Press Quality PDFs

You may have noticed that our repro and sales team are PDF crazy, but why? We answers some of your questions.

Here at gpex, we utilise the latest Kodak workflow system called Prinergy to get your artwork ready for print.  This means that in order to create plates to print your work, we have to process your original files through our system. This can only be done by converting your files into PDFs.

Traditionally, customers have collected their work to output, by gathering together all the component pieces: the artwork file, graphics, photographs and fonts and supplied them on disk. When we receive the files, we would open them in the application you have created them in, and export them as a PDF.

The benefit of supplying PDFs is the risk of files being affected by being opened and converted on another system from which they were originally created is minimised. By supplying your artwork as Press Quality PDFs, we can process your files quickly and efficiently enabling a faster turnaround on proofs.

"If I supply a PDF, why do I get a PDF back, surely it’s exactly the same?"
When we receive your PDF we ‘refine’ it using Prinergy. The file that you receive back has been processed for printing. This means that anything that may potentially cause problems, such as transparencies, are highlighted in the refinement process. The file you receive 
is the file that we will print from.

"What if I need to include a die-cutting, spot UV or other additional finishing guide?"
Should your artwork need to be die-cut or require a spot UV, within the PDF create a spot colour called 'Cutter' or 'UV' and make the necessary guide that colour. This means that when it is processed through Prinergy we can convert the guide so  that it doesn’t print and is merely used to create the finish.

"Should I supply my PDF as spreads?"
We would prefer that any artwork supplied is treated as single pages. The reason for this is that the imposition (the arrangement of pages for printing) software will arrange your pages dependent of the finish of your print. For example, a saddle-stitched booklet will be printed slightly differently to a perfect bound booklet.

The only instance in which a PDF is preferable and can be supplied as spreads is for example, a wallet, a six or eight page DL roll or concertina folded leaflet.

Guides to supplying files

To ensure files go through smoothly we have provided some notes and guides to assist you. Please take a look at these guides before sending us files to ensure the accuracy of what we print for you.

Whenever possible we prefer files to be supplied as Press Quality PDFs. Should you be unable to supply files in this format then we also use the following software applications.

  • InDesign CS5
  • QuarkXpress 7
  • Illustrator CS5

We do not accept files supplied in any Microsoft application. For these you would need to supply PDF files. (Please note that pages created in Microsoft Publisher and Word will not include bleed by default so please be careful).

Creating successful PDF files

The following are options for printing:

  • To print select Press Quality as the PDF setting.
  • Print as single pages, with 3mm bleed and crop marks. Within the application, bleed mark, registration marks, colour bars and page information is not necessary. (If the job is complicated, it is adviseable to supply a made-up printed proof).
  • If you are using Adobe InDesign, always perform a pre-flight prior to producing a PDF. This will indicate if you will have any RGB images or font problems.

Tell me more about creating PDFs

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