InDesign® CS4 Bible

Chapter 31. Creating Prepress Files

IN THIS CHAPTER

• Evaluating prepress output options

• Creating Portable Document Format files

• Creating Encapsulated PostScript files

• Creating output files

In this electronic age, there are many reasons not to print a document, at least not directly. You may want to deliver the document to readers in an electronic format, such as in HTML or as an Adobe PDF. Or you may want to generate a prepress file that your service bureau can output for you at an imagesetter — one you may send over a network, through the Internet, on a high-capacity disk, or even as an electronic-mail attachment to a device that could be down the hall or in another state.

Selecting the Best Prepress File Option

InDesign has several options for creating prepress files:

• You can export to two variants of the PostScript printing language: Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) or Encapsulated PostScript (EPS). Service bureaus typically prefer files exported this way — particularly in the form of PDF files.

• You can print to file using all the settings described in Chapter 30 — creating a PostScript output file — rather than output directly to a printer, creating a file tuned specifically to the printer driver that you selected. These output files can cause problems at a service bureau, so you're less likely to use this approach.

Note

InDesign can also export both individual objects and document pages as JPEG graphics files. Chapter 4 explains how to do this.

Note

Throughout this chapter, when I say ...