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Uploading Your Files

Uploading Your Files

Step 1: Create the PDF

Make PDF X-1a files for your cover and text. For more information about file preparation, please click here.

The cover file includes the back cover, spine and front cover in a layout as in the example below:

The body needs to be laid out simply, one page of the book to one page of the PDF. Do not impose the document yourself or export as "Reader Spreads".

Step 2: Create a Book in Our System to Hold Your Files

Log into your account and choose "Books" from the navigation menu. You will see this screen:

Click on the "New Book" button, and you should see something like the following screen:

Click anywhere in the ‘No Title Set' line to select the book you will edit. It will highlight in blue.

After selecting your book, click "Edit". You will be taken to the Make-Ready application screen, which looks like this:

Step 3: Load Your Files

Body

You will upload your body and cover files into this make-ready application. To upload files, it's first necessary to have a recent version of Adobe Flash installed in your browser. If you don't know whether Flash is installed, go here to check.

Let's take a minute to take a quick overview of the make-ready application. On the upper left, you'll see a menu and several tabs. Clicking the "Body" take will take you to the body upload and setup interface. "Cover" will show a similar interface for managing your cover. The "Properties" tab let's you edit important fields like the title and author.

The first thing you should do is go to this properties tab and add your book title. This title should match what is printed on the cover so that it does not cause problems during production.

Next you will set up the body of your book. Go to the body tab and click on "Load Body". Select your body PDF and wait for the file upload progress meter to "Upload Complete". It's important not to leave this page or tab until the upload has finished. In a few seconds you should see the first page of your book in the body preview. You can click on the blue arrows to page through your book, or enter a specific page number and hit the "Go!" button.

Now that you can see your pages in the book body preview, it's time to set the books size. Snowfall can print any size between 4x6” to 8.5x11." Enter the width and height, and you should see the preview adjust to fit.

Depending on how your PDF was created, the pages may require position adjustment. Click on the "+" symbol in the "PAGE SETTINGS" box in the upper right. This will drop down the page menu. Here you can adjust the position of pages, and choose the paper type of your book. You can also adjust page positioning in a more hands on way by click the small vertical and horizontal blue arrows on the body preview.




Key features: 

Horizontal and vertical shift: remember to make any changes to BOTH sides of the book.
Paper choice: We currently have three paper choices. The book automatically defaults to 60# white.
Document scale: This feature allows you to re-size your body file in the template instead of going to your source file and re-uploading.
Force black text: Allows you to force screened text/fonts to black.

In the book body preview, the page area you see will be what is present in your final book. If you have full page images, then it is important that they "bleed" all the way through the pink shaded area. The red dotted line represents the "trim line." If your image ends at the dotted line, you run the risk of a white line appearing around your image after the trimming process. The thin blue lines are there as a reminder to leave margin. The dark grey area in the middle is similarly there to remind you of the gutter area.

Cover

Click the cover tab to open the cover interface. Similarly to before, load the cover and make any needed position adjustments.



Key feature:

Boost saturation and contrast: This tool allows you to access a second color profile setting that is pre-programmed to offer a "brighter" color result.

The red dotted lines indicate the "trim line", and the pink shaded area represents the bleed area, the same way it did on the body template. Your design needs to fully cover this area to ensure proper bleed and trim.

PDF Files

We recommend the use of the PDF X-1a file format for both interiors and covers. This PDF format is available with Adobe's professional design software such as Acrobat Professional, InDesign, and Distiller. The X-1a format helps ensure that photos, images, and drawings are rendered correctly and that the desired fonts are embedded. The Snowfall Print Network is able to successfully print many simple PDFs created through Word or other PDF creation tools that do not produce X-1a formatted files. However, if a check of a physical proof shows font/character problems or issues with photos, images, or drawings, recreating the PDF in the X-1a format is the first solution to try in almost all cases.

Creating PDF X-1a files in Adobe Acrobat Professional