They promised us that computers would make our lives easier and we'd all have more spare time to enjoy a life of leisure. Well, I don't know about you, but I never seem to have enough time in the day to accomplish everything. Yes, computers have made some tasks easier - but they have also put the burden of responsibility upon some of us who have never had to deal with issues such as separating two to four color images, trapping an electronic file, etc. So I'd like to share with you some tricks and shortcuts I've found during my time Printing. By the way, if you have any tips you'd care to pass along, please feel free to contact me, Kevin Wright, at: accuprint.arden@cnprinters.com Give yourself plenty of time. Each step of the process can have glitches. Give yourself some breathing room - start early! Start thinking about your design before you turn on the computer. Set up your document to the final trim size of the finished piece. You can extend images beyond the indicated edge of the page, such as bleeds, or dotted lines to indicate folds - anything that actually touches the page will print out. The computer or imagesetter will automatically and more accurately place trim marks to the size of the document when imaging. Gripper margin is the non-printing area on the leading edge of the paper needed to carry it through the press. The size of the margin differs with each press. Our margin is 3/8 of an inch. If you can design your piece to fit on a sheet the size of your finished piece, you're saving on paper waste, and the time to wait for the ink to dry before we can cut it. Set your default margins in your layout programs for new documents to be 3/8", so you won't need to worry about measuring. Be accurate. Use your information palette to type in the exact position of your image or type box. If you are duplicating images, use the step and repeat command in Quark Xpress, or multiple paste items in PageMaker. These two commands make pasting a breeze. Create the image/design/type to be repeated. Copy the item(s) with the pointer tool. Go to the repeat/multipaste command and specify how many times it will be repeated, and the direction to paste - horizontal or vertical - and sit back and watch! Be neat. In the design stage, I often import graphics to try them out, moving them off the page when I can't decide, or store copied items on the pasteboard. Once you've settled on a design, get rid of all the extraneous stuff. Although they won't be printed on the page, they will still be imaged through the process of printing your document - and slow it down. Clean up after yourself. Zoom out to fit in window view, or even fit in pasteboard view and, with the pointer tool selected, choose "select all" to find all those pesky pieces and delete unwanted items. When you've done that, do a "SAVE AS..." instead of a plain SAVE to completely rewrite over the old file - it saves a more compact, efficient file. Print out and carefully examine your job... Including composite and color separations. Many glitches and mistakes can be easily found on paper and missed on the screen. It helps us considerably on our end if you bring these with your job. We match them up on the light table with our output to catch any possible text re-flow, and they help us understand your job at a glance.