nisus.com

Hi,
Anyone know the rationale for using PDF-X, via Preview, rather than just "Save as PDF", for a PDF that's going to be uploaded to Lulu and used for book printing?

I see by reading on various sites, including Apple, that PDF-X is supposed to be for high-end book printing.

Anybody experienced in this? I've been using a straight Quartz PDF (no X) for several books over the last three years, but maybe I was just lucky.

The current book has much more intricate layout, and intermittently fails to print some footnote divider lines. Lulu support can't trace it, blames Mac OS Quartz, and says to use Acrobat. But maybe I should have been using PDF-X all the time... ?

Thanks

WF

I'd never heard of PDF-X, but a quick skim of its wikipedia entry makes some things clear:

For example, in PDF/X-1a all fonts need to be embedded and all images need to be CMYK or spot colors.

So it sounds like PDF-X ensures the content inside the PDF is up to snuff for printing. It probably makes life easier for anyone receiving PDFs, because they can be sure all the materials are suitable and ready for printing.