File Preparation: About the PDF File Format

What is a PDF?

PDF is an abbreviation for Portable Document Format. Adobe Corporation has developed a very powerful program that incorporates Adobe Postscript language into a versatile format that nearly everyone can use. Originally designed for saving large documents in a small file size for the web, Adobe Acrobat™ has developed into a powerful tool for digital pre-press industries via the Acrobat Distiller™ utility that is included in the full version of Adobe Acrobat™ 4.0 or later. However, there are some issues that you need to be aware of when sending your pre-press jobs to us in Adobe Acrobat™ PDF format.

The primary limitation with the Adobe Acrobat™ PDF format is that it does not support typical composite spot color separations. If you want to output spot color separations using PDF format, you need to pre-separate the file so that each color shows up on its own page in a greyscale format. You can do this easily in Quark Xpress™ by selecting the "Print Separations" option in Page Setup.

Your PDF file with spot color separations should look exactly the way you expect the individual pages on the printing plate to look. Even if you do not have a postscript compatible printer, using the Acrobat Distiller™ utility is a good way to check and see if your file will separate the way that you are expecting it to as it converts the file to a true Level 3 PostScript format – the same type of file that is recognized and written by high-resolution imagesetters.

As always, talk to your Sales Rep or feel free to contact our Digital Prepress Department if you are not certain about using the PDF file format for your print project.

Click here to learn how to create "Press-Ready" PDF files.

Click here to learn more about Adobe Acrobat or to purchase software online at Adobe.com.

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