Which PDF to send to service bureau?

Good PM. if i were to prepare a PDF file for a service bureau...witch PDF preset in Indesign 2 would you guys recommend? there is a PRESS setting but there is also a PDF/X-1a:2001 and PDF/x-3:2002?

I think press quality is the right setting.

...or you can go through each of the profiles and ask the service bureau which profile they are comfortable working with. As we all know there is no one shot deal especially when it comes to color preferences.

tin_man wrote:

Good PM. if i were to prepare a PDF file for a service bureau...witch PDF preset in Indesign 2 would you guys recommend? there is a PRESS setting but there is also a PDF/X-1a:2001 and PDF/x-3:2002?

Hi Tin Man,

The press setting refers to print it to high resolution printer or to an imagesetter or CTP from a rip. PDF/X1a:2001 refers to a US print specification or SWOP. The images should be in cmyk before exporting to pdf. The PDF/X3:2002 refers to european print specification or the ISO Coated. Pdf/x -3 accepts RGB and cmyk. I would suggest that you ask your service bureau if there RIP is capable of interpreting these X -objects. And also ask your print printer what specification they are using. The problem with the native pdf is if there transparency in the object , it would create artifacts in the separation.

Before using the PDF/X-1a or 3, you might want to try the Altona Test Suite first and feed it to your, or your business partner's system kung kaya bang tumanggap ng PDF/X.

So far we've been working on a full PDF/X-1a workflow since 2004. Wala pa namang sabit. Imporante ang testing muna ito bago isabak sa live production.

Cheers.

You're Right Larry,
The Altona test Suite is Good Test for the RIP. This file is free for downloading. Go to www.eci.org

thanks for the replies. will check out Altona and your suggestions and try out which works best.

Hi tin_man. If you like you can also use the PDF/X-Plus....a subset of PDF/X-1a.

The Ghent PDF Workgroup creates customized settings to make good PDFs created from different application softwares. You can download those settings at:

http://www.gwg.org/applicationsettings.phtml

Hope this helps.