HOW SHOULD MY FILES BE LAID OUT?
All files should be set up:
-To scale
-With cropmarks indicated
-Text should be converted to curves or outlines (Quark does not offer this option, so all of the fonts [screen and printer fonts] used will need to be included on the disk)
-Required INPUT resolution on bitmap files is 72 dpi at final size

WHAT FORMATS AND PROGRAMS CAN I USE?
Files may be MAC or PC formatted. The files can be set up in any of the following programs:
Adobe PhotoShop 5.0
Adobe Illustrator 8.0
CoreIDRAW! 6.0 (MAC)
Macromedia Freehand 8.0
Quark Xpress 4.0.3

HOW SHOULD I SEND MY ARTWORK?
Artwork can be sent on the following types of media:Quark Xpress 4.0.3
* 3.5" floppyQuark Xpress 4.0.3
* Zip Disk
* EZ 135
* Jaz Disk (1 and 2 GB)
* CD-ROM
* 3.5" Syquest (270 and 540 MB)
* Bernoulli
* 5.25" Syquest (44, 88 and 200 MB)
* DDS DAT Tape (Retrospect formatted, MAC only, 4MM wide, 90M long. Please put all of the tiles that Optima will be using to produce your job in one main folder. Also send along both the catalog file on a tioppy and a list of the files that are being used).

WHAT ELSE IS IMPORTANT TO CONSIDER WHEN SETTING UP FILES?
PhotoShop files should be saved as a TIFF, EPS or PhotoShop 5.0 file. Please do not use duotones or DCS. Files being scanned and/or created for digital inkjet production should be saved as CMYK. If there are "placed images" in Illusrator, Freehand or QuarkXPress, be sure to send the EPS files so that the quality of the images can be checked. This is especially important for photographic highly detailed images. DO NOT send Freehand or Quark EPS files. Production cannot manipulate the content. proportion or color of these eps files. Illustrator EPS files are alright but result in files that are larger than necessary.

WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN VECTOR AND BITMAP?
There are two basic forms of graphic images: vector images and bitmap images.

VECTOR
-Image can be broken down into geometrically defined components
-Ability to easily modify and scale images without losing any quality in the output
-Image without dpi (not bitmapped)
-Vector programs are Illustrator, Freehand and CorelDraw

BITMAP
-Uses pixels (picture elements) and dots per inch (dpi)
-PhotoShop creates bitmapped images
-Photographs are considered bitmap images
-High resolution is important. Your files should be 72 dpi at final size for inkjet prints