Much has changed since 2003 when I first wrote about the PDF format in commercial printing.
To recap, the PDF, or Portable Document Format, is an Adobe concept from the mid ’90s created for office workers to send information to others who may not have the originating software. The author would convert the information to a PDF file, and the recipient would open the file in Acrobat Reader, available free from Adobe. The PDF would retain the author’s intended appearance.
Somewhere down the line, however, someone figured out that if you can preserve images and embed fonts for low-end office applications, you should be able to do the same thing for high-end commercial printing.
Arguably, the biggest drawback, however, was the time it took to create the PDFs.
Now, with newer computers and faster, multiple processors, the once-lethargic process of chewing through multiple pages of data has been accelerated considerably. That development in itself should change the paradigm of submitting native desktop publishing files.
The most recent SWOP (Specifications for Web Offset Press) standards discourage using native desktop publishing files and have crowned PDFs and TIFF-IT files as the most dependable way to send files to print vendors. And yet, the question still arises occasionally as to why PDF is recommended over native desktop publishing (DTP) files.
When, in late 2007, I perused my original article on press-ready PDFs, I thought it time to revisit the issue and revise and extend my remarks. If you’ve been entertaining switching to a PDF workflow for commercial printing and haven’t been totally convinced, maybe this will help.
PDFs for printing: lean and mean
Most commercial printers love PDFs.
When created properly, the files are efficient for digital prepress. All relevant fonts are embedded and the graphics are lean. When the prepress department images your files in high resolution (rasterizing or “RIPping”) for proofing and plating, PDFs glide through the system faster and easier than native desktop publishing files (like QuarkXPress or Adobe InDesign). Native files also have to have their tag-alongs—all relevant fonts and linked image files. Almost every designer has gotten the phone call from the printer about missing fonts or omitted image files. And the linked files sometimes bog down even the most efficient microprocessors.
The lean nature of the PDF is what makes it special—in particular, the way it handles graphics. Service bureaus and printers for years begged customers to save their placed Photoshop images at the size and cropping that appears in the master document. That way, the printer has only the digital data he needs. Most designers on a deadline—and that means most designers—sidestep that request. To save time on their end, designers will place an image file with digital data enough to cover a full page, then either reduce it to one column width, or use one face in a crowd in a one-inch square mug shot. When that page RIPs, the computer doing the work chews through massive amounts of data from the big linked files to render those smaller images on the page, eliminating what it doesn’t need.
Not so with the PDF. PDF files save only the data necessary to render the page—it throws out all the extra unusable data in advance, when the PDF file is created. The file is efficient and electronically transmissible. And the printer’s RIP isn’t bogged down with needless information.
As with most good things, there’s a downside to PDFs. If you like your printer to make last-minute corrections, PDFs aren’t for you. Unlike those native DTP files, the printer can’t simply open up a PDF and make wholesale changes. Consider PDFs cast in stone—well, almost. If you’ve purchased full-version Acrobat or a number of other PDF-centered applications, you can make extremely limited changes, like fixing one character in a line or changing a bad page number. But if you change a word, PDFs won’t rejustify the line. If you find a must-fix error in your document, it’s best to fix it yourself in the native file and send the printer a new PDF for that page.
That brings us to another element of what printers like about PDFs—the liability question on jobs gone awry. If you deliver a locked-down, final-version PDF, and the printer makes no fixes to your document, you own the error liability in all but the most technical cases. It’s your file, and the printer’s tinkering is kept to a minimum, thus his exposure is a lot more limited than it once was.
“So what’s in it for me?” you ask.
If the PDF benefits generally go to the printer, why go to a PDF workflow?
For one thing, on jobs that are periodically recurring with minimal changes—product brochures, corporate identity pieces, etc.—you never ask yourself if changes were made at the printer the last time that aren’t in your in-house archive file. If you are making those changes or corrections in-house and sending PDFs, you are always confident you have the latest version. You have total control of the archive.
Since PDFs make printer fixes difficult, PDF workflow sharpens your in-house editing and proofing procedures—the file has to be right when it leaves your hands. If you’re used to using your printer’s proofing process as part of your own review workflow, you’ll likely notice a savings since the increased discipline means almost no printer alterations.
If your clients are distant, and proof review via overnight carrier is time consuming, consider using low-resolution PDF workflow for internal design-stage proofing. And, if you are using it at that phase of the job, it’s only a short sidestep to creating press-ready PDF files for litho output.
Further, if your print vendor is in a remote location, and you like to send files to them electronically, PDF files are lean with excellent data compression built in. PDFs generally transmit quickly and trouble-free. In most cases, when you send a PDF to your printer, you are sending one master file with all fonts and images efficiently cropped, packaged, and compressed. Corrected pages are sent as single-page PDFs to be RIPped and reimposed by the printer.
Further, PDFs cross computer platforms. You can view a Macintosh-created PDF on a PC platform and vice-versa. This means that if you work in a Mac environment and your client does Windows, you can send him a Mac-created PDF and he can look at the proof on his PC just fine. This also means that if you are using a commercial printer married to Macintosh output while you produce your documents on a PC, you can simply send a PDF of your document and eliminate cross-platform translation.
Your printer will love you for going PDF too, and usually will give you a discount on the prepress part of the price as a reward.
And to revisit the topic of proofing, online PDF proofs from the printer are growing in popularity. But a caveat is in order. Remote proofing is great for reviewing RIPped files for errors and continuity—much like you would use a digital dylux or inkjet continuity proof. But, the use of screen images for checking color accuracy requires tight color management and certified monitors on both sides of the equation. If your printer says you can check his proofs for color on your monitor and his own monitor proofing doesn’t extend to the press stand, beware.
Call for details
If PDFs appeal to you for your production workflow, call your printer’s prepress shop for details. They can usually answer most of your questions regarding PDFs, and if they don’t have the answer they can find it for you. Or, go to Adobe’s website—www.adobe.com—and navigate your way through their vast library of technical documents on the subject.
The benefits to PDF workflow are compelling, and the community of PDF-savvy designers is growing. Why not join them? ⊗
©2003, 2007 Courier Printing Company