Michael Burbridge Ltd

How do I prepare a PDF for print?

Getting the best result from your own designs

Sometimes, for reasons we can't imagine, you may wish to forego our design services and supply us with artwork prepared for print. That's okay with us, but there are some ground rules to ensure that the artwork you give us ends up looking as you expect it to when the printed job is delivered. To save time and headaches, we recommend that you follow these simple but vital steps to ensure that your publication looks great in print. And of course, if you are unsure about anything, just give us a call and we will do our best to help.

1. Create your artwork in your chosen software package. We use Adobe InDesign or Quark Xpress for page layout, but there are a number of packages available to you. Be certain that any photography you use in your design is of high resolution and in CMYK format. Be careful to keep critical elements of the design a safe distance from trim edges or the binding. Artwork for booklets or brochures should always be set up as individual pages; our pre-press software will take care of the imposition. Make sure there is a 2 mm bleed on your document if necessary. Please do not use RGB colours in your artwork. If you want to use spot colours in your design, call us for a quick chat so we can help you set up your document correctly before making your PDF.
2. Don't forget quality control. When your design is finished, spell-checked and ready to print, create a Postscript file of the artwork, ensuring that you add 2 mm bleed and crop marks. This is very important. Don't worry about other printer's marks, we take care of that once we have your file.
3. Create your PDF.  Ideally, you have a full version of Adobe Acrobat Pro, which includes Acrobat Distiller, from which you create your PDF. If not, there is probably a means of exporting your artwork as a PDF from your software package. Please check your software's User Guide for instructions. In either event, please use the Distiller setting PDF/X-1a:2001 when creating your PDF.  This automatically sets all of the Distiller options correctly for making a press-ready PDF. Most importantly: your press-ready PDF must have 2mm bleed and cropmarks.
4. Send us the PDF. Finally, you can upload your press-ready PDF to our FTP site, or send it to us on a CD or DVD. You must also provide us with a laser copy of your artwork so we know exactly what you expect your printed PDF to look like. We also need to have any spot or corporate colours specified by a Pantone number or CMYK breakdown, so that we can be sure to match colours as you expect to see them. If you have a previously printed copy, please send it along as well. Properly prepared, press-ready PDFs don't usually corrupt or go awry, but we want to be sure to get it right the first time.
5. Not feeling confident? If you are unsure how to create a Postscript file or press-ready PDF from your software, please visit the Adobe website and download the guide entitled How to Create Adobe PDF Files for Print and Press. This excellent guide will give you easy step-by-step directions on setting up your software to deliver perfect press-ready PDFs every time.