At Morris Brothers, we understand the challenges encountered when creating and reproducing digital graphics. Most times, what works for desktop publishing and ad print does not necessarily work when used to produce large format exhibit graphics. Therefore, we have compiled, what we believe to be, a concise and informative document containing vital information needed to avoid pitfalls often encountered when preparing your graphic for large format output.

Taking the time to organize job information before sending it to us is an important step in the success of the production process. Doing so will give you the chance to double check that all your artwork and instructions have been included and are compatible with the platforms and applications that Morris Brothers currently supports. We encourage you to ask questions about our processes, how they work and how your art can be best supplied to us, before we start your project.

Important Things To Remember

Mac or PC
“Microsoft Word”, “Word Perfect” or similar word processing applications are not acceptable as ready to print files. Layout and design rates apply when supplying such files.

All art submissions must include copy, logos, “look-and-feel” art and finalized proofs (if applicable). Include color specifications in the Pantone color-matching format if exact colors are to be matched. If Pantone colors are not or cannot be specified, a color match print must be supplied with your layout. Please indicate whether final output colors are to match the print supplied or PMS match in the original digital file. CYMK indicators, due to their inconsistency on differing output devices, will only be accepted if exact color matching is not necessary. If a specific "look" or theme is required for your signage, a hard copy proof and digital file must accompany your order.

If specific color match instructions are not supplied, the graphics will be produced without alteration of the digital file or scanned art, depending on which is supplied. Morris Brothers is not responsible for color matching that was not specified by either Pantone specification or hard copy color match.

If digital files are unattainable, we would be more than willing to work from camera-ready artwork. Such artwork must be large, clean, crisp, black and white stats or laser prints suitable for scanning. Business cards, letterheads and thumbnail images from websites do not constitute camera-ready artwork and will require a considerable amount of time and expense to edit for satisfactory output.

Important information when submitting artwork for Vehicle Wraps (click here for more info).

We support both IBM based “PC” files and Apple Macintosh native files.

Application		Version		Platform
Adobe Illustrator		CS2		PC
Adobe Illustrator		CS2		Macintosh
CorelDraw!		13.xx		PC
Quark Express		6.xx		Macintosh
Quark Express		5.xx		PC
Adobe Acrobat		7.00		PC and Mac
Adobe Photoshop		CS2		PC and Mac
Encapsulated Postscript		All *.eps files		Mac or PC

Important note for Quark Express and Adobe InDesign users:

Because Quark Express and Adobe InDesign were intended to be used primarily for mass print communication and not for large format graphics we HIGHLY recommend that files not be submitted in these applications. We strongly recommend that the export to *.eps feature offered in each application be utilized for submission of your large format graphic. Exporting each page of your Quark Express or Adobe InDesign document as a separate file and saving these files from Adobe Illustrator as *.ai or *.eps files, with fonts converted to outlines, will greatly reduce the likelihood of font incompatibility and/or questionable output.

If Quark Express or Adobe InDesign must be used, please be aware that additional setup time, cost and production time may be incurred.

Please follow these important steps when submitting Quark Express or Adobe InDesign Files.

• Document setup for each separate graphic must be in proportion to final output.
• Set up document to be .25 inches larger in length and width for production bleed.
• When utilizing any plug-in, outside of the basic application, it must be included with art for installation on our systems.
• When collecting for output, all fonts must be included with artwork, including printer and screen fonts. If both files for each font are not included this will likely cause delays in production
• When collecting for output, all images must be included with artwork, with correct imbedding names. If high-resolution art is not included, the thumbnail image resident in the file will be used with unreliable visual results.

Important note on using bitmapped images and logos:

• In the graphic art industry there are two types of artwork that can be used within a file, "vector art" and "bitmap images". Usually, however, files can and will contain both types of art. Keep in mind that large format output usually requires substantial enlargement of the graphic elements within a file. For this reason we recommend using vector art whenever possible. This type of artwork is made up of defined shapes, lines and colors that can be scaled with no distortion to the artwork.
• Bitmapped images and artwork are comprised of colored pixels. In all cases, whether noticeable or not, bitmapped images will degrade as they are enlarged. To avoid this, all images and bitmaps must be submitted or embedded at final production size at a minimum of 150 dpi, or at the recommended 300 dpi. If this guideline is not followed, the final product will appear jagged or "stepped", fuzzy and often in the case of bitmapped text, undecipherable. Please keep this in mind when considering using an image file that was used as a website graphic, which are typically only thumbnail files at 17-25 dpi.

We currently support the following media transfer technology for Macintosh or PC. When using multiple applications to construct your graphic, please indicate which is the primary file to be used as final for output, as opposed to the supporting files for the same graphic.

Please do not use links to external files when supplying your graphic to us. Please embed all supporting files within your main application file.

• CD-Rom
• DVD
• FTP site (Please contact us for FTP account information)
• E-mail (if your attachment is more than 12 meg please use one of our other three options for submission)

When submitting files, please be sure to supply us with only those files specific to your job. Additional cost will be incurred if time must be spent searching for relevant files.

When e-mailing from Macintosh systems, regardless of how small a file size is, it is recommended that all files are condensed and saved using the "Stuff It", (*.sit) condensation program that is standard on most Macintosh systems. We recommend this in an attempt to minimize the possible corruption of mime files passing between Mac and PC platforms. In addition, when "stuffing" the file it is extremely important that the *.sit extension is utilized. "Self-Extracting" files, *.sea, are also acceptable.