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Michael Lavocah
Michael Lavocah
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Can CreatePDF produce print ready (CMYK) files?

Jul 19, 2012 3:46 PM

Categories: Question / Need Help Tags: #cmyk #pdf/a #print_ready

Can CreatePDF produce print ready (CMYK) files?

No compression of images below 300dpi, etc

I guess this would be PDF/A-1b

I am running Word 2007 on Windows 7. I do have Acrobat, but the installation has suddenly broken (always produces 8.5" x 11") and I am thinking of Create PDF as a quick fix.

 

Hoping for a positive reply

 

Michael

1291 Views   4 Replies   Latest reply: Michael Lavocah, Jul 26, 2012 2:51 AM
 
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  • Test Screen Name
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    1. Test Screen Name,
    Jul 26, 2012 12:29 AM   in reply to Michael Lavocah
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    Many would say that if you want a print ready file you need to work in a DTP application that directly supports CMYK, and that attempting to convert Word documents for this purpose isn't going to produce acceptable results...

     

    PDF/A is not designed for print production at all: the A stands for archiving and says nothing about quality print.

     

    PDF/X is designed for quality print but says nothing about image resolution; that's a separate decision, because each printer will have their own minimum (and maximum) they need.

     
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  • Test Screen Name
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    2. Test Screen Name,
    Jul 26, 2012 12:30 AM   in reply to Test Screen Name
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    By the way, I suspect you can get around the page size problem more easily. Especially, print to Adobe PDF after selecting page size in print setup; don't use the Create PDF icon, which has no value in print publishing (but much value in the PDF/A world).

     
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  • Michael Lavocah
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    3. Michael Lavocah,
    Jul 26, 2012 2:49 AM   in reply to Test Screen Name
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    Do you think I haven't tried that???
    It turns out that the Word behaviour 'Scale to A4 / 8.5 x 11" ' had become inverted. Go figure, as they say.
    I can't agree about not using the Create PDF icon, because I've read that printing to Adobe PDF reduces the image quality to 200dpi no matter what you select, and this does indeed seem to be the case, for instance in this forum post.

     
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  • Michael Lavocah
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    4. Michael Lavocah,
    Jul 26, 2012 2:51 AM   in reply to Test Screen Name
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    As for CMYK - of course it's better to work in a DTP application, but you can produce acceptable results from Word. The file is black and white but printers still insist that the file is CMYK.

     
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