Chapter 7 Digital Prepress 143
box to the desired size. In the same way, a section of
text can be selected, dragged to a different place on the
layout, and dropped into a new position. Material can be
dragged off the page to the pasteboard for temporary
storage or manipulation, or dragged off the pasteboard
and dropped into the page.
Color Separations
Instead of the physical overlays used in
conventional paste-up to prepare material for color
printing, page composition software produces
separation plates for each color on a page. For
example, a page with black type and an illustration
of a large red apple would be put out as two
separation plates. If a platesetter is used for output,
one separation plate is generated for the black
images and a second separation plate is generated
for the red images. If the page contained a full-
color photograph, four separation plates would be
created; one plate each for cyan, magenta, yellow,
and black inks. These four process colors are used
in combination to print all colors. Color science and
its relation to printing processes are explored in detail
in Chapter 9.
Font Formats and
Management
Most applications that support text also provide
a variety of fonts to choose from. The printer should
use the same fonts as the original page composition,
provided they can support them. The entire page
composition can change if fonts are substituted.
Font substitution can cause document refl ow, bad
word or line breaks, and loss of kerning and tracking.
The fonts must be included in the project fi les if the
production house or printer is expected to use them.
Font utility software, such as Adobe® Type Manager®
(ATM), Adobe® Type Reunion®, and Extensis®
Suitcase™, can help manage and collect the fonts
used in the original page composition.
Font Utility Software
Adobe® Type Manager® (ATM) creates bitmapped
fonts in any size or style from PostScript® outline fonts.
This provides WYSIWYG font representations on the
screen. ATM also converts any missing font sizes
and helps improve fonts printed on non-PostScript®
output devices.
Adobe® Type Reunion® collects style variations
in a pull-down menu and lists the style variations of
a typeface together in a pop-up menu. Normally, the
font menu displays active typefaces alphabetically
by attribute, not alphabetically by name. Type
Reunion® unifi es a type family into a list that makes
true typeface selection easier.
Font utility programs allow easier font activation
or deactivation and enable the designation of font
sets, or font lists. Font sets provide a quick list of the
fonts used in a job, Figure 7-27. Font sets can be
created for individual jobs and only the set needed
may be activated.
Even though the page composition program
may give a list of fonts contained in a document,
they may not list the fonts used in imported EPS
graphics. Therefore, you must record all fonts used in
supporting fi les from the font sets because they are
part of the page composition fi le. Fonts used within
bitmapped graphics automatically convert into pixels
and lose font information, so it is not necessary to
record the fonts used within these fi les.
Figure 7-27. The font list above indicates all fonts used
in a particular job.
template: In a page composition program, a reusable
form that can be set up to include the page geometry,
typography, and other elements of a page that recur in a
document.
text fi lter: A page composition program feature that allows
the original text formatting applied to be retained when the
text is imported into the page composition program.
style sheet: A formatting tool that combines a number
of attributes, such as type size, alignment, and other
characteristics.
separation plates: Special outputs for each color on a
page created by page composition software.
font set: The font list for a document. Font sets can be
created for individual jobs and activate only the set needed.