Products Free Trials Store Community Support About Partners

Putting It All Together Image Design Printing Prepress Prepress Considerations Color Separation and Color Models Color Management Prepare for Service Bureau Service Bureau Profiler File Preparation for Professional Output Publishing to PDF Web Graphics Optimizing Your OS

Prepare for Service Bureau

CorelDRAW's Prepare for Service Bureau Wizard feature allows all necessary files to be gathered quickly and easily so the document to be output by a service bureau with maximum ease. When initiating the Prepare for Service Bureau Wizard, users are first prompted to choose one of two methods that will be used to gather the files

Gather All Files Associated With This Document
Choose a Profile Provided by Your Service Bureau

Gather All Files Associated With This Document

This option should be selected if there is uncertainty as to how the document will be output. All files associated with the document will be gathered and can then be provided to the service bureau. From there, the service bureau can perform the necessary functions to properly output the document.

The second screen will list all fonts required by the document to ensure that text is correctly displayed. These fonts will be gathered and included with the final documents and should be forwarded to the service bureau.

The third screen provides the option to have CorelDRAW generate a PDF in addition to providing the other documents. Many service bureaus enjoy receiving documents in PDF format as this file format is easy to work with, and can be used as a proof or for actual output purposes.

The next screen prompts for the location where the files are to be output. It is recommended that a folder be created for each document as there will be multiple files created. Placing service bureau files for all documents in the same directory may result in some files being overwritten and other files that are not associated with a particular document being sent to the service bureau accidentally. Such mistakes are time consuming and may be costly.

After gathering the files, a summary will be displayed. Review this summary and click Finish to exit the Prepare for Service Bureau Wizard. These files can now be forwarded to the service bureau that will output the file.

Choose a Profile Provided by Your Service Bureau

This option should be selected if the service bureau that will be outputting the document has provided a specific profile for use with CorelDRAW's Prepare for Service Bureau feature. When selecting this option, the location of the profile will have to be specified and CorelDRAW will gather all of the required files based on requirements set by the service bureau. Whenever possible, this is the most efficient option as the document will be provided to the service bureau prepared for use with their workflow in mind.

Note that depending on which settings are specified in the profile provided by the service bureau, all of the following illustrations and information may not apply.

After clicking Next, the profile to be used will have to be selected. Click Browse to navigate to the directory where the profile provided by the service bureau is located. Select it from the list and click Next.

The following screen will list all fonts required by the document to ensure that text is correctly displayed. These fonts will be gathered and included with the final documents and should be forwarded to the service bureau. Failure to include fonts may result in unexpected production delays.

The fourth screen provides the opportunity to enter contact information. This information should be completed by the client and is useful to the service bureau so that they can easily identify who the job belongs to. The information provided will be included in the print job information file.

The next screen prompts for the location where the files will be output. It is recommended that a separate folder be created for each document as there will be multiple files created. This will ensure that only those files related to the specific job will be sent to the service bureau.

After choosing the output directory and clicking Next, the Prepare for Service Bureau Wizard will be ready to gather the necessary files. If desired, the Print Preview can be used to view a preview of how the work will appear when output.