Re: "camera-ready original"

Subject: Re: "camera-ready original"
From: Lisa Roth <roth -dot- lisa -at- jimmy -dot- harvard -dot- edu>
To: Susan Hogarth <hogarth -at- gmail -dot- com>
Date: Fri, 15 Dec 2006 11:11:39 -0500

"Camera-Ready." Ahh, that's an oldie but goodie from the days of when "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!) : )




Susan Hogarth 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?

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References:
"camera-ready original": From: Susan Hogarth

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