Print Design Checklist | Advertising, Graphic and Web Design in Baltimore MD and Washington DC

Basic Print Production Checklist

Is the image resolution high enough at 100% usage? (300dpi+ for greyscale/color, 1200dpi+ for line art).
(Go to Image>Image Size, turn off Resample Image, and change the resolution to 300. It'll tell you how big your image is at print resolution.)
If you are going to edit the images, have you saved them as .tif or .psd files first?
Have you corrected the brightness and color balance of the images?
Do the images look good together?
If there is type in your photos, have you spell-checked it?
Once you’ve color corrected them, have you converted all the images to CMYK and SWOP profile? (Image>Mode>CMYK Color)
If images print black & white, convert them (Image>Mode>Grayscale)
Have you saved your Photoshop file with its .icc profile?
Have you paid for or have proper right to use all of your photos?

When you first open the file, did you set the New Document Profile to “Print”?
Have you deleted any unnecessary fonts (Type>Find Font), styles and colors?
Have you deleted any unnecessary layers?
If there is type in your files, have you spell-checked it? (Edit>Check Spelling)
Can you convert all type to outlines — not tons of type, not still editing? If so, do it. (Type>Create Outlines)
Have you saved your Illustrator file with its .icc profile? (if saving as .ai)
Have you paid for or have proper right to use all of your illustrations?

Have you saved your copy as a .txt file before importing, to strip out the Word styles? Or used Place>Import Options>Remove Styles and Formatting from Text and Tables to strip them out?
Once you've stripped them out, have you gone back in and re-entered the italics, bold etc. from the original document? (Or check Place>Import Options>Remove Styles>Preserve Local Overrides)
Using Edit>Find/Change, have you searched and replaced:
Double spaces? (No matter what anyone has told you, designers don't use double spaces between words, and rarely use spaces to place elements.)
Tabs at the beginning of paragraphs? (^p^t)
Spaces at the beginning or end of paragraphs? (^p ) and ( ^p).
Checked that your dashes are dashes, your range dashes are range dashes (opt-dash), and your long dash separators are long dashes (opt-shift-dash)?
Have you spell checked it? (Auto spell-check is at InDesign>Preference>Spelling. Turn on Enable Dynamic Spelling. It will be visible in Normal view only.)

Do you have all the fonts? If you are using Postscript fonts, do you have both parts? (Easiest to get if you use File>Package.)
Have you paid for or have proper right to use all of your fonts?
You can give your fonts to your printer to print from, but giving them to clients or others who haven't purchased them is illegal.

Have you checked everything on the Print Design Checklist?
Do you have all the images and all the fonts in any embedded files, such as Illustrator? (InDesign File>Package can't be trusted to check inside placed graphics.)
Are colors set correctly in the Color Swatch Pallet to be CMYK or spot? If they are set to spot, are you prepared to pay extra printing fees? (Otherwise click on color, convert to CMYK and Process, but keep spot color name.) Are there colors you can delete?
Are the images you’ve imported betwen 90% and 150% of the size you are using them?
Are the images 300ppi or higher at the size you are using them at? (See Links Pallet)
Using InDesign's Find/Replace Font (Type > Find/Replace Font), are there any fonts in the document that you aren't intending to use? If so, change them to fonts you are using to get rid of them.
Does your printer want a pdf instead of live files? If so, what kind do they want?
HAVE YOU SPELL-CHECKED YOUR FILE ONE LAST TIME?
You are now ready to package your file for the printer or create your pdf.