Printing and Pre-Press Q&A

by Jon Bessant

• What settings do I use to create PDFs for print?
• How can I check the resolution of my PDF file?
• How should I make my PDFs in Quark/InDesign?
• What is Microsoft XPS — is this OK to use? Will it print correctly?
• My proof does not match my PDF — what’s going on here?
• How can I change certain colors in a supplied PDF?
• I keep getting red on my printouts — what’s this?
• Do I send my pages as one big PDF or as separate files?
• Do I impose my PDFs for the print provider?

What settings do I use to create PDFs for print?

If you’re looking to generate PDFs for print output, then Acrobat 8 Professional with the Distiller PDF engine has several choices:

• Press Quality
• PDF/X-1a:2001
• PDF/X-3:2002

The Press Quality setting will also convert any device-independent colours, such as RGB, to DeviceCMYK. The only downside for some people is that Press Quality is PDF 1.4-compliant (some print providers might not like this format) and also includes OPI comments, which can cause certain RIPs to choke when processing the PDF file (although Acrobat 8 Professional also has fixups within the preflight engine to remove OPI and generally clean up a PDF file).

The ISO standard PDF/X-1a:2001 is very similar to Press Quality, but it is PDF 1.3, and adds certain metadata and output-intent information to meet the ISO standards. The industry fully supports PDF/X, and your print provider should be pleased if you use this standard.

The PDF/X-3:2002 specification is very similar to PDF/X-1a:2001, but will tag content with ICC profiles for a more controlled, color-managed process. You should only submit PDF/X-3:2002 files to your print provider if you agree upon using this standard, since it will involve collaboration with your print provider.

If you have the Adobe Creative Suite 3, you might also notice the PDF/X-4 standard, which is the latest setting for generating PDFs similar to those mentioned. It can include live transparency, device-independent colors and layers.

How can I check the resolution of my PDF file?

A PDF file does not have a resolution since it contains many different objects (maybe text, line art, images, stamps, watermarks, movies and so on) — and each of those objects might or might not have a resolution. If you wish to check the resolution of any images in a PDF, use the preflight tool in Acrobat 8 Professional. There are profiles that come as default, such as ‘List All Images’ and List Images Below xxx ppi’. This will enable you to accurately check image content against your resolution threshold. Finally, to save time, you can include a resolution check as part of your preflight procedure, inspecting for lots of other potential problems at the same time.

How should I make my PDFs in Quark/InDesign?

Both Adobe InDesign and Quark XPress can use Acrobat 8 to generate a PDF file using Acrobat Distiller. This would involve generating a PostScript file from the source application and then dropping it into Distiller with the desired job setting for correct output.

Another way would be to ‘Print’ to the printer called ‘Adobe PDF’. This produces a PDF in exactly the same way as the previous example, but using a back-door method. Finally, InDesign uses core Adobe technology for exporting content to PDF directly — without the requirement for Distiller. Just select Export from InDesign and then the desired job setting (please see "What settings do I use to make my PDFs") and the PDF is generated and can open in Acrobat automatically.

What is Microsoft XPS — is this OK to use? Will it print correctly?

Microsoft Vista has introduced some changes to the output formats available from Microsoft applications. First, you can still use Adobe Acrobat 8 under Vista — just make sure you update to the latest version of Acrobat for compatibility and new features. It is also possible to generate a PDF from Microsoft Office using the built-in PDF engine: Be careful which job setting you choose and test with your print provider.

XPS is a new format that enables users of Office to save their content so it is suitable for sending and displaying on devices supported by Microsoft. There are a few RIPs that can process both PDF and XPS, but it’s still early technology. You cannot preflight an XPS file, and the viewer would be an XPS viewer, not Acrobat.

My proof does not match my PDF — what’s going on here?

This could happen for a multitude of reasons, such as:

• You’re not viewing the PDF accurately in Acrobat due to the overprinting feature being turned off by default. Go to Preferences / Page Display and check the overprint preview option.

• Are your color viewing options set correctly in Acrobat? Check Preferences / Color Management. If you have the Creative Suite 3, why not synchronize your color management through the Bridge (includes harmonized settings for Acrobat, InDesign, Photoshop and Illustrator as well)?

• Have you run your file through preflight that a tried-and-tested profile — such as PDF/X- 1a:2001 that comes built into Acrobat? This will alert you to any problems in the PDF file.

• Maybe the print provider has given a color accurate, but not content-accurate, proof? Sometimes the print provider uses different systems for different purposes. Doublecheck with your provider.

How can I change certain colors in a supplied PDF?

Besides going back to the original file, there are now several different ways to change color content in a PDF file:

• Use the Convert Color option under Advanced / Print Production for conversion from RGB, ICC-based and Calibrated color — it's also great for aliasing Pantone inks to process.

• If you just want to alias colors — such as Pantone to process, or Pantone to Pantone, use the Ink Manager under Advanced / Print Production.

• The Touch-up Object tool is great for editing small areas of color, no matter if it's a bitmap or vector. Acrobat uses Photoshop as a bitmap editor and Illustrator as a vector editor — select the object and then right-click (Windows) or control-click (Mac), then Edit Image (Photoshop) or Edit Object (Illustrator). This will launch the corresponding application. Once saved, the changes will be reflected in Acrobat.

• For single bitmap objects, right-click (Windows) or control-click (Mac), then select the Color tab and use the supplied profiles to change the color-space of the bitmap within Acrobat.

• Finally, don’t overlook the new fixups from within the Advanced / Preflight category. They include numerous ways to convert not just colors globally, but different types of objects such as text, line art, images and so on.

I keep getting red on my printouts – what’s this?

• This might be a specific issue with Acrobat 8 since the printing architecture changed dramatically with this version.

• Make sure you’re running the latest incarnation of Acrobat 8 (8.1.2 as writing).

• Make sure you’re using the most up-to-date drivers for your printer - go to the manufacturer's website and download the latest version, if required.

• Change the color profile in your print setup. Go Print / Advanced / Color Profile / (choose US Sheetfeed Uncoated v2) as an example.

• Print the PDF as image format — Print / Image (at the top).

• Check the Adobe Knowledgebase article:
  http://kb.adobe.com/selfservice/viewContent.do ?externalId=kb400692&sliceId=2

Should I send my pages as one big PDF or as separate files?

• Always check with your print provider since it really depends upon the printer's workflow.

• Many print providers now offer remote page-approval systems that are on-line and automatically split pages into single files.

• If you have to supply pages as single files, you could use Acrobat to split large files using the Document / Extract Pages command using get the Batch Processing option to change compatibility to PDF 1.3, if required.

Should I impose my PDFs for the print provider?

• The standard answer would be 'no,' since the printer typically will not know information about the press until just before print time.

• Taking single pages and imposing is much easier then taking an imposed page and breaking it down.

• Talk to your printer provider.

More information about generating, converting and checking PDFs for print can be found at Jon’s website:
www.certitec.com/pdf/acrobat8top10tips.pdf