Prepress, Printing P.O.D
Hi...
I didn't see a thread on this topic, so thought I'd give starting one a try... I have Kevin Tinsley's book, DIGITAL PREPRESS for COMIC BOOKS, but with a few exception, it left me more confused than I had been about what you need to do, after all the story and at are complete, to get your comic ready for publication. For those who have done this stuff, what have been your experiences? What rules of thumb have been useful?
Thanks.
Comments
I worked in print design for over decade before I became a letterer, and I've been lettering professionally for the last five years and I still ask for a contact in the Production department every time I get a new client and go through their spec with a fine-tooth comb. Zenescope are different from Image; Image are different from Dark Horse who are different from Avatar… and I mean really different. I supply flattened TIFFs to Zenescope, a continuous PDF of the book to Image; Dark Horse want the lettering as individual EPS files with no artwork so their production guys can merge it with the art in-house; Avatar want live Illustrator documents…
Find the person that will actually have to deal with your files and ask them what file format/specification would make their day.
Cheers
Jim
And of course I forgot which one was the right profile, and Scribus seems to have lost it, too. Phew.
That said, I'm curious what you folks would ideally like to see in a POD/short run printer that you're not getting from the existing options (Ka-Blam, Comixpress, RA Comics Direct, etc.). Aside from, obviously, more market-friendly pricing. I'm, er, asking for a friend.
Since they don't offer comic book size, I've yet to reformat my comics to fit the 7x10'' format, which is a little wider than comic book size so I'll have to go back to the original files for more bleed. Which is the only reason I haven't done it yet. Well, that and the very complicated tax form I have to file as a non-American. More paper stock options.
Does anyone have experience making a Kindle version?