You can either:

• Outline your fonts, which turns each character into a vector element.
• Embed your fonts, which attaches the font data to the file to ensure it’s read correctly regardless of who opens it.

Page Order and Layout Accuracy

Something you probably wont need to worry about addressing is your page order, though it often will be changed for printing. These two different page orders are often referred to as:

• Reader spread: the logical page order for a person reading the content
• Printer spread: the page order needed to print a publication so that it is ultimately in the correct sequence after folding and/or binding. 

Typically, your printer will take care of re-flowing your file’s pages to ensure they are in the correct sequence for printing.

Preflight Checklist Before You Submit

Our original preflight checklist can be found here, along with additional information on proofing and tips for print success.

1.) Confirm your file is formatted according to your printer’s specifications. Typically, commercial printing uses one of the following:

• native Photoshop files (for raster files)
• TIFFs (for raster files) 
• native Illustrator files (for vector files)
• EPS (for vector files)
• PDF (for vector files)

2.) If you’re printing a vector file, confirm that either:

•  All of your text has been outlined OR
• All of your fonts are embedded in the file

3.) Confirm your file is formatted with the correct color mode:

• CMYK 
• Additional PMS colors (if required)

4.) Confirm all bleeds, margins, and gutters (if applicable) are adequate:

• All bleeds are at least .125” wide
• Margins are adequate for design legibility and clarity
• For saddle stitch and perfect bound products, gutters between pages are sufficiently sized to prevent content loss

5.) Proof your design for:

• Typos and grammatical errors
• Up-to-date logos and imagery
• Consistent brand terms, symbols, fonts, and colors

6.) Complete a final review before submission:

• Request a second round of proofing from a third party
• Send the final approved design to your printer partner.*.

*Note that once you’ve sent your design file to your printer, they may still spot things they recommend changing before commencing printing.

Got a dream about publishing a magazine for your brand? We’d love to hear more! Reach out to Wallace Carlson today and start bringing your dream to life with exceptional print products.