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If you are using Adobe Acrobat Distiller, the default page setting is 8.5" x 11". To create a PDF of another size, you must change the PDF settings in Acrobat Distiller by following these instructions:

1. Open Acrobat Distiller.
2. From the Settings menu, select Edit Adobe PDF Settings. The General settings are displayed.
3. In the Default Page Size fields, enter the desired width and height of your document.
4. Click Save As and enter a descriptive name for the job options file.

Our print-on-demand process currently supports only black and white or color printing. If your document is a black and white book, make sure the print settings on Acrobat Distiller are set for black and white.

Last updated: 2008-11-13 13:25:25 | Back to top

If you are uploading your own PDF, follow these guidelines.

For paperbacks

Settings for exporting to PDF or creating from Distiller:


• Fully embed all fonts used in the document. Take care that all fonts are only embedded once. Subsetted fonts over multiple pages can cause problems when your PDF is rasterized for print. Your document may be printed with symbols instead of fonts, garbled text or missing text.
• Set compatibility mode to Acrobat 4(Acrobat 4 did not support transparencies and will flatten them when creating the PDF).
• Leave the PDF's colorspace in its original profile. Do not convert CMYK to RGB or vice versa.
• Turn off Overprint and Simulate Overprint
• The PDF filesize should not exceed 700MB
• Do not downsample your images unless they are fully rasterized. If they are fully rasterized and the DPI is greater than 300, downsample to 300 DPI.
• Flatten your final PDF to a single layer.
• Flatten all transparancies.

Settings for image files within the PDF:


• Image compression should be set to ZIP if you want lossless (no artifacts/distortion-free) images. To reduce filesize, use JPEG -> High.
• If you are printing a color book that has black & white images in it, the black & white images should have the colorspace set to grayscale.
• Leave the images' colorspace in their original profiles. Do not convert CMYK to RGB or vice versa.
• Do not use CCITT or LZW compression. LZW compression creates multi-strip images, which may show white lines when printed.
• Use ZIP encoding for grayscale images.
• The gamma of a grayscale image should be between 2.2 and 2.4.
• DPI should be between 300 and 600 DPI.

Color casewrap hardcovers

• DPI should be between 300 and 600 DPI.
• Use an untagged CMYK workflow with CMYK TIFFs whenever possible. If the original workflow was RGB, do not convert to CMYK.
• Solid blacks will print solid at 100% with no other colors added. If you do add colors to improve the richness of the black, TAC (total area coverage) should never exceed 270%.
• Avoid very light color builds of less than 20%. Below 20% tint variation is very difficult to control on a consistent basis.

Last updated: 2008-11-13 13:25:48 | Back to top

If you are planning to upload your own PDF, you may use any fonts you like, but you must embed the fonts in the PDF before uploading to Lulu.

All fonts must be embedded. This can be trickier than it seems, so please refer to this tutorial: http://yaquinapress.com/postscript/EmbedFonts.html

Last updated: 2008-11-13 13:25:25 | Back to top