Useful Printing Articles

Producing Books With Digitized PDF Files

At one time, mass production of books was a time-consuming and arduous process. Manuscripts that were hand-written or typed on a typewriter had to be manually converted into printed pages through typesetting. Now, the digital era has reduced the cost of book printing services tremendously by simplifying the printing process.

Digitization allows for custom book printing at a lower cost and higher speed than ever before. Nevertheless, professional book printing is not as simple as selecting a “print” option on a computer screen. High-quality printed pages must be run through commercial presses, and while many presses are computerized, they do run under different requirements than a home printer. 

Many different industries utilize commercial printing presses. In addition to mainstream book publishers, authors can print their books through self-publishing venues and print-on-demand companies. All of these options will yield a product of much higher quality than can be obtained at home. A printing press takes the information from a manuscript and feeds it into a computerized press, which prints a set number of copies according to the directions laid out by the printer. The printing process takes into account typeset, spacing, illustrations, page numbering, and other details needed to create a polished product. 

Most of the time, authors will deliver their manuscript to the printer in an electronic format. Manuscripts may be e-mailed to the printer, or loaded onto a CD or USB drive and delivered. This electronic formatting allows the computerized printing press to view the data surrounding the manuscript’s current format and reproduce it accurately. 

Book printing companies have certain specifications for how documents must be formatted in order to yield the best results. It’s important that your document be formatted in a way that the printer can understand. If the manuscript is formatted in a way that the printing software cannot comprehend, errors such as misidentified characters or glitches on the layout of the finished piece will occur. In order to avoid these issues, a book printing company will require a specific format for all manuscripts or files to be submitted in. For most companies, the file of choice is PDF. 

Why is PDF preferred among printing companies 

• PDF documents offer a standard format that’s accessible to all writers or designers
• Nearly all computers can view PDF documents, regardless of what software they were originally created in
• PDF files include all of the necessary information needed to print a document the way the design appears on-screen
• PDF files come equipped with the fonts necessary to display the document
• PDF is an easy format to use on a home computer, so you don’t need any special training to convert your own files

Most commercial printing machines are equipped with software that can view and edit PDF files. Because PDF is the standard software used by book printers, most companies will format any documents they receive into PDF before printing. If the manuscript arrived in another format, the author may be charged an extra fee by the book printing service to have the file converted. Therefore, formatting your document into PDF before giving it to the printer saves you money and also reduces the overall processing time needed for the book to be printed. 

If you are looking to publish your book through a commercial printing press, take the time to format the document properly. Using PDF files for your manuscript allows the printer to quickly convert your typed words into professional printed pages without wasting time correcting formatting errors. PDF is also cheaper to print from due to all programs being compatible with PDF formats. By formatting your manuscript properly, you are certain to obtain the highest-quality end product at an affordable price quickly and efficiently.