Alternate
method of file preparation

If your magazine prints at the Pontiac plant then below are the instructions for what is called the "Alternate Method" for assembling your cover and spine. If your magazine does not print at the Pontiac plant, please follow the Standard Method instructions.

1

Determine Spine Width

Your Print Bind CSR can provide you with this information. In our example the spine is .3125" wide.

2

To allow for binding variances add .004" to this spine width

This will be your adjusted spine width used for this method. Example .3125"+.004" = .3129" adjusted spine with.

3

Create document equal to the width of cover final trim

In our example the final trim is 8.125".

document width
4

Position a guide

Position a guide to the left of your document on the paste board equal to the adjusted spine width from the left trim edge. (example = .3125")

document width
5

Build spine

Build spine centered between the left trim edge of the document and the guide created in step 3.

document width
6

Build cover art inside document trim area

Note keep all critical elements inside of the type safety area (.1875" from edge).

document width
7

Extend bleeds

Extend bleeds .125" past all edges of the document, including spine elements that bleed.

8

Increase the offset

Under Marks and Bleeds increase the Offset to ensure the crop marks do not intersect the spine. Offsets should be larger than the bleed + a buffer (.05). (Recommend Offset = Bleed +.05".)

9

Follow established PDF creation standards out of application used

PDF's from Adobe Indesign
There are two methods to produce PDFs from Adobe InDesign that are acceptable when supplying files the LSC Pontiac Digital Solution Center (DSC).

PDF's from Quark Xpress
Exporting PDFs directly through Quark Xpress will cause issues when the PDFs are uploaded to InSite. The only approved method is to generate a postscript file from you document and use Adobe Acrobat Distiller to convert it into a PDF using the approved LSC job options.

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