How to make Publisher less sucky.

April 12, 2007 10:00 AM

Please help me with graphics in Microsoft Publisher. I know it sucks, please don't yell at me.

Background: I am the PR Manager at a small-ish nonprofit. I use Photoshop and other "professional" programs to lay out ads and such, but my colleagues rely on (ugh) Publisher for most of the stuff they do. I'm putting together a little email to all our recruitment staff with tips for designing postcards and flyers, and I'm going attach the correct versions of our logo, but I'm a little puzzled by Publisher and I need the Hive Mind.

Why Publisher: I design all the brochures, posters, and other materials that are professionally printed, but the reality is that I don't handle 100% of the printed materials and most of my colleagues are not very computer or graphics savvy. We design and print a ton of postcards (we're a blood bank, so we let people know when they are eligible to donate, and the card designs change regularly with our different promotions). Once designed (by me or someone else), the file goes to our assistant who puts in the specific information and brings the originals to Kinko's (for example, each card will have 15 different versions, each with the address and hours of a particular donor center). Also, different territory reps sometimes design their own flyers advertising blood drives. (I realize this is a long-winded explanation, I'm just trying to justify the use of a sucky program.)

Major Problem: The white space of our logo always comes out a hazy gray. I went into Photoshop and "deleted" the white space before I saved as a jpeg, but it still looks like shit when printed. Am I doing something wrong? Is there any way to rectify this?

Any other make-Publisher-not-suck tips would also be appreciated.

posted by radioamy to Computers & Internet (21 answers total)

Make the background transparent and save as a gif. I use Pub too, so I feel your pain.
posted by iconomy at 10:05 AM on April 12, 2007

Also, the background of your logo probably is gray - a pale pale gray that looks white until you print it. If you want to save it as a jpeg format, make the background white and print it again, although it may only look good on white paper, depending on its design.
posted by iconomy at 10:21 AM on April 12, 2007

Could you export the logo to a vector format that Publisher supports, eliminating transparency and resolution issues? If EPS doesn't work then the crude WMF format might do the trick.
posted by malevolent at 10:26 AM on April 12, 2007

Best answer: I believe saving images as PNG files helps a lot in Microsoft products.
posted by Milkman Dan at 10:43 AM on April 12, 2007

Yes, it sounds like you really shouldn't be using JPG files for your logo. Especially if this is the logo you mean, it has no business being stored in JPG format. GIF would be just fine, whether you use a transparent background or not, (and would compress well), or a vector-based format.

You and your coworkers are very clearly not looking for suggestions on this, but the OpenOffice.org suite has some decent graphics components to it (including, interestingly, vector graphics and a PowerPoint equivalent), and it's free. I've also used the pretty-inexpensive Xara, which is delightfully easy to use, but only handles one page at a time.
posted by amtho at 10:48 AM on April 12, 2007

The hazy gray you are seeing is probably an artifact from the conversion to jpeg format. Either it is a very small space or you are saving it at a low resolution or quality setting.

The idea of doing it as a transparent gif will work, but you will possibly get the jaggies along the edge of the transparency since the gif format does not support soft-edged transparency.

Definitely, your best bet is to use the logo in a vector format. EPS would definitely be best. WMF, as malevolent points out, is crude, though Publisher, being a Microsoft product, probably does support it.

If the logo isn't available in a vector format, check to see if Publisher fully supports the .png format. When it comes to transparency in a raster format, png is king. Soft-edged, alpha-layer transparency, baby.

Oh, and in case you didn't already know this, if you are printing art originally made for use on a website (like a logo jpeg) it is probably low-resolution (72ppi) and will print like ass, anyway. Proper resolution for print is at least 300dpi.

Wow...I made it through all that without once launching into a Publisher-sucks tirade. ~buys myself a beer~
posted by Thorzdad at 10:56 AM on April 12, 2007

You know, it occurs to me that, as Thorzdad points out, a transparent GIF would be problematic for your less-experienced users. If you save it as a non-transparent GIF with a white background, you can manipulate the color table so that you'll be _sure_ that the background is completely #FFFFFF white.
posted by amtho at 11:04 AM on April 12, 2007

Response by poster:
I believe saving images as PNG files helps a lot in Microsoft products.

Nope, didn't help.

And it's not the WTUL logo (or the shitty disassembled version on the station's embarassing website), it's

or some version of.
posted by radioamy at 11:14 AM on April 12, 2007

Response by poster: Hmm. Didn't like that graphic, eh mefi? This.
posted by radioamy at 11:15 AM on April 12, 2007

One problem with saving as a gif, though, is that the color table for a gif is limited to a 256 web-based color table. If your logo features delicate or sophisticated colors, you could get a serious color-shift, even if you save using an adaptive setting.

Technically, the standard image format for print is a cmyk tiff.
posted by Thorzdad at 11:18 AM on April 12, 2007

Radioamy...
Email me through my website (in my profile) and I can fix you up with a vector version of your logo. No problems.
posted by Thorzdad at 11:30 AM on April 12, 2007

Die, Publisher, die die die die! A pox on your house you lousy, worthless, hateful, evil pile of malevolent shit!

The first thing you're going to want to do is make sure that your workflow is appropriate for your output method. If your postcards are going to Kinko's, there's a good chance that an RBG (web palette) is fine, and this is the Publisher default. But you may want to change the colorspace you work in. Go to Tools -> Commercial Printing Tools -> Color Printing... and select the radio button that says Process Colors (CMYK). Make sure that all of the imported graphics you use are CMYK as well.

Regarding the printed appearance of the logo, I'm assuming that the logo is printing on a white background. In order to get the background to match the paper, open the jpeg up in Photoshop, convert to CMYK, go to Image -> Adjustments -> Curves... This will bring up the Curves dialogue. See the white eyedropper about midway down the right hand side? Double-click it and make sure that you have zeros for the CMYK values. Then make sure that the white eyedropper is selected and click the background of the jpeg, the area that i supposed to be white. This wil force it to a non-printing "paper white." You can also use the Levels dialogue if you're more comfortable, using the same eyedropper method. If the background you're printing on isn't white, you're going to want to match the background of the logo to the background it will be printing on, and you'll need to make this adjustment in Photoshop.

General tips:
Don't use .gifs for printed pieces, as they can't support resolutions above 72 dpi, nor do they support RBG or CMYK colorspaces. If possible you should have all of your artwork as 300 dpi (tif, jpg, png) or as vectors (eps, wmv, ai) Tiff and eps are best.

gif + printing = disappointing results every time.

When putting graphics into Publisher documents, don't insert them. Instead, link to your graphics. When you embed them they tend to get corrupted by Publisher's graphics engine/compression algorithm/malevolence. When you insert a graphic using the Insert Graphic dialogue, click on the drop-down arrow next to the Insert button and select Link to File.

most of my colleagues are not very computer or graphics savvy
Not an excuse. If they can muddle through Publisher they can figure out any other graphics program. As a matter of fact, they will likely find anything easier than Publisher because it is 100% anti-intuitive.
posted by lekvar at 12:35 PM on April 12, 2007

Also:
Always use the Pack and Go feature. Always make sure that the fonts and graphics are collected when you use the Pack and Go feature.
posted by lekvar at 12:39 PM on April 12, 2007

Also also:
For greater color consistency, select colors using the Custom tab in the color picker rather than the Standard tab. In the Custom tab you can choose between CMYK colors and Pantone colors. Using Pantone colors will keep the CMYK values and colors precise, no matter what program you're using. Any program that has any graphics capabilities will support Pantone colors, and they are defined by the Pantone company, so they will all conform to the same CMYK blend.
posted by lekvar at 12:52 PM on April 12, 2007

Response by poster:
Radioamy...
Email me through my website (in my profile) and I can fix you up with a vector version of your logo. No problems.

I have the original EPS, and I understand the concept of vector files, but I don't really know how to manipulate Illustrator. Can I save jpegs and gifs and such from Illustrator?
posted by radioamy at 2:19 PM on April 12, 2007

Can I save jpegs and gifs and such from Illustrator?
Absolutely.
For jpeg or any other raster format (except gif), you can go File>Export... and select from the drop-down list of file formats. You should have the art sized to the dimensions you need, and either a) the artboard sized to just fit the art, or b) crop marks set to just include the art.
If you are saving for print, though, you really should save as a tiff.

If you really want a gif (or other web-based file formats) you can go File>Save for Web... There you will go to the Save for Web work area where you can select your web file format and adjust all sorts of parameters. Understand, though, that if you go down that route, any images you save will be at screen resolution (72ppi)
posted by Thorzdad at 2:28 PM on April 12, 2007

Vector -> Raster = happy designer
Raster -> Vector = sad designer
posted by lekvar at 2:33 PM on April 12, 2007

You can use GIF format for what you describe; just save the image at a very large size, then your users will shrink it down in their Publisher documents - it will have a higher resolution at the smaller size. If they'll be using it at 1 inch by 1 inch, for example, and you want 600 dpi, just calculate how many dots that would be at the target size (600 x 600) and make your GIF that size - 600 x 600 pixels. If they'll be using it at a larger size, adapat up.

Also, given the link you provided (solid red and solid blue on a white background), it should be passable at 16 colors - 256 will be plenty.

But TIF would be more standard, if Publisher will support it -- though the file will probably be larger. Vector format would be the best, as others have handily pointed out. I just wanted to set the record straight about the humble GIF.
posted by amtho at 4:00 PM on April 12, 2007

amtho- the gif format only supports Index Color, not RGB or CMYK. While your work-around is fine for the effective resolution, you'll still be stuck with suck color. The gif has reason to be humble.
posted by lekvar at 4:37 PM on April 12, 2007

As far as I know, indexed color would be fine for a two (or three) color design like the OP's logo.
posted by amtho at 6:28 AM on April 13, 2007

Not when going to to print. They're fine for web, but gifs print like ass, especially when coupled with Publisher. I just spent a week wrangling a Publisher file that had embedded gifs up one side and down the other. Admittedly, the file was going to our 5-color 28" Heidelberg, but every proof I ran off our Xerox DocuColor gave poor color results. The problem is that you're forcing an image that was created in a color space that is capable of handling millions of colors down to a color space that's only capable of 256, and that's only if the gif has been optimized properly. Most often they're 32 or 16 colors, in my experience. When you reduce the color space that drastically you're forcing Photoshop to make some fairly drastic decisions during the translation.

If the OP is looking to have the final results be as good as possible, and she has access to a non-gif file, then she should be using them rather than the gif. Can a gif print? Yes. Can a gif print as well as an eps or tif without going to ridiculous lengths? No. For the amount of effort a designer would have to expend in order to get satisfactory results from a gif they're really better off just recreating it in a more print-ready format.
posted by lekvar at 2:23 PM on April 13, 2007