Acrobat: Preflight and Print Production

Course details

Before you send or submit a PDF, wouldn't you like to know that it's perfect for print? And if you work at a printer, a publication, or a newspaper, wouldn't you like to determine the health of a PDF before those presses roll?

Fortunately, Acrobat Pro DC offers extensive tools for analyzing a PDF and determining its suitability for print. In this course, Claudia McCue helps you get the most from these tools, including preflight profiles, the Output Preview options, flattening, page boxes, and printer marks. She also explains the pros and cons of editing content in Acrobat vs. the original authoring applications, and shows how to manage color with the Ink Manager and the Convert Color function. After watching this course, you'll be able to use Acrobat Pro DC to find and fix many common problems before you go to print.

Learning objectives
Analyzing a document
Using single checks
Creating and using custom preflight profiles
Choosing the correct PDF standard for print
Using Output Preview options
Editing vectors, images, and text in PDFs
Controlling page boxes to crop a PDF
Adding printer marks
Using Ink Manager
Creating trap presets
Converting to PDF with Acrobat Distiller

Concepts

0. Introduction

01 - Welcome
02 - What you should know before watching this course
03 - Using the exercise files

1. Creating and Using Preflight Profiles

04 - Understanding the difference between analysis and fixups
05 - Analyzing a document
06 - Using single checks
07 - Creating and using a custom preflight profile
08 - Importing and exporting preflight profiles
09 - Embedding an audit trail
10 - Using preflight fixups
11 - Creating a droplet

2. Understanding PDF Standards

12 - Comparing the standards
13 - Choosing the correct standard for print

3. Using Output Preview Options

14 - Controlling Output Preview
15 - Viewing color warnings
16 - Using the Object inspector

4. Editing Objects

17 - Changing stacking order
18 - Editing vector content in Adobe Illustrator
19 - Editing image content in Adobe Photoshop
20 - Editing text

5. Converting Colors and Flattening

21 - Understanding transparency flattening
22 - Using the flattener controls

6. Controlling Page Boxes

23 - Understanding page boxes
24 - Using the Crop tool
25 - Using a fixup to crop

7. Adding Printer Marks and Fixing Hairlines

26 - Adding printer marks
27 - Fixing basic hairline artwork
28 - Fixing complicated patterns

8. Using Ink Manager

29 - Mapping one spot color to another plate
30 - Converting a color PDF to grayscale

9. Creating Trap Presets

31 - Understanding ink types, neutral density, and trapping sequence
32 - Setting trap preset options

10. Using Acrobat Distiller

33 - Creating PDFs from Illustrator
34 - Creating PDFs from InDesign

Conclusion

35 - What I hope you've learned
36 - Next steps