Preparing book files
For complete information on book files, see “Working with a book file“ on page 39. Customers should be responsible for making sure book files are completely up to date before submitting them by doing the following:
• Notify the service provider that a book file controls the publication.
• Synchronize the book. Once the book is synchronized by the customer, it should not be reordered or synchronized by the prepress service provider.
• Verify pagination.
• If a table of contents and index have been generated, make sure they’re current.
• Preflight the book.
• Package the book—an especially good idea given the possible number of files and fonts involved.
Using presets and settings files to further streamline customer handoffs
Your shop can minimize potential output issues by taking full advantage of the settings files you can configure in InDesign. Consider providing customers with presets that you can use to increase output reliability and job throughput, such as the following:
• Document presets. These presets save the settings in the Document Setup dialog box.
• Print presets. These presets save the settings in the Print dialog box.
• Trap presets. These presets save trapping settings.
• Transparency flattener presets. These presets save settings for flattening transparency when creating output for formats or devices that cannot process transparency data.
• Color settings files. If your shop uses color management, you may want to advise customers on color management settings that will ensure a smooth handoff to your shop. The Color Settings dialog box in Adobe InDesign CS2 is consistent with Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, and other Adobe Creative Suite 2 applications. You can create your own standard color settings file that you can apply to all of your computers and send to customers. For example, a color settings file can specify whether or not the customer’s machine embeds profiles or converts colors, and what destination profile is used for proofing. Just set the options in the Color
Settings dialog box and click Save.
• Color swatches. Adobe InDesign CS2 and earlier versions can load spot and process swatches (not gradient or pattern swatches) from other Adobe InDesign documents. In
Adobe Creative Suite 2, selected color swatches can also be saved to an independent file that can be loaded into any Adobe Creative Suite 2 application that uses swatches, and this swatch file can be sent to your customers. To do this, select one or more swatches in the Swatches palette, and then choose Save Swatches from the Swatches palette menu. After you specify a file name and location, the swatches file is saved with the .ase file name extension. If you want a customer to use only the swatches in the swatches file (for example, if spot colors are involved), you may want them to remove all other swatches before importing the file (choose Select All
Unused from the Swatches palette menu, and then click the trash can icon).
• PDF Job Options presets. If you accept PDF files from customers, create a PDF export preset customized for your workflow and provide it to them. If the Press Quality or PDF/X-1a preset built into InDesign does not create optimal output for your workflow, you can create your own customized version to provide to your customers. PDF Job Options can now be shared among
Adobe Creative Suite 2 applications, so you can provide a customer with one set of job options that works with every Adobe Creative Suite 2 component, including Photoshop, Illustrator,
Acrobat Distiller, and GoLive. The user interface for PDF job options is also more consistent across the components of Adobe Creative Suite 2. You can import PDF Job Options from
Acrobat Distiller 5.0 and later.
Adobe InDesign CS2 Printing Guide for Prepress Service Providers
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