Why Printers Like PDF Files?

A Mr. Richard Fader from Ft. Lee, New Jersey, writes in and asks:

Q: Why do you all prefer PDF files rather than my Publisher or Word document?

A: Well, Richard, I’m glad you asked.

Any full service printer worth his salt should be able to take almost every file format you provide and “make it work” for your project.

That said, we do prefer to get a high resolution PDF with crop marks and bleeds if at all possible.

The more work our Baltimore Printing team has to do in order to get your file ready to print, the more costly it becomes for you. Programs like Publisher and Word tend to be a little challenging when it comes to getting them “print-ready,” often losing fonts, spacing, and other crucial formatting features.

Think of Publisher and Word files like a movie, very fluid and in constant motion as they travel from computer to computer; while PDF files are more like a photograph, which is what we are after. We want those rascals motionless and still so we can pin them down and put them on the paper where they belong!

Our graphic designers and CSRs on staff are practically magicians in bringing your files to life, so if you can help us help you, you’ll probably get a better product at a lower price by giving us those steady, sturdy and reliable PDF files.

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