Newsprint production guidelines

Washington Business Journal is printed on 30# newsprint by Gannett Springfield's giant Goss Colorliner.

Tips for great ad reproduction

Image toning & resolution

Reproducing color in newsprint is significantly different from reproducing color in magazines. So while color printing in Washington Business Journal is among the best available, it will never reach the quality of publications like magazines printed on coated paper. Below are some key points to keep in mind while creating your ad.

Ink Density: One of the best things you can do to improve newsprint color reproduction is to properly set the ink density. The sum of the percentages of cyan, magenta, yellow and black used in the darkest areas should not exceed 220%. Files submitted with ink densities higher than 220% will be automatically converted and may experience unexpected color shifts. By default, Photoshop uses a magazine ink density of 300%. So using a Photoshop default setting, a near-black shadow area in a photo might have a CMYK breakdown similar to C: 75% M: 62% Y: 68% K: 90% (A total of 295%.) That's more ink than newsprint can handle. The excess ink that the paper can't absorb spreads out, smears and transfers to the opposite page much like a rubber stamp. So not only does that one image with too much ink density look dark and muddy, but the whole spread in the newspaper becomes an inky mess. You can change the default Photoshop settings by selecting Color Settings … from the Edit menu. In the Working Spaces section, select CMYK: Custom CMYK… and change the settings. Our recommended settings are pictured below. For proofing, you can check the ink density on PDF files using Adobe Acrobat (not Acrobat Reader) using the Output Preview dialog box. At the bottom of the panel, turn on Total Area Coverge and change the default 280% to 220%. Anything that turns bright green is too dense. If nothing highlights green, your maximum ink density is correct.

Tone compression: Another key difference between newspaper and magazine printing is the range of tones that can be printed. Newsprint suffers from tone compression, meaning the maximum contrast in newsprint is less than in magazines. Think about the color of the newsprint; the whitest part of your image can only be the color of the paper. For an exaggerated example of this, open an image in Photoshop. From the View menu, select Proof Setup > Custom ... Change the Device to Simulate to Japan Color 2002 Newspaper and turn on Simulate Paper Color. Note: We do not recommend color correcting images with the Simulate Paper Color turned on.

Dot gain: Because of the high absorption characteristics of newsprint, images will see a significant amount of dot gain. Dot gain in Washington Business Journal is approximately 35%-38%. Also, dot gain is not linear — the greatest growth is in the midtone. You cannot eliminate optical or mechanical dot gain — you must compensate for this effect in your images and flat tints. Without the required change, your ad will appear dark and muddy.

Resolution: All continuous tone images (such as photos) should be around 200 dpi at their final output size. Remember, changing the scaling of an image in your layout program changes the effective resolution. A 200 dpi image scaled up to 200% has an effective resolution of only 100 dpi. Bit-mapped or "line" art (common for logos in the 1980s and ’90s, less common today) should be around 1,200 dpi or higher.

Recommended CMYK settings

Type & Rules

Only Type I Postscript or Open Type fonts should be used. True Type fonts are strongly discouraged. The size of your type should be kept at a minimum of 6 point for standard or 10 point for reverse. All type intended to print solid black should be set at 100% black.

Only Type I Postscript or Open Type fonts should be used. True Type fonts are strongly discouraged. The size of your type should be kept at a minimum of 6 point for standard or 10 point for reverse. All type intended to print solid black should be set at 100% black.

PDF/Distiller settings

To set up InDesign or Distiller to make PDF/X-1a files:

Adobe InDesign: From the File menu, select Export... Specify a file name and click the save button. In the next dialog box, from the list of choices in the Adobe PDF Preset selector, choose [PDF/X-1a: 2001]. In the Advanced section, change Subset fonts when percent of characters used is less than: from 100% to 0%.

Distiller: From the list of choices in the Default Settings pulldown box, select PDF/X-1a:2001. From the Settings menu, select Edit Adobe PDF Settings... Under the Fonts tab, change Subset fonts when percent of characters used is less than: from 100% to 0%.