How to make a PDF of your document from Adobe Distiller or other professional design program

While it is possible to make a simple PDF in Microsoft Word, Snowfall Press strongly encourages its customers to use either Microsoft XPS format or Adobe’s PDF/X-1a. Particularly for jobs with complicated covers and unique fonts, these formats will ensure that all your photos are rendered correctly and all the fonts you desired are embedded and ready for printing. Covers should be in the CMYK color space. Book bodies should be grayscale.

PDF – how to set up

The best way to create PDF files on a Windows machine is by using Adobe Acrobat Distiller. This tool can act as a print driver to help you produce files from any program on your computer. Acrobat itself has tools to help you further prepare your documents. By using the "Digital Color" or "Digital B&W" preflighting tools, you will experience better and more predictable results. There are many lower cost or free PDF printers that may also work for you.

When printing to Adobe PDF Distiller, you need to set several options for best results. After selecting "Adobe PDF" as your printer, click "Properties". From here, set "Default Settings" to "PDF/A-1b:2005(CMYK)", and uncheck "Rely on System Fonts". Under the "Paper/Quality" tab select "Black & White" for book bodies and "Color" for covers.

XPS

The Microsoft XPS Document Writer is freely available for Windows XP and Vista. If you are using one of those operating systems, it is probably already installed on your machine. To check, print this page (CTRL-P) and look through the list of printers available on the options page. If you see a printer named "Microsoft XPS Document Writer" then you can select that to create a print ready file.

To get the best results, you need to set a few options before printing a document:

1. Select "Properties" from the print menu, then select "Advanced"
2. Choose a paper size that is the same size or larger than the document you are printing
3. Set "Interleaving" to "On"
4. If you are printing a cover, set "Images" to "PNG"
5. If you are printing a book body, set "Images" to "JPG - Medium" or "JPG - Minimum"

Cover Creation

The front, back, and spine of the cover should be designed in a single file, or commonly called a “spread.” Start by creating and uploading the body of the book, then you can use the Snowfall Press Online Make-Ready tools (this is the tool where you upload your cover and text) to determine the width of your book's spine. Remember to leave bleed (.25” overlap beyond the trim line) on each side of your cover, and to give all text elements space away from the edges.

If you are new to design and feel unsure of your ability to design a cover, compare your work design to the design of a book you like. Are the colors pleasing? Does anything look cramped? Try playing with the position of any text elements to try to achieve a balanced feel.

Covers are printed on a four-color digital press. As this is the most visible feature of your book, extra care should be taken when making the file. The first thing to keep in mind is that you can't build a cover to exact measurements. There are many steps involved in printing, laminating, and attaching a cover, and any particular cover may slide from the ideal position by up to 1/8 of an inch. This means that if you make text that extends edge-to-edge on the spine, some of that text could end up on the front or back of the book. If you paint background colors only to the designed-edge of the cover, then you will have a thin white line on one of the sides if the trimmer misses slightly. All covers should have .25” inch bleed for safety.

Any pictures used must be of high resolution. Images should be 300dpi. As a reference, the dpi of your monitor is probably 96. This means that pictures which look crisp on your monitor can appear grainy and pixilated in print. The printer produces a much more detailed image.