Convert publications to PDF for commercial printing

Back in May I posted about using the Pack and Go wizard for professional printing. In that post I didn't talk about the option to just create a PDF. These days commercial printers really prefer that you just send them a PDF, rather than the .PUB file and associated graphics and fonts. I called several commercial printers in Seattle and asked them what their preferred digital format was and they all said that while they can use .PUB files there are sometimes issues with layout and fonts that can be avoided by saving your publication as a PDF and sending them that.

Here's what Adobe has to say about using PDFs for commercial printing:

  • PDF files are small and self contained.
  • Fonts, images, and graphics are embedded within a PDF document, streamlining electronic transmission and pre-flighting.
  • PDF files are independent of the platform, operating system, and authoring application and are viewable onscreen in Macintosh, Windows, and UNIX® environments.

So your workflow for sending publications to commercial printer is:

1. Talk with your printer. Make sure that they take PDFs, though at this point this is a formality. Tell the printer about your project's printing needs, such as quantity, quality, paper stock, paper size, recommended color model, binding, folding, trimming, budget, file size limitations, and deadlines. Always ask if the printer has the items that you want in stock.

2. If you have parts of your publication that you want to print to very edge of the printed page, known as a bleed. To create a bleed in Publisher, enlarge the elements that you want to bleed so that they extend off the edge of the page by at least 0.125 inches.

3. Run Design Checker and fix any errors.

4. Save your publication as a PDF.

-- Bob deLaubenfels

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  • Hello Bob,

    Had a question about the "bleed"

    I have a 2010 Publisher document that has a line of "Copyright" text at the bottom.  I'm sure you have seen this on various documentation.  In Publisher, I set my top, bottom, left, right margins at zero.  I can print it to a jpeg and pdf, but can't get the "Copyright" line at the bottom to print when I use Save & Send, Create PDF/XPS Document, hti the "Create PDF/XPS" button.  From here, a save file name screen comes up where I can hit the "Options..." button at the bottom of the screen.  The Publish Options dialog box comes up where I can hit the "Print Options..." button.  The Print Options dialog box comes up where I can check off "Allow bleeds", and then hit OK.  Then I hit the Publish button and the document prints out fine from here in PDF format.

    When I print to just my HP Color LaserJet CP2025 printer, I cannot get it to print (bleed) the "Copyright" line at them bottom of the page.  The "Copyright" line is close to the buttom, but not to the edge.

    Is this a fuction of my printer driver not being able to print the bleed close to the edge of the page?  I duplex the document, so I like the fuctionality that Publisher 2010 gives me on printing.  Do I need to get a printer that prints to the margins?

    Any insight into this... would be greatly apprciated.

    Thanks

    -mjpalm

  • Hey MJ - My apologies for not getting back to you sooner. I suspect that your copyright text is pushed to an nonprintable area for your printer. Check out this article for the steps to determine your printer's nonprintable area:

    office.microsoft.com/.../set-margins-for-pages-or-text-boxes-in-publisher-HA101794582.aspx

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