PDFs and Transparencies
The old saying goes, you learn something new every day. That couldn't be more true in our business of advertising. Sometimes this can be a humbling experience.
Lately I've been getting a few PDF files returned to me from pubs letting me know there were transparencies in the file and would I submit a new file. "They can't be responsible for any printing errors that might occur." This is frustrating to me because 90% of the time I don't have specific pubs specs (go figure) until AFTER I've sent the file. The funny thing is, they've been telling me to make a PDF/X-1a file which I HAVE been doing, knowing that this is the format that flattens the file. So of course I get my panties in a wad when I'm busy and tell them to just use the one I sent, "It'll be OK".
Not so fast amigo. I did some research and found the errors of my ways. (Ready to get technical?) Turns out the PDF/X-1a's I had been creating recently where based on the PDF 1.4 (Acrobat 5.0) format which does NOT support transparencies. You can still use transparency in the design, but you must flatten the transparency before creating a PDF/X-1a. Huh?
See, what got me in trouble is, I was thinking (insert joke here), that since we are on Acrobat 9.0 and that since the Transparency Flattener menu was grayed out with the PDF 1.4 driver, I was all good. I was saving some time by skipping a step. It tells you in the General Description box that this format can still accommodate PDF 1.3 files and can be opened in Acrobat 4.o. These were generally the requirements of the pubs. Newer is better right? Not in this scenario.
Turns out that many of these pubs don't have devices that can handle the newer PDF/X-4a:2007, PDF 1.6 files that actually support transparency layers, let alone the PDF 1.4 format that I was saving. I also learned that if you make your files in Distiller (not InDesign) it will automatically flatten your files, but who wants to go thru that nonsense when everything you need is right there in InDesign. Also, since the only transparencies in my document were from a layered Photoshop file, all the layered PDF files with transparencies that went out the door printed fine.
Still confused? I don't blame you. Read all about it here, and be happy with the knowledge that you know all there is to know about the different versions of PDFs – that is until tomorrow when they change the whole game on you.
Software
Well, we finally got around to upgrading our Creative Suite where I work to CS4. We've had it sitting around for at least a month now but have been too busy to get down to doing the install. I guess you could say we're a little behind the 8 ball, but that's fine by me. That's how I like it, saves me the headache of helping the greedy software companies work out the bugs. Besides, when your forté is speed, sometimes there is a learning curve that you don't want to deal with in the heat of battle.
But this is a curious thing, all these updates and upgrades all the time. Financially it is a money pit. You can buy this or that software on any given day, walk out of the store, go home, install it, and you STILL have to update it. WTF? I thought it was brand new. Then it takes a couple of hours to get these auto updates downloaded from the web. Today we had to do an "update" to the updater. Sheeet.
When I worked at a leading software manufacturer here in Denver (rhymes with dark), I remember hearing horror stories of the programmers just trying to hit a release date when the software wasn't ready. Needless to say, they hit the date, the software was super buggy, and two of the three guys reputedly left to go to Adobe – that was the beginning of the end for this page layout giant. Seems it's always about the bottom line in this country.
I swear these software and hardware companies are in cahoots. After a few versions of the Adobe Creative Suite, I had to get a new computer because CS3 ran poorly on my Power Mac G5 (maybe 2 years old). CS2 worked great. But, I can't afford to see that spinning wheel of death even once a day, and I was seeing it all the time. I was under some pressure at the time to get the new upgrade by a couple of designers who deemed it necessary. It gets really ridiculous to set aside a perfectly good computer so you have some new bells and whistles in your Photoshop program. I guess you can use it to store your zillion MP3s, but that's another blog. The landfills are getting full while the middle class is disappearing.
I remember the days too, when you could bootleg your roommates software without having to call the software company and lie about needing a re-activation code cause you just bought a new laptop.
This leads me to another gripe. We in America are loosing all sense of reality. Who says you have to have the latest and greatest thing all the time? The real talent is the artist behind the monitor. You could still be working in Illustrator 11 and blow everyone else in town away. It still works fine. If I were an independent contractor I would think twice about getting into the rat race as far as software goes. I heard a guy once say "Are you ready to sign up for the program" when trying to convince a PC user to go to Apple. But what I don't understand is that in this economy, the media never mentions America's obsession with technology as being one of the biggest money drains on the average family. When I was growing up, we were lucky to have a color TV. Now you have to have HD TV with digital cable, an iPhone with texting capabilities, a home computer with Internet service, a game console, yada, yada, etc, etc. This shit is expensive and if you have kids they need this stuff to stay ahead of the curve too. Damn, no wonder everyone is living on credit.
Which leads me back to the software companies. They're the ones getting rich. You can't even use some of their devices after a couple years because there is no support. Sometimes I think I should move to the country and spend my time planting a garden and fly fishing like they used to do in the old days. Makes a lot more sense. Sometime I think all this technology is making me loose my mind. Probably is.
Sorry!?!
If one more lame client or account rep comes to my desk or writes me an email and tells me "sorry" I swear I'm gonna pop them in the face.
This happens at least once a week – more like once a day. You're not sorry. Fuck sorry. The only thing you're sorry about is that you have to tell me AGAIN that you didn't do your job well and forgot about that one ad re-size or correction and that now you're gonna hafta hear it from me again. I bet if I did pop you in the face you'd be sorry. Maybe then you'd get your shit together and quit thinking that a weak "sorry" would fix the situation. Maybe I'll be "sorry" when I miss your stupid deadline. I'm sorry that my skin is breaking out, my hair is turning gray and my blood pressure just went through the roof.
Back in the day, the real account people would bribe you with candy, free lunch or even a bottle of wine or a six pack. What happened to those days? I can't afford to make a mistake at my job but it seems to be the status quo for some of these jackasses. No big deal, that's your job. Who cares if it re-flows the whole document just after you got done cleaning up the rag? Who cares if you're up to your neck in work and can't call in a freelancer cause it's already afternoon. Just push a button and it'll be done right? Does this happen at other agencies? Cause it sure as hell happens where I work. Tip for the pissed off production artist: when in doubt, take a deep breath, count to 10, put the headphones on and listen to Nervous Breakdown by the Circle Jerks, really, really loud.
NAPP Conference, Las Vegas, Oct. 1 – 3
Well, this is my first post, so I suppose the NAPP conference in Las Vegas is as good a place to start as any. I am pleased that my company decided to send me to this because it was very productive. I have always picked up my trade from working with lots of different people and implementing what I think works best for each individual situation. Sometimes that may become redundant. That being said, my company is only 5 years old and I have been surrounded by (mostly) the same folks for the majority of that time, having worked for them from close to the inception. Unfortunately, there has not been much time for learning new tricks of the trade with the small creative team we have on hand (2 to be exact, beside myself).
I have been receiving itinerary from NAPP for years now and decided this was the year for me to see where I stood when it came to my Photoshop skills. I have worked at one of the biggest (at the time) agencies in the Rocky Mountain region and learned most of my Photoshop skills from a very talented studio manager who now resides back at the company that she originally worked for with clients such as Burger King (need I say more?) Still, with all the changes in technology and programs over the years, it's tough to stay on top of the heap without collaborating with the folks around you.
So, I have to say, that what I saw at the conference definitely gave me inspiration to continue learning all I can about this powerful program. Overall, many of the work habits I learned years ago still apply to my trade. Still, there were quite a few tips I took away that will make me work quicker and smarter in the future. Some of the classes were a bit of a review to put it nicely but even those had their up moments that made me think. Only a couple of the classes were a little too complicated for their own good but I will try some of these techniques to see how they fair and they may make me change the way I work overall eventually. The main thing I took away from this conference is that there is more than one way to skin a cat. A philosophy that I have always taken to heart. But beyond that, many of the pertinent moves were practiced by most of these talented professionals.
I guess the only thing that left me scratching my head were 2 things. First, nobody ever mentioned CMYK. All the color correcting that I saw and nobody took this into consideration. These guys would make a beautiful image from crap and I'm thinking to myself, how does it look when converted and printed in the CMYK space? A lot of times the images lose their vibrancy once they are converted since the colors can be out of gamut. Does this mean that you have further color correction to do once you make a contact proof? I would suppose so. It would just have been refreshing to hear someone say it.
The only other thing was the notion of resolution. No mention. I saw one prominent instructor actually size up an image in his creative layer comp while teaching the class. I was thinking, bad move dude, you're gonna lose your res on that layer if you make it much bigger. Oh well, NAPP seems to be focusing on digital photography these days and RAW is all the rage, which means that these photogs are probably using super high res images to begin with. C'est la vie.