How to create a print-ready PDF
Print-ready means a print shop can open the file and cut it without asking you anything. Five things decide that, and a PDF that has all five is accepted almost anywhere.
The five
| Real page size | A 5 × 7 card measures 5 × 7 in when opened, not 1500 × 2100 px. |
|---|---|
| Bleed | 0.125 in on every edge, with the artwork actually extending into it. |
| Trim marks | Hairlines outside the bleed showing where to cut. |
| Embedded fonts | The type is in the file. Nothing depends on the shop owning your font. |
| 300 DPI where it matters | Vector artwork has no resolution. Photographs do, and 300 DPI at the printed size is the bar. |
Making one
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Export as PDF
A PDF carries the physical size, the fonts and the vector artwork together. A PNG carries none of those — it is pixels, and how large they print is a guess made later.
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Leave the page size as the design
For a file going to a print shop, the page is the card. Set the page size to Letter only when you are printing several on a sheet yourself.
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Turn on bleed
0.125 in unless the shop's specification says otherwise. Check the background and any photograph really do run into it, because the setting alone does not stretch them.
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Turn on trim marks
They tell the cutter where the finished edge is. They need a 0.25 in margin outside the bleed, and the export refuses rather than cropping if the page is too small to hold them.
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Open the PDF before you send it
Check the page measures what you expect, the fonts look right, and nothing important sits within an eighth of an inch of the cut.
Where it goes wrong
- Sent at screen resolution. A photograph pulled off a website is 72 DPI. At 5 in wide that is 360 pixels, and it will look soft on paper whatever the PDF says.
- Bleed turned on, artwork not extended. The page grows; the background does not follow; the extra is white.
- Two page sizes in one file. A print shop quotes on one. Export mixed sizes separately.
- Trim marks sent to a customer. Somebody printing at home does not want them. That version is for the shop.
Questions
PDF or PNG for a print shop?
PDF. It is the only one of the two that carries a physical size, embedded fonts and vector edges. Send PNG only when the shop asks for it.
Do I need CMYK?
Ask the shop. Many modern presses take RGB and convert it themselves, and converting badly yourself is worse than not converting. If they ask for CMYK, they will also tell you which profile.
What DPI should I export at?
300 at the printed size. The number only means anything alongside a physical size — 300 DPI on a 5 × 7 card is 1500 × 2100 pixels.