X Files Magazine Covers

[Yogprasad Moneta]

Helloanybody, please advice how to setting up layout for print a book or magazine for export to PDF file (as I want to printing in print-press offset), here I attach some screenshot sample, the step way I have done were:

2. Then I open this file however when see the page layout the Front & Back Cover in separate sheet, for next page are fit in a sheet layout, even I choose the print menu as Single please see the attach screen shot.

The correct workflow is to optimise your images in Photoshop (straighten, color correct, sharpen etc), keep them in RGB color mode, ensure the resolution is around 300PPI in the size you'll be printing them at in InDesign.

Place the images into your InDesign document, where you can add the text, color panels etc. Double check in the Links panel that each image has an effective resolution of between 200 and 300PPI, and there are no errors in the pre-flight.

Also ensure that those images that bleed do so. Unless you've been given a spec by your printer select from the InDesign presets, PDF/X-4. Export as Pages (not Spreads) tick Use Document Bleed Settings and Crop Marks. (This PDF will convert to CMYK).

Agree with all Derek says, but you don't necessarily need to create a separate cover file. Your printer can extract the cover, back cover, inside front and inside back for you. Leave imposition and trapping to your printer.

Separate covers are good if the cover is being printed on different paper stock from the guts of the magazine, since they will be on different presses or printed separately. Or if the magazine is perfect-bound.

Okay, do what is best where you print. But no problem of using PDF/X-4, use that if it makes you more comfortable or ask your commercial printer what they prefer. We print magazines here in Scandinavia and in Lithuania and we always use "press quality" in our PDF's for offset-printing. That works fine on coated paper.. Good luck!

Imposition: The printer will handle this as Derek said. Be aware of any printer that requires you to do imposition. The reason the printer should handle it is there are issues to be taken into account depending on the bindery method.

As Rob stated, output single pages with bleed. The inside bleed will be trimmed off for saddle-stitch, but aids in cross-over alignment; the inside bleed will become the grind-off area for perfect-bound mags. The only exception to output spreads would be for a wrap-around cover, but you have to take the spine width into account for perfect bound--and for an center spread for saddle-stitch (perfect-bound has no true center spread).

PDF/X is a variation that has certain requirements that other formats may not have (although InDesign usually fulfills they requirements automatically). Also, the PDF/X format was developed by printers--the X stands for "exchange".

Resolution is not part of the PDF/X spec, but I use 225 PPI for color and grayscale images when printing at a 150 line screen (LPI) for standard offset printing. You would need to ask your printer about the LPI, then multiply it by either 1.5 or 2 to get your PPI. (I have always used 1.5 to make more compact and efficient PDFs.)

I'm not sure about that. PDF/X-1a forces all color into a single CMYK space, so to use it effectively you have to know the print destination's press profile. The final color management happens on export.

With PDF/X-4 all of the color can be profiled RGB and exported with no color conversions. In that case you don't need to know the destination because the final conversion to CMYK can happen at output when the correct press profile is known.

The PDF/X-1a uses a single, document-wide CMYK profile. (Yes, conversion happens upon export, but I didn't feel the need to clarify that since we are discussing PDF export.) You are correct about knowing the final destination, hence why converting at the user end should be the last resort.

InDesign's can trap during output--there is a work-around to trap when printing to the Adobe PDF driver, rather than exporting. I believe the work-around only works on Windows, not Mac due to the Apple drivers.

(1) Trapping is best done in the RIP as part of the process that also performs color conversions (using ICC color management) and transparency blending. Trapping is print process / technology dependent and the vast majority of what used to be trapped manually or in application programs is now routinely perform when and when appropriate at the RIP (or DFE for digital print devices).

(2) Imposition (including booklet making, signatures, step-and-repeat, etc.) is a responsibility of your printer. Often support for imposition is actually built-into the RIP itself. A designer should never be doing this themselves. For that matter, cut marks and other printer marks should be provided by the printer. Providing them in your original PDF files might actually get in the way of proper imposition.

(3) NEVER, repeat NEVER, repeat yet again NEVER produce PDF from InDesign, Illustrator, or Photoshop via distillation of PostScript. This is an antiquated workflow from the last century (literally). I have never seen PDF from distillation of PostScript than is any better than what you get by exporting PDF from InDesign (or saving PDF from Illustrator or Photoshop). And with this direct PDF creation, you should be using PDF/X-4 without any color conversions or transparency flattening. And obviously, you should not be outlining text despite what any Luddite printers may tell you or claim to know!

(4) With regards to covers versus other components of a book, at present you are probably best off using a separate InDesign document and PDF file for cover versus book, especially if there are different target CMYK color spaces for printing. That having been said, with the new version of PDF/X under development now, PDF/X-6 will allow for CMYK Output Intents on a page level (probably based on master pages in InDesign) and production metadata that will allow for single InDesign documents and hence single PDF/X-6 files to support multiple page types (not just sizes) that will feed into RIPs that can properly choose either substrates and/or actual devices based on the production metadata. Keep tuned!!!

Dov, thanks for mention of the future features of PDF 2.0 and the PDF/X-6 standard being developed by the ISO. Any guess as to how long we'll wait to see those standards finalized? (I won't hold you to your best guess.) I know ISO committees seem to move at the speed of glaciers.

PDF/X-6 will allow for CMYK Output Intents on a page level (probably based on master pages in InDesign) and production metadata that will allow for single InDesign documents and hence single PDF/X-6 files to support multiple page types (not just sizes) that will feed into RIPs that can properly choose either substrates and/or actual devices based on the production metadata. Keep tuned!!!

So does that mean InDesign will also allow page level CMYK profile assignments? For example, all of the document color is spec'd as native CMYK swatches, the cover is printed on a high gloss sheet, and the interior is on an uncoated sheet? Will there be a way to prevent unwanted CMYK-to-CMYK conversions on both sheets?

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If I know it will be printed on uncoated matte paper, does printer say which color profile to use after exact paper is being choosed? What should I keep in mind technically when designing magazine with uncoated matte paper? For body text should I use always 100% black?

Margins: if the main part of magazine is text, I understand that inside margins should be pretty wide, when reader opens spread it can be seen easy, but the other three margins, do I need to keep something in mind like mandatory or it is up to me because of what design I will make?

Spine size depends on paper thickness. At 190 pages this can be calculated as paper thickness * page count = X mm and the printer should be able to give you this number. You will probably have to design and export the covers (front and back) as a separate ID file, adjusting the spine thickness manually. You will probably need to deliver 2 pdf's, one for covers and one for pages. The width of the covers should be 297+X mm (assuming your pages are A5 portrait). Perfect binding should not influence the way you export the pages pdf, just export as single pages with crops and bleed.

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