YOUR IDEAS DESERVE A PROFESSIONAL TOUCH.
For many do-it-yourselfers, user-friendly graphics programs can be an enjoyable way to satisfy a creative itch. As well, it is always handy to have someone you know who can whip up a flyer or poster for your next yard sale. But when it comes to your CD or DVD project, you want to be sure that the artwork not only has a creative concept to it, but that it has been prepared by someone who is technically trained in the use of professional graphics applications and who understands the world of silkscreen and offset print production. There are significant differences between what something looks like on your computer screen, or from an inkjet/laser printer, versus the physical finished, manufactured product. When talking with a potential designer, do not be afraid to ask for credentials and samples of an artist's work. Be sure you are confident with their abilities and comfortable with their approach to your ideas and concept. EDT Media highly recommends you use a professional graphic artist to get the best possible result for your project. In the music business, sometimes you only get one chance to give the right impression.....make it a good one.

EDT Media offers you professional print design with a creative edge.
Graphics Packages starting as low as $149 with your CD or DVD order.

If you decide to design your own artwork please feel free to ask as many questions as you need to ensure that you end up sending correct files so as not to incure any extra fees on top of file check.

FORMATS WE ACCEPT
The first thing to know is that we are a Macintosh based studio (and yes we do accept PC files!). We accept files created in the following applications:

InDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator CS2 and lower (OSX and Windows)
We realize that Indesign CS3 will not save down to CS2. If you only have access to CS3 then please call to find out how to save your files so that we may do a proper file check on this end. Our studio will be adding CS3 in the near future.

QuarkXpress (Macintosh Platform only)
It's been a while since anyone has opened Quark around here but we still have a few versions kicking around. Since the creation of InDesign it's been hard to go back, and on some lucky occasions we have been able to open a quark file using InDesign!

We DON'T accept artwork created in Word, Powerpoint or Excel as a rule, but I have been known to make those work as long as the resolution of the graphics is 300 dpi. So if you want to design your own artwork and you only have access to Microsoft Office, we will give it a try. There are extra fees involved with this options so please give sales a call to find out the cost. And please feel free to give our graphics dept a call to find out what you need to do to make your design work!

GRAPHICS AND PHOTOS
It's best to use PhotoShop of course for any photos and rastor graphic work. If you are taking your photos with a digital camera you need to set the camera to the highest resolution setting possible but don't use the "Raw" setting. If you camera has the option to save as a .tif, then please do so, if not it will be saved as a jpeg file. If you open the file to make adjustments, as soon as you do, save it as a Photoshop file or a .tif. DO NOT resave as a jpeg file as it will loose quality each time you do. It's like photocopying a photocopy!

All images in PhotoShop need to be created at 300 dpi. Any thing less will not print properly. It is NOT advised to use PhotoShop for your CD label text, as it will not reproduce well silkscreened which is 85-100 lpi or offset, while an improvement over silkscreen for images not really good enough for text as it is 170-175 lpi.

Illustrator is a great tool for vector based images, logos, line drawings, anything that you want to have a good solid outline and color, or that you want to increase in size without losing quality. If you do decide to use Illustrator as your layout program do not link the files, you need to embed them. Illustrator does a strange bit of coding that actually splits up the image. If you place an unflattened PhotoShop file into your layout you need to flatten it before you place it or flatten it in Illustrator once you have placed it.

Once you have designed your artwork you need to layout the text and the best applications for that are InDesign or QuarkXpress. While Illustrator gives you the vector based text that we want, it cannot compare in ease of layout like InDesign or Quark!

When you have completed your design and are ready to send it to us, I recommend saving a working file that has editable text and then give us a file that has ALL text converted to outlines. This way there is never a chance for reflow when opening on this end.

I hope the following tips are useful and If you have tips that you would like to have added here, please shoot me an email design@edtmedia.com.

I really look forward to working with you to see your project to it's completion. Please don't hesitate to ask me questions, that's what I'm here for!

Cheers!

Terry McMillan
Creative Director
EDT Media
613-482-9643
1-800-915-1915 ex 83