Exporting a Print ready PDF from Indesign CS4

July 31, 2009 by Brenda Bell
Filed under: Design, Educational, Preflighting, Prepress

The settings shown here apply to InDesign CS4 for Mac. Other versions of the program work in a similar fashion.

Use the Adobe PDF Presets in the File Menu to access PDF export (as seen below). As always, be sure you have saved your file first. The presets range from Monitor proofing to PDF/X-certified settings. We recommend using the preset designated PDF/X-1a: 2001 (or PDF/X-4a: 2008; see edit at the bottom following this article). This is a pdf standard that has been put together specifically for print pdfs. If you’re using an earlier version (Pre CS) of InDesign (v1 or 2), X-1a:2001 is not offered, so choose the “Press” preset instead.

InDesign will then ask you for a file name and where you would like to save the pdf in a window like the one shown below. Enter the information and click the “Save” button:

After clicking the “Save” button, you will see a window appear like the one below:

Click the Marks and Bleeds section. Crop marks are often necessary when outputting your printed piece, so they should be included on all of your PDFs. Remember that if your source document has bleeds, it is critical to create a minimum 1/8” bleed in the document itself before creating your PDF.

Set your marks and bleeds as shown above.

Please note: The Preset designation changes automatically to “modified” when any of the settings are changed. Changing crop settings in itself is not a violation of the PDF/X-1a standard, so you may proceed with the “modified” setting after doing so.

The Output window will allow you to specify the color mode for your PDF. By clicking the Ink Manager button you’ll see which colors you’ve used in your file.

This feature allow you a final opportunity to determine if color has been applied correctly throughout the document and convert colors to 4-color process if necessary, without having to edit the colors in the document’s color swatch list. Click the OK button when you’re satisfied that all of the ink colors are correct.

IMPORTANT TIP: Do not select any security features in the Security tab. Doing so will prevent your PDF from being processed by our RIP. Password protection isn’t allowed under the PDF/X-1a specifi cation. Leave all of the checkboxes unchecked.

When you are satisfied that all PDF export settings are correct, click the “Export” button to make your PDF:

Edit 8/10/09: As mentioned in the comments below, you could select the X-4a: 2008 standard instead of X-1a:2001 and make the same adjustments as specified above. X-4a: 2008 is a newer revision of the X-1a standard which supports transparency better than the 2001 revision. However, it does allow RGB images, where as X-1a:2001 does not, so be sure to convert all of your images to CMYK before making the pdf, because it will not alert you that you are including RGB images.

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Tags: Adobe Indesign, indesign, pdf, print quality pdf, x-1a pdf, x-4a pdf

Comments

4 Comments on Exporting a Print ready PDF from Indesign CS4

Leonard Rosenthol on Fri, 31st Jul 2009 11:34 pm

The use of PDF/X is indeed the industry standard and the right recommendation. However, PDF/X-1a is quite old at this time and should only be the choice _IF_ you’ve been explicitly asked for it by your printer.

instead, you should use the PDF/X-4 standard – which supports modern PDF features including live transparency.

Leonard Rosenthol
PDF Standards Architect
Adobe Systems

Brian Harrison on Mon, 3rd Aug 2009 12:27 pm

Good point Leonard. X-4: 2008 is an updated version of the standard that better supports transparency. CS-4 has this standard as a preset, but previous versions of INDD do not. Just a side note, I believe it also allows the user to leave RGB images which would cause images to wash out in some workflows, so the user has to be careful to only place CMYK images in the indd doc for best results. I will update this post to include this info. thanks!

Marius on Fri, 16th Oct 2009 1:09 pm

And what about the Transparency Flattener (Advanced tab), in case the printer does not support PDF/X-4? What kind of settings do you recommend?

Brian Harrison on Mon, 19th Oct 2009 7:33 pm

Hi Marius, thanks for the comment.If your printer does not support X-4, then just use X-1a. The PDF X-1a standard should set Transparency to High Resolution as part of it’s standard.

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