Tips, Templates and Forms

• When creating a 2-color job with black and another color, use the standard black color in your color swatch pallet, do not use Pantone Black from the Pantone Swatch Pallet.
• When designing in Adobe Illustrator, outline the fonts before sending to Printing Services.
• Change like Pantone Swatch colors to one color. For example, if your color pallet lists Pantone 201 C and Pantone 201 U, change them to one or the other. They may appear to be the same color, but the computer reads them as 2 colors.
• If you are using black and white images, check to make sure they are set in "Greyscale" mode in Photoshop. Grey images set in "RGB" mode are not black.
• When placing text on top of a solid color background, use a sans serif font (Helvetica). Serif fonts (Times) can fill in when there is a color heavy background.
• If creating a file with multiple pages, use one file with multiple pages, not multiple files with one page in each.

Do:

• Save a file at its final size. One to a page.
• Send a paper copy of your job along with your Printing Services Request form.
• Send all fonts and images used in your file along with the file itself.
• Fill out the Printing Services Request form as completely as possible.

Do not:

• Design page layouts in Microsoft Word, Power Point, Excel, Publisher; font problems often occur.
• Send images that are in a Word file. Image file extensions end with .jpeg, .jpg, .tif, .eps, .psd. They do not end with .doc, .docx, .dot.
• Design page layouts in Adobe Photoshop. Photoshop converts colors to 4-color process, which makes it difficult to separate colors when printing.
• Use low resolution web graphics. The print quality is poor.
• Use the transparency pallet to create a screened or tinted color. When creating a screened or tinted color, use the screen slider in the Color Swatch Pallet.
• Copy images from the internet or another source and paste them into an InDesign document; use the "Place" function.
  • Choose File > Place
  • Locate file to be placed
  • Click "Open"
• Skip page 1 when using the "Facing Pages" option to lay out a booklet. The single page 1 is the cover of the booklet and the single last page is the back cover.
• Use international paper sizes (A4, A3); instead use U.S. standard sizes (Letter 8.5 × 11 inches, Legal 8.5 × 14 inches, Tabloid 11 × 17 inches)

1. Choose File > Export.
   • Specify a name and location for the file.
   • Specify format as "Adobe PDF."
2. In the Export Adobe PDF box, under General:
   • Specify Adobe PDF Preset: "High Quality Print."
   • Specify Standard: "None."
   • Specify Compatibility: "Acrobat 5 (PDF 1.4)."
   • Specify which pages you want to convert to PDF; "All" or selected pages.
   • Specify "Spreads" if applicable.
   • In the "Options" and "Include" boxes below, nothing should be checked.
3. Under Compression:
   • Changes all drop down menus to "Do Not Downsample."
   • Change Compression Drop Down Menus to "None."
   • Uncheck "Compress Text and Line Art" and "Crop Image Data to Frames."
   • If your document has many photos, saving it as a PDF with these settings will create a large file size. To minimize file size, change "Do Not Downsample" to "Average Downsampling To" 300 pixels per inch for Color and Greyscale images.
4. Under Marks and Bleeds:
   • Without bleeds
     • Uncheck All "Marks" boxes.
     • Bleed amounts at "0 inches."
   • With bleeds
     • Check "Crop Marks" box.
     • Uncheck "Use Document Bleed Settings."
     • Make Bleed Amounts "0.125 inches."
     • Uncheck "Include Slug Area."
5. Under Output:
   • Specify Color Conversion: "No Color Conversion."
   • Specify Profile Inclusion Policy: "Include All Profiles."
6. Under Advanced:
   • In the Fonts Box, change subset font percentage to 100 percent.
   • In the OPI Box, uncheck any boxes.
   • Uncheck "Create PDF File Using Acrobat."
7. Under Security:
   • Unless your file needs to be password protected or you want certain editing/printing features disabled, all boxes should be unchecked.
8. Click the 'Export' button when finished.

Any jobs that get sent to Printing Services with missing fonts or images will be sent back. Once you are finished designing your file, follow these steps when packaging your files.

1. Go to File menu > Package (top image).
2. Click continue to go past instruction.
3. Create New Folder with "Job Name" + "Collected" (ex. SampleJobCollected).
4. Check first three boxes (see bottom image).
5. Click Save. If a font warning box pops up after clicking save, click OK to continue packaging files.

1. File menu > Export > Layout as PDF.
   • Specify a name and location for the file.
   • Specify which pages you want to convert to PDF; "All" or selected pages.
   • Specify "Spreads" if applicable.
2. Click "Options" button.
   • Check "Embed all fonts" and "Subset fonts below."
   • Change Compression Drop Down Menus to "None."
   • Resolution drop down menus to "Keep resolution."
   • Uncheck "Compress Text and Line Art" and "ASCII Format."
3. Click "Output" button.
   • Change Type drop down menu to "Composite."
   • Change Print Colors drop down menu to "As Is."
   • Check include blank pages.
   • Uncheck Use OPI.
   • If no bleeds, make Registration off. If bleeds, change to "Centered" and change bleed type to "Symmetric" and add a bleed amount of .125 inches.
4. Click "OPI" button.
   • Check OPI Active box.
   • Click "include images" under TIFF and EPS Boxes, do not check "low resolution."
   • Uncheck OPI Active box.
5. Click Save when finished.

Any jobs that get sent to Printing Services with missing fonts or images will be sent back. Once you are finished designing your file, follow these steps when packaging your files.

1. Go to File menu > Collect for Output (top image).
2. Create New Folder with "Job Name" + "Collected" (ex. SampleJobCollected).
3. Check first three boxes in column 1 and last two boxes in column 2 (see bottom image).
4. Click Save. If a font warning box pops up after clicking save, click OK to continue Collecting files.

St. Cloud State University

Follow the university brand guidelines and use approved logos to meet the university's publication requirements.

Minnesota State (formerly MnSCU)

Brand guidelines will be issued soon for use of Minnesota State logos.

Use a Printing Request form to order university or department stationery that conforms to brand guidelines.

Each department on campus has its own letterhead/envelopes. 

Include a sample of the old letterhead or envelope when placing an order.