We want your experience with our team to be as seamless and trouble free as possible. If you encounter problems or have questions, don’t hesitate to reach out to us by phone or by filling out the form on our Contact page. Below we have included some resources that might assist you in various scenarios. We hope you find them helpful.
On-Site Help
Payment Options
Find out what payment options are available.
Job Submission Guidelines
Whether you are submitting a napkin sketch or a completed layout, we have suggestions to help streamline the process of getting your job into production.
Cover Design Guidelines
Covers should be designed differently depending on binding type. Following our guidelines will make for a smoother experience.
Understanding Bleed
How to add bleed to your document can be confusing. Discover what it is, why we need it, and how to add it.
Spine Width Calculator
User our handy online spine width calculator to calculate spine width for your book.
Upload a File
If your file is too large to email, you can upload it to our web site.
Off-Site Resources
ISBN Agency
Go here if you're needing to purchase one or more ISBNs for your book(s).
Chicago Manual of Style
The online Chicago Manual of Style is the place to go if you need help copy-editing your text.
Christian Writer's Manual of Style
This is an Amazon link to a style manual dedicated to Christian writers and their unique needs. It's what we use in house. An amazing resource!
Online Capitalization Tool
This amazing online tool will let you know which words in your title get capitalized and which don't. Just type or paste your title in and it will do the rest!
Online Hyphenation Tool
Many word processors and text layout programs have built-in hyphenation, but if you want to do it manually for some reason, this is a great online resource to show where words hyphenate if you are unsure.
Frequently Asked Questions
You may fill out our online quote request form, send us an email with as much information about your job as possible, or simply call our office. The more information you can give us about the job, the better.
Everything depends on what type of job it is and the quantity. Our normal turnaround time for most jobs is 5 – 10 working days from the time we have final approval from you. But we can do same-day turnaround on some jobs, while others may take longer due to complexity or other factors. Let us know your deadline and we will let you know if it can be done. We do our best to deliver your job on time.
We use the latest color calibration techniques for both our digital printer and our offset presses, ensuring that what is printed closely matches the color information in the file. However, how well this matches what you see on your monitor depends on a number of variables. If you have a good quality monitor that is adjusted for optimal color and clarity according to the manufacturer’s recommendations (as outlined within its product manual or website), this greatly increases the chances of a good match between what you see on your monitor and what gets printed. If you are using a color calibration tool, let us know and we will work with you to get the best results. If you are considering investing in such a tool, talk to us first; we’ll be glad to offer our advice.
If you submitted your job as a print-ready file the first time, there will usually not be a discount for a reprint because the same set-up costs apply each time.
If you did not submit a print-ready file the first time, and we helped with design work or other tasks, you will not be charged a second time for the completed design if requesting an exact reprint.
The answer is “No” in 99% of cases. If your page layout software offers to include bleed marks, trim marks, registration marks, and color/density bars, please do not include them. Our prepress software will add all necessary marks as a final stage before printing. If you include them, we will almost always remove them/ignore them. Thank you for your understanding.
The best format is a print-quality PDF, as this is the format our pre-press systems use. If your software has the capability to create PDFs to the PDF/X-1a:2001 standard, we strongly recommend using that setting for best results. See our Job Submission Guidelines page for more information.
If we are doing design work for you, or if you are sending a completed design that is not in print-ready PDF format, we will send you PDF proofs for approval before proceeding to production.
If you are submitting a print-ready PDF that you approve at the time of submission, that PDF is your proof.
In most cases we can also print hardcopy proofs and ship them out to you if you wish. This may incur a charge, so please ask us about your options.
It is critical that you examine your proofs carefully before giving final approval. Once final approval is given, your job will go into production and any mistakes visible in the final, approved proof will be considered your mistakes and not the responsibility of Country Pines.
For best results, your photos and graphics should be saved at 300 dpi or more. Pictures downloaded from the internet are usually low resolution and will not look sharp when printed. If you are sending a picture taken on your smartphone, be sure to send the picture in it’s original form if possible. Many of the editing functions on a smartphone will reduce the quality of the image. If we notice, when reviewing your files, that images are low resolution, we will usually warn you that these might not reproduce well. An image can look good on a computer monitor but look fuzzy when printed. Image resolution is important.
The answer is almost always, “No.” 99% of the time we want your job in single pages–one page per spread. Sending your book in “reader spreads,” for example, actually causes more work for us as we have to break these apart. Our prepress software does all the imposition automatically and very efficiently. Sending us your business card 8-up on an 8.5″ X 11″ sheet is usually counter-productive. Sending your job in single-page format makes life easier for you and us. We appreciate your cooperation.