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Mac Forum / General / General / December 2006Submitting a Document to a Commercial Printer -- pdf or other
I have been led to believe that the preferred way of submitting a document to a commercial printer is as a pdf file, the reason being that such a file is completely self-contained in regards to fonts and graphics and such. However, there have been times, recently, when the commercial printer requested the InDesign document and the accompanying support files, fonts and illustrations and such. Is there a reason why the printer wouldn't have preferred the pdf file?  SignatureJames Leo Ryan ..... Austin, Texas ..... taliesinsoft@mac.com > I have been led to believe that the preferred way of submitting a document to > a commercial printer is as a pdf file, the reason being that such a file is > completely self-contained in regards to fonts and graphics and such. > > However, there have been times, recently, when the commercial printer > requested the InDesign document and the accompanying support files, fonts and > illustrations and such. > > Is there a reason why the printer wouldn't have preferred the pdf file? The usual reason for not wanting a PDF is that the printer needs to modify something. It's a whole lot easier to modify an InDesign or Quark file than a PDF. One reason for this is usually fonts. Often someone has done something with a TrueType (or, worse, a bit-mapped-only) font which doesn't cause problems until the printer needs to tweak the file so it fits in the space that's really there instead of the space that was supposed to be there. Occasionally there's a problem with a picture, usually that the pic was speced as RGB or index and so looks fine on screen and prints fine as a composite, but shows in greyscale when separated. Or maybe the printer's just old-fashioned. Signatureemail to oshea dot j dot j at gmail dot com. > I have been led to believe that the preferred way of submitting a document to > a commercial printer is as a pdf file, the reason being that such a file is [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] > > Is there a reason why the printer wouldn't have preferred the pdf file? Speaking from experience... as one who has to deal with customer-supplied PDFs, and one who provides them, for the last 15 years or so, give or take... -- An antiquated workflow, or an unreasonable prejudice against PDFs -- The PDFs being supplied are malformed (no embedded fonts, spot colors, RGB images, ink limits exceeded, no crop marks, no bleed, etc) and the printer believes the customer will have problems, through ignorance or pig-headedness, supplying properly formed PDFs. Typically, it's the second one. I deal with that regularly. Me: "Hi, I'm calling about the PDF you sent. The fonts aren't embedded, you have three different blacks defined (one of which is 100% of all four inks, one of which is only black, and one of which is 100% cyan, magenta and yellow with no black ink at all), you have a mix of CMYK, Lab and RGB graphics, three spot colors, type within 1/32" of the trim, and there's no bleed, crop marks or registration marks. Could you please correct the problems and send us a new file?" Customer: "I don't know what you're talking about. The file looks fine on screen and prints to my $75 color ink jet just fine. Are you sure you know what you're doing? You don't sound very professional to me." Me: "Hulk SMASH! Hulk KILL! Hulk rip HEAD off and SPIT down neck!" >> I have been led to believe that the preferred way of submitting a document >> to [quoted text clipped - 32 lines] > on screen and prints to my $75 color ink jet just fine. Are you sure > you know what you're doing? You don't sound very professional to me." My response: "Cool. Here's your print job back. I can't print it as it is. Goodbye." At least if they come in with a PDF they're trying. The real prizes come in with a MS Publisher file filed with 72 dpi RGB images they stole off the internet. > Me: "Hulk SMASH! Hulk KILL! Hulk rip HEAD off and SPIT down neck!" Don't you have a gang to do that kind of thing? Signatureemail to oshea dot j dot j at gmail dot com. > > Me: "Hulk SMASH! Hulk KILL! Hulk rip HEAD off and SPIT down neck!" > > Don't you have a gang to do that kind of thing? Only on USENET... > Speaking from experience... as one who has to deal with > customer-supplied PDFs, and one who provides them, for the last 15 [quoted text clipped - 22 lines] > > Me: "Hulk SMASH! Hulk KILL! Hulk rip HEAD off and SPIT down neck!" My guess is that the PDF's that are mal-formed, are created with a 'print- to-PDF' printer driver. > > Speaking from experience... as one who has to deal with > > customer-supplied PDFs, and one who provides them, for the last 15 [quoted text clipped - 25 lines] > My guess is that the PDF's that are mal-formed, are created with a 'print- > to-PDF' printer driver. Sometimes... Oh, the stories I could tell. Here's a recent one: <http://groups.google.com/group/comp.publish.prepress/msg/c147933c9bbe39 11?dmode=source&hl=en> |
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