Have you chosen to print your book with Tellwell? Congratulations on making a great choice! We handle all pre-press, production, and shipping logistics, allowing you to relax and focus on your creative process.
If you're providing your own print-ready files, it's crucial to ensure they meet specific, stringent requirements.
Before we dive into the details, make sure you review the following checklist and glossary of terms. This will help guarantee that your book is printed to the highest quality standards, saving you time by reducing the need for back-and-forth communication between our print team and your designer.
Our design team is always ready to review your files at no extra cost, and if a minor adjustment is needed, we can usually make the fix on our end for a minimal design fee.
Note: if you're also publishing your book with Tellwell, you need not read any further, our design team will take care of all of this for you!
Pre-Flight Checklist
- Read through the instructions for providing a print-ready interior file and cover file and confirm your trim size.
- If your book is "full bleed" (one or more elements that extend all the way to the edge of the book, e.g. full-page illustrations), check that you’ve set the correct bleed size in your document settings.
- For full-bleed files, check that elements that are on the edge of your trim size extend all the way to the bleed size.
- Ensure you’ve set the correct margin sizes, and that all important elements are within them.
- Ensure all of your images are in CMYK colour space. If not, you’ll have to switch their colour mode in Photoshop. Open the image in Photoshop. At the top, go to Image > Mode > CMYK.
- Check that the effective DPI of your images is 300 or higher. If not, convert images to a minimum of 300 DPI. Learn more here.
- When everything is ready, export your project as a PDF X-1a with crops and bleed marks. Alternatively, package a working InDesign file, and Tellwell can finalize it for print.
- Send your final print-ready files (interior and cover) to Tellwell.
- We'll confirm whether your files meet the printer's requirements, and work with you to make any necessary adjustments.
Glossary
- Pre-flighting: is the process of checking your files before sending them to a printer. The term comes from pilots having a pre-flight procedure before take off.
- Trim Size: your page size, typically measured in inches as width x height. Below is an example measuring 8” x 10.875”.
- Bleed: Extra space that extends past your trim size, allowing edge-to-edge printing.
- Safety: An imaginary margin on your page to prevent elements from being cut off, particularly important for text.
- Margins: The blank spaces or areas surrounding the content within the trim size of the book's layout.
- Gutter: the imaginary margin on the inside edge of your page, when you’re working with spreads. Important content should be kept out of the gutter margin, to avoid falling into the book's binding.
- Colour space: The range of colours specific to print (CMYK) or digital (RGB) projects.
- RGB: The colour space for digital (Red, Green, Blue). Images in this space must be converted to CMYK before printing, which can alter their appearance.
- CMYK: The colour space for print (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black).
- Resolution: The image quality, measured in DPI (dots per inch). The high-res requirement for print is 300 DPI, higher than the 72 DPI standard for digital/screen resolution.