 Introduction:
In the current world of digitization, printing/publishing books and magazines has become increasingly popular. Most people prefer online applications for designing and creating books and/or magazines over the traditional methods. In this article, you will learn about certain guidelines to be followed while QA testing such applications.
Testing approach:
Agile is the preferred methodology since it is easy to demonstrate the product after each milestone to the customer.
What to test: We should focus on the core functionality of our application, i.e., text and layout of our book or magazine. While performing QA testing for print & publishing online application, we must check a few things related to printing guidelines for a successful operational application:
Master Page: A master page is the guide for the whole document; we should thoroughly check whatever we mention on this page is reflected throughout the document.
Number of pages: Page count while creation should remain same after editing the document, unless it has been changed manually by the administrator.
Text: Text should also be checked for various other features, like: drop caps, text styling and copy-pasting text along with all available keyboard shortcuts for text editing and manipulation.
Fonts: We should check the applicability of various fonts on a document. On Windows platform, we can use any font for document creation, but for Macintosh platform, the most efficient way is to use postscript fonts or provide pdf files of our document before final print job.
Page size: The page size in the document should be selected as per the final trim size for that document otherwise you may lose some content after final print job.
Color: Colors should be selected from the swatch or palate provided in the application rather than that of your computer, as colors are rendered differently depending on the monitor and color scheme being used.
Spot color: These are high resolution colors which are used for more consistent printing jobs. We should check the applicability of spot colors along with 4 process color scheme (CMYK) in our document in the respective application.
Image/Graphics: We should check the placement of various supported types of image files in our document. Generally, .eps or .tiff image files are expected to be used in print & publish applications. We should test the file upload functionality along with other aspects like: image rotation, invert, expand copy and paste within same document, and image transparency, etc.
Pixilation: We should not stretch the image or graphic file inserted into our document beyond 100% scale because this may result into a pixelated image.
Template: Templates are the graphical files which are used as a background or frames for our page or spread in the document. These templates should also be tested based on the functionality of our application
Spell check: We should check all spellings using spell check wizard (if available in the application).
Proof reading: Proof reading helps in correcting the names and numbers which are not caught by spell check wizard in our document.
Text on a path: Text on a path is a feature where we can type some text along a curved or closed path. We should check the alignment, tilt and invert features of the text on curved path.
Bleed lines: Bleed lines act as a boundary for the page or spread. Any text or graphic placed beyond it is trimmed after printing the document. Hence, we need to test the placement of our content with reference to bleed lines; we should also check if the application produces an error on placing some content on the bleed line.
         All the above mentioned features are tested while editing documents in our application; some other areas which also need to be tested, such as book layout, index, bibliography, proofing, finalizing the book and submitting, etc. Publishing applications provide proofing and pre-flight features to check documents for errors on various spreads. These features help testers to check documents for problems like: text outflow from bleed lines, blurred images, etc. Users can make changes to their documents till it is in pre-flight state. The document cannot be edited after its state is changed to finish from pre-flight; however, it may again be changed to edit mode by application administrator if required.
Apart from QA testing on these above mentioned properties for print & publish application, we should also check the application for various breakpoints.
In the current world of digitization, printing/publishing books and magazines has become increasingly popular. Most people prefer online applications for designing and creating books and/or magazines over the traditional methods. In this article, you will learn about certain guidelines to be followed while QA testing such applications.
Testing approach:
Agile is the preferred methodology since it is easy to demonstrate the product after each milestone to the customer.
What to test: We should focus on the core functionality of our application, i.e., text and layout of our book or magazine. While performing QA testing for print & publishing online application, we must check a few things related to printing guidelines for a successful operational application:
Master Page: A master page is the guide for the whole document; we should thoroughly check whatever we mention on this page is reflected throughout the document.
Number of pages: Page count while creation should remain same after editing the document, unless it has been changed manually by the administrator.
Text: Text should also be checked for various other features, like: drop caps, text styling and copy-pasting text along with all available keyboard shortcuts for text editing and manipulation.
Fonts: We should check the applicability of various fonts on a document. On Windows platform, we can use any font for document creation, but for Macintosh platform, the most efficient way is to use postscript fonts or provide pdf files of our document before final print job.
Page size: The page size in the document should be selected as per the final trim size for that document otherwise you may lose some content after final print job.
Color: Colors should be selected from the swatch or palate provided in the application rather than that of your computer, as colors are rendered differently depending on the monitor and color scheme being used.
Spot color: These are high resolution colors which are used for more consistent printing jobs. We should check the applicability of spot colors along with 4 process color scheme (CMYK) in our document in the respective application.
Image/Graphics: We should check the placement of various supported types of image files in our document. Generally, .eps or .tiff image files are expected to be used in print & publish applications. We should test the file upload functionality along with other aspects like: image rotation, invert, expand copy and paste within same document, and image transparency, etc.
Pixilation: We should not stretch the image or graphic file inserted into our document beyond 100% scale because this may result into a pixelated image.
Template: Templates are the graphical files which are used as a background or frames for our page or spread in the document. These templates should also be tested based on the functionality of our application
Spell check: We should check all spellings using spell check wizard (if available in the application).
Proof reading: Proof reading helps in correcting the names and numbers which are not caught by spell check wizard in our document.
Text on a path: Text on a path is a feature where we can type some text along a curved or closed path. We should check the alignment, tilt and invert features of the text on curved path.
Bleed lines: Bleed lines act as a boundary for the page or spread. Any text or graphic placed beyond it is trimmed after printing the document. Hence, we need to test the placement of our content with reference to bleed lines; we should also check if the application produces an error on placing some content on the bleed line.
         All the above mentioned features are tested while editing documents in our application; some other areas which also need to be tested, such as book layout, index, bibliography, proofing, finalizing the book and submitting, etc. Publishing applications provide proofing and pre-flight features to check documents for errors on various spreads. These features help testers to check documents for problems like: text outflow from bleed lines, blurred images, etc. Users can make changes to their documents till it is in pre-flight state. The document cannot be edited after its state is changed to finish from pre-flight; however, it may again be changed to edit mode by application administrator if required.
Apart from QA testing on these above mentioned properties for print & publish application, we should also check the application for various breakpoints.