Discovery Islander
Submission Guidelines
Thank you for your interest in submitting material to the Discovery Islander. To assist us in successfully publishing your submission please read and follow these suggested guidelines.
We welcome clearly-handwritten material dropped off or mailed to our office or at Inspirations in Quathiaski Cove.
It is our preference to receive submissions by email. We can also receive electronic files by email attachment but simply sending in the body of an email message is preferred. A file storage device like a FlashDrive, CF or SD card etc works too but email is best.
Word Count - Please keep letters and press releases under 350 words, 250 words or less if you plan on submitting a photo. Consider including a 50 word 'Community Announcement' that can be used if space is limited.
For feature articles please contact us before submitting, or better yet before you start writing to be sure your topic is suitable for publication. A typical word count for a feature article is 750-1,100 words. We rarely publish articles longer so please be concise with your wordcraft. Avoid duplication and keep on point.
Press Releases & Other Editorial Text - If you are submitting material by email and it is only text, there is no need to use a separate attachment. Simply send the content in the body of the email message. Photo files still need to be attached. If you do need to send a word processor file it must be in a format we can open and use. Generally we are able to use any version of MS Word for either Windows or Mac. If you are familar with using the "Save As" option in Word or WordPerfect and choosing an alternative file format, then saving to a .rtf (Rich Text Format) or .txt (plain text) will guarantee we can read the file. We prefer to not receive letters and text in pdf files. Just put the text in the body of an email message. Keep it simple.
We cannot use the following file types under any circumstance: PrintShop, MS Publisher, WordPerfect, Lotus WordPro or any Lotus software for that matter. Please note that a scanned file is not the same as the electronic text. Please do not send a scanned file. Type up your item and send the text in the body of an email message instead.
Photos - The most important thing to understand with digital photos files is that the file size is directly related to the resolution and the number of pixels in the image, and that it is vital to ensure there is adequate data for sharp print reproduction. Rather than be concerned about resolution and pixels, just check the size of the file to ensure it is suitable to submit. A colour jpeg file between 1 and 3 MB (megabytes) will be ample for our use. If it's going to be a candidate for a cover photo it will need to be between 4 and 7 MB.
We prefer to receive colour photo files (we use colour pictures online and have special tecniques to make a black and white version print at its best). If in doubt just send the original file from the camera without any editing.
As for file formats please use the following file types for photographs in order of preference: .jpg, .png .tif, .bmp, .dng or .eps. Please don't send RAW, .gif or Windows metafiles and do not import/insert graphics into a Word document and then send the Word file. We need graphics in a graphic file format Word is not a graphics file format. Keep text and graphics as seperate files. For RAW digital photo files we recommend converting to Adobe™ Digital Negative Format (.dng) but regardless a .jpg or .png file is best.
Graphics Professionals - Please submit digital artwork for display advertisements as grayscale pdf, .ai or ,eps files between 200-300 dpi. Welcome to submit rgb versions of ad for internet editions but print edition is grayscale only. Submit as email attachments under 10 MB or use a file sharing platform like DropBox etc for larger files.
