Creating PDFs For Commercial Printing: Microsoft Publisher 2010

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Creating PDFs For Commercial Printing:

Microsoft Publisher 2010 and later

When sending a Publisher job to a printer it may be easier and safer

to send it as a PDF. This avoids many of the problems that occur when

processing native Publisher files and can speed up the processing time

required. There are two main ways to create a PDF from Publisher. Direct

export and using a PDF print driver.

Advantages to PDF

• Sending PDFs is more reliable than the standard Publisher format.

There is less chance for type rewrap or missing fonts or images.

• PDFs are quicker (and usually cheaper) to process.

• A correctly created PDF will not change: what you see is what you

get. Native Publisher files can sometimes change as they are moved

from machine to machine.

• Revisions are generally cheaper to process, you fix the page(s) with

the problems and send those to us again. We replace the revised

pages on our workflow server.

Disadvantages to PDF

• PDFs are not easy to edit. It’s harder to make last minute type changes to

PDF files so it requires you to be more careful when creating them.

• You need to make most corrections to your files.

• For a PDF to work, it must be created correctly.

1. Publish as PDF

Choose File —> Save As. Choose the PDF format, and a name and place to

save your file, then click on the Options button.

2. Choose PDF Publishing Options

Select the Commercial Press PDF settings. Change the downsample resolution

to 450 dpi for all color and greyscale images over 450 dpi. Downsample

all line-art to 1200 dpi for images over 1400 dpi. Check the Design

Checker Option to warn about transparency and color use. Uncheck all 3 of

the bottom PDF Option checkboxes. Click on the Print Options Button.

3. Change Print Option Settings

Turn on all the options under Printer’s Marks. Set the Page

Orientation to Portrait and the Page Size to Custom.

The actual page size to enter depends on the size of your docu-

ment. To allow for extra room for the crop marks and any bleed

items, you should add one inch to each dimension of the actual

size of your piece.

So if you’re working on an 8.5 x 11” file, you should enter 9.5 x

12”. If your original is 8.5 x 14”, then enter 9.5 x 15”, etc. Note

that this size is different from your actual document size, which

should always be set to the quoted trim size.

4. Click on OK in the next two windows then click on

Publish to save your PDF file.