The print production process

1. The print production process Ian Reeves

2. The Flatplan • Drawn up by discussion between advertising and editorial departments • Sets out structure of newspaper or magazine • Includes positioning of all advertising copy and editorial space

3. Section planning • Drawn up individual heads of departments – e.g Home News, International, Business, Features, Sport etc

4. Page planning • Section editors or duty editors decide on which elements to put on an individual page – basically a list of words and pictures • May define which story is to be page lead

5. Page design • Layout sub-editor uses Quark Xpress or Adobe InDesign to lay out individual stories and pictures on to the page • Crops pictures and checks their mode (CMYK) and resolution • Positions headlines, captions etc, but doesn’t necessarily write them • Usually doesn’t cut copy to fit

6. Subbing and copyfitting Copy sub fits all text to page. Rewrites if necessary Writes headlines, standfirsts, captions etc Checks for clarity Checks for legal issues

7. Proofreading Pages are printed out and read for grammatical errors (known as literals), factual and legal errors Standard proofreading marks are used to indicate where errors are for correction

8. Sign-off and export • When the section editor or editor has signed off the final corrections, the page is exported as a pdf

9. The printing process • From the finished High-resolution pdf, four ‘plates’ are made : Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black (CMYK) • These are used for the four different inks that are applied, in turn, by the printing press