By Dan Bouchard

It is a rare thing these days where a client sends a job to his or her commercial printer in anything other than a digital format. But which digital format is the best?

I would be remiss if I didn’t start out by saying that I would always recommend hiring a professional Graphic Artist to design your printed materials. You certainly can save some money doing the simple things yourself. But remember, Graphic Artists are trained in the proper use of colors, type styles and artwork in general. They have access to a vast array of professional resources including the multitude of layout and drawings programs, stock photos, special fonts and much more. If you want your printed materials to truly look professional, you should always hire a Professional Graphic Artist.

Be that as it may, a lot of clients for whatever reasons choose to do their own layout and design for simple things such as business cards, mailers and flyers. The first thing you have to remember is that there are literally thousands of computer programs that will do some sort of layout and design and no commercial printer in the world can possibly purchase and learn them all, never-mind keeping up with upgrades, patches and so on. There is however one file format that every commercial printer can work with, and that is PDF.

In today’s world, pdf has become the de facto standard of the printing industry. Every printer everywhere will accept a pdf file. However, like anything else, there are a few things you should know before just sending off a pdf. First and foremost, I highly recommend contacting your printer and asking if they have any special requirements for pdf files. Some don’t, but even so, there are a few things you can do to make sure you get a better printed piece. Convert your file to CMYK. Most low cost layout programs create files using the RGB standard. That’s fine for web based art, but if you are having it printed; make sure you convert it to CMYK. Embed your fonts and link your graphics. Nothing irritates a printer more than opening a file and finding out there are fonts or graphics missing. Not to mention, a lot of printers will charge you for this little oversight. Use only High Resolution Graphics. Those 72 dpi web graphics may look nice on your screen, but trust me they won’t look so good when printed. Be sure to create your pdf file at the proper size. I cannot tell you how many times I have received a pdf file that was intended to print at 24 x 36 but the pdf was 8 ½ x 11. Scaling a pdf up is never a good idea. Produce the pdf at the size you intend it to be printed.

PDF files are your best option when sending to a printer or service bureau. The latest versions of most layout software now offer an “export to pdf” option. You can save yourself and your printer a lot of aggravation by using this option and in the long run, that will save you money.

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