Hi! This page is intended for individuals designing ads for their clients. If you are a client, feel free to read away, but a lot of it probably won't make much sense. The world of publishing is really complicated; there's so many graphic/layout programs out there and so many file formats, it's almost impossible to make them all work together. Then you bring in the whole PC/Mac thing, and the compatibility issue gets even worse! We've tried to eliminate as many of the problems as possible by simplifying the process. We've included design templates that you can download, listed common problems we've had over the years and how to avoid them, and explained in detail the answer to pretty much any question you may have about making ads for The Wave Magazine. I hope you find the information on this page useful; but if you have any questions or concerns, or have more questions, feel free to drop me an email! I update this page whenever something 'new' happens, so check back from time to time.

~Chris Schmauch, Design Director

What type of file to send us:

• Most Rasterized file formats: TIFF (LZW-compressed), JPG (high-quality), BMP (24-bit)
• Photoshop .PSD (flat or layered)
• Illustrator .EPS or .AI (outline fonts, embed images--no linking)
• Acrobat .PDF (embed fonts, please)

We DO NOT accept the following:

• Anything on a Mac-formatted disk
• Anything that requires more than one file to be sent (Quark, PageMaker, Publisher)
• Anything made with non-design software (Word, Excel--seriously!)
• Any vector-based file with fonts that are NOT outlined
• If you have to design the ad with a "non-acceptable" program, please find a way to convert the final file to one of the acceptable formats listed above!

Design Tips:

1) Use Adobe Photoshop® to design your ad. We use it for all our ads designed in-house because it offers the most creative and technical flexibility for this magazine.

2) If you use Photoshop, work in CMYK mode to ensure the colors you choose are reproduced accurately when printed. You can choose to work in RGB mode to take full advantage of all available filters, but make sure you convert to CMYK before sending the file over.

3) Try to design your ad so any small text on a light background is a 'simple' CMYK color - for example a one-color black or combination of two primary CMYK colors. This will reduce any potential blurriness that can occur if the registration is off when the ad is printed.

4) If you have small, 'knocked-out' text (light text on a dark background), the same rule applies as in #3 - try to keep that background color a 'simple' CMYK color.

How to send files to us:

You can send your ad online two different ways:

   1) Email it to artwork@thewavemag.com (we have a 20MB size limit)
        -if sending an .eps file, please compress it using WinZip or StuffIt

   2) FTP it to our server:
        a) install a program like Fetch or CuteFTP (You can download trial-versions for free)
        b) make a new connection FTP site with the following info:
           Host: ftp.thewavemedia.com
           Username: graphicsftp
           Password: prettypics
        c) transfer your ad over [name it with the advertising client's name, not "wave_ad"],
            then email artwork@thewavemag.com to confirm!

           -if for some reason you can't connect...see below.

If you have to mail a disc (say, if the internet broke), send a PC-FORMATTED cd-rom or Zip disk in one of the acceptable formats.

Common Problems & Solutions:

Problem: The PDF that was output from your design program has a small file size (typically under 1MB), and the raster graphics appear pixelated, even though the source images are hi-res.
Solution: There's many ways to make a PDF--and from many different programs. Some programs, like InDesign, Photoshop, and Illustrator allow you to save/export your document to a PDF without using any additional software. Other programs, like Quark, require additional software to create a PDF--namely, Acrobat Distiller. Because there are so many options when creating a PDF, it is imperative that you choose the right options to preserve the quality of the original artwork. Here's the basic options we recommend, or click here for our Acrobat Distiller 5.0 job option screenshots:

1. Acrobat compatibility: Acrobat 4.0
2. Vector resolution: 1270dpi
3. Raster resolution: 200dpi (300dpi if your ad is going in a glossy section)
4. Page Size: Make sure you know the exact dimensions of the client's ad. See here for options.
5. Compression: Turn OFF all compression options. If an image is "PDF'd" at a higher resolution than necessary, it will still print correctly
6. Fonts: Embed all fonts (NOTE: you still must outline your fonts if you have the option; click here to learn why)
7. Color Management: turn it off
8. Click here to see these options in Acrobat Distiller screenshots...

Problem: The "black" text in your ad looks fuzzy in the magazine.
Solution: It's a common mistake when designing ads for CMYK presses that designers make the black color of the text by combining CMYK colors, as opposed to just using K (black). This means that all four color plates must line up perfectly in order for the text to look crisp and readable. If plain black was used instead, the text portion of the ad would be printed with one pass of the black plate, without depending on the other color plates lining up exactly for crisp text. Web presses printing on newsprint are simply not as accurate as higher-resolution offset presses to glossy paper, so please make sure your black text consists of only the K from CMYK!

Problem: The file you sent has the wrong dimensions/proportions.
Solution: Check your ad against the Master Advertising Dimensions List

Problem: The file you sent has the correct dimensions, but the wrong resolution.
Solution: When creating a new file, set the document to have the correct width/height proportions and set the resolution to 200 pixels/inch. This is most commonly done in Adobe Photoshop®. For a highly comprehensive explanation of the often confusing topic of DPI and resolution, click here.

Problem: Color vs. Grayscale
Solution: As the designer, please find out from your client whether or not they bought a color spot. We often get ads that should be color and aren't (which upsets the client who paid for color!), or we get color ads when they should be grayscale (which doesn't look good if it's not designed for it).

Problem: We cannot accept mac-formatted disks at this time.
Solution: See acceptable formats.

Problem: The fonts are all screwed up...
Solution: If you sent over fonts with your ad, you probably made the ad on your mac in Quark. To maximize cross-platform compatibility, we cannot accept files that will only work on a mac. This means we can only accepts formats like PDF, EPS, JPG, TIFF. These formats are either rasterized (no font information), embedded (PDF embeds the fonts), or use outlined vectors (fonts are converted to curves consisting of points and splines). If you create a PDF and don't outline the fonts, we may still have a problem. We lay out the magazine in Quark, but you can't place a PDF directly. We typically convert all PDFs to TIFFs in Photoshop. But in the PDF-->TIFF rasterization process, if we don't have the fonts that are embedded in the PDF document, they won't necessarily convert correctly. This problem is rare, but it's still smart to OUTLINE your fonts before making PDFs--no matter what.