Made Catalogue in PS, Now I need it in Quark ASAP! 1

[keyrat]

Guys, I'm in a bit of a muck over here and I need help ASAP.

I just came in to this job where a catalogue has been made completely in photoshop. The document sizes in photoshop are 8.75x11.25. The document needs to print to a page size 8.5x11, and the printer is having a hell of a time with the PDFs I sent (because they're 8.75x11.25).

Upon further examination, it seems I've been sending the PDFs to the printer at 8.75x11.25, with bleeds set up at 1/8". Simple math tells you that no matter what, unless they shrink the pages to fit the printing area, the pages are way too big to print on an 8.5x11 page.

The printer suggested to me that I drop the pages into an 8.5x11 quark page, and adjust the bleeds in there. Thing is, I know nothing about Quark. Do you guys think that I could just resize the photoshop 8.75x11.25" size files to 8.5x11 and then everything would print ok (considering that all images/text fall inside the 1/8" bleed)?

This is supposed to print on monday, and if not it could be a two week delay. Any help, with any aspect, would be GREATLY appreciated.

Thanks in advance

 

[jmgalvin]

If you don't know Quark, now is not the time to try and learn it in one day. You would be best resizing the thing in Photoshop.

One thing to keep in mind is that the width to height relationship between 8.5X11 and 8.75X11.25 is different - .777 vs. .772. That could result in some distortion of the pages, depending on what's on them. If you have a lot of blank or solid color around the edges, using the crop tool would probably be safest, as no distortion would be introduced.



Using OSX 10.3.9 on a G4

 

[keyrat]

Ok, well, I'm doing it with an image resize. The distortion should be completely minimal, and if not, I'll do it with a crop.

Do you think this should solve the issues the printer was having? I'm worried that if I send them 8.5x11 size, even though all my content lies inside the 1/8" borders, the file will be too small. Having very limited experience with printing, I'm fretting.

 

[jmgalvin]

Without knowing what your pages look like, it's impossible to say.

If the pages have color that extends to the edge of the page You might have some difficulty. If not, things should be ok. If you have a 1/8 margin all around, it should work.

Please remember that using photoshop for this is simply wrong. Catalogs are layed out in page layout apps like, Quark, Indesign, Pagemaker, etc. That's why the printer suggested this.

Using OSX 10.3.9 on a G4

 

[jimoblak]

the pages are way too big to print on an 8.5x11 page

Isn't this the point of a bleed?

Pay your printer's prepress department to rework/scale your files. They can resolve this issue easier than you can and will know precisely what is really needed.

They probably sent the files back to you because they did not want the trouble of messing with them. Since you say you know nothing about Quark, you should contract their prepress department or another designer to help.