Tips, questions and answers

• What is Digital Print?
• What's the difference between the services of National Printers and those of Lightwave Reprographics?
• What does Lightwave Reprographics need to know about my order to give me a quote and advice on production, finishing and digital data services?
• What kind of digital files does Lightwave Reprographics accept?
• How does Lightwave Reprographics manage a typical digital printing work order?
• How long does it take for me to get the proof of my job?

Digital printing technology translates images and text into a format read directly by computer-controlled equipment such as the digital printers used by Lightwave Reprographics. The great advantages of digital printing are control and flexibility for printed products. By making changes to a digital file you can easily decide which pages you want to print and what kind of stock you want to use, each time you print.

What's the difference between the services of National Printers and those of Lightwave Reprographics?

National Printers uses traditional wet-process printing technology that puts black and coloured ink to paper. Lightwave Reprographics uses a dry process to put black and coloured toner to paper. National Printers maintains offset presses while Lightwave Reprographics owns Xerox and Canon digital printers that offer exceptional flexibility for complex production and short-run colour jobs. If a customer needs 100,000 sheets to be done within a period of time, they would use National Printers, but if they require 10.000 sheets to be delivered to Toronto from Ottawa the next day, they would use Lightwave Reprographics.

In a nutshell, we both serve you but the bulk of your work likely falls on one side or the other. Talk to us and we'll steer you in the right direction.

What does Lightwave Reprographics need to know about my order to give me a quote and advice on production, finishing and digital data services?

Every job is different so you need to tell us about your product and what you need. For printing, stock, binding, packaging, electronic file options, you will want to consult our quote tool. Even if you don't want to submit the form to us via the Internet, fill out the form or use it to take notes when you contact us. If you want to know more about our Business Solutions please call.

What kind of digital files does Lightwave Reprographics accept?

There are three parts to a printable electronic file - file format, transport media and fonts.

Formats
You can send us files in almost any source format, such as MS Word, Photoshop, QuarkXPress, WordPerfect, Corel Draw, Adobe Illustrator, or in PostScript or PDF format. PDF format is short for portable document file and is an accepted format for printing with few execptions and is regarded as the easiest way to see what you're going to get.

Transport Media
You can submit the files to us via File Transfer Protocal (FTP) through our Upload File link, by email or on portable disk. Standard disk formats that we accept are: floppy, zip, CD, DVD and USB memory sticks.

Fonts
A font is a complete set of characters forming a family of type in a particular design or style. In electronic formats, fonts can be reshaped and/or filled with graphics in millions of different ways. The best way to ensure that your fonts are correctly printed is to embed them in the file or to supply them to us.

Please contact us if you have any questions about fonts in your files.

How does Lightwave Reprographics manage a typical digital printing work order?

In a typical job, the following steps are followed.

1. A customers delivers an electronic file to Lightwave Reprographics via an Internet FTP program (see Upload Files), as an email attachment or on portable disk.
2. We check the file to ensure that it is not corrupt and that it contains all of the pieces that we need to document the order and create a printed proof.
3. Files that pass the check proceed to step 4. Problem files are returned to the customer with correction advice and a request to resubmit the file after corrections have been made as in step 1. In most cases files can be corrected on site, saving the customer time and money.
4. Files that pass the check are used to produce a printed proof that customers view and approve. If the proof is not approved, then the process begins again at step 2 where the file is rechecked and a new proof is printed.
5. Upon approval of proofs, the work order travels to Production for printing and finishing.
6. Production brings a number of processes together according to the order's specifications. Production can including offset printing of content, digital printing of content, purchasing of special materials, and gathering and assembling the finished product.
7. From production, an order moves to finishing which can include binding, boxing, labeling and shipping.

You should get a proof within 24-36 hours after we receive your electronic files, providing the files are accepted. If they need to be changed, you'll know very quickly after you send them to us.

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