3
Defining Colors and Character
Formats
Chapter 1: Planning for
Commercial Printing
Every commercial printing job requires that you
consider a complex set of variables ranging from
what your budget and schedule allow to how the
paper stock and printing press affect your final out-
put. The earlier you think about these variables, the
more control you’ll have over the quality, cost, and
schedule of your project.
Planning and evaluation
Preparing a publication for commercial printing
takes careful thought: both imagesetters and com-
mercial printing presses have inherent limitations,
and it’s possible to create publications that are dif -
cult to print on either an imagesetter or a printing
press. By thinking of your design and production
cycles as steps in a larger process, you can make
choices that will let you work more ef ciently and
help you achieve the best printed results.
Before going to a commercial printer with your
project, you need to evaluate your skills, your
schedule, and your equipment to determine what
tasks you will do and what services you will con-
tract.
All FrameMaker 7.0 documents include
some basic color definitions, and the
standard templates also provide character
formats for changing the appearance of
words and phrases. When you’re setting
up templates or creating custom
documents, you can define other colors
and create your own character formats.
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