SpecleSpeak

New Notes pages on Specle

Sometime's in life the simplest things are often the most awesome. This week we have introduced "Notes" pages. This is like a blank canvas where publishers can but a lot of text that does not have to be right in front of people on every ad spec page. Putting bulky information into a notes page can do a lot to clean up your ad specifications pages. 

Publishers can add a Notes page by clicking the "Add Note Page" button where you would add publications:

Publishers can then enter any amount of text they like - with styling information - as The Guardian has done here.

Specle uses the Textile markup language to style plain text into proper web pages. Its a little bit geeky but it does wonders with plain text with no knowledge of HTML.

Once you've created a Notes page, click save, and you will now have a URL that you can include in your other ad specifications. Your new notes page appears from your company page like so:

 

To host all your ad specifications on Specle like Guardian has, please click here to register. Its free!

You should check out these new features on Specle

We have been listening to your feedback, and we have been hard at work developing the Specle site behind the scenes.

Today we have introduced a number of new features to improve the usefulness and usability of specle.net.

Search

• Search results are nicer - no more publisher / publication separation
• Publisher titles are returned when you search for a publisher. e.g. Searching for "bbc" returns all BBC Worldwide & BBC Bristol titles
• New search box on the top right of every page. Search for another publication right from the ad spec of another. Saves you going back to the front page to search

 

Ad Specs

• New "Preparing Files" section to draw attention to how files should be exported to publication requirements
• New "Notes" section separates publisher notes from how to prepare files
• PDF Standard has been replaced with a summary of the specification
• Summary shows PDF/X version to export files to, what resolution images should be created to, and the minimum text size recommended by the publisher
• Summary also links to the standard body where you can find the full details of how to prepare files

 

Colour 

• Magazine Publishers can now specify both a Cover profile (for ads that appear on the cover of a magazine) and Text profiles for ads that appear in the main content
• The characterisation reference (e.g. FOGRA39L) is now displayed next to the name of the ICC profile to allow agencies to better set up proofing equipment
• The user is now told to "Convert to CMYK using these settings:" 

 

Publisher Changes 

• There are a number of new fields that will be rolled out in this release. We have rolled these out before the users can see them to allow publishers to enter all information required 
• PDF Standard, ICC Profile, and publication type are now mandatory
• You will now be able to set the "binding" for magazines - saddle stitch or perfect bound. This will be shown in the future to indicate how users should prepare double page ads
• Delivery address - the address you want proofs delivered to - defaults to company address but can be set on a publication by publication basis
• A "don't send proofs" check box to allow you to specify agencies / advertisers should not send you proofs ( this will just be used to prevent people putting proofs in envelopes and couriering to you if you don't use the proofs that are sent to you)
• Delivery Methods - We will have a new page on Specle to show the delivery methods you support. Set this against your company to change all publications to be the same. You can then override on a publication by publication basis if you have individual emails for example
• You will now be able to see the characterisation reference against profiles as you select them from the popups
• Magazine publishers can now set cover profiles
• Ability to override ink weight against profiles. This should be used in rare cases and should only be set to indicate to non-ICC users how to separate images.
• Our data team will be in contact shortly to gather all new information 

If you have any questions about these new features or just want to get in touch, please contact us at support@specle.net or call us on +44 (0)207 775 7768