How to create a print ready file correctly the first time
These days, things move pretty quickly in the print world from start to finish, and starting of a project on the right foot is key! Have you ever sent a job out for print or received a file from a client and it just wasn’t right? This happens all of the time, and can be very frustrating as precious production time is being wasted in all the back, and forth. You should always contact your print account executive with any questions that you might have on any given print job, and you could also keep a copy of the following tips on hand.
Things to consider for creating a Print Ready PDF.
Embedded Fonts
Embedding fonts into the PDF is necessary for the fonts to render correctly for print. If the fonts are not embedded within the PDF, they may appear correct on the designer’s machine as they will be present on that system but when viewed on a computer without the necessary fonts, substitutions are often made and missing fonts are usually replaced with the nearest font available.
1/4” Bleed For Bleeding Jobs
Bleed is crucial to any design in which the pictures and/or color run to the edge of the page. A press ready PDF will include at least ¼” bleed on each side of the document which will make the final PDF 1/4” bigger in size, both in height and width. The bleed is trimmed away when finishing.
Non-bleeding jobs should be to size, no bleeds.
No Printer Marks
Outside information for printing purposes is not desired. Some examples are crop marks, folding marks and registration marks.
Correct Colors
A press ready PDF will contain the correct colors for print. Usually CMYK, spot colors. For consistent color matching PDF’s should not mix between color settings (I.e. CMYK, spot or RGB).
Quality Images
Images in a press ready PDF need to be at least 300dpi at the size they will be printed.
No Data Outside Print or Bleed
Information in the PDF that is not to be printed should not be included in the Print Ready PDF. (I.e. A colored bar inside a PDF that extends beyond the printable area and/or bleed area.
Overprinting
Check all overprinting carefully and make sure that overprint preview is switched on in Acrobat. This will give a guide as to which colors will overprint and which will remain unchanged. If this is not turned on, the file may not print as it appears on screen. Therefore, all overprinting must be correct in a print ready PDF. This is something that is very important for the designer to check as it is not always obvious to the printer, especially in larger files with many pages.
Page Layout
We would like to see blank pages in the document if they are needed. If the document is perfect bound, we would expect bleed on all edges and a saddle stitched book with bleed on at least all three outside edges. We prefer not to have imposed files. A complete document of single pages running from the front cover through to the back cover is our preferred format for PDF page layout.
Correct folding
If the document is to be folded, the Panels should accommodate bleed for the folding edge for wraparound. (I.e. A Tri-Folds outside panel should be the largest panel while the inside panel should be the smallest.)
1/8” Quiet area.
The quiet area is the area close to the edge of the page. This applies to borders, text, images and in fact any element that sits too close to the edge. This is not to be confused with bleed. As there is often movement when trimming large quantities of printed material, elements that are within this quiet area are in danger of being trimmed into. As a rule, it is best to avoid this area when designing a document as the safest way of ensuring that this doesn’t happen.
PDF Security
Make sure security is turned off. No restrictions or passwords.