File Submission Guidelines

We at Tru Dimensions Printing know that as a designer, your main concern is that the ideas you create will be transformed into the printed piece you expect. It is our goal to help you develop your files in a way that will make this transition as predictable and rewarding as possible. This guide has been prepared to act as an aid in the design decision-making process and to provide you with the necessary technical information regarding requirements for the contents of your digital files.

Please take a few minutes to review this information. If there are areas in which you have questions that this page does not clarify, contact us and we will be happy to address your concerns.

Layout & Graphic Software Application Types:

Many applications are available for computer based design, but only a handful are capable of translating accurately to high-end film output devices. Currently, the acceptable applications are:

  • QuarkXPress (PC or Macintosh) 4.11 or higher
  • Adobe Illustrator 6.0 or higher
  • Adobe PhotoShop 4.0 or higher
  • CorelDraw 8 (PC Only!)
  • Adobe Acrobat 4.0 High Resolution PDF files
EXTREMELY IMPORTANT: Please note that all PC files may be subject to text reflow and/or font replacement.

Graphic Files:

Graphic elements need to meet certain requirements to be of acceptable print quality. Scanned images must be at least 300 DPI after it is placed into the document to size. (An example would be a scan at 100% with a dpi setting of 300DPI would only have an output DPI of 150 placed at 200%.) Anything less would produce a low quality printed product.

Graphic File Types Supported

  • EPS
  • TIFF
  • TIFF LZW Compression
  • PDF (HIGH RESOLUTION)
  • JPEG (HIGH RESOLUTION)
  • PHOTOSHOP (PSD FILES), PLEASE INCLUDE FONTS
Graphic File Modes Supported
  • CMYK (RGB files will need to be converted and charged)
  • Grayscale
  • 8-bit Line art (600DPI OR HIGHER)
  • Monotone
  • Duotone
  • Tritone

Output and Transfer:

When you have completed your design and are ready to send it to us for printing, there are a few final things to consider.

COLLECT ALL ITEMS: layout files, graphic elements and fonts that are used in your files.

GRAPHICS: All linked graphics must have the same name as when originally placed, i.e. if you have used low resolution graphics during production and now are replacing them with high resolution graphics, they should have the exact same name in order for them to link up properly when we open the file.

FONTS: Collect ALL printer and screen fonts used in your file, and place into a single font folder on your transfer disk.

The following elements are also requested with your job:

HARD COPY of your finalized file is critical to determining the accuracy of our output.

DISC DIRECTORY of the contents of your disk. After you have collected all of the job's elements onto the transfer disk, open the disk window and output a laser copy of the listed contents.

Electronic Media Transfer Options:

Your digital files can be transferred to Tru Dimensions Printing on any of the following media options:

  • Floppy Disk
  • Zip Disk (all sizes)
  • Compact Disk
  • Email (File must be zipped and under 5MB in size)

Unacceptable Programs and File Types:

While perfectly acceptable for interoffice or internet usage, many programs and file types are NOT ACCEPTABLE when your final product is to be a quality printed piece from high-resolution film. We can not use files created using any of the following programs.

  • FrameMaker
  • Creator2
  • Microsoft Word
  • Microsoft Excel
  • Microsoft PowerPoint
  • WordPerfect
  • Microsoft Publisher
  • Ventura Publisher
  • Photostyler
  • Painter
  • PICT Files
  • EPS DCS (desktop color separated) Files
  • GIF or PNG Files
  • RGB Color File Mode
  • Indexed (single channel color) Color File Mode