Why Electronic Art Submission With Accepted Manuscripts Has So Many Restrictions

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press makes every effort to use the electronic files from the authors. We are well equipped and trained with many of the graphics software programs that are used in the scientific community. Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, and Freehand are the main "true" graphics programs that all publishers and printing industries support. The file formats from these programs are universal and can easily be read by high-end imagesetters. Canvas, Corel Draw, Powerpoint, Harvard Graphics, and SuperPaint are typical graphics programs that excel at creating visual presentations, slides, and overheads. They may print well to a laser printer and look great on the computer screen (from within their own application format), but they do not always export in file formats that can be printed through high-end imagesetters.

The printer uses the electronic files to output film off of their high-end imagesetters. Graphics created from Canvas, for example, can sometimes lose text or the screens may fill in as solids when outputting film from these high-end imagesetters. Canvas does not actually create screens, as Illustrator and Photoshop do. Canvas creates patterns to simulate screens and this can cause problems on press. Also, printers print in CMYK. Most authors submit their files in RGB. When we convert these files to printing industry standards, the colors often change completely. This is why it is very important for the artwork to be created as CMYK and for us to have a printout of your artwork. A good quality print is preferable, because we will be able to make sure that the color and data have not changed. Also, in the event that we cannot use your file, we will be able to scan from this print.

We understand the frustration authors have when publishers say they cannot use their files when everything looks fine on the computer screen and prints well to the laser printer. Please understand that publishers want to use the files, but these files MUST comply with printing industry standards. The problem arises when we have to take these files and transfer them into a file format that a printer can use. Illustrator, Photoshop, and Freehand support the printing industry standards. We hope the other graphics programs will eventually support printing industry standards as well.

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