"camera-ready original"
Susan Hogarth
of work is to provide: "a camera-ready original and electronic copy on
computer disk".
I'm afraid I am almost completely a product of the digital age. I see
this phrase ("camera ready") often and have only a very vague idea of
what it means. Is it just a really clean copy on good paper? Should I
describe the paper, the dpi, etc?
--
Susan Hogarth
http://www.colliething.com
Brasel, Russell
"Camera ready" is a holdover from the manual printing days, when artwork
to be published had to be photographed and transferred to a metal
printing plate. (Of course, lithography isn't dead-it's just been
updated, but that's neither here nor there.) I assume in today's
digital world "camera ready" means the original digital file (which, as
you know, is huge if you're using a camera with over 5 MP), and an
electronic copy means a lower resolution file, which would be suitable
for including in a document or a web page.
That's my conjecture. I may be completely wrong.
RGBrasel
Barry Campbell
> I am writing a proposal and one of the requirements in the statement
> of work is to provide: "a camera-ready original and electronic copy on
> computer disk".
>
> I'm afraid I am almost completely a product of the digital age. I see
> this phrase ("camera ready") often and have only a very vague idea of
> what it means. Is it just a really clean copy on good paper? Should I
> describe the paper, the dpi, etc?
If the question period isn't over, call the issuer of the SOW and ask
what they need for a "camera-ready original." Back in the day when a
lot of manual pasteup went on in the pre-press process, "camera-ready
copy" meant a clean manuscript ready for the printer to photograph,
with no additional work necessary, so a very nice clean copy (black
type on white paper) should actually meet the requirement.
The thing is, though, chances are it's leftover boilerplate language
that no one has looked at in years and they have absolutely no use for
a "camera-ready original" in print; I haven't sent a printer anything
other than a print-ready PDF in so long that I barely remember doing
it any other way.
- bc
--
Barry Campbell -- <barry.c...@gmail.com>
Blog: http://campbell-online.com
Poshedly, Ken
Hoo-Boy!! You'll probably get scads of replies about this one -- both on
and off the list.
"Camera-ready" goes back to pre-desktop publishing days, when
newspapers, magazines, etc., were produced by using a special camera to
photograph a board of the exact size of the desired page. The board had
on it separate strips of paper of typeset material that were stuck on
via hot wax. All the headlines, body text, photos were attached
separately.
After all the stories, photos, etc., were in place, that board was
"camera-ready" and was sent on to the next step where it was
photographed, a negative produced and a metal plate was made for the
printing presses. (Do you know what "printing presses" were? <grin>)
Today, it just means clean output from your laser printer of material
you've done by desktop publishing - your output is literally
"camera-ready", that is suitable for further photocopying.
-- Ken in Atlanta
("Scoop Poshedly" long before I got into tech writing)
-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+poshedlyk=polysi...@lists.techwr-l.com
[mailto:techwr-l-bounces+poshedlyk=polysi...@lists.techwr-l.com] On
Behalf Of Susan Hogarth
Sent: Friday, December 15, 2006 10:54 AM
To: TECHWR-L
Subject: "camera-ready original"
I am writing a proposal and one of the requirements in the statement of
work is to provide: "a camera-ready original and electronic copy on
computer disk".
I'm afraid I am almost completely a product of the digital age. I see
this phrase ("camera ready") often and have only a very vague idea of
what it means. Is it just a really clean copy on good paper? Should I
describe the paper, the dpi, etc?
--
Susan Hogarth
http://www.colliething.com
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Dori Green
Is it just a really clean copy on good paper?
****************
In most cases, yes. It's a term from offset press work, which created
photographic printing plates.
In today's digital age, it might be more specific (for example, DPI). I'd
ask for more specificity in the requirement.
Dori Green
Al Geist
> I am writing a proposal and one of the requirements in the statement
> of work is to provide: "a camera-ready original and electronic copy on
> computer disk".
>
> I'm afraid I am almost completely a product of the digital age. I see
> this phrase ("camera ready") often and have only a very vague idea of
> what it means. Is it just a really clean copy on good paper? Should I
> describe the paper, the dpi, etc?
>
It depends....is your output black and white, or do you have a lot of
color (spot color, images, etc.)? If your output has no color, then you
can probably get away with imbedding any black and white images in the
document, ensuring that they are already halftone, so a printer can take
the pages and make printing plates without additional work. If your
output has color, then you have a whole different ball game, but thanks
to the "digital age" even that isn't as difficult as it used to be. In a
previous job, camera-ready meant a high quality PDF because that's what
the printer wanted.
The problem here seems to be a definition of camera ready. Wikipedia
says that "A Camera Ready hard copy is a printed copy of a
document/graphic that is requires no additional work to be to it before
copies are to be made," but there is more to it than that. If they want
it done the "old fashioned way," then it means layout sheets, wax paste
ups, litho overlays, etc. I don't know of anyone who does that stuff
anymore. Will the publication be copied on a laser copier, or printed by
an offset printer? Do they want the black and white images pre-screened
and imbedded? Do they want the color images as CYMK or RGB images and as
TIFF, PSD, JPG or some other format? Of do they just want something they
can run off on the office copier, which means quality is really not that
much of a concern.
I would suggest getting a clearer definition of the term from whomever
issued to request for the proposal. They should be ale to tell you what
they mean so you could respond properly.
Al
--
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Al Geist
>"Camera-ready" goes back to pre-desktop publishing days, when
>newspapers, magazines, etc., were produced by using a special camera to
>photograph a board of the exact size of the desired page. The board had
>on it separate strips of paper of typeset material that were stuck on
>via hot wax. All the headlines, body text, photos were attached
>separately.
>
>
Spot color and full color images were handled a bit differently. In
those cases a separate plate was made for each spot color, or if process
color were used, different plates were made for each process color used
to make the spot color. Color images required three addition plates
beyond the black plate-magenta, cyan and yellow. The printing process is
still used today; however, the colors are separated and the plates made
electronically.
>After all the stories, photos, etc., were in place, that board was
>"camera-ready" and was sent on to the next step where it was
>photographed, a negative produced and a metal plate was made for the
>printing presses. (Do you know what "printing presses" were? <grin>)
>
>
Printing presses are....they are alive and well, just not used as much
in the technical writing world because most of our stuff is short run
and constantly changing. However, even that is changing. I've sent high
quality PDFs to a printer for short run projects (less than 2,000
16-page manuals) and got back exceptional results. They used the PDFs to
directly burn (make) the printing plates. This is the norm today....but
printing presses are used for the final output.
>Today, it just means clean output from your laser printer of material
>you've done by desktop publishing - your output is literally
>"camera-ready", that is suitable for further photocopying.
>
>
Not necessarily....it means clean output with all the images imbedded
for your laser printer, if that is the intended output. If the output
includes color images, and you want them to look good after printing,
then don't expect a standard photocopier to do them justice.
Lisa Roth
"cut" and "paste" really meant CUTTING (with a razor knife) and PASTING
(with hot wax).
In that context, "camera-ready" means that it is able to be reproduced
as-is, without requiring any formatting or other production adjustments.
In today's age, that would generally refer to something they can
immediately give to the copyroom staff to make 200 bound copies of with
no questions asked. What does that *really* mean?
It means the copy you supply--either hard or soft copy--will already
account for binding margins, if any, you will already have accounted for
proper pagination by inserting blank pages in order to force something
to begin on a face page, etc.
The final frontier is that you will have saved the artwork at a setting
suitable for whatever repro device the client plans to use. This is
primarily determined in terms of DPI of images vs. the DPI of the repro
device. A photocopier and an offset press are entirely different
ballgames! Even within the realm of using an offset press, the paper
type also factors in. You can print the same image on the same press and
the same ink but by two different paper types find yourself with two
VERY different results. (Some paper types have higher "dot gain" than
others.)
Basically you need a fair amount of information about what the client
intend to DO with the document physically after you create it. Do they
intend to post it in PDF on the Web *and* print it on an offset press?
If so, you'd need to create two files. The DPI for web PDFs is on whole
heck of a lot lower than for offset presses! That's just one example of
the questions that need to be asked.
I hope that's helpful. I bet I sound really "old-school" now. (You'd be
surprised, but I'm not!) : )
Mitchell Maltenfort
it should also be a high-quality print, 200 dpi or better, and at
least the same size as you expect it to be on the article.
On 12/15/06, Susan Hogarth <hog...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I am writing a proposal and one of the requirements in the statement
> of work is to provide: "a camera-ready original and electronic copy on
> computer disk".
>
> I'm afraid I am almost completely a product of the digital age. I see
> this phrase ("camera ready") often and have only a very vague idea of
> what it means. Is it just a really clean copy on good paper? Should I
> describe the paper, the dpi, etc?
>
> --
> Susan Hogarth
> http://www.colliething.com
> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>
> WebWorks ePublisher Pro for Word features support for every major Help
> format plus PDF, HTML and more. Flexible, precise, and efficient content
> delivery. Try it today! http://www.webworks.com/techwr-l
>
> Create HTML or Microsoft Word content and convert to Help file formats or
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> Web-based technology, and PDF output. http://www.DocToHelp.com/TechwrlList
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--
I can answer any question.
"I don't know" is an answer.
"I don't know yet" is a better answer.
Elizabeth J Allen
way. Most recently, the camera has been replaced by the scanner. I
always include a hard-copy of my document with the electronic
version--how else are they going to know if the electronic version
gets corrupt?
Just send a good clean copy with the electronic files--you'll be fine.
Elizabeth
--
Elizabeth J. Allen
Samurai Consulting Inc.
e...@samurai.com
"Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler." —Albert
Einstein