nonprof_webguy - 6:30 pm on Apr 22, 2003 (gmt 0)

I've faced a similar problem with publications that were designed by someone who was print-oriented and not at all experienced in designing publications for distribution via the web. If possible, I suggest that when you first sit down with a graphic designer you find out whether they have experience producing for the web, and specifically producing PDFs (if that's what you intend to do) -- otherwise, you can spend so much time fixing the problems and mistakes that result and going back and forth with the designer, that it adds significantly to the cost of the project.

I learned that it is essential to communicate up-front to the designer that the product will have two distribution formats: one commercially printed version, and one computer-printer printed version.

While most graphic designers are aware of the constraints and possibilities of commercial printing, I have found few who give any thought to the the computer-printer environment's requirements. So when you can't find a designer who's Internet-savvy, you can alternatively give them some guidelines for designing a publication that will ultimately be distributed as a PDF. A short selection from my rules of thumb:

1. Most computer printers can't print to the edge of the page, so "bleeds" will get chopped off. Typical printable margins for laserwriters and inkjets range from .25 to .4 inches.

2. Pages are single-sided and have no left or right page orientation. If repeated elements such as page numbers are utilized, remember that they must consistently appear on every page -- they cannot be, say, only on the odd pages that are the "right-hand" pages in a commercially-printed publication.

3. Printers may be grayscale or color, so the publication should be readable and attractive when printed either way. Beware of putting text in colors that render too light to be readable on non-color printers. Beware also of color screens behind text that render too dark on non-color printers and make the text unreadable.

4. If the publication is likely to be printed, 300 dpi is usually good enough resolution; you are not just designing for 72 dpi screens.

There's also the excellent point made above about using standard fonts like Times and Arial when a distinctive font is not necessary. That can keep the file size down since those common fonts don't need to be embedded in the PDF.

What other advice would you give a designer about preparing products for distribution as PDFs?