Welcome to our FAQ page.
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- Book Publishing
- Business Questions
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- Fine Edition Printing
- ICC Profiles
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- Most Common Questions
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- Tutorial
You will see on our website that we often refer to the idea of
COLOR MANAGEMENT 101
© Michael Dear
Michael Dear, the Facilities Manager for the College of Imaging Arts & Sciences at the Rochester Institute of Technology has provided a color management tutorial for Booksmart Studio, which compliments his color management workshops. The tutorial is a hands-on approach to explaining an ICC color workflow and how to better manage the colors you are seeing from your monitor to your prints. Please feel free to give Michael any feedback through his survey on the tutorial.
The following templates will be needed as starting points in either Adobe Photoshop™ or Adobe Photoshop Elements™. You will need to resize the templates in either application to a resolution of either 300 or 360 before you start the layout.
In order to send your files efficiently and completely you must package your files. If you are working in InDesign you will need to make sure that your image files are properly linked before you start, then go to File > Package. This will put all of your images, fonts and InDesign file in the same folder. You will then want to Zip or Stuff the folder to compress it for quicker delivery. If you are unsure of how to check that your image files are properly linked, simply go to View > Links and then you will see the window for your links. If anything has a red circle with a questions mark or yellow triangle with an exclamation point. You MUST address these issues before you package your file. Otherwise, those files will not be included in the final package. Therefore, slowing down your production schedule!
If you are working in Photoshop it is best to have all of the images (TIFF or PSD) in one folder. DO NOT compose text in Photoshop, as this program does not render text properly when printing to inkjet printers. You will then need to Zip or Stuff the folder for quickest delivery.
Booksmart Studio has now become 100% on-line because when we are not on-line we are busy in production. Too often we were still receiving the dreaded phone call of “What ICC profile should I use with xxxx paper and xxxx printer?” Then only to be followed up with “What Media setting should I use?” and the followed up with many more questions. Finally, by the time we get off the phone we have to take 10 minutes to regroup to start production.
Do not me wrong, we love our customers. However, we cannot help everyone that is trying to learn to print or produce books. We are 100% truly dedicated to OUR CUSTOMERS and that does not mean the phone. We still talk to our customers on the phone, BUT we do not take initial phone calls to our main phone line.
After all, Eric is a full-time professor at RIT and is already balancing his time. So please do us a favor and email us if you have any questions. If you do not like this policy then I am sorry we have offended you, but we are too busy meeting deadlines for our wonderful customers.
Booksmart Studio’s foundation is in the production and creativity of the book structure. Yes, we have design skills but our time is much better suited doing what we do best: MAKING BOOKS, PRINTS, & ICC PROFILES.
At the same time, we have a group of freelance designers that we could put you in touch with. If you need help finding a graphic designer please take a moment and think about what old design looks like to you. Look at some photography books and start to decide what you like and what you do not like. This is a great way to get started to fit you with the perfect graphic designer. We need to make sure that your aesthetic is matched up with the correct designer. Booksmart Studio will simply put you in touch with the designer we believe is a good fit, the business aspects are between you and the designer. Hint: another good practice is to provide a list to the designer of things you like and do not like along with books you like and do not like. This saves everyone involved time and money.
If you are working with your own graphic designer we encourage you to have them read through all of our information online. Please let hem know that they are welcome to e-mail us with any questions they may have along the way, we do not want to wait to the end to start fixing problems.
It is important that you understand the differences in the types of books we offer and select a book that best suits your needs. Please read through this site for more details. If you have more questions please contact our Book Production Specialist, and you are always welcome to make an appointment to stop by the studio.