Mechanical Specifications

Digital and Mechanical Requirements for Pre-press

It is recommended that agencies check with their APNAP National Sales Account Manager when advertisement is booked, to ensure correct size ad will be supplied. There are other varying measurements for publications – dependent on their final print size.

Acceptable File Formats

For completed artwork, APNAP Ad Services will only receive High Resolution PDF format.
Adobe PDF – Version 5 onwards
Files should be distilled using Acrobat Distiller. If using PDFs ensure the following:

 

Typography and Style

Try to restrict the smallest type to 7 point (or 8pt for reverse type). It is recommended to avoid the use of too fine a type and fine serifs. These can easily fill in during printing. It is suggested that large solid black areas be screened back to no more than 95% . ALWAYS
avoid the use of large or complex blends as this can increase RIP times. APNAP reserves the right to alter advertisements that resemble APNAP editorial style. We will insert the word ADVERTISEMENT in between 8 and 10pt at the top and place the ad inside a BOUNDING BOX. Any Copyright will be the responsibility of the advertiser and not the responsibility of APNAP.

Full Colour

Screen Ruling: 100lpi/40lpc Screen Angles: C-15, M-75, Y-0, K-45
Print Sequences: Black, Cyan, Magenta, Yellow
Dot Shape: Elliptical Euclidean

Separation

APNAP suggests the use of Grey Component Replacement separation technique
(GCR), for colour printing on newsprint. It is essential the scanner operator assess the original
material and use the appropriate amount of GCR. Please set your Total Ink Limit to 230%.

C M Y K

Catchlights 0% 0% 0% 0% Highlights 0% 0% 0% 0%
Non Essential Whites 0% 0% 0% 0% Essential Whites 3% 2% 2% 0%

MIDTONES
The Press will gain approximately 27%.
Try to keep mid-tones open, this will compensate for dot gain.
SHADOWS
Limit Cyan, Magenta and Yellow to a maximum of 90%
UNSHARP MASKS
Unsharp masks can be increased to higher than normal levels, this will
alleviate the softening effect often experienced on newsprint.
BLACK AND WHITE
Screen Ruling 100lpi/40lpc Dot shape: Elliptical Euclidean
TONE REPRODUCTION
Catchlights 0% Highlights 2%
Step 7 density patch 50% Shadow 90%
UNSHARP MASKS
Again can be increased to gain better results on newsprint.

Alterations

It is the responsibility of ADVERTISERS and REPRESENTATIVES to know about alterations to files. Please inform the production department directly. If alterations arrive after deadline there is no guarantee that these corrections will be done. If you re-send a file mark it clearly as replacement material and inform APNAP National Sales or the Newspaper immediately. Unless the production department is made aware that replacement material is being submitted, it is unlikely that alterations will appear.

All alterations to be re-supplied as a new PDF.
No patches or extracting of previous information from PDFs will occur.

General Application Guidelines

Make the document dimensions the same as the ad dimensions. Delete any items not necessary (i.e. anything that lays outside the page area as well as unused colours in the colour palette).

Recommended format for all files should be as a High Resolution PDF.
Restrict the use of complex blends. These can greatly increase RIP times.
Duotones, tritones and quadtones must be either converted to CMYK or named the correct Pantone colour to conform with our colour palette, which are listed above. Always proof your ad before submission, this ensures that your image is correct and a copy of this proof should be sent to us, to ensure that we know what the final Advertisement should look like. Ads that are supplied digitally will be automatically re-sized to fit booking.

Quickcut and Websend Ads

APNAP supports both of these delivery techniques.
To find out more about connecting, contact:
Quickcut (02) 9467 7500; Websend: (03) 8689 9000

Advertisers are asked to inform their representative ASAP, as to whether or not their ad will be sent electronically. It is helpful if they can ring their representative and tell them an approximate time that it will be sent. It is requested that at the time of booking a key number or the job name is given for reference to ensure the correct ad is placed in the paper. Quickcut supports Spot and Process Spot Advertisements, but not Full colour advertising. (Quickcut files should be re-submitted for repeat material).

Scanning and Resolution

The scanning resolution or dpi can be calculated by using this simple formulae. Line Screen
Ruling x1.5 (x enlargement).
This means if you are scanning pictures for colour reproduction the screen resolution is 100lpi, you multiply this by 1.5 giving you a resolution of 150dpi. The enlargement part of the formulae is only necessary if you will be providing scanned images that need to be enlarged when used in your advertisement. The same applies for greyscale scans.

Note: Hi-Res Scans. It does not mean you will achieve a higher quality ad if you use a higher resolution. The extra information is simply wasted. If your ad is scanned by a high-end scanner, place these scans into Photoshop and adjust the resolution. This will not change the quality of the final output. Scanning line art and type elements requires a higher input resolution than contone images. Ideally line elements should be scanned in at the same size they will be used when output. For newsprint a minimum of 600dpi resolution with a maximum of 1200dpi is recommended.

File Size and Compression

Limit the size of Greyscale and Line Art images to under 1mb if possible.
Limit the size of Colour Images to under 5mb if possible.
APNAP prefers no compression on files submitted. JPEG documents are acceptable.
If you must compress a file please call us to check beforehand.

Fonts

It is the responsibility of advertisers to ensure all fonts they are using are properly licensed.
All fonts must be embedded with High Resolution PDF document. If fonts are not submitted correctly, APNAP reserves the right to replace these fonts with similar fonts from our type range. TRUE TYPE FONTS ARE NOT ACCEPTA BLE .

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