AFR MAGAZINE
AFR Magazine specifications
The Australian Financial Review Magazine is Australia’s pre-eminent monthly inserted magazine delivering the highest quality content with a focus on exclusive news, breaking features, profiles in business and politics and an unparalleled reputation for combining gravitas and glamour coverage of fashion, luxury and lifestyle.
Mechanical Specifications
Page Specifications
- Measurements are given in millimetres and are as height x width.
- All live copy must be kept within the type area; this includes all text, image, keylines and keycodes.
- Type Area Only specs on broken space ads are designed to sit within the Type area of the whole page.
- Broken space ads that bleed are designed to centre the type area within the ad space.
- For type area across the gutter, please allow minimum of 3mm clearance on each side of the spine.
- Perfect-bound issues require a wider gutter. Please allow a minimum of 6mm clearance on each side of the spine.
- Do no use fine borders around the edge of a bleed advert. We cannot guarantee the absolute accuracy of trimming due to the nature of web offset printing processes.
- Mechanical specifications are subject to change without notice. Please confirm with production.
| Size | Type Area (mm) | Trim Size (mm) | Bleed Area (mm) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Page Specifications | |||
| Full Page | 310 x 250 | 330 x 270 | 340 x 280 |
| 1/2 horizontal with bleed | 144 x 250 | 164 x 270 | 174 x 280 |
| 1/2 page vertical with bleed | 310 x 113 | 330 x 133 | 340 x 143 |
| Junior with bleed | 191 x 134 | 211 x x154 | 221 x 164 |
| 1/4 page with bleed | 144 x 113 | 164 x 133 | 174 x 143 |
| 1/3 horizontal with bleed | 92 x 250 | 112 x 270 | 122 x 280 |
| 1/3 vertical with bleed | 310 x 71 | 330 x 91 | 340 x 101 |
| Spreads | |||
| Double page spread | 310 x 520 | 330 x 540 | 340 x 550 |
| 1/2 page spread with bleed | 144 x 520 | 164 x 540 | 174 x 550 |
| 1/3 page spread with bleed | 92 x 520 | 112 x 540 | 122 x 550 |
For Strip of Quarter Horizontal sizes click the pdf below:
- FRG Magazine Sizes (PDF)
Delivery Channels
Please refer to the Delivery Methods document.
The AFR Magazine only accepts material that is submitted via Quickcut or Websend. All advertisements submitted will be converted to PDF files using the guidelines created by 3DAP. These guidelines are published at the web site 3dap.com.au For more information, please contact Quickcut on 1800 230 302; quickcut.com.au or Websend on 1300 798 949; websend.com.au
The delivery and receipt of advertising material via Quickcut and Websend is an automated workflow. As a result material instructions are not able to be viewed and should be communicated to your sales contact. Advertising Production will output a positional proof to ensure it resembles the supplied client proof. Our team of Imaging specialists are also on hand to check the colour within the files, and to ensure that the reproduction of the supplied creative will be to the expectation of the client proof.
Booking number
There are a number of mandatory fields that must be entered prior to acceptance of your ad by Quickcut. One of these fields is the booking number. Please contact your Sales team or Advertising Production to obtain the booking number for your creative.
Storage & repeats
Please do not send ads more than 4 days prior to the advertising delivery deadline. Fairfax will store digitally supplied material for a period of three months. Repeat ads may be co-ordinated with Advertising Co-ordinator using the booking number relevant to the required publish date, however, it is advisable to resend the advertising material for each schedule to ensure that you run the material you require.
PDF Creation
Please refer to the FRG pdf instructions document for instructions and downloads.
Print Specifications
Iso Category Paper Type 1
Process Computer to Plate. Four colour process
Screen ruling: 133lpi
Dot structure: Round
Screen angles: Cyan 15 degrees
Magenta 45 degrees
Yellow 90 degrees
Black 75 degrees
Print Sequence: Black, Cyan, Magenta, Yellow
Proofs
Proofs should provide an accurate representation of the intended print result and are necessary for us to ensure colour accuracy on press. For this reason, Fairfax will only accept 3DAP v.3.0 compliant proofs. If you choose not to supply a digital proof, Fairfax cannot be held responsible if the printed result varies from what the client has approved. To produce adequate digital proofs we require 3DAP approved digital proofs (see www.3dap.com.au)
Colour Guidelines
Spot Colour
This is achieved by using the four colour printing process (i.e. PMS colours must be broken down into CMYK process).
Process Colour
Colour specified in percentages of cyan, magenta, yellow and black.
Dot Gain
Dot gain is not a fault of web offset printing, but rather a characteristic. The dot gain can to some extent be accommodated in production but there are some things, outlined below, that can help.
All material should compensate for dot gain of up to 15-20% in the 50% dot area. Ensure midtones are lighter and have more contrast to compensate for the above dot gain.
Highlights can also muddy if there is a black dot visible, which will also gain on press. The first printing highlights should be:
| C | M | Y | K | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| First printing highlight | 3% | 2% | 2% | 0% |
| Midtones | Allow for up to 15-20% dot gain | |||
| Shadow | Range from 280-340% for cover stock | |||
Grey Balance
Maintaining Grey balance throughout the separation is extremely important for quality four-colour reproduction.
Separations without neutral Grey’s will reproduce with perceivable colour casts on press. As a general rule for magazine reproduction, Grey balance requires slightly more cyan relative to less amounts of magenta to yellow.
Four Colour Mono Images
Four colour mono images have a tendency to reproduce with colour and tonal shifts and often the result differs to the original proof. We suggest using an achromatic, or GCR, set-up. Increasing the use of black and reducing the other three colours will result in a more neutral image that will reduce the risk of tonal and colour shifts on press.
Total Saturation
The total saturation for process colour material should range from 280-300%. This helps compensate for dot gain and allows for maximum shadow detail with minimum ink set-off.
Saturation exceeding 300% will not result in darker shadows on magazine stock. It simply leads to excessive set-off and causes shadow areas to plug; thus reducing printed shadow detail.
Any single colour not intended to print solid should not exceed 80%. We recommend that large areas of black be at least two colour (100% black, 60% cyan) or four colours.
Typefaces
San serif typefaces are the best choice for reproduction. They reproduce easily with desired readability. Typefaces with thin or delicate serifs and strokes should be avoided. Extremely fine strokes can drop out, while thick strokes can plug on the press.
Because of the ink and stock relationship, small type tends to lose definition on the press. Coloured type or solid backgrounds can print using a single colour at 100%. Should a second or third colour be required, these extra colours should be limited to 95%, keeping within the total ink limit of 300%. This will allow the ink to trap on the press and result in a consistent and balanced printing.
For legibility reasons, consideration should be given when attempting to reproduce type as a light screen tint. For best results, avoid screening type styles with a fine to medium weight and those with serifs.
For optimum results it is suggested that type not overprint a background screen (tint or ghosted image) greater than 30% visual density. This allows for dot gain and provides necessary contrast between text matter and the background image.
Typefaces in reverse
- Typefaces in four colours should be sans serif and bold, no smaller than 10pt.
- Type with serifs or screens, reversed out of a four colour image or colour, should be 10pt or greater in size, otherwise the material will not be accepted. This allows for slight variances in register while maximizing legibility.
- Any reverse type should be limited to two colours maximum. For contrast and readability, reverse type should not be positioned within screened areas less than 50%, or in yellow or other light coloured backgrounds.
Line Art
- Minimum width 0.125mm (0.005 inch) with a maximum of two colours overprinting.
- Avoid line art less than 1 pt.
Lead Times
The Australian Financial Review magazine is published on the last Friday of the month. Advertising material is due on Wednesday, 3 weeks prior to publication date. Material received after deadline is automatically viewed as out of specification
Revision: 7.14**FRG
Disclaimer: Whilst internal production processes may verify that material is within specifications the onus is firmly on the tradehouse to supply material within specification. It is also a requirement of our specifications that advertising material be delivered on time so quality checking procedures can take place. Late material is liable to incur additional production costs. Fairfax Media reserves the right to refuse any material that does not meet our specifications
