2. “Overprint Preview” is not a default setting, therefore make sure you have it turned on in your Acrobat application. Overprint Preview was added to Acrobat with the introduction of Acrobat 5. Acrobat Reader 7 was the first Reader application that supported this feature, previous versions did not. Test and verify that your proofer does support and is properly set-up to render overprints correctly. Overprint errors are still the most common problem printers encounter. Your printer has the ability to either honor or overwrite your
PDF overprints. While most prefer to honor, but they need to be informed before hand. Overprint settings are applied globally to all pages of the job.
3. Preflight the PDF file. This is a critical step in the process and it is a proven fact that jobs that have been preflighted work; non-preflighted jobs are the ones that commonly suffer from multiple errors and production delays. Only preflighting the page in the layout application is not enough. Your PDF Export and/or
Distiller settings can alter the image contents as the PDF files are being created. Understand the preflight controls and what each preflight application is capable of doing. Acrobat Professional, versions 6 and later, include a built-in preflight module.
4. Understand the Distiller/Export settings you are using and how they can alter the PDF creation. We understand that you may not agree with all our settings. They are suggested guidelines, but you need to understand which ones are critical for safe, predictable, and reliable output.
5. Always proof from the file you submit to the printer. Do NOT create your proof by printing directly from the layout application, then create the PDF at a later date. This is how errors can, will and do happen!
Our suggested PDF settings add lossy compression to minimize file size, which reduces storage requirements, improves file copy/transmittal, and overall print times. The PDF format allows you to create a single file (package) that includes all text, fonts, tints, and images with various compression and downsampling settings. PDF files are platform independent and can be opened, viewed, edited, or printed on a wide variety of operating systems. The architecture of Adobe Acrobat allows plug-ins, from third parties, to add additional functionality to
Acrobat. Acrobat Professional’s own preflight tool, OEM’d from Callas Software ( www.callas.de
), and Enfocus’
PitStop Professional ( www.enfocus.com
) are plug-ins that allow editing and preflighting of PDF files to Acrobat.
While surfing the web, check out www.pdfzone.com
or www.planetpdf.com
for other plug-ins and other valuable information that may be useful to you and your specific requirements.
Communicate with your printer to determine…
1. Should my printer honor or overwrite my overprint settings?
2. Were the supplied proofs created from the PDF to be submitted?
3. Is PDF/X the required format for file submittal or is preflight PDF acceptable?
4. What is the maximum version of the PDF Specification that their PDF workflow system supports?
5. How were my images color managed. Is pre-color managed CMYK images a requirement (typical for North
America) or is a device independent color space for color management the requirement (Europe)?
6. If the job requires versioning, how are the versions to be submitted?
Do I need to Preflight my PDF?
Yes. Over the past few years the number of customers that have switched to PDF has continued to grow at a rapid pace and methods of creating PDF, other than creating PostScript and distilling, have grown as well. Preflight ensures that the PDF file you created is print-ready. Just because the page passes the page layout’s preflight does not necessarily mean unexpected changes were not introduced during the actual PDF creation process. Unexpected surprises do occur and they have caused major issues at press time. Unlike TIFF/IT-P1 (CT/LW) file format, this format is very robust and is targeted for other markets. The feature richness includes color management (the cause of unexpected results to the unaware user), alternative image spaces (RGB, LAB, etc.), bookmarks, tags, sounds, movies, and even attachments all are within PDF capabilities. Preflight allows one to catch errors and surprise changes at the time of the creation, thus saving time, money, and rework later in the production cycle.
The supplier who properly preflights their PDF files rarely have problems on press. Files that are not preflighted or preflighted improperly can lead to press downtime and the print schedule can be jeopardized.
As PDF became the new standard for file submittal, Adobe realized the importance of preflight and added pre-
How2PDF Guidelines – © Quad/Graphics, Inc., 2009. All rights reserved
Quad/Graphics, Inc. Technology Group
May 2010
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