## Preparing files for Commercial Printing

If you have never dealt with a commercial printer, your overriding mindset should be to not be intimidated by the process. You are paying for a service, and therefore entitled to understand your options, and in addition, you will find that an understanding of the printer’s requirements will help you create a file they can use without problems. Preventing misunderstandings and making the printing company aware in advance of your goals will probably help to prevent most potential issues. If you do not get satisfactory answers from a company, you should shop around. The printing business is competitive – the best offer both technical savvy and customer-friendly advice and service.

### Don’t hesitate to ask questions

- Do they accept PDF files?
  If the answer is no, they’re living in the Stone Age of printing, and you should avoid them.

- If they accept PDF files, which version can be reliably processed by them?
  The answer is especially important if you are using transparency in PDF 1.4 or 1.5 files, as some printing companies’ equipment doesn’t support transparency yet. In this case they have to run your PDF file through Acrobat to “flatten” the transparencies, which may result in extra costs.

- Can they provide an ICC profile of their printer if color fidelity is critical?
  This will help you to control the colors on your your screen.

- If you plan to use spot colors, which spot color sets can they reproduce reliably?
  An example: If you plan to use the French AFNOR or the German RAL standard colors for a print run in North America, this may be a problem, as most North American printing companies are unfamiliar with these colors and their reliable reproduction.

- What is the PS level of their RIP?
  This can be a determining factor in how you prepare the files. If their RIP is 3015.xxx+, you can be sure their RIP can handle 100% of the features of Scribus. They might not be able to directly answer that, but...

- Can they do imposition for you?
  Imposition involves printing document pages on the sheets of paper that make up a book, which are folded and bound together for the end product. In Scribus you will create right and left pages, perhaps add some blank pages so that the placement of each page is satisfactory. Imposition rearranges and places these document pages so that the final product has them in the proper order and correct location. Most capable printers should be able to handle this aspect for you. They may actually prefer that you not attempt imposition on your own.

- If there remain unanswered questions, ask on the mailing list or on IRC. Most of the time, there is someone knowledgeable who can answer your questions.