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MASTER FAQ NTNU

Frequently asked questions by submission of the master thesis

MASTER FAQ NTNU FREAQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

DOWNLOADING FILESHere you chose the PDF-file with your thesis and a cover picture if you wish to have any on your cover page. The cover picture is optional. We want ONE completed PDF-file with the content; we don’t want Word/Open Office documents etc. because the layout can change if we receive an editable file.

OTHER INFORMATIONColor bars on the cover: Here you select the color that is as a block on the cover’s front, binding, and back. You chose among NTNU’s color palette of 12 colors. Format: The size of your finalized thesis. A4 is normal paper size (210x297), while B5 is 17,6 x 25cm (176x250). Total number of pages in the document: How many pages the PDF-file contains.

HOW LONG WILL IT TAKE FROM I ORDER THE MASTER THESIS UNTIL IT IS COMPLETED/MAY BE OBTAINED? The estimated delivery time is normally 1-2 days. We prioritize printing of master theses, and we will do our best for the thesis to be completed within the desired date. If you deliver your thesis for print at 08.00 am, you will normally be able to pick it up at 2.30 pm the same day, but in periods of high demand (may/vacation) you have to calculate two business days.

CAN I ORDER PRIVATE SAMPLES FOR MYSELF? Yes. You can order as many private samples as you wish, but you can only pay online (VISA/MasterCard).

WHAT FORMAT/PAPER SIZE SHOULD I USE FOR MY MASTER THESIS?We recommend that you write your thesis in A4. We will downscale your thesis to B5 (176x250mm) when print-ing (about 80%). This will not affect the readability or layout of your thesis. Font/font size: For A4 we suggest to use the font Times, and font size 12pkt or 14pkt (12pkt is equivalent to 10pkt in B5). Using a font size less than 11pkt can result in a document that is hard to read after downscaling from A4 to B5. We recommend line spacing 1,2 or 1,5.

WHAT MARGINS SHOULD I USE?You can use the margins like as long as they are minimum 20 mm (0.8”) on all sides (top, bottom, left and right). E.g. Write your thesis in A4, and use margin widths of 25 mm (1”) on the top, left and right, and 30 mm (1.2”) on the bottom.

WHEN SHOULD I INSERT BLANK PAGES IN THE THESIS?If you want to print your thesis double-sided, you should add blank pages so that all new chapters and other sections (table of contents, foreword, references, attachments etc.) are placed on odd pages (1, 3, 5, etc.) in the

MASTER FAQ NTNU FREAQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

HOW TO CHECK IF FONTS ARE EMBEDDED IN THE PDF-FILE? In Acrobat Reader you choose File – > Document Properties… then from the Document Properties dialog box, click on the “Fonts” tab. If the words “Embedded Subset” or “Embedded” appear next to the font, the font is included (look at the picture below).

By uploading the PDF-file, you will get a status report from the printing office on the print quality of your PDF-file. Red = rejected due to fonts and/or illustration qualityYellow = OK but low quality on illustrations/graphics (typical print screen in 72dpi)Green = OK fonts and illustrations

Learn more/watch a video at DAIM’s Norwegian FAQ-pages: https://daim.idi.ntnu.no/faq_innlevering.php or read the English PDF-version: https://daim.idi.ntnu.no/howto_thesis_submission.pdf

HOW TO CREATE A PDF-FILE? Only one PDF-file can be submitted. If the master thesis consists of more than one file, all these must be merged together into one PDF-file. PDF-files that are going to be submitted cannot be password protected.

Read more about this at DAIM’s faq-pages: https://daim.idi.ntnu.no/howto_thesis_submission.pdf

WHAT SHOULD BE CHECKED BEFORE UPLOADING? Look over the master thesis; graphics might be missing details or contain errors. Check page breaks, titles, and layouts. Insert blank pages if necessary to obtain the correct page numbering. Verify that fonts are included in the PDF-file.

2, 4, 6, 8... 1, 3, 5, 7...

Centered Corners

4 4 4

MASTER FAQ NTNU FREAQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

ARE THERE ANY RULES FOR HOW THE CONTENT IN THE DOCUMENT SHOULD BE DESIGNED? No. NTNU does not have any rules for formatting of the content if you haven’t received any from your institu-tion. If you are unsure, use Times New Roman, 12 pt and line spacing 1.5.

IS THERE A PRICE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ONE COLOR PRINT AND MULTIPLE COLOR PRINT? No. We are a digital printing office, therefore we only separate “color print” and “black/white print”. The price for color print is the same whether you have a small red dot in the corner or an entire page of pictures.

HOW SHOULD I FORMAT THE PAGE NUMBERS?Since the master thesis will be printed double-sided, you have to align the page numbers either centered or to the side (odd numbers to the right, and even numbers to the left).

ANY TIPS FOR HOW I CAN MAKE MY THESIS MORE ORGANIZED AND PROFESSIONAL? When you write your thesis and are ready to create the PDF-file you will submit, think about what page you started on. In a printed double-sided thesis, all right pages will become odd numbers in the PDF-file you sub-mit. To make your thesis more organized, you should place all chapters, table of contents, forewords, refer-ences etc. in a way so they start on an odd number page (a right page).

Odd pages (1, 3, 5, 9, 15, osv...) = Right pages

Even pages (2, 4, 6, 8, 14, 20, osv...) = Left pages

This is recommended to do before you create the table of contents.

MASTER FAQ NTNU FREAQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

CAN I ADD A PICTURE ON THE COVER? Yes. Submit a picture file (.jpg/.tiff) with your order, named “cover photo_*your name*”. The picture should have a minimum of 300dpi (1800x1800 pixels) for best quality possible. Pictures found and downloaded from the Internet is usually not suitable for printing. DO NOT upload the picture onto Word/PowerPoint etc. and send the Word file; this will compress the image and loose its original resolution (= worse quality).

WE ARE TWO OR MORE AUTHORS, SHOULD WE WRITE ALL OUR NAMES ON THE COVER? Write all names in the order form under the “Kandidatens navn”-field.

THE FILE I RECEIVED OF THE COVER LOOKS WEIRD, AND THE TEXT IS ORIENTED THE WRONG WAY. IS THIS CORRECT? Yes. The file you received is the whole cover, and it consists of the front, binding, and back.

CAN I CHOOSE A DIFFERENT COLOR FOR MY COVER THAN THE 12 COLORS FROM NTNU’S PROFILE? No. As long as you want a normal master thesis cover by NTNU’s template, you must select one of the 12 colors in NTNU’s color palette.

PMS 656Light blue

PMS 4705Brown

PMS 397Lime

PMS 2405Pink

PMS 652Dark blue

PMS 453Light beige

PMS 3115Turquoise

PMS 158Dark orange

PMS 5787Green

PMS 4525Dark beige

PMS 2607Purple

PMS 135Light orange

BACKPAGE FRONTPAGE

SPINE

MASTER FAQ NTNU FREAQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

I HAVE CREATED DIAGRAMS (THAT CONTAINS A FIGURE AND TEXT) IN WORD OFFICE. WILL THE QUALITY OF THE DIAGRAMS BE GOOD ENOUGH? If you made the diagrams/figures in your original document in Word it should be fine. It is the graphs created in external programs that can cause issues. BUT, if you copy/paste a figure from one Word-file to another, this can cause some issues, so if you are going to do this, you should create them as bitmap.

HOW DO I KNOW THAT THE QUALITY OF PICTURES/ILLUSTRATIONS I GET FROM THE INTERNET OR OTHER SOURCES ARE OK? By uploading the PDF-file, you will get a status report on the print quality of your PDF-file. You will get one of the following: Red = rejected due to fonts and/or illustration qualityYellow = OK but low quality on illustrations/graphics (typical print screen in 72dpi)Green = OK fonts and illustrations

WHEN I CHECK THE PDF-FILE, ALL FONTS ARE INCLUDED EXCEPT FROM HELVETICA (THE FONT I USE). I ALSO TRIED TO USE TIMES, BUT THEN TIMES IS NOT INCLUDED? If you have use the standard Helvetica or Times, we will have some standard fonts on our printers, and it should be OK. But there are always exceptions, also of these fonts unfortunately. If you have used the standard fonts in Windows it should be ok.

I HAVE FIGURES IN PDF-FORMAT (VECTOR GRAPHICS) WITH BUILT-IN FONTS. WILL THESE FIGURS LOOK ON PRINT LIKE THEY DO IN MY PDF?Unfortunately, a PDF-file will not always look the same on screen and print, which has to do with screen colors/print colors and postscript coding. All of our printers are produced with PDF as a working format. The data is interpreted by RIP (Raster Image Processor) created by Adobe. The reason why we sometimes experience a disappointing print result is because of the line thickness and color-coding, as well as transparent colors. Due to this we recommend to create png or jpg-files of your vector graphics. Some people use bright RGB-colors (e.g. bright green and bright blue). These colors will become a shade darker on print when the RGB (screen) and the CMYK (print) have different color gamut.

DOTS AND LINES MUST HAVE A PHYSICAL VALUE. HOW DO I CONTROL THIS IN LATEX/AUTOCAD? If possible, you can specify the line thickness yourself. Thin = 0,4pt (0.15mm) is the MINIMUM thickness you can use. Some programs provide only one name value, and dots only a pattern name. This can cause errors when printing. If you are unsure – create a pgn or jpg-file. Ultra thin = 0.1pt Thin = 0.4pt Thick = 0.8pt Ultra thick = 1.6ptVery thin = 0.2pt Semi thick = 0.6ptVery thick = 1.2pt

CAN I SEND A PDF-FILE WITH PORTRAIT AND LANDSCAPE PAGE ORIENTATION FOR PRINTING? Yes. Pages with landscape orientation will be rotated 90 degrees.

MASTER FAQ NTNU PAYMENT/DELIVERY

CAN YOU SEND MY THESIS TO MY INSTITUTION WHEN IT IS COMPLETED? As long as your institution is not in the main building (building 1-12) at Dragvoll, we can send the copies for the institution with the shuttle to NTNU. The driver runs twice daily (at approx. 8am and noon, and only at 10am during the summer). If the institution has their office at Dragvoll, you have to pick them up and deliver them to your institution yourself, or get someone else to do it for you. Your private samples will stay at the printing office until you pick them up – and pay for them.

CAN I ORDER PRIVATE SAMPLES FOR MYSELF? Yes. You can order as many private samples as you wish, but you can only pay online (paid by the student).

CAN I GET AN INNVOICE OR PAY CASH WHEN I COME AND PICK IT UP? No. All private orders must be paid online (VISA or MasterCard). Many credit cards and international debit cards can be rejected, due to lack of BankAxept.

CAN I REPEAT ORDER MORE COPIES OF MY THESIS LATER? Yes. You have already ordered private samples at http://ntnu.skipnes-wtp.no. Log inn on this website and look at your order history to find your old master thesis.

I AM NOT ABLE TO COMPLETE THE ONLINE PAYMENT? Mac-users with the latest version of the software (OSX 10.8.3) have not managed the BankID applet to work with the last version of Safari (6.0.3). Users with this problem can go to a test page at Oracle: http://java.com/en/download/testjava.jsp. Then click “Inactive plug”. Once this is done, the BankID will work. Mac-users can also use the Firefox browser. The user experience is not optimal, because the OK-button is inactive. To activate the OK-button, you must hold the CMD-button (Command key/key point/apple key) after entering your singe-use code.

I WAS NOT ABLE TO PAY, BUT I GOT AN ORDER CONFIRMATION ON EMAIL? Please send us an email explaining what happened and your order number to support@skipnes.no

WHAT DO I DO WHEN PRINTING ERROR OCCURS? Report printing errors as soon as possible to jobber@skipnes.nojobber@skipnes.no

www.skipnes.noSkipnes SupportCenter

support@skipnes.noPhone: +47 982 59 200

Did we not answer your question? Send us an email to support@skipnes.no

Good luck with your submission!