document color settings and export settings

[CarolM97]

HI -- I'm a first-time book publisher (and designer!) and need a bit of help regarding color and export settings. 

The book is a children's illustrated book. All illustrations have been provided to me in high res RGB files. I'll be exporting to PDF. The print company I'm using can accept either RGB or CMYK files. 

1. What document color format should I be using? It's currently set to CMYK/8, but honestly I set this up SO long ago that I don't remember why I made that decision. (I think it was based on *something*, perhaps that I initially planned to go w/ Ingram Spark, whereas I've decided to use a much higher quality print company.)
2. What document color profile should I use? Do I need to ask the print company what is appropriate given the paper that will be used?
3. For export, what's the appropriate preset? Not sure what the difference is between PDF for print and PDF press ready. Or if I should use one of the PDF/X settings? The company's prepress guidelines read:

Export Settings

Outputting from Adobe: Start with the Adobe PDF Preset “High Quality Print”.
Under the Output section -
 Color Conversion = No Color Conversion
 Destination = N/A
 Profile Inclusion Policy = Don't Include Profiles

Thank you!

Carol

[R C-R]

For all questions, I suggest you ask your printing company what they prefer/recommend.

[CarolM97]

Good idea... I'll do that!

 

Thanks,

Carol