Ad designers: Pay attention, or pay the price

This is a busy time of year for us. We just finished selling advertising space for Rockland-Thomaston’s seven-page co-op section of Maine Invites You 2004. In addition to selling advertising space, we also coordinated the overall layout of this section and designed ads for those advertisers wanting new ones.

We have been responsible for this co-op section for several years and are always amazed at the number of incorrectly formatted ads received. This year was a record for receiving incorrect digital formats—almost every ad had problems. Obviously, designers are not paying attention to the ad specifications. The purpose of this article is to outline the most common mistakes made, and why ad specifications are critical. If the digital ad does not meet the required specifications, the final output suffers and the advertiser will incur additional production costs. Please pay attention to the requirements—or pay the price.

First, let me say that we all make mistakes, and we all have busy schedules. However, we do need to pay attention to ad requirements so that everyone can do their job efficiently. This year, we had several people call to inquire what type of format was required after the ad was designed. When told their ad did not fit the requirements the prevalent attitude was that it was our problem. We disagree.

We believe it is the responsibility of the person designing the ad to double-check the specific ad requirements. More and more publications are only accepting digital versions of the ads. Please know the requirements or you will incur production charges. Why should the layout coordinator or pre-press manager spend time correcting ads and not receive payment for doing the extra work? Requirements exist for a reason.

These requirements typically include the type of platform the print shop uses (Mac or PC), software program and version number (Quark Xpress 4.0+ or Adobe Photoshop, etc), file formats (TIFF, EPS or QXD ), acceptable media (CD-ROM, Zip or floppy disk, etc.), ad size, typefaces (Type 1 only, without stylization—repeat without stylization), resolution of images, sizing of images at 100 percent, CMYK only for color images and so on.

As a designer, you are accepting money to design an ad that should conform to the required ad specifications. If the ad doesn’t meet the specifications, you will be charged extra (these additional charges are called production charges and typically run as much as $75 per hour) to fix problems. Production charges exist because extra time and work are required to fix an ad to meet the required specifications.

In some cases, due to time and schedule constraints, the print shop will run the ad as is. The images may be blurry, the typeface unreadable, the color off—a myriad of problems can arise when the digital ad does not meet the specifications. Don’t think that just because you enclosed contact information, the print shop will contact you if they encounter a problem. More times than not, you will not be contacted if a problem occurs.

It is not the problem of the publication or the layout coordinator if your ad designer does not meet the specifications. The advertiser should not have to incur production charges because the designer didn’t follow through and digitally produce the ad correctly. As an advertiser, have you ever noticed if you were billed for production charges? Do you know why you were charged extra? Pay attention, ask questions and make sure the job is right. Each of us has a part to play in getting the job done correctly.

Ted and I care about the outcome of the work we take in and we do our best to ensure the output quality is up to snuff. We take the extra time and effort to fix problems we encounter. We will correct your ad if we find a problem and we will not bill you for the time we spend making the corrections. Not every coordinator will do this.

Some of the typical problems we encountered this year included the following.

• Hardcopy printouts of many ads were missing. A hardcopy allows us to compare the version of the ad we have loaded on our machines with a printed version of what the ad should look like. Sometimes the digital ad doesn’t quite match the hardcopy version. This may occur when the designer made last minute changes that were not saved or may result from missing typefaces. Please don’t forget to include a hardcopy version of the ad.

• Incorrect color mode was another issue this year. Most publications require color ads to be in CMYK format. Almost all of our ads were RGB, which must be converted to CMYK. If the ad was approved in RGB format, once it is converted to CMYK the overall color of the ad will darken and become duller. If your ad was designed in the incorrect color mode, the final printed version of the ad will appear differently and you may be disappointed.

• Unacceptable formats were another big issue this year. We do not accept a JPEG format, because the publication does not allow this format, and we must follow the Maine Invites You guidelines for ad submission.

The file format of choice is a tiff or eps because of the high resolution of these formats. JPEG and PDF formats are of lower resolution since the conversion algorithm for these formats actually tosses out file information. If you start with a JPEG format, you have already tossed out some valuable information than if you originally saved the file as a TIFF or EPS.

JPEG and PDF formats are rarely acceptable for offset printing (even when the resolution is 300 dpi) because they are not considered high-resolution formats. Therefore, pay attention to the ad requirements and do not submit JPEG or PDF files, unless you don’t care what your output looks like.

• Missing or incorrect fonts are always a major issue. If you are submitting a tiff or EPS file, etc., you must embed the fonts or supply copies of the fonts used. If you are supplying them, make sure you are submitting fonts for the correct platform. Do not submit PC fonts if the platform used is Mac—so that this is not an issue, embed the fonts. If you are unsure how to embed fonts, please ask. You might learn something you can use in the future.

• Another major issue this year was submission of files via email. Yes, we are in an electronic age and using email makes life a bit easier—at least it should. However, it sure doesn’t make our life as the layout coordinator any easier. Only one person submitted an ad via email and supplied us with a separate copy of the ad on CD-ROM with a hardcopy printout, which brings us back to the issue discussed in the first item above.

The larger issue with email is that not everyone has a super fast connection. We are located in a black hole called Rockport; our Internet service is slow with a lot of dropped connections even with the extra speedy roadrunner type connection. Regardless of where you live or the type of Internet connection you have, email is fine for small ads less than 500 KB. Anything larger should be submitted on a CD-ROM or Zip disk. Especially when the file size is 6 MB compressed.

This year, we received one ad that was 6 MB and it took forever to download. (The first time the ad was submitted, it disappeared in cyberspace.) It took two phone calls and three email transmissions to finally get this ad—and the file was huge. This ad should have been submitted on CD-ROM. Besides the enormous size of the ad, an additional problem brings us to the next item.

• Incorrect ad size. The designer sent us a 5"x8" ad that we were expected to squeeze into a 4-1/2"x2-1/2" space. The advertiser knew the size of the ad space but I guess it was too much work for the designer to resize the ad.

In addition, for those of you who are resizing the ad, please make sure the ad proportions remain intact. You can use a scaler program to resize the ad; however, be aware that the proportions may be off. Some ads have a squished look or a stretched look to them. This is the reason. Be sure to keep your proportions. Even if this means taking the time to resize each individual component of the ad separately. As an advertiser, you are paying good money for advertising space. Be proactive and make sure the ad is designed correctly each time. This way, you will always put your best foot forward. Take pride in your work and do it right the first time.

Michelle Painchaud and Ted Skowronski own ChelTed Gallery & Design in Rockport. ChelTed is a full-service art gallery, frame shop and digital design studio. ChelTed offers large format printing and lamination, as well as creative custom framing. They design and print banners, trade show signs, retail signs, giclée printing and so much more, including ad and Web design. Feel free to call Michelle or Ted at 596.7230 or email them at <chelted@midcoast.com>.

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