Exporting a Print ready PDF from Quark 8

August 5, 2009 by Brenda Bell · 2 Comments
Filed under: Design, Educational, Preflighting, Prepress 

The procedure described below applies to QuarkXpress 8 for Mac. Other versions of the program work in a similar fashion.

Make sure you’ve saved your file before attempting to create a PDF. First, select the Export option in the File Menu:

A window similar to the one below appears:

Choose a destination for your PDF document, select PDF/X-1a: 2001 as your pdf style, then click the Options button to access settings in the PDF Export dialog box. We recommend using the preset designated PDF/X-1a: 2001 because this is a PDF standard that has been put together specifically for print PDFs.

An additional dialog box opens, which is filled with export settings. In the color section (shown in the above), make sure you create a composite PDF and specify to your job specs: CMYK, CYMK +spot, B&W, Grayscale or As Is if your
project is printing in just spot colors.

Next you will want to add crop marks and bleeds as shown in the following two screen shots:

Click the OK button. You will be returned to the “Export as PDF” window.

Click “Save” to create the PDF

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Exporting a Print ready PDF from Indesign CS4

July 31, 2009 by Brenda Bell · 4 Comments
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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