Chapter 7 Digital Prepress 135
It is important to maintain the original text
and image fi les when preparing content; make
a copy of the original material and work from
the copy. This ensures that the original material
is available if data is lost or destroyed during
prepress production, or if graphics must be
drastically resized or modifi ed.
Text Preparation
There are several options available when
preparing text for the digital prepress process. The
simplest method is to enter copy directly onto the
page, while using page composition software. This
is appropriate for materials that include only a small
amount of text. When a large amount of text is included
in a layout, it is better to compose the text using word
processing software. Text may be scanned from a
hard copy using an Optical Character Recognition
(OCR) scanner, or imported electronically from a
disc or through a modem connection. Once the text
is electronically acquired, it is edited using a word
processing program.
Word processing software is an effi cient tool
for creating and editing text. Originally designed for
correspondence and similar tasks in the business
environment, this software has allowed computers to
replace phototypesetters in composing text for graphic
communications applications. Many word processors
have the capability of formatting both text and graphics.
However, it is considered better to use the word
processor strictly for text entry and editing, instead
of trying to create an entire publication with it. This is
particularly true if the publication requires extensive
text formatting with numerous graphic elements.
Word processors typically include proofi ng tools
that allow the operator to detect and correct errors
in spelling, punctuation, and word division. These
proofi ng tools go beyond mere spell-checking, as they
are usually capable of detecting incorrect, extra, or
missing punctuation, incorrect hyphenation; improper
abbreviation; missing or incorrect capitalization at the
beginning of a sentence; doubled words; and much
more. This is a small sample of what proofi ng tools
can do to increase typesetting effi ciency.
To assist in formatting the text when it is placed in
a page composition program, special codes may be
incorporated to identify specifi c text attributes, such
as headlines, subheads, or body text, Figure 7-13.
Depending on the word processing program, the codes
may be called styles, tags, or another similar term.
When the text is imported into the page composition
program, the code is recognized and the specifi ed
text attributes are assigned to the copy. Such
attributes may include type size, leading, alignment,
and indents. This technique saves many hours of
work once the text has been placed into the page
composition.
Graphics Preparation
Graphic images can be created and saved in a
variety of ways. Digital images can be created using
paint programs, draw programs, digital photography,
and electronic scanning. The electronic images
created are saved in one of many fi le formats. The
fi le format used for graphics is a very important
consideration, because it determines how much
an image may be manipulated and how well it will
reproduce. Digital camera and digital scanner
operation are covered in detail in Chapter 8.
Some graphics editing is possible with paint and
drawing programs, but more extensive and precise
!
Figure 7-13. Formatting of special attributes, such
as different sizes and forms of headlines or various
types of lists, can be done by applying styles in a word
processing program. In this screen example, the Style
drop-down list is shown.
raster image processor (RIP): A device that interprets all
of the page layout information for the marking engine of the
output device.
page description language (PDL): A fi le format that
describes a page’s layout, contents, and position within
the larger document in a manner the output device can
understand.
interpreter: A computer program used with output devices
that receive PDL page descriptions.