The covering note, and the file a shop can open

The note is read before the file

A printer opens ten jobs a day. The ones that go smoothly are the ones where a human being said, in ordinary words, what the job is. Attach the file, and put this in the message body:

Job: ACME visiting cards

Finished size: 90 × 54 mm, 3 mm bleed

Printing: 4/4 process, no spot colours

Stock: 350 gsm matt art card

Finishing: matt lamination both sides, round corners 3 mm

Quantity: 1,000

File: acme-cards-press-v3.pdf: PDF/X-1a, FOGRA39, fonts embedded, crop marks with 3 mm offset

Notes: small black text is 100K only. No manual trapping applied.

Delivery: by 28th, to the Andheri office.

Nine lines. It answers every question they would otherwise email you about, and it is also a record of what you specified.

Naming files so the right one gets printed

Filenames end up on job dockets, in folders with six other versions, and on a shop floor.

acme-cards-90x54-press-v3.pdf
acme-cards-90x54-EDITABLE.indd

Include the client, the item, the size, the state and the version. Never use final, final2, FINAL-new, use this one, or a space in a filename. On some shop systems a space still breaks a hot folder, and everywhere it makes a command line awkward.

Put the version in the filename, and increment it for every file that leaves your machine. A shop asking “which one did you want printed?” is a shop about to print the wrong one.

How to send it

• Under 20 MB: email, and say the file is attached in the first line.
• Anything larger: a link from Drive, Dropbox, WeTransfer or your own hosting. Set the link so it does not expire in three days; a job on hold for a fortnight will outlive a default expiry.
• Confirm receipt and openability. “Please confirm you can open it and that the trim box reads 90 × 54.” That one sentence moves the check from your assumption to their confirmation.

If a shop uses a hot folder or an upload portal, use it, and still send the note.

What to send besides the PDF

Normally, nothing. A press-ready PDF is the deliverable.

Send more only when asked, and know what you are handing over:

• The layout source plus packaged links and fonts, only if they will be making changes, and remember from the type module that handing over font files is a licensing act.
• A low-resolution reference PDF or JPEG marked REFERENCE — DO NOT PRINT, which is useful on a complex job so the operator can see what it should look like.
• A separate die-line PDF if the finishing is complicated, even though it is also a layer in the main file.

The last look

Before it goes, open your own PDF as if a stranger sent it to you.

1. Every page present, right order, right orientation.
2. TrimBox correct, bleed on all four sides, nothing important within 4 mm of trim.
3. Zoom to 400% on small black text; it should be 100K.
4. Overprint preview on; nothing has vanished.
5. Read every phone number, price and name out loud.
6. Check the page count is what the binding needs.

Five minutes. This list, run honestly, is the difference between a career of smooth jobs and a career of awkward phone calls; and every item on it is something that has gone to press wrong for somebody this week.

When the shop comes back with a query

Answer the question they asked, quickly, and do not be defensive. Shops query files all day; a query is not an accusation. If they are wrong, say so politely with the evidence (“pdfinfo -box shows the TrimBox at 90 × 54, here is the output”) and if they are right, thank them, because they have just saved you a reprint.

The people who run the machines see more print in a month than most designers see in a year. Treat their queries as free expertise, because that is what they are.

Keep the sent file separate

Once a file has been sent, do not overwrite it. Move it into a sent/ folder inside the job and make the next export v4. The moment a press PDF is edited in place, you can no longer answer the question in the proofs lesson (which file did they print) and that question arrives without warning, months later, usually by phone.