Home > Procedures and Workflows > DK special sales – technical workflow

DK special sales – technical workflow

Procedures and Workflows

Last modified: June 28, 2024

Print this page

This is a step by step guideline of the DK special sales technical workflow from start up to delivery at the Printer(s). This workflow may differ slightly depending on the type of special sales involved.

Types of special sales titles

New Book (cut down, bind up – change from original, format change)

Reissue (redesign, minor text updates, pagination remains the same)

Jacket & Imprints only

1 – Start up

  1. The Special Sales team source the files from archive themselves or if more investigation is needed then the Production Editor can help to source.
  2. The Production Editor runs Special Sales SourceReport on old books (not coming from PA) to see what technical issues may occur for creative to fix. Resaver will have to be run first (if files were created in QuarkXpress, discuss with your Production Editor the different conversion options).
  3. All people involved (designers, editors, production editorial, production, etc) have a start up meeting to discuss schedule, file management and technical guidelines referring to the title. (start-up meetings may not happen if it is a jacket or imprint only).
  4. The existing book should be brought to the start up meeting and looked at to help identify potential technical issues prior to working on the project.
  5. The Production Editor / Production Controller assigned to the project heads the meeting and fills in start up notes. Those notes are then sent as an e-mail to all who attended the meeting afterwards.
  6. The relevant book folder is then created on Google Drive.

2 – Template (sometimes needed for some reissues)

  1. The Designer creates the template. (Training is available to designers who have not done templates before or need a refresher). Live layouts should not be created until the template has been finalised and approved.  
  2. The Designer fills in the template checklist and runs the Template SourceReport, ensuring SR is 100% (any fails/errors need to be fixed by the Designer before the template is checked, with any genuine exceptions pointed out to the Production Editor).
  3. The Designer also runs Font Checker from the Fuse menu to ensure all fonts are fully licensed.
  4. The Designer places the template, checklist and sample spreads (presentation spreads) in the Support_Files > Template_Libraries folder, and its respective SourceReport, Font Report and Font Checker report in the Support_files > Source_Report > 2_Template on Google Drive. Notify your  Production Editor when it is ready. At least one week’s notice should be given to Production Editors to spot-check any template.
  5. The Production Editor spot-checks the template and runs test PDFs to ensure fonts PDF properly and everything looks the way it should. (The Production Editor may ask the Designer to check those PDFs as well).
  6. The Production Editor may have to go back to the Designer once or several times for template corrections, in which case the Designer will have to re-run SourceReport after submitting each updated template, ensuring it is 100% every time. (Only the latest version of the template and its SourceReport, Font Report and Font Checker report should be visible on Google Drive).

3 – WIP (work in progress)

WIP spreads are worked on by Designers and Editors and files are kept in the Print_Assets > UK_Layouts / US_Layouts >  1_WIP folder on Google Drive until all colour elements are locked and all approval stages met.

4 – Illustrator artworks

If new Illustrator artworks are to be introduced in the book, a SourceReport Illustrator should be run on each artwork before they are submitted to the MA team. If any artworks need to be updated, a new Illustrator SourceReport should be re-run and re-submitted to the MA team with the revised artwork.

5 – CMYK locked

  1. Once colour is final, the CMYK layer of each spread should be locked. The Designer moves all the spreads into the Print_Assets > UK_Layouts / US_Layouts > 2_Colour_Locked folder on Google Drive.
  2. The Designer then runs the relevant Frontlist / Special Sales SourceReport (ask your Production Editor if you are unsure which SourceReport to run) on all spreads, ensuring the SourceReport is 100% (any fails/errors need to be fixed by the Designer before CMYK PDFs are created, with any genuine exceptions pointed out to the Production Editor).
  3. The Designer places the SourceReport in the Support_Files > SourceReport > 3_CMYK folder on Google Drive.
  4. The Production Editor creates CMYK PDFs using Exporter and the relevant PDF preset (ie PRH_Colour_Settings_Coated39 or PRH_Colour_Settings_Uncoated47).
  5. The Production Editor places the CMYK PDFs in the Print_Ready_PDFs > _PE_for_preflight folder on Google Drive.
  6. The Production Editor preflights the CMYK PDFs and goes back to the Designer should there be any preflight errors. If this is the case, the Designer will have to correct the problem files, re-run SourceReport and notify the Production Editor when the files are ready for creation of the relevant PDFs.
  7. The Designer checks the CMYK PDFs in the colour room to ensure he/she is happy with the quality and position of colour elements.
  8. Once all CMYK PDFs have been approved, your Production Editor will send a few spreads to the repro house for proofing and move those PDFs to the Print_Ready_PDFs > CMYK folder on Google Drive.

CMYK must be finalised before the next step.

6 – Text locked

  1. The Editor finalises the UK text and runs the Frontlist / Special Sales SourceReport on all spreads, ensuring the SourceReport is 100%. (If the text is ready at the same time as the CMYK, there is no need to run the SourceReport again but ask your Production Editor if you are unsure which SourceReport to run). (Any fails/errors should be fixed before the text PDFs are created, with any genuine exceptions pointed out to the Production Editor).
  2. The Editor places the UK / US spreads into the Print_Assets > 3_Text_Locked folder on Google Drive and the SourceReport in the Support_files > Source_Report > 4_UK / US_Text folder on Google Drive, notifying the Production Editor when this is done.

7 – Final files

  1. The Production Editor moves all spreads into the Print_Assets > UK_Layouts  / US_Layouts > 4_Final_files folder on Google Drive and creates the text PDFs using Exporter and the PRH_PDF_ Translation preset.
  2. The Production Editor preflights the text PDFs and goes back to the Editor/Designer should there be any preflight errors. If this is the case, the Editor/Designer may have to correct the problem file, re-run SourceReport and resupply to the Production Editor for re-PDFing.
  3. The editor checks all text PDFs to ensure no text is missing and fonts look as they should.
  4. Once all text PDFs are approved, the Production Editor sends them with the CMYK PDFs to the printer.
  5. Before the Production Editor archives the book, Designers, Editors and Jacket Designers are responsible for clearing up the book folder and ensuring only the necessary elements go into archive.

8 – Jacket

The Designer creates the UK/US jackets ensuring:

  • they use Jacket Genie from the Fuse menu which will ensure that the correct dimensions are used: https://www.dkhandbook.com/?p=2912
  • DK authorised fonts only are used (i.e. from the Monotype portal which will guarantee that we hold the necessary print and digital licences and that these fonts can be lent to our individual freelancers/packagers). https://www.dkhandbook/?p=8118
  • that any special finishes are clearly labelled and placed on their own layer.

A template from the printer should not be necessary unless it is a customised format (i.e. slip cases, novelty boxes etc.)

  1. The Designer runs the Jacket – Frontlist SourceReport on UK/US jackets ensuring SR is 100% (any fails need to be fixed by he Designer before the jacket is PDFed, with any genuine exceptions pointed out to the Production Editor). If working with an old jacket, run the Jacket – Backlist SourceReport.
  2. The Designer also runs Font Checker from the Fuse menu to ensure all fonts are fully licensed..
  3. The Designer PDFs the jackets using the PRH_PDF_Jackets_Coated39 preset and checks the PDFs to make sure he/she is happy with the quality and that special finishes work as they should.
  4. The Designer places the PDFs in the Print_Ready_PDFs > _PE_for_preflight folder on Google Drive and notifies their Production Editor.
  5. The Production Editor preflights the jacket PDFs and goes back to the Designer should there be any preflight errors. If this is the case, the Designer will have to correct the problem files, re-run SourceReport and recreate the relevant PDFs.
  6. The Production Editor places the final jacket PDFs in the Print_Ready_PDFs > Cover_PDFs folder on Google Drive.
  7. The Production Editor sends the jacket PDF for proofing if required (only UK needs to be proofed unless the US has a different cover design).
  8. The jackets team will confirm finishes, h & t bands/endpaper references when they supply the final print-ready cover PDFs to the Production Editor.
    Pantone or foil reference should be emailed to the Production Editor and the Production Controller.

 Americanization

Duping files for americanization can take place either after CMYK is locked or when text is locked, depending on the project. In either case, the following steps should be followed:

  1. The Editor/Designer dupes the UK spreads for americanization. (Any artwork/map needing to be americanized should be renamed with the prefix US_ and its UK layer changed to US. If no change needs to be made to the artwork/map, the US InDesign file should share the same link as the UK one). 
  2. The Editor/Designer places a copy of these files in their dedicated Americanization folder, in the Sent_to_US folder on Google Drive, with the relevant UK SourceReport.
  3. Once americanization is done, the americanizer runs the Translation Frontlist (or Translation Backlist if they are working on a backlist title) SourceReport to ensure they have not introduced mistakes in the file.
  4. The Americanizer places americanized files and their respective SourceReport in the Back_from_US folder  on Google Drive.

Endpapers

  1. An Endpapers InDesign file should be created by the Designer. Once the endpapers are final, the Designer notifies the Production Editor.
  2. The Production Editor creates the PDF using preset: PRH_Colour_Settings_Uncoated47.
  3. The Production Editor will then preflight this PDF before sending it to the printer.

Corrections

If, when working on the Special Sales edition, there are editorial or colour difference noticed, you need to consider whether corrections then need to be made to the trade edition (UK & US) of that title.