Commercial printing a Pages document

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Level 1

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Commercial printing a Pages document

I think Pages is a great piece of software. Creating great looking brochures, newsletters is not a problem. My question is - what file type would a commercial printer require? Is PDF sufficient? Is the export to PDF command the same as creating a PDF through the print dialogue box?

Powerbook G4, Mac OS X (10.4.8)

Posted on Jan 27, 2007 1:53 PM

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Answer 1

Walt K

Level 4

2,946 points

Jan 27, 2007 3:18 PM in response to rudy21

In my own case I use the PDF selection from the Print dialog box and then Save as PDF. I either email this to the printer or burn it to CD and take it to him. This has worked well with four different printers. The best path to follow in any case is to talk with the printer first.

Good luck,

Walt

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Answer 2

rudy21 Author

Level 1

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Jan 27, 2007 4:20 PM in response to Walt K

Thanks! I'll give it a try. In your case, how did your pieces come out? ie resolution and quality of photos used?

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Answer 3

Walt K

Level 4

2,946 points

Jan 27, 2007 8:19 PM in response to rudy21

The print quality was equal in each case to the original. I did have one problem with one printer but that cleared up in future jobs. Three jobs are grayscale and one was four color process. The color job was perfect!

Walt

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Answer 4

Gary101

Level 1

0 points

Jan 31, 2007 7:41 AM in response to Walt K

We are an in-plant printer and have one customer that uses pages. Can we build from a 4 page 81/2 X 11 doc to an 11X17 folded piece? We also have issues with the fonts in her PDF in the some colored blocks But only a few letters here and there. Can you help we want to work with this customer but need the job to go thru without hours of work put into it.
Thanks
Gary

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Answer 5

IanB

Level 4

1,374 points

Jan 31, 2007 8:07 AM in response to Gary101

Hello Gary

I'm not sure what you mean by '…build from a 4 page…', can you elaborate?

It might be worth asking your customer to try PDF-X. To do this she needs to use the PDF button in her print dialog box and select Save As PDF-X ...

I'm certainly no expert in this area but I understand that PDF-X is an ISO defined subset of the PDF standard specifically designed to eliminate compatibility issues. (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PDF-X). I've also read that some people have had success using this to overcome compatibility issues on pdfs with the online publisher Lulu (although I've not seen much confirmation of the latter).

Good luck

Ian

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Answer 6

Walt K

Level 4

2,946 points

Jan 31, 2007 8:12 AM in response to Gary101

Hi Gary, welcome to Apple Discussions.

I'm not a commercial printer myself so I am unable to tell you how to do what you ask. I do know that I deliver 8.5 x 11 inch PDF pages to my printers and they deliver 11x17 folded product. I don't know how they do it. I have read of problems with some PDF files but have only had one problem with one out of four commercial printers. I'm not aware of any commercial printers on this forum, but there well may be.

Sorry I can't help.

Walt

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