Creating a Press-Ready PDF

When sending your files to a newspaper web press, a pdf file may be the way to go. A Press-Ready PDF has advantages and disadvantages. A pdf is the most cost effective way to print your file. The downside is your print provider may be limited as to the edits and color correction they can do. If your images are too dark in the file, they may print too dark, etc.

Here are some tips for adjusting images prior to making your press-ready pdf.
Use Photoshop’s eyedropper tool with the sampling set to 3px by 3px average. Hold the eyedropper over the portion of the image to be measured and note the readout in the Info palette (Window->Info).

Correcting grayscales: The darkest areas (aka shadows) should read 87%. The lightest areas (aka highlights) should read 0-5%. The midtone areas should look just a little lighter than you want. Also, as a last step, go to Mode->Adjustments->Brightness/Contrast and add a little contrast (+3 to +5.)

Correcting color images: Images should be CMYK. Flesh tone areas should have the yellow and magenta areas pretty close together with the yellow being just a little higher than magenta. ie: Yellow 32%, Magenta 30%.
Balanced white areas should read (CMYK respectively): 10,6,6,0; or 8,6,6,0; or 6,4,4,0. Get the idea? If your white areas are reading a higher yellow or magenta, your final print will show yellow or magenta. Various monitors display this differently and are hard to judge color by. I always suggest using the numbers instead of your eyes.

When created properly, the pdf will downsample the resolution of any images that have more resolution than is necessary. All fonts used in the document will be embedded into the pdf so it is available when we RIP your file. Grayscale (black and white) images and type should be black only, not RGB or Registration.

Watch the seminar video below for step by step instructions. Also, you will find my Blog address below the video.