The program book for Further Confusion 2010 will be US letter size (8 1/2" wide by 11" tall) and will be full four-color (CMYK, or cyan, magenta, yellow, and black) throughout. Page count will be announced when it is decided. The final deadline for submissions is 1 October 2009, to allow time for final lay-out, executive approval, press check, and correction of any problems or errors that arise during printing.
Illustrations, short fiction, articles, poems, and advertisements are welcome! All submissions must fit the overall theme of Further Confusion by featuring primarily therianthropic or anthropomorphic characters and should fit the 2010 theme of "California Gold Rush". They must not contain explicit sex or violence and should limit rough language; in short, they should be suitable for teens and older. Artwork may be black-and-white, grayscale, or four-color (CMYK), but should not be RGB. Not every submission will be published, in part because available page count is limited. Please e-mail before sending submissions to make appropriate arrangements for transferring files.
A text submission should not exceed five pages in length. An illustration or advertisement must be one of the standard sizes listed below. Any artwork that does not fit one of the standard sizes may be rejected with a request for new art that does.
|
Live area is the area within which all critical information must appear, such as text and important image elements.
Trim is the actual size of the page.
Bleed is the required size for artwork that is intended to extend all the way to the edge of the page. Because trimming, the process of cutting pages to size, is an inexact high-speed mechanical process, the actual edge of a page may vary by as much as a sixteenth of an inch from the intended edge. Artwork that is exactly the trim size would show white edges where the trimming process falls outside the intended trim line. To prevent this, a bleed of one-eighth inch is added to all sides of the art, making it slightly larger than the page, so that there is still image out to the edge of the page no matter where the trimming falls. If art that extends to the edge of the page does not allow for a bleed, the art will be rejected or altered as needed to include a bleed.
Ad rate is the fee an advertiser must pay to place an advertisement in the program book, unless another arrangement, such as a trade in kind, is made with Further Confusion or Anthropomorphic Arts and Education.
Templates for the most popular graphic design applications, covering all the standard sizes listed, are available for download and use.
Please name all submitted files clearly and distinctively so they are easy to identify. For example, an advertisement for a convention might use the name of the con in the file name, such as "my-con-01.eps". Remember to include the file extension, which identifies the type and format of file; in the previous example, ".eps" is the file extension.
Certain types of files are better suited than others for high-end print publishing. PDF (Portable Document Format) is a popular choice, but please be cautious! A PDF file that is not checked carefully before it is sent can pose problems on press. The file may contain spot colors or a mixture of RGB and CMYK color, or, if fonts are not embedded in the PDF file, there may be difficulties with missing fonts. Past experience has shown that any of these issues can cause significant printing errors.
Bit-map images made up of pixels, produced through scanning, paint programs, or Adobe Photoshop, should be submitted as TIFF (.tif) files. Other acceptable file formats include PSD (Photoshop native format) or PDF. Please do not send JPEG (.jpg), GIF, PNG, BMP, or Targa files, as these are unsuitable for print. For other file formats, please e-mail before sending files to make certain their formats are acceptable.
Be sure to flatten layered images before sending them, and convert RGB images to CMYK. Do not use alpha channels. If file size is large, LZW compression may be used to reduce it. JPEG compression is not recommended, because it severely compromises image quality.
All bit-map images must be high resolution; low-resolution images, such as those used on Web pages, will look glaringly fuzzy or blocky in print. CMYK images must be at least 300 ppi (pixels per inch). Grayscale images must be at least 300 ppi, and should be at least 400 ppi. Black-and-white images (in which each pixel is either completely black or completely white, not a shade of gray) must be at least 600 ppi.
Vector images made up of lines and shapes, produced through drawing and drafting programs such as Adobe Illustrator, should be submitted as EPS files. Other acceptable file formats include AI (Adobe Illustrator native format) or PDF. For other file formats, please e-mail before sending files to make certain their formats are acceptable.
Please convert all type to outlines (in Illustrator, Type menu:Create Outlines); this prevents problems with missing fonts when laying out the program book and when printing it. Using the "Clean Up" command (in Illustrator, Object menu:Path:Clean Up) eliminates stray points, text boxes, and other clutter. When embedding bit-map images, be sure they meet minimum standards for resolution (listed above) and are not RGB. Do not use RGB color for vector items either.
Text, produced through word-processor programs such as Microsoft Word or text-editing programs such as Notepad, should be submitted as RTF files or, if there is no special formatting such as italics or boldface, TXT files. Other acceptable file formats include DOC (Microsoft Word native format) or PDF. For other file formats, please e-mail before sending files to make certain their formats are acceptable.
To present a uniform look and feel, all text submissions will be laid out using the program book's standard template. Aside from advertisements, no other lay-out will be used for text submissions. Poetry may demand specific spacing and line wraps; the published lay-out will adhere to these specifics as closely as the template allows.
Advertisements combining text and images in full-fledged graphic design should be submitted as EPS files or as native Adobe Illustrator, Adobe In Design, or Quark XPress files. If that is not possible, PDF files may be sent, provided they have been checked thoroughly for font or color problems. For other file formats, please e-mail before sending files to make certain their formats are acceptable.
Consider converting all types to outlines; this prevents problems with missing fonts when laying out the program book and when printing it. Check for and delete any stray points, text boxes, and other clutter. When embedding bit-map images, be sure they meet minimum standards for resolution (listed above) and are not RGB. Do not use RGB color for type or vector items either. Please do not send text submissions, such as fiction, articles, or poetry, as full lay-outs; the text will be stripped from these lay-outs and placed in the program book's standard template.
