When preparing a publication for printing from PDF, you should follow a number of rules to ensure successful printing. Incorrectly set parameters can adversely affect the expected final effect. For example, if instead of the CMYK color space (suitable for printed materials) we choose RGB (suitable for digital materials), the colors of our work may differ significantly from those visible in the preview. Forgetting to set bleeds, we expose our work to crooked printing or even rejection of the file by the printing house.
What else should you remember? Read the article. In it, we focus on the many details that make up the preparation of a PDF file that complies with the printing house’s requirements and the publishing market standards.
Bleeds and Margins
Preparing the inside of a book for printing begins with the selection of file parameters. The first step to focus on is determining the net size of the book. Then we should focus on bleeds and margins.
Bleeds are the spaces between text or graphics and the edges of the page. They are empty areas that are left outside the main net area. Their main purpose is to avoid accidentally cutting off important elements when trimming the paper. Bleeds also allow for greater control over the aesthetics and readability of the content, allowing for the layout to be properly balanced.
In turn, margins are responsible for ensuring that the content in the book is properly centered. Their main task is visual correction. In the case of sheet shifts in printing, the content on the page remains straight and there is no illusion of slanted text.
To maintain consistency, page orientation should be consistent throughout the file and page sizes should match the format specified in the order.
Photos and Illustrations in the Book
Photos and illustrations that appear every few pages have a positive effect on maintaining the reader’s interest. When preparing graphics for PDF files, follow the guidelines.
Resolution
The optimal resolution for color files should be 300 dpi (for black and white prints minimum 200 dpi).
Lower resolution will cause visible decrease in print quality, and higher resolution will unnecessarily increase file size without affecting quality. The extension in which graphics should be saved is TIFF with lossless compression or JPEG in high quality.
Color
The color space used in color printing is CMYK (C – Cyan, M – Magenta, Y – Yellow, K – blacK). In the case of black and white printing, it is recommended to use grayscale. Choosing the right color space for graphics is very important, because it allows for faithful reproduction of colors from a digital file.
Additionally, it is worth knowing:
- The minimum line thickness for black and colored lines is 0.4 pt (0.14 mm), while the minimum line thickness for gray lines is 0.7 pt (0.25 mm).
- The minimum saturation of gray solids is 12% (the minimum allowable value of black (K) to print a surface with one color is 12).
How to Prepare the Text of A Book
Before sending the file to the printer, it is worth taking care of a comprehensive verification of texts and graphics. The content of the book should be proofread by a professional, fonts should be unified, preferably to one style, pages should be properly numbered, and contain appropriately formatted headers and footers.
Next, you need to take care of the appropriate color space. In the vast majority of publications, texts are written in black. The black color parameters for printing differ from the digital method of achieving deep black.
A step that is very often omitted in the process of preparing a file for printing is attaching fonts. Especially in the case of non-standard fonts that are not available by default in every computer system, it is important to attach the fonts used to the main file. To avoid problems with fonts, you can also pareform them into curves. Curving texts significantly increases the size of the file, so this solution should be used when attaching fonts is impossible.
Number of Pages and Book Binding
Did you know that the volume of a book affects the type of binding? The volume of the book insert determines whether we can realize a given type of binding, e.g. glued or sewn with wire or thread – depending on the printer’s recommendation. When choosing glued binding, the number of pages should be divisible by 2, while choosing sewn binding – it will be necessary to select pages divisible by 4. A way to meet this requirement is to place additional vacancies, i.e. blank pages usually located at the beginning or end of the publication.
In addition to the very important interior, the cover is also a component of the book. Before you start designing the cover, remember to save it in a different file than the entire insert. The cover differs from the interior of the book in thickness, available refinements and the way it is folded, which is why the parameters of the file with the cover are usually different from the parameters of the interior. The cover often becomes the main determinant on the basis of which the reader decides to buy. It is worth spending a little more time on it and learning how to prepare a cover design that encourages purchase and how to prepare a PDF file for the printing house with the cover design.
Printing Books from PDF – What to Pay Attention To?
In summary, printing documents from a PDF file should be preceded by appropriate preparations. In order for the printout to be of sufficiently good quality, we should take care of several aspects. Below is our checklist:
- Choosing a reliable PDF editor: we should start by choosing a tool that will allow us to edit and modify PDF file to the desired result. There are many free and paid programs available on the Internet that allow you to do this job, and SwifDoo PDF is a recommendation in this case.
- Page size and orientation: The print format should correspond to the selected standard (eg A4, B5). Additionally, it is worth checking whether the page orientation we prefer is correct and the same throughout the file.
- Bleeds and Margins: Proper page layout allows for the proper alignment of text and images, preventing important design elements from being cut off.
- Image Resolution: Please note that the higher quality you expect in your print, the higher resolution reproduction you should provide when sending files for printing.
- Colors: It’s a good idea to make sure that the color profile is set correctly for printing. If you want to print your book in color, you should set up your PDF in CMYK mode. If you want to print in monochrome (black and white), you should use Grayscale mode.
- Fonts: It is a good idea to choose popular and widely available fonts to avoid font nesting issues in the file. If you have non-standard fonts, make sure they are included in the document or possibly converted to outlines.
- Simplicity of design: Complex layout of content may result in lack of readability of all or part of the text.
- PDF version: Select the appropriate PDF version for printing that complies with ISO standards.
- Validation: Before sending a file to the printer, always double check it for spelling errors, typesetting errors, or other defects that may affect the printout.
Please remember that when accepting electronic files, the content of all submitted material for printing should be finally accepted.
