Technical requirements for PDF files

The Printing house cannot guarantee high quality and production terms of any publication if files submitted by a customer do not meet these requirements:

1. Publication data

On purpose for the order to be completed on time and with high quality, the following publication data must be agreed with the project managers of the printing house before the publication material is presented to the client:

• the exact name of the publication;
• method of binding of the publication;
• constituent parts of the publication and number of pages in each of them;
• format of each part of publication, bleeds size and type of paper of each publication;
• colorfulness of each part of publication, special effects and additional operations required for production;

2. Submission of publication material

Material of a publication is submitted to the printing house:

• by sending to https://wetransfer.com/ 
• by uploading to our Heidelberg Prinect portal: https://prepress.s-k.lt/PrinectPortal

General requirements for preparation of the files provided by the Contractor for printing

The PDF files provided to the Contractor shall meet the following requirements:

• the files must meet the PDF/X-1a standard. The Contractor shall accept the PDF files meeting the PDF/X-4 standard only in case if the PDF files have version layers (e.g. multilingual versions),
• the files must be derived using the ICC profiles indicated by the Contractor in accordance with the technical requirements of the Contractor.

2.1. Arrangement of image elements:

• All relevant printed information must be arranged in the area of secure printing:

- in bound publications, not less than 5 mm to the cutting line;

- in perfect bounded publications, not less than 5 mm to the cutting line and 10 mm to the spine;

- in the publications glued in-line, not less than 5 mm to the cutting line and 5 mm to the gluing line;

• The following image cutting compensation overlaps must be prepared for perfect bounded publications:

- 7 mm between the first page and the last page of the publication and the cover pages;

- 6 mm between the first and last four pages;

- 3 mm inside the publication;

• if the background or images in the final publication must continue to the edge of the page of the publication (cutting line), in the files presented for printing they must be bleed outside the format of the publication.

2.2.The lines and vector graphics must meet the following requirements:

• hairline thickness lines shall not be allowed;
• the thickness of single colour lines must be not lower than 0.25 pt, the thickness of the lines of two and more colours must be not lower than 0.5 pt.,
• the thickness of white colours must be not lower than 0.25 pt where the background is single-colour and not lower than 0.5 pt where the background is of two and more colours.

2.3.The fonts and texts of the Publication must meet the following requirements:

• the used fonts must be embedded in the publication files, where this is impossible, the font must be replaced with another font;
• texts in EPS files must converted into curves and in the files of bitmap graphics must be converted into bitmaps;
• if the font Courier is used, this must be separately indicated in the specification of the publication;
• artificial font styles created by a layout application (Bold, Italic, Outline etc.) should be avoided;
• the font of single colour texts must be not smaller than 4 pt, the fond of texts of two and more colours must be not smaller than 8 pt, the font of white text must be not smaller than 4 pt if the background is single-colour and not smaller than 8 pt if the background is of two and more colours;
• sans-serif fonts should be used for texts smaller than 8 pt;
• the background under white texts must always be knockout;
• black texts must always be overprint except for texts larger than 12 pt;
• the thickness of the font lines shall be subject to the same requirements as the requirements applicable to the thickness of vector lines.

2.4.The colour and colour spaces shall be subject to the following requirements:

• when preparing files, colour management may be used only with the colour profiles meeting the type of paper indicated by the Contractor (Table 1);
• the total ink limit must meet the permissible paper class limits (Table 1);

Table 1. Colour profiles and characteristics of printing

Paper class	Colour profiles	Printing FOGRA characteristics	Max. total ink limit, %
WFC	ISOCoated_v2_eci.icc	Fogra39	330-300
MWC	ISOCoated_v2_300.icc	Fogra39	300
LWC improved	PSO_LWC_Improved_eci.icc	Fogra45L	300
LWC standart	PSO_LWC_Standart_eci.icc	Fogra46L
MFC	PSO_MFC_paper_eci.icc	Fogra41	280
SC, LWU	SC_paper_eci.icc	Fogra40L	270
INP, MF	PSO_INP_paper_eci.icc	Fogra48L	260
SNP	PSO_INP_paper_eci.icc	Fogra42L	260
WFU	PSO_Uncoated_ISO12647_eci.icc	Fogra47L	300

 

• only CMYK colour space shall be used and the elements of the page cannot have ICC profile tags;
• the pages in which less than four CMYK colours are used must be indicated in the specification of the publication;
• use of spot or other additional colours (spot colours) must be coordinated with the Contractor’s technologists; in case of a failure to notify in due time, they shall be automatically converted into CMYK;
• the additional spot colours may be used only in the sheetfed press;
• the publications prepared by roll heat set type press machinery but having additional spot colours shall be automatically converted into CMYK or changing the file presented for printing shall be requested;
• the names of additional spot colour indicated in the files must meet the name of PANTONE colour, for unless use of another spot colour system is agreed;
• if a spot colour is used for marking of varnishing, hot stamping or embosing areas, it must be indicated in the special terms and conditions of the order;