Guide to Producing Successful Communications Products: Supplement to the Federal Highway Administration Turner-Fairbank Highway Research Center R&D Communication Reference Guide

CHAPTER 10. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE PROCESS/REVIEW

Chapters 7–9 described the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) approval processes for Office of Operations (HOP) products. When the last step in the approval chain—the Office of Public Affairs (HPA)—has approved the product, the HOP Project Manager (PM) can begin overseeing the public release of the product. This chapter describes the U.S. Government Publishing Office (GPO) (formerly known as U.S. Government Printing Office) package process. Appendix G gives an overview of the average timeframes for HOP, Office of the Chief Counsel, and HPA approval processes and the printing and Web posting tasks so that the HOP PM can incorporate these review periods into their deliverables schedules.

U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE PACKAGE PROCESS

Once HPA signs off on Form FHWA-1528, the HOP PM will notify the Contractor to start the GPO package process. All FHWA printing is required to go through GPO. Contractors are allowed to print up to ten copies of the final deliverable accepted by FHWA, which includes the samples that are attached to the GPO package. The Contractor will send the GPO package to the HOP PM, who will forward the GPO package to the Information Specialist (Specialist) for review.

The GPO package should consist of the following deliverables:

• Two (2) GPO-ready CDs or DVDs or other acceptable media to be determined and agreed upon prior to contract ratification. The Contractor should not supply the publication in a zip file format nor send it in an e-mail. Both of these formats sometimes have corrupted and missing files. The CDs or DVDs should not contain zip formats.
• Two (2) sample paper copies of the document.
• Completed GPO Form 952 (U.S. Printing Office Desktop Publishing Disk Information).

The CDs or DVDs will include all necessary files for producing the printed document, and be accompanied by the standard GPO Form 952, Desktop Publishing – Disk Information.

The Contractor will provide explicit instructions and all needed files and information with the final deliverables (printer's dummy (an actual mock-up of the product consisting of the type of paper and the actual digital artwork)) and printers' disks. If the Contractor fails to do so, the printing process will be delayed until FHWA receives corrected files or information from the Contractor. The FHWA is not responsible for any additional costs that may be incurred as a result of missing or incomplete information provided by the Contractor.

The product will follow the GPO Guidelines: Best Practices for Submitting Electronic Design Prepress Files, (https://www.gpo.gov/pdfs/customers/GPO_publishing_guidelines.pdf)⁷

The FHWA Office of Information and Management Services' Publishing and Visual Communications Office support only Adobe InDesign for print job purposes. It will not permit Quark Express, Microsoft Publisher, or any other layout/design software for final print jobs.

Print publications graphics should not be embedded or inserted in the design software (e.g., Adobe InDesign). All graphic elements must be linked from a separate "links" (or other suitably named) folder (i.e., the graphic will be pulled into the Adobe InDesign format by linking to the source of the graphic.) The product will be rejected if not set up correctly in Adobe InDesign format.

The Contractor should always set up full-color publications in CMYK (four-color process – Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black (K)) and never use a Red, Green, and Blue (RGB) process.

Photographs and other graphic elements must be a minimum of 300 dpi for standard print jobs. Photos and other raster images (a set of horizontal lines composed of individual pixels) may only be displayed in a publication at the same size (or smaller) than the physical size of the element, because enlarging raster images will cause aesthetically degrading pixilation.

Sources of Copyrighted Materials

Copyrighted materials (such as graphics, images, screen shots, maps, charts, tables, etc.) will have a source citation and may not be reproduced without written permission from the actual source. The Contractor should provide the paperwork with the GPO package. (Refer to the United States Copyright Office "How to Obtain Permission," https://www.copyright.gov/circs/m10.pdf, for more information.) The paperwork should be included with the GPO files if applicable and the Section 508-HTML files.

U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE PACKAGE REVIEW

The Specialist will review the GPO package to make sure the package is complete. The review process can take up to 10 Federal business days.