San Francisco-North Bay area's premier commercial printing company since 1984!, (800) 514-4787

If the following sections do not contain the information that you require, feel free to call us at (800) 514-4787, and one of our knowledgeable customer service representatives will be happy to help you on the road to success.

Preparing Your Publication to Print at Sonoma Valley Publishing

Adobe Acrobat & PDFs:
PDF is the preferred format to receive your publication. If your PDF is distilled correctly, it enables us to produce your publication in a consistent, high-quality manner (Please refer to our guide below for proper distiller settings). However, if corrections are required, it is our policy that you resubmit your PDF with the necessary changes.

Other Acceptable Programs:
If needed we are able to accept certain native files. Please call our office for details 1-800-514-4787

Images:
We accept Black and White (Grayscale) and Color (must be CMYK). Please note RGB photos will not print in "true" colors.

When taking digital photos, remember to keep it simple. If the photo is about people, keep the background as uncomplicated as possible, pictures always look better with less in them.

Get close, don't be afraid of zooming in, your pictures will look better. Make sure the ENTIRE picture is framed through the viewfinder

Try not to photograph in direct sunlight, move into a completely shaded area (avoid dappled light and bright light in the background). If you must photograph in direct sunlight, use a flash. This is called a "fill flash" and will lighten the dark shadows and even out the tone. When using a flash, do not place your subject directly against a wall - there will be harsh shadows behind it. Instead, place it about a foot or more away from the wall.

If possible, bracket your exposures. Take what you think is the proper exposure then take one shot over and one shot under.

We will not color-correct photos unless you have approved it. We are not responsible for the printing quality of outside adjusted photos. If you have any technical questions regarding your photos, please give your Sonoma Valley Publishing customer service representative a call.

Resolution:
We use 95-line screen for both color and grayscale images. Image resolution should be one and a half of that, for example, 150 dpi for grayscale/CMYK files running at 100% and 508 dpi or 1016 dpi for line art, depending on the original's quality. If your publication requires a higher resolution, we can print at 100 or 133 line screen. Please check with your Sonoma Valley Publishing customer service representative in such cases.

Printing on Coated Stock-
If a portion of your publication is going to be printed on coated stock (i.e. the cover), use 150 to 175-line screen and scan your images at 300 to 350 dpi. Use PostScript Type 1 (one) fonts whenever possible and create your document with CMYK-compatible colors. (If you are using PhotoShop, be sure to TURN ON the "out-of-gamut" warning.)

Camera-Ready Publications/Ads:
If you are unable to send us your publication (or an advertisement in your publication) electronically, you can send it to us as a laser print out. However, it must be output with an 85-line screen. If we have to scan it into our digital system, it may result in a loss of image quality and aditional charges may occure. If you need further information on how to scan your camera-ready content, please call your Sonoma Valley Publishing customer service representative.

Distiller Settings:
No matter what software you use to create your PDF, all of the programs we accept use Adobe Acrobat Distiller. It is the adjustment of the distiller preferences that determine how your PDF comes out.

Check your job options under the distiller menu on the title bar. These are the PDF distiller settings we use for 95-line screen. Print (if in Quark or PageMaker) a postscript file of your publication and drag it into Acrobat Distiller with the following Distiller job options: If you are using an Illustrator or Freehand outline of your fonts, then send an Illustrator or Freehand EPS. If you are using Photoshop, please send the Photoshop EPS. If you are using InDesign you can export as a PDF using the Distiller settings below.

If your publication uses spot color -
If you are creating a PDF that will be printed in black plus one color, USE BLACK AND CYAN as your colors. We will change the color to your requested preference on the press. If your publications uses a combination of 4-color and spot, the spot stay in the cyan except when it falls on a 4-color page. When  linked with a 4-color layout, make it the original color you wish.

Print Hard Copy: Finally, print out a copy of the created pdf's of your publication. Please take a good look at this. This will allow you to see errors ahead of time.

Download the following instructions to find out the simplest and most successful way to create a PDF document.

Sonoma Valley Publishing recommends the following Acrobat Distiller settings.

InDesign CS Distiller Settings

CS2 pdf settings.pdf

 CS3 pdf settings.pdf  

To assist you in placing color position on your publication when you paginate we have provided you with the following easy to use guide. Simply select which format your publication is (i.e. Broadsheet), download the Acrobat document and print out the dummy that displays the proper number of pages for your publication (i.e. 12-page Dummy).

Broadsheet Color; Tabloid Color; Flexi Color

The following instructions outline the simplest and most successful way to provide us with your publication.

The most important aspect of providing us with your publication is to make sure that you include information that ONLY PERTAINS TO THAT PARTICULAR PUBLICATION. Any irrelevant information provided to us will result in the delay of the production of your publication. When sending PDF documents you do not need to send your photos and fonts.

After we have a completed Printing Order from you, we are ready to recieve your publication. There are several ways to do this:

FTP: request your Sonoma Valley Publishing customer service representative set up an FTP account for your publication. Once this is complete, log onto our FTP site and upload your files by one of the following ways:

• Through our web site, www.sonomavalleypublishing.com. (Please note this option is available if your files are 9MB or smaller).
• Through software programs Fetch (for Mac users) or CoffeeCup (for DOS users).
• E-mail: attach your files in an email (use StuffIt if necessary)and send them to SVP Production at jobs@sonomanews.com (files are 9MB or smaller
• Disk: save and submit your files on a CD or Zip Disk.

Mail your Publication: The following instructions will ensure that your publication will be mailed quickly and correctly after your publication is complete:

1. You may send your mailing list to Sonoma Valley Publishing two ways: either by attaching your file in an e-mail (to jobs@sonomanews.com) or by mailing your file on a disk to P.O. BOX C Sonoma, CA 95476.

2. Sonoma Valley Publishing accepts mailing lists built in Mac or DOS bases.

3. All mailing lists received must be saved in Tab Delimited format.
IF YOUR MAILING LIST IS SENT ON A DISC, please include a piece of notepaper which specifies the total number of names that are included in mailing list as well as exact instructions if the list is to be altered, including: Dedupe, Merge-purge, Combine Listed, Extract parts of list, etc.
IF YOUR MAILING LIST IS SENT VIA E-MAIL please include in the text of the e-mail the total number of names that are included in mailing list as well as exact instructions if the list is to be altered, including: Dedupe, Merge-purge, Combine Listed, Extract parts of list, etc.

4. Mailing lists must be received by Sonoma Valley Publishing AT LEAST seven working days prior to the scheduled delivery of your publication.