Stamp Proofs With Your Own Brand [Creativepro.com]

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October 29, 2007

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Git Along, Li'l PDF: How to Stamp Proofs withYour Own Brand Acrobat's Stamp tool can prevent a lot of confusion if you use it for things like explaining Lorem Ipsumplaceholder text and FPO images on client proofs. Butrather than settling for Acrobat's generic stamps, youcan create your own. Yeehaw! (creativepro.com)By Pariah S. Burke, Quark VS InDesign.com Wednesday, October 17, 2007

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Can you look over your clients' shoulders as they review proofsfrom you? Doubtful. Most of us work with remote clients at

least once in a while, if not regularly. These days evenin-house designers more often distribute PDF proofs by e-mailthan paper proofs by sneaker-net. While digital delivery isspeedy and convenient, it does open the door to potentialconfusion.

For example, I was about to send an early proof to a newclient when I realized he might not understand my use of forposition only (FPO) photos and Lorem Ipsum placeholder text.It's happened before -- another client once screamed at methat his brochure "should be in English, not Latin -- an[expletive] dead language."

With this new client, a national retail chain that will send myproof to a dozen departments, managers, and executives, asimilar misunderstanding might arise. Yet without the layout'sactual copy (still with the copywriter) and imagery (beingshot), I'm stuck. While I can try to explain in the e-mailaccompanying the PDF exactly how rough the proof is, mywarning may not travel as far as the PDF proof. I'd likesomething inside the proof itself.

To solve this problem, I used Acrobat's stamps (Figure 1).

F ig u r e 1 . This easy-to-apply stamp will help my client

understand the state of his PDF proofs.

Start In InDesignNormally I'd create vector artwork like this in Illustrator, butsome people aren't comfortable with drawing applications. For

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those of you who'd rather stick with a page-layout app, I'llquickly explain how to create the stamps in InDesign.1. Create a new document in InDesign. If you already knowthe dimensions the stamp should be, set the page size tomatch in the New Document dialog. I'm not quite sure how bigmine will wind up, so I'll begin with a one-page, non-facingdocument of 3 inches wide by 2 inches deep. If the final size of the artwork is a little different, it won't be difficult to fix; justtry to err on the side of a stamp the same size or smaller thanthe page rather than one larger than the page.

2. Your stamp may be your logo, a copyright notice, yoursignature, or just about anything else. Whatever you choose,it's unlikely you'll want a stamp exactly like mine, so I'll skipthe creation step-by-step and leave you to design your own. If you do want a proof label like mine, feel free to steal it (Figure2).

F ig u r e 2 . My stamp in InDesign.

3. Is your final design the same size as the InDesign page onwhich it sits? If not, copy the design and paste it into a newdocument with a page sized to fit exactly.

4. When you're ready, export the stamp to PDF. Select File >Export, and in the Export dialog, set the Save As Type toAdobe PDF. Name the file and click Save. Set your options inthe Export Adobe PDF dialog when it appears -- I usually gowith the default High Quality Print for stamps -- and then clickExport. The resulting PDF will be the same size as theInDesign page.

Finish in AcrobatWith the artwork done, let's turn it into a stamp that can beapplied to any PDF, any time.

5. Open Acrobat. It isn't necessary to open the PDF you justcreated.

6. In Acrobat 6 Professional, choose Tools > Commenting >Stamp Tool > Create Custom Stamp. In Acrobat 7 Professionaland Acrobat 8 Professional, choose Tools > Comment & Markup > Stamps > Create Custom Stamp.

When the Select Image for Custom Stamp dialog appears, clickthe Browse button and locate the PDF you exported fromInDesign. Click OK and the Create Custom Stamp dialogappears (Figure 3).


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F ig u r e 3 . The Create Custom Stamp dialog in Acrobat 8Professional is where you name and categorize your new stamp.

7. In the Create Custom Stamp dialog, proof the image on theleft. If it isn't correct, click Select Image for Custom Stamp to

return to the previous dialog box. Select the appropriatecategory from the dropdown list on the right or type in a newcategory name as I did. Finally, in the Name field, enter a titlefor your stamp.

8. After you click OK, the process of creating the customstamp is finished.

Apply the Stamp AnywhereApplying the stamp is very easy. Open the PDF file that needsthe stamp. On the Commenting toolbar (Acrobat 6) orComment & Markup toolbar (Acrobat 7 and 8), click thedropdown arrow beside the Stamp tool (Figure 4). Navigate tothe correct folder, then the correct stamp. The stamp willimmediately load up onto the cursor; click to drop it. To applythe same stamp again, just click the Stamp tool button (notthe menu beside it), which will automatically reuse the lastselected stamp.

F ig u r e 4 . Selecting the custom stamp in Acrobat 8Professional. Click on image for larger version.

Once the stamp is on the page it can be moved, resized, evenrotated for the perfect fit. To delete a stamp applied to thepage, right-click (Control-click on a single-button Mac mouse)on the stamp with the Stamp, Hand, or Select tool and chooseDelete from the context-sensitive popup menu.

More Fun with StampsAfter the first "Rough Proof" stamp, I was inspired to make

more. I made two more versions of the first -- one thatmentioned only FPO text, another that mentioned only FPOimages. Then I made stamps for other types and stages of PDFproofs I typically send to clients -- copy proof, final proof, andso on. In fact, in the final proof stamps, I added instructionsand line blanks for signatures, prompting my clients to sign off on a design directly on the proof page before faxing it back to


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Stamp Proofs With Your Own Brand [Creativepro.com]