The Future of Digital Advertising - Brief Article

Byline: John Dunn

In production circles, digital advertising is the single most complicated and frustrating aspect of magazine publishing. Mainly because it's one part of the business that production directors and their staffs can't control. In an attempt to soothe a troublesome process, most magazines adhere to Specifications for Web Offset Publications (SWOP), but even these guidelines are far from rock solid. Just last year, the organization's board of directors chose to narrow the field of SWOP-acceptable file formats to just two. Switching gears to meet new standards isn't easy, but it can untangle the process. It did for us. In our case, SWOP's decision to make PDF/X-1a one of the acceptable formats actually paved the way for easy and error-free digital ad file exchange. Here's how the switch helped.

In March 2001, I was surprised when the SWOP board specified PDF/X-1 along with TIFF/IT-P1 as the association's file format of choice. This shift narrowed the field of acceptable file types from CT/LW, PDF, PostScript, DCS2 (the dreaded native application file) and others to the relatively common format, TIFF/IT-P1, and another virtually unknown one at that time, PDF/X-1 (now X-1a). My company, Wizards of the Coast (which publishes gaming titles like Dragon and Star Wars Gamer) was already considering PDF for file exchange, and PDF/X-1a looked like a possible means to our production end. We knew that PDF worked well for one of our printers, but would PDF/X-1a work too?

Later that month, I was in New York for a conference, where I caught a demonstration of PDF/X-1a and was intrigued not only by its ease of conversion, but by the fact that to become a PDF/X-1a, the format has to be "verified." To be verified, files must have all the elements we require (fonts, images, CMYK or spots, etc.), but can't have elements we don't need (i.e. QuickTime movies, RGB images, sticky notes, etc.). Those unnecessary elements can sometimes cause unwanted stoppages and costly alterations at the printer.

Our production department set about developing a workflow that would accommodate PDF/X-1a, contacted our printer about the switch, and searched for software solutions. We quickly settled on Agfa's Apogee Create 1.02 and Apago's PDF/X-1 Checkup 2.01. Both programs are readily available and reasonably priced at about $1,095 and $250 respectively. We chose Apogee because of its ability to batch normalized PostScript to PDF, and X Checkup for its Mac compatibility. A Mac-friendly workflow is very important to us because if our system was not Mac-based, it would probably be a hard sell to our advertisers.

Next we developed our own digital advertising specifications for PDF/X-1a. We sent the specifications - which provide step-by-step instructions for producing PDF/X-1a from QuarkXPress and other common applications - to each of our advertisers. Our staff then worked with advertisers individually to overcome any conversion challenges.

The production of PDF/X-1a for ads, it turnes out, is a very simple process - contrary to what many advertisers will try to claim. Native files are PostScripted using the Universal PPD and Donnelley, our printing partner, specifies settings. The resulting PostScript is converted to PDF using the Job Option Setting 2. That PDF is then brought into X Checkup (a plug-in for Acrobat) and converted or "verified" out as a PDF/X-1a. We also preflight in-house with Markzware's Flightcheck 4.28 and Enfocus' PitStop Server 2.0 for incoming PDF/X-1 files to check for basic specifications like trim, bleed and safety, because they are the most common errors found with incoming files.

By October 2001, we had both a workflow and a verifiable file format, so we selected an upcoming issue of Dragon as our live test. We printed one 16-page form using PDF/X-1a, and production was smooth as silk. Consequently, we scheduled the next issue to have a full run of PDF/X-1a, which went off without a hitch in December 2001. It also received numerous PDF/X-1a ads.

Since that initial test last year, we have produced seven more issues using PDF/X-1a. The format has proven very stable and user-friendly from a production standpoint. And we have saved both time and internal costs for now unnecessary advertiser file alterations. This year alone, for example, we think we'll save about $5,000 because we no longer need to reproof after customer changes.

There's no guarantee that PDF/X-1a will be the future of digital advertising, but I believe it will. The format got another vote of confidence at the Seybold Conference in New York City this past fall, when Time Inc. announced that PDF/X-1a will be the file format of choice for digital transfer for all of the company's magazines. Not only does this format standardize a complicated process, it also eliminates the need for an expensive digital front end - since PDF/X-1a can be readily produced on simple Mac and PC workstations. Large and small advertisers can produce the files in-house and save money once they're not handing files over to service providers for file conversion. Last, but certainly not least, PDF/X-1a is a true "blind exchange" (with some help from preflight applications to ensure proper page trim, bleed and image resolution). Both advertiser and publisher are assured that the file is press-ready, if produced properly. And with all we have on our collective plate, there's a great deal to be said for that kind of peace of mind.

John C. Dunn is production director for Wizards of the Coast Periodicals Group, a division of Hasbro.

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