Essential Info

Booklet Pagination Sequencing PDF

Top Six Mistakes

The PDF Proofs I Received Look Odd... What's Up?

PDF proof files will display on screen as approximately 72 dpi. They are *not* final print resolution or color accurate. Resolution is reduced to enable a much smaller file to be saved and downloaded.

If you are concerned about the quality of the proof try to PRINT the file. We had this comment from one customer:

"Hey there, I tried an experiment with the PDF files, I printed them out on my printer instead of just looking at them on the monitor. When printed they look totally smooth and normal. Must be something weird with PDFs in general, they look bad but print good? You might want to mention this to people in the future who have the same questions as me."

As you might guess PDF files are not perfect, as Adobe (the makers of PDF technology) are basically enabling a sort of color FAX to take place here. Rely on your {source} files to check resolution. If your images are high quality going in, then during the final print stage your images will be fine. If you still have concerns and are not confident that your images are up to your standards then CDman can produce high-resolution PDFs but be warned - these will be very large files and may take a long time to download OR we can print out high resolution hard copies and FedEx them to you for additional charges. If you examine the {source files} you sent us and check your images for proper resolution (300 dpi) and also that the words (letters you typed) are not embedded into photos, you can then use the PDF for text and photo alignment and for POST SCRIPT FONT ACCURACY. Go back to the PDF and ZOOM up to 1600% and look at the edges of the letters. You should see very slight 'steps' or jaggies on the edges of the letters. If you do you can rest assured that your fonts are VECTOR based and will look fine once printed. If you see severe pixilation on the curves of the letters email us a REJECTION notice and ask us to check the files for you.