Printing: Using a Professional Printer business, Printing .PDFs

[bitsandglory]

Hi all,

This may have been discussed before but I just searched for like 20 minutes and couldn't find anything definitive. Feel free to delete/lock if it's a duplicate post.

I want to print my SNES & NES UGC covers at a printing place. I don't wanna drop tons of $$ on ink cartridges when the SNES covers suck the black ink out super fast.

I went to the printing place today, and asked them if they could print out of paint (using the way the guide uses) and they said no.

They need everything coverted to .PDF, which I have no problem doing. But is there a way to size them correctly "out of the box" so this place doesn't have to do any work other than printing?

Or at the very least, is there a specific way to print through, presumably a PDF viewer or Acrobat, that I could write a tutorial for them?

I don't want to have them print stuff out at the wrong size, and I have 100+ things I need printed.

Thanks in advance.

[Jeremy1976]

I use photoshop to re-size the image and save as a pdf.  professional printers do not use paint...its foreign to them

[wiggy]

I use photoshop to re-size the image and save as a pdf.  professional printers do not use paint...its useless to them

Fixed.

But seriously, are you trying to make a single PDF which includes all the files you want printed?

[Jeremy1976]

thats much better.  I wasnt really sure how to word it

[bitsandglory]

I use photoshop to re-size the image and save as a pdf.  professional printers do not use paint...its useless to them

Fixed.

But seriously, are you trying to make a single PDF which includes all the files you want printed?

Ultimately yes, I would like to make a single .PDF. I know how to do that though. My issue is I'm unsure what size I need to make the JPG initially before the PDF conversion.

Are the covers already print ready if I convert them to a PDF (other than setting to landscape & legal paper size)?

I guess my confusion comes from printing at home over the years with older computers (I don't have a printer upstairs for my Photoshop), so I used Paint. As a result, there's a bunch of margin changes and potential %'s to change prior to printing. I want to make it as easy as: I give the printers a PDF, they make sure it's set to landscape and on Legal paper, and they print it at the correct size (Rather than ginormous or too small).

And you all have to excuse me- I am a web designer that has a severe disdain for printing/desktop publishing/etc., so I am next to clueless with a lot of printing stuff.

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So in summation: If I just convert my downloaded covers from JPG to PDF, put them in a document, tell them to print landscape & on legal sized paper- is that it? Or will it print the wrong size?

[Jeremy1976]

size has to be right.  I notice some people save there files to some outrageous size.  they need to be 11.22 x 7

wiggy is the one to really ask...he is a pro at photoshop

[bitsandglory]

size has to be right.  I notice some people save there files to some outrageous size.  they need to be 11.22 x 7

wiggy is the one to really ask...he is a pro at photoshop

Alright, cool. Thanks man. Yeah that was basically my concern. Last week when I was printing I noticed some covers were in different DPI's, some were HUGE and some weren't, ETC.

I'm basically looking for a universal size to make the JPG before converting to PDF. So if it's 11.22 x 7, then that's exactly what I need!

[wiggy]

The problem with saving to a single PDF is that covers on the site are saved in all manner of wacky ways.  For some reason many use exact pixel count as a means of measurement, so many covers are formatted not by inch or mm dimensions, but by the actual pixel count and at 72dpi, which makes printing a headache.  So you'll want to make sure that each JPG is formatted the same way BEFORE lumping them into a single PDF.

Then printing from InDesign would really be optimal.

[Jeremy1976]

I have a problem with the large files...when I re-size them it seems that I loose resolution.  This may be cuz I am a rookie at photoshop...but learning

[bitsandglory]

The problem with saving to a single PDF is that covers on the site are saved in all manner of wacky ways.  For some reason many use exact pixel count as a means of measurement, so many covers are formatted not by inch or mm dimensions, but by the actual pixel count and at 72dpi, which makes printing a headache.  So you'll want to make sure that each JPG is formatted the same way BEFORE lumping them into a single PDF.

Then printing from InDesign would really be optimal.

Hmmm. Alright, I see now exactly what you're saying.

I appreciate all the feedback!