Customer Reviews

Getting it Right in Print: Digital Prepress for Graphic Designers

5 star:		(4)
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2 star:		(2)
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An excellent primer on designing for print. Mark Gatter's writing style and focus is what sets this book apart; the books is well organized and accessibly written. It covers those questions you so often encounter on the job but never get useful answers to. He starts from the most basic level of knowledge such as CMYK versus RGB, but does not avoid such complex issues as colour profiles. He speaks to the most recent developments in document formats including InDesign and PDFs for print. Recently, design has become a dangerous business because of the resposibilties loaded on to the shoulders of designers. With this book, you will be able to make peace with your printer and get him to help you with some of that responsibility.

First off, there IS some good information in here for a new designer. If you are not still in school, however, don't bother with this thing.

First off, I found the book to be outdated. For example, the author references "control panels" and the "chooser". Yep, that's right OS9! Additionally, he tells where to find certain commands within Photoshop CS, but then he gives lengthy explanations of where to also find the same commands within Photoshop 5! What?! Photoshop 5!?

One nit-picky problem I have with this book is author's use of the word "calibration" instead of "color-correction". I have NEVER heard any designer say they need to "calibrate" an image. Calibration has very specific association within the graphic-design world and that is with color-output and -input devices. I was utterly confused at chapter 9's title, "Calibrating color images". I understand that "calibrate" is gramatically correct but "color-correction" is the accepted nomenclature. (props to The Dude)

Next, the chapter about Photoshop's Color Managament system is only 8 pages long. The author basically states that Photoshop's defaults are fine and not to mess with CMS. I find this contradictary to my own expererience. A color ad CANNOT be converted to CMYK with the default settings and that same file sent to both a glossy magazine and newspaper. Good luck getting that ad to look good in newsprint! That's what this guys is proposing though. Ugh.

To be fair, his history of the printing process and basic color-correction techniques sections ARE pretty good. I cannot say i didn't pick-up a tip or two along the way. but the bad outweighted the good for me. I was really looking for something more advanced but this wasn't it.

For a newbie in graphic design, this book provides a wealth of useful information for prepariing items for press. Saving money by knowing how to prepare files is worth the cost of the book.

Great guide when it comes to prepairing work for the printer. Answered every question I ever had.

This is a truly usefull book. Written with style and humour, this book is bound to enhance any readers knowledge of printing from the word go.

Packed with usefull information and written in a wry and expressive style, this is bound to become a best seller and a standard for anyone interested in learning about the print design industry.

Great work!

This book doesn't have very good information for a new designer. The author's explanations of concepts are not clear. I didn't find this book helpful at all. You can find a lot of the information online for free. This book is not worth the cost.