Preparing for print in Photoshop

So now our document is ready, let's look at how we can get this into print. So I'm going to assume a scenario the same as we used in InDesign that we have been recommended by our printer to create a PDF/X-1a file, a PDF file that is compatible with the PDF/X-1a standard, and this is a standard for commercial printing. It of course, is not the only standard, so do check with your printer.

The PDF/X-1a preset is going to create a PDF with CMYK or print colors. We currently have an RGB image, so throughout the course of creating this document, we really should be working with Proof Colors turned on. I'll do that now. When I do that, you may notice the colors becoming a little flatter, a little less vibrant. So the CMYK that we are proofing is the CMYK profile specified in our Color Settings right there.

And as I have mentioned before, this can be synchronized in Bridge using the Creative Suite Color Settings, so make sure that you have the same settings in InDesign and in Illustrator. So with my document ready and my manually drawn crop marks that we created in an earlier step turned on, I'm going to go to File > Save As, where I'm going to choose As a Copy. And this is quite important, because this is going to mean that there's no chance of us getting the PSD version and the PDF version mixed up.

It will keep the PSD version, the cover5.psd as the open document, and then just create the PDF in the background. So I'm going to call this now cover_final, and then just to distinguish it from any others I'm going to add a PS to that, indicating that it's been saved from Photoshop. I'll come and choose the Photoshop PDF file format. I'll click OK to move through that.

Any presets that you made or loaded into InDesign or Illustrator will show up here as well. So if you have a preset that's been supplied by your printer or that you've made, you can use that right here. I'm just going to come back and choose the generic PDF/X-1a. I do want to make sure that I'm going to View this After Saving And everything else can stay the same. So I'm now going to save that. Even though I checked View PDF After Saving, it has not opened it for me, so I need to go to Acrobat, where I can just go to the folder where it was saved and open it from there.

And there is our print-ready PDF prepared from Photoshop with the crop marks indicated.