PDF for book printing: CMYK, PDF/X and image quality settings

[phillentier]

Hello,
I would like to create a pdf from a Word file, including text and images (RGB). What are the best design settings for a book edition, given that publishers generally want images to be in CMYK ?
I'm thinking of choosing: images in 300 dpi, RGB to CMYK conversion, PDF/X type, but I wouldn't want a final file that's too heavy: what quality should I choose? (excellent, very good, good...)

[PDF24 Support]

Hello,

sorry for the late reply. In PDF24 Creator the quality levels differ mainly in how images are handled:

• Good quality: images with more than 300 dpi are reduced to 300 dpi, JPEG quality "Good".
• High quality: images are reduced to 600 dpi, with less JPEG compression.
• Best quality: images keep their original resolution and JPEG images are taken over unchanged. This gives the largest files.

300 dpi is the usual value for printed images, so Good quality is a good start. If you see compression artefacts in photos, set JPEG Quality on the page Compression to High quality; the file becomes somewhat larger.

For CMYK and PDF/X:

1. Drag the Word file into the PDF24 Creator, click Save as... and select the format PDF.
2. First select the Quality of PDF, then set PDF standard to PDF/X-3. PDF24 then converts the colors to CMYK, you don't need to set Color Conversion in addition.
3. On the page PDF/X select the Printing condition your publisher requires, or Custom with the ICC profile they give you. Then save the file.

PDF24 offers PDF/X-3 only (no PDF/X-1a or PDF/X-4). Please ask your publisher which PDF/X version and printing condition they need, and let them check the file before printing.

[Author]

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