Best PDF export settings for print-on-demand (KDP, IngramSpark, Lulu, Blurb...)

[MikeTO]

I'm going to add some tips to the next version of my Publisher manual to help those exporting to PDF for a print-on-demand service because the sites don't provide Affinity-specific instructions. I've distilled their PDF requirements into a general list, along with a warning to always check the provider's specific requirements of course.

If you've used one of these services, could you review the export settings below and suggest any tips that might help others avoid issues? For now I'm just looking at export settings and not document setup which is more specific to the service, but please share your document setup tips for specific services, too.

Even if somebody doesn't read the manual it would be nice to have a concise list of settings in one forum thread so users don't have to sort through the many long troubleshooting threads.

I bolded the export settings that seem to be the cause of frequent errors. Please let me know of anything that isn't correct or that you would add a caveat to.

• File format: PDF
• Preset: PDF/X-1a:2003 (unless otherwise directed to use PDF/X-3:2003 or another PDF standard)
• Raster DPI: no change (300) unless otherwise directed
• Include bleed: select if the document includes bleed
• Area: select All Pages
• Rasterize: no change (Unsupported Properties) unless otherwise directed
• Downsample images: no change (selected)
• Above: no change (375)
• Resample: no change (Bilinear)
• Use Document Resolution vs. Use DPI: no change (Use DPI, 300) unless otherwise directed
• Allow JPEG Compression: no change (98)
• Compatibility: PDF/X-1a:2003 (unless otherwise directed to use PDF/X-3:2003 or another PDF standard)
• Colour Space: no change (As document)
• Profile: no change (Use document profile)
• Honour spot colours: deselect
• Overprint black: no change (selected)
• Include bookmarks: no change (deselected)
• Include printers marks: no change (deselected)
• Embed fonts: no change (selected)
• Subset fonts: no change (selected)
• Allow advanced features: no change (selected)
• Tagged PDF: no change (unselected)
• Password Protection: no change (unselected)

[stokerg]

Hi @MikeTO,

Looks like you've covered the main one I've dealt with in the past, which was the version\compatibility of PDF.

I'll check with the other guys on the Tech Team and see if they can add anything else  

[MikeTO]

@stokerg Thank you!

[Jane DK]

Hello MikeTo or anyone who is listening 🤞

First, let me say I am so grateful for this brilliant manual.

I hate to bother you, but I am not succeeding with adapting the EXPORT procedure I normally use with InDesign. I sent a test to my printer (not the machine, the person). She just says I've done it wrong and she has no advice with anything non-Adobe. I am sure my document set up correctly so I must be missing something when I export. Here are screenshots of the presets from indesign and my attempts to emulate them in Affinity (the product is a 24 page newspaper).

I know I'm asking a lot but I have tried everything I can think of.

Jane

[MikeTO]

Hi @Jane DK, you didn't report what error your printer found with the file, what their requirements are, or what's in your document, so it's tough to guess at the problem.

But in InDesign you selected Acrobat 4 PDF 1.3 while in Publisher you chose PDF/X-4. These are very different and the most similar option in Publisher would be to set Preset to PDF (for export) and Compatibility to PDF 1.4 (Acrobat 5) which is the closest available version. I find it odd that a professional printer would ask you for a PDF 1.3 file but without knowing their requirements I can't guess as to whether that was even the best choice in InDesign.

That's the big one but I'd also deselect Honour Spot Colours unless you're paying the printer to print spot colours. You might not have used any in your document but just turn it off to be safe.

Good luck!

[Hangman]

Hi @Jane DK and welcome to the forum,

A really unhelpful printer... if there is something specifically wrong with the PDF they should be able to tell you exactly what that is, the software used to create the PDF isn't that relevant here since they are processing the PDF... Personally, I'd ask them if they could let you know specifically what is wrong with the PDF provided otherwise you are slightly fishing in the dark when it comes to correcting it...

Affinity apps don't have PDF/X-1a:2001 support and so are unable to export PDF 1.3 files which may be the biggest issue...

The only other immediate difference I can see is that with the Adobe settings colour images are set to be downsampled to 200 pixels per inch when above 300 using Bicubic sampling, in the Affinity settings this is set to downsample images above 375 dpi using Bilinear sampling but I very much doubt that is the issue...

Can you confirm the Colour Profile you're using for your document under the Document Setup Colour Tab and could you perhaps provide a link to the printer's PDF specs when providing artwork so we can check a couple of things...

[lacerto]

Obsolete.

[Jane DK]

Hi and thank you for 3 thoughtful and thorough replies to my Pdf problems.

It's true I didn't specify what she said was wrong - it was 4 colours in the text - not caused by incorrect pdf settings, but I didn't know that - I assumed, wrongly, that it was my pdf settings that had caused it!  I have corrected the text colours from rich black to 100k, though I don't know how I got that wrong in the first place. I could have missed something with document colour settings when I first brought the idml file into Affinity (?)

I got the InDesign pdf specs over the phone from the very same printer who talked me through it about 6 months ago - I have it on a preset so I never bothered to understand what it was about - but that's about to change

Thanks again for your advice. I will send a new test using PDF 1.4 (Acrobat 5). I will keep it at bilinear and uncheck the spot colours. Maybe she will be in a better mood tomorrow! Hey Ho !

[lacerto]

Obsolete.

[Jane DK]

@lacerto - no apologies necessary for such a mine of wisdom! Anyway, frustration goes with the territory and speaking for myself, it is part of what inspires and fuels me to learn more!

if you can comment on these questions, I should be good for now.

1. Rich black and rgb anywhere in the document (text, frames, placed pdfs, linked jpegs etc). All the blacks must be 100k. I have done a thorough inspection through pre-flight and I am sure there is nothing in the afpub doc that will let me down - unless I choose a pdf that converts stuff to rgb or (even worse) 4-colour black. (Q: Is there any way I can discover this in the PDF after export?)

2. Rasterising This is newspaper print quality and in earlier editions, it looks like everything (logos, ruled lines etc.) is rasterised. So I will not worry about that.

3. Transparency, live transparency and flattening Must be important but I don't know much about it in the context of exporting for print. It looked transparent in the Export window (screenshot) and I saw no options relating to transparency or flattening so I'm guessing it must be implied in the pdf file settings. Can you tell me if I need to worry about getting it right? I mean - what might the print look like if I get it wrong?

I have a deadline, monday morning - so right now I will be content if I can tick the most important boxes of things to avoid. Deeper understanding will have to wait. I was told that some of the settings required are only to avoid the pdf being too big so I will try to focus on getting it right first and keeping it small second.

Thanks so much

page14_PDF-pdf-pressready.pdf

[mopperle]

Just to add my 2 cents: I'm mainly using Blurb and Whitewall. Both are providing some help on creating PDFs for their services:
 

Blurb:
A good starting point is this page: https://support.blurb.com/hc/en-us/articles/360044955872-Affinity-Publisher-PDF-Dateien

For Whitewall:
Starting point: https://service.whitewall.com/hc/en-us/articles/4411250880273-01-Advantages-of-the-PDF-upload
When you start at this page https://www.whitewall.com/uk/coffee-table-book creating a book, you will get .idml template files for the content and the cover.

[lacerto]

Obsolete.

[lacerto]

Obsolete.

[Jane DK]

@lacertothis is brilliant! Thanks for everything 

 

[Jane DK]

@mopperle Following the links you sent. Thank you - good intelligence

 

[lacerto]

Obsolete.

[mopperle]

@lacerto I've just uploaded a book to Blurb and they make indeed a preflight check after uploading, checking the files for technical errors. Additionally they create a preview pdf, where you once more have the chance to check your book, especially to make sure that all content is within the printable areas.

So the warning you where referring to, is about the content (text, pictures, layout) only. They do of course no spell checking, or look for an ugly layout or poor picture quality.

[lacerto]

Obsolete.

[benged123]

On 1/27/2024 at 11:20 AM, MikeTO said:

• File format: PDF
• Preset: PDF/X-1a:2003 (unless otherwise directed to use PDF/X-3:2003 or another PDF standard)
• Raster DPI: no change (300) unless otherwise directed
• Include bleed: select if the document includes bleed
• Area: select All Pages
• Rasterize: no change (Unsupported Properties) unless otherwise directed
• Downsample images: no change (selected)
• Above: no change (375)
• Resample: no change (Bilinear)
• Use Document Resolution vs. Use DPI: no change (Use DPI, 300) unless otherwise directed
• Allow JPEG Compression: no change (98)
• Compatibility: PDF/X-1a:2003 (unless otherwise directed to use PDF/X-3:2003 or another PDF standard)
• Colour Space: no change (As document)
• Profile: no change (Use document profile)
• Honour spot colours: deselect
• Overprint black: no change (selected)
• Include bookmarks: no change (deselected)
• Include printers marks: no change (deselected)
• Embed fonts: no change (selected)
• Subset fonts: no change (selected)
• Allow advanced features: no change (selected)
• Tagged PDF: no change (unselected)
• Password Protection: no change (unselected)

Just want to thank you Mike, for this. I was asking in a different post for exactly this ... dumb me ... not remembering you had already responded in an earlier post. I've used exactly this and am finally sending the document to LuLu.com. I'll report back if they have anything to say that doesn't dovetail with your recommendations above.

And thank you again!!

[Stephanie Hofmann]

Hi, Mike,

thanks for your post, that is really helpful! I am setting up some book covers for print with Acrobat for KDP and am confused about what to put in the color conversion field, do I put no conversion or convert to destination and then select generic CMYK which is how I set up the document and do I include destination profile in box underneath or select don't include profile? Thank you so much, Steffi

[MikeTO]

6 hours ago, Stephanie Hofmann said:

thanks for your post, that is really helpful! I am setting up some book covers for print with Acrobat for KDP and am confused about what to put in the color conversion field, do I put no conversion or convert to destination and then select generic CMYK which is how I set up the document and do I include destination profile in box underneath or select don't include profile? Thank you so much, Steffi

Hi @Stephanie Hofmann and welcome to the forums.

Generic CMYK should be good as the document's colour profile. When exporting, choose "As Document" from the "Colour Space" list and "Use Document Profile" from the Document Profile list. There is no "Convert to Destination" option, that's an Adobe term.

I didn't provide explicit instructions for book covers but keep in mind that if you don't have a calibrated monitor (a very expensive monitor used by professionals), the colours on your screen will appear more vivid than how they will be printed by KDP leading to a cover that appears washed out. Choosing a glossy cover instead of matte will help the colours pop a bit more. Others here may be able to provide better tips based on their experience.

Good luck!

[Chills]

On 7/10/2024 at 1:19 PM, MikeTO said:

if you don't have a calibrated monitor (a very expensive monitor used by professionals),

Then get a screen calibrator https://www.xrite.com/categories/colorimeters    or https://www.datacolor.com/spyder/products/
I have used calibrators from both, and it is potato/tomato  (if you know what I mean), both are good.

They are about €/£/$150 I used them every month or so.   LED screens wobble a lot less than CRT screens.   You had to let a CRT warm up for 30 mins before calibrating.  Some places calibrated daily, others weekly.   These days, once a month is OK.   Or when you are setting up covers and other documents with images in them. 

Also sRGB always looks brighter on screen that in print.