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EPS
Files, Fonts and Colors in Desktop Publishing |
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In desktop publishing, when you place type in an EPS
file the same fonts must be installed on the computer
that will be opening the file as the one where the file
was created or else the fonts won't display or print
as you intended:
Fonts in EPS files have to be handled the same as fonts
in the body text. If you send a job to a service bureau
for output then they must have the same fonts on their
system - unless you embed the fonts in the
EPS file when you first save it. (Currently Deneba Canvas™,
Adobe® Illustrator® and CorelDRAW® support
font embedding.)
Although EPS files can contain either images or type
they are placed in a page layout program as images.
Font and style attributes are saved within the EPS file
when it is created - such as by an illustration program.
Unlike assigning font and style attributes to the body
text while working in a page layout program, EPS files
are "pre-packaged" with these attributes.
Think of an EPS file as its own little mini-document.
When you place an EPS file into a page layout document
it is like placing a page layout within a page layout.
It is described using PostScript® - the same as
the page layout document itself when it is sent to a
PostScript device. It is a set of instructions within
a set of instructions. Naturally, then, the fonts would
be required to properly interpret the instructions within
the EPS file.
In QuarkXPress™ you can assign style attributes
to TIFF images, but not to EPS files, again, for the
same reason that all attributes are assigned using the
software that creates the EPS files and not the page
layout program.
Let's assume your page layout files will be output by
a service bureau either on film or RC (resin coated)
paper. Other than font embedding there are a few other
ways you could handle this. You could:
1. Supply the fonts along with the job (check first
if any licensing agreement applies)
2. Convert all the fonts to curves in the EPS file (but
the text will no longer be editable)
3. Save two versions of the EPS file:
a) A master version with editable
text
b) A working version (a copy of the
master) with text converted to curves
Color and EPS Files
The next point to make about EPS files is that you
must be aware of the color model you are using. Is the
job going to be printed using spot
color or process
color? Let's say you will be printing a two-color
job - for example, black and red - and it contains an
EPS file. If the objects in the EPS file were tagged
using process red (a mix of cyan, magenta, yellow and
black) and the text in the page layout file was tagged
using a spot color or RGB red, depending on the software
and colors used, five plates may be output instead of
two (four for the process colors in the EPS file and
one for the spot color or RGB red in the document).
You must be very specific about how you assign colors
in EPS files. The colors assigned to objects in an EPS
file must match the colors used in the rest of the document.
If the job is to be done using process colors (CMYK),
then use process colors in the objects in the EPS file.
If the job is to be done using spot colors, then use
a standard spot color system such as PANTONE® for
both the page layout document as well as the objects
in the EPS file. If the job will be a five-color job
(process plus spot) such as one using four color for
photos and a spot color for a company logo, then make
sure the objects in the EPS files use the same spot
or process color as the rest of the document.
Always Make Laser Proofs Before
Sending The Job To A Service Bureau
If you will be preparing documents to be output by
a service bureau then you should obtain and use a PostScript
laser printer to check your output. Make laser proofs
before you send the files to be output. The reason is
that the service bureau's equipment uses PostScript.
By printing a proof using the same page-description
language, you will be able to obtain an exact replica
before the files are committed to high-end output. Documents
containing EPS files must be output to a PostScript
device for them to print properly because their instructions
are written using PostScript.
If Your Laser Printer Chokes On EPS
Files...
There are as many varieties of EPS files as there are
applications. Most applications allow EPS files to be
saved either as straight ASCII or in binary format to
save disk space. Some allow them to be saved using JPEG
compression. I personally do not recommend using JPEG
compression because it is "lossy" and there
will be a trade off between image quality and file size.
Some users (including myself) have had the experience
of having the laser printer choke on EPS files saved
in binary format. Do not become discouraged and not
use EPS files believing that all EPS files will cause
this. I believe this is caused by the application used
to create the EPS files.
If you have trouble this is what I recommend:
1. First check how you send the job to the printer.
QuarkXPress has many settings in the print dialog box.
You can send images either as ASCII, Clean 8-Bit or
Binary. Try variations on these settings first. If this
doesn't work, then...
2. Do your image editing and illustration using whatever
software you want to use. Save your work as EPS files
(for vector or bitmap) or PDF files (for vector only)
using any one of them. Then "scrub" them using
Adobe Photoshop® (for bitmaps) or Adobe Illustrator
(for vector graphics). By "scrubbing" I mean
either open the EPS files in one of these two Adobe
applications or create new files and use "cut and
paste" to get the images into one of these two
applications and save them as new EPS files. Then re-import
these new EPS files into your page layout documents
and output them again. The reason that I have more confidence
using an Adobe product to create an EPS file is because
EPS files use PostScript and Adobe is the source of
PostScript.
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