Photoshop CS6 what's the best way to save for printing?

appleshampoo

appleshampoo

New Member
Hello,

I have a design I just finished in Photoshop CS6 that's going to be sent to a printing company to be printed off for a Header Card. What's the best way to save it with no quality loss and send it to them to be printed? .PSD? .PDF?

I tried saving as .PDF but when I look in the folder I saved it to no .PDF file is there for some reason.
 
I would say you have done yourself by creating it in Photoshop. Firstly save a master copy of your file as .PSD file and store it safely, this is what you'll use to make any edits and create any other file format you require (also back it up somewhere).

The correct software would be InDesign for page layout, or, for single/double sided print, Adobe Illustrator would also be favourable.

However, you have created this in Photoshop.

Firstly add crops and bleed (as a photoshop PDF won't create crop marks or add bleed)
http://creativepro.com/photoshop-how-to-adding-bleeds-and-crop-marks/#

The best option is to save as PDF - try to get a ".joboptions" file from your printers. A .joboptions file is a preset of PDF settings that are user defined, a good printer will have a set premade that work for them.
http://www.designeasy.co/2012/08/how-to-load-joboptions-in-indesign.html

If you can't get these - then firstly I would not trust the printer - secondly - don't panic.

You can still do it!

In the PDF options from Photoshop select the PDF X4 option.

This leaves all colours as they are - there is no colour conversion. And it leaves colour transparencies in tact (or at least it should).


The correct place for any colour conversion to take place is the printers RIP (Raster Image Processor) - this is where your vector objects and any other information is converted to a very hi-res raster image.


You also want to make sure that black text is 100% black. http://www.bittbox.com/all/photoshop-101-true-black-cmyk


You'll also need to ensure your document is in CMYK mode before making any text colour changes (or other colour changes).


https://forums.adobe.com/thread/285113



As you may gather - there's a lot to it. If you can't figure it out - ask your printer will they accept the Photoshop file and complete the PDF for you.

=========================================================================
Or if you like - you can request a forum member here to complete the file for you, at a fee of course.
 
hankscorpio said:
I would say you have done yourself by creating it in Photoshop. Firstly save a master copy of your file as .PSD file and store it safely, this is what you'll use to make any edits and create any other file format you require (also back it up somewhere).

The correct software would be InDesign for page layout, or, for single/double sided print, Adobe Illustrator would also be favourable.

However, you have created this in Photoshop.

Firstly add crops and bleed (as a photoshop PDF won't create crop marks or add bleed)
http://creativepro.com/photoshop-how-to-adding-bleeds-and-crop-marks/#

The best option is to save as PDF - try to get a ".joboptions" file from your printers. A .joboptions file is a preset of PDF settings that are user defined, a good printer will have a set premade that work for them.
http://www.designeasy.co/2012/08/how-to-load-joboptions-in-indesign.html

If you can't get these - then firstly I would not trust the printer - secondly - don't panic.

You can still do it!

In the PDF options from Photoshop select the PDF X4 option.

This leaves all colours as they are - there is no colour conversion. And it leaves colour transparencies in tact (or at least it should).


The correct place for any colour conversion to take place is the printers RIP (Raster Image Processor) - this is where your vector objects and any other information is converted to a very hi-res raster image.


You also want to make sure that black text is 100% black. http://www.bittbox.com/all/photoshop-101-true-black-cmyk


You'll also need to ensure your document is in CMYK mode before making any text colour changes (or other colour changes).


https://forums.adobe.com/thread/285113



As you may gather - there's a lot to it. If you can't figure it out - ask your printer will they accept the Photoshop file and complete the PDF for you.

=========================================================================
Or if you like - you can request a forum member here to complete the file for you, at a fee of course.
Click to expand...

Thank you VERY much for the detailed response! I sincerely appreciate your help. I'm not sure but I think the crops and bleed is already done, you see, here is what the printing company created- http://i.imgur.com/9lVfGIk.jpg

and I just took their .pdf file of that and opened it in Photoshop and worked over it creating this- http://i.imgur.com/jIX3ZJ5.jpg

Since it looks like they already had the crops and bleed done in the .pdf file I opened do I not have to do it?

I will ask for the .joboptions file but in case they don't have it do I absolutely need to switch the mode to CMYK? Because it changed the effects I had on a lot of the text and colors, but if it makes for better printing quality then I definitely want to do it.

Thank you once again for taking the time to help me, you have no idea how much it means to me.
 
hankscorpio said:
I would say you have done yourself by creating it in Photoshop. Firstly save a master copy of your file as .PSD file and store it safely, this is what you'll use to make any edits and create any other file format you require (also back it up somewhere).

The correct software would be InDesign for page layout, or, for single/double sided print, Adobe Illustrator would also be favourable.

However, you have created this in Photoshop.

Firstly add crops and bleed (as a photoshop PDF won't create crop marks or add bleed)
http://creativepro.com/photoshop-how-to-adding-bleeds-and-crop-marks/#

The best option is to save as PDF - try to get a ".joboptions" file from your printers. A .joboptions file is a preset of PDF settings that are user defined, a good printer will have a set premade that work for them.
http://www.designeasy.co/2012/08/how-to-load-joboptions-in-indesign.html

If you can't get these - then firstly I would not trust the printer - secondly - don't panic.

You can still do it!

In the PDF options from Photoshop select the PDF X4 option.

This leaves all colours as they are - there is no colour conversion. And it leaves colour transparencies in tact (or at least it should).


The correct place for any colour conversion to take place is the printers RIP (Raster Image Processor) - this is where your vector objects and any other information is converted to a very hi-res raster image.


You also want to make sure that black text is 100% black. http://www.bittbox.com/all/photoshop-101-true-black-cmyk


You'll also need to ensure your document is in CMYK mode before making any text colour changes (or other colour changes).


https://forums.adobe.com/thread/285113



As you may gather - there's a lot to it. If you can't figure it out - ask your printer will they accept the Photoshop file and complete the PDF for you.

=========================================================================
Or if you like - you can request a forum member here to complete the file for you, at a fee of course.
Click to expand...

Also, isn't TIFF an option to? I just tried saving it as a TIFF and it looks like there's no compression whatsoever or any color change. Couldn't I just give them the TIFF file to print off?
 
A lot of printers would not accept Tiff.

And the colour you see on screen is not accurate to what will be printed, unless your screen is colour calibrated to the printing press.

The only way to keep text layers, vector shapes, vector paths in tact is with PDF.

And if there is no bleed or crop marks a lot of printers will reject.
If it's RGB and not CMYK it will be rejected.
If it's not 300 ppi (although I disagree with that figure for a reason) it will be rejected.
 
appleshampoo said:
Thank you VERY much for the detailed response! I sincerely appreciate your help. I'm not sure but I think the crops and bleed is already done, you see, here is what the printing company created- http://i.imgur.com/9lVfGIk.jpg

and I just took their .pdf file of that and opened it in Photoshop and worked over it creating this- http://i.imgur.com/jIX3ZJ5.jpg

Since it looks like they already had the crops and bleed done in the .pdf file I opened do I not have to do it?

I will ask for the .joboptions file but in case they don't have it do I absolutely need to switch the mode to CMYK? Because it changed the effects I had on a lot of the text and colors, but if it makes for better printing quality then I definitely want to do it.

Thank you once again for taking the time to help me, you have no idea how much it means to me.
Click to expand...

Sorry, I totally skipped over that part.

Opening a PDF in photoshop completely destroys the PDF - unless the PDF was created in the Photoshop and editing capabilities were enabled.

There is absolutely no way that you should have ever opened the PDF in photoshop - it completely rasterises the entire document.

However, this is where you are.

You should always seek source files for artwork, and if you can't get it then recreate it in the correct programme.


What you should do now is just save it as a PDF using PDFx4 - and hand that to the printers.


Any other file format just won't do.
 
hankscorpio said:
Sorry, I totally skipped over that part.

Opening a PDF in photoshop completely destroys the PDF - unless the PDF was created in the Photoshop and editing capabilities were enabled.

There is absolutely no way that you should have ever opened the PDF in photoshop - it completely rasterises the entire document.

However, this is where you are.

You should always seek source files for artwork, and if you can't get it then recreate it in the correct programme.


What you should do now is just save it as a PDF using PDFx4 - and hand that to the printers.


Any other file format just won't do.
Click to expand...

Thank you again for taking the time to help me, it truly does mean a lot to me and I don't take your help for granted. To be honest, I'm kinda confused and I think maybe I should just take the time to re-create everything in Illustrator. I downloaded the trial version of Adobe Illustrator CS6, I'm going to try to re-create everything in that, I don't think it should be too difficult since most of it would involve just copying and pasting the text from Photoshop and importing the pictures. I'm glad it looks like the same layout as Photoshop CS6 so hopefully it's not hard for me to use. Before I start, what settings should I have? Or can I just open the .pdf file of what the printing company made and work over that?
 
No you can't just open the PDF in another program. If it was created in Illustrator then maybe.

You can place it in illustrator and recreate it by overlaying. Check out using template layers.

Honestly with all my do and don't - you might get away with opening in Illustrator and making edits but it's a can of worms.

You should really recreate in Illustrator though. Take the time to learn illustrator.


Good luck!
 
hankscorpio said:
No you can't just open the PDF in another program. If it was created in Illustrator then maybe.

You can place it in illustrator and recreate it by overlaying. Check out using template layers.

Honestly with all my do and don't - you might get away with opening in Illustrator and making edits but it's a can of worms.

You should really recreate in Illustrator though. Take the time to learn illustrator.


Good luck!
Click to expand...

I tried doing it in Illustrator but there's just no way. It looks like the same layout as Photoshop but wow it is no where near the same. Everything is super difficult and tedious for me.

If I pay you $10 via PayPal can I please send you the .PSD file for you to open and make changes that you were talking about earlier and to save it in the best quality you can to send to the printing company?

I'm just at a loss here, I put hours into this project and I'm proud of the work I did but I'm just so confused at all the steps to save my work in the best possible way to send to the printing company.
 
Absolutely no way whatsoever will I do it for $10. And that sort of attitude will get you kicked from here faster than you signed up for.

You put in hours... how much do you value your time? $1 an hour? $2 an hour?

How many hours do you think it will take me?

Minimum is = $40 upfront and also $80 per hour = $120 minimum.

Anytime thereafter I charge $80 an hour.
 
hankscorpio said:
Absolutely no way whatsoever will I do it for $10. And that sort of attitude will get you kicked from here faster than you signed up for.

You put in hours... how much do you value your time? $1 an hour? $2 an hour?

How many hours do you think it will take me?

Minimum is = $40 upfront and also $80 per hour = $120 minimum.

Anytime thereafter I charge $80 an hour.
Click to expand...

I deeply apologize! I definitely had a different idea on what kind of changes would be made. I didn't think it was anything advanced, I just thought it would be taking what was already made with my .PSD file and clicking on particular settings in Photoshop for optimization and then saving it as a .PDF. Believe me, I thought it was something that would take you like 5 mins. You've taken the time out of your day to help me and the last thing I wanted to do is offend you. I'm truly sorry, I hope you can forgive me for my ignorance.
 
No offence taken at all.

It's not just about how long something takes to do. It's about the knowledge to get from where you have it to where it should be.

A doctor takes 5 minutes to diagnose your symptoms, maybe 15 or 20 - and the prescribes the right medication. They don't come to those conclusions in just 15-20 minutes, it's a lifetime of experience.

Same goes for a plumber, or an electrician - or a scuba diver!

People have trained for years to be an expert - and that's what you're paying for.

Even if it only took me 5 minutes, you would still be charged 1 hour minimum.
 
hankscorpio said:
No offence taken at all.

It's not just about how long something takes to do. It's about the knowledge to get from where you have it to where it should be.

A doctor takes 5 minutes to diagnose your symptoms, maybe 15 or 20 - and the prescribes the right medication. They don't come to those conclusions in just 15-20 minutes, it's a lifetime of experience.

Same goes for a plumber, or an electrician - or a scuba diver!

People have trained for years to be an expert - and that's what you're paying for.

Even if it only took me 5 minutes, you would still be charged 1 hour minimum.
Click to expand...

I understand. For some reason the .PDF is not saving, I save it to a specific folder and click on save but when I go to look in that folder it's not there. I tried saving it to multiple different folders or on my desktop but it still is not there, I also tried re-naming the file to see if that would work but it still doesn't show. When I click on save I can see the quick blue loading bar in the lower left corner in Photoshop acting like it saved but it's just disappearing for some reason. The .PDF is nowhere to be found. I get no error message or nothing.
 
Yes - the settings look fine.

Try resetting your Photoshop preferences -

To restore preferences quickly using a keyboard shortcut: Press and hold Alt+Control+Shift (Windows) or Option+Command+Shift (Mac OS) as you startPhotoshop. You are prompted to delete the current settings. The newpreferences files are created the next time you start Photoshop.
Preferences in Photoshop - Adobe Support
https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/using/preferences.html
 
Thank you. Unfortunately it didn't work but I appreciate the help. I tried flattening to see if that would change anything but now I'm getting an error code "Could not save as [filename] because of a program error".

That's okay though, I'm going to give Illustrator another try. Regarding the printing company's .PDF when you said "You can place it in illustrator and recreate it by overlaying." Is this what you meant? http://imgur.com/a/TLHs4

I'm not sure if it means anything but when I open it up in Illustrator I can move each individual layer and text in the .PDF whereas in Photoshop I could not, would that mean it was created in Illustrator?
 
Hi, Hank

Thank you for letting me know. I just finished up the design in Illustrator and I'm ready to save it as a .PDF to send to the printing company. Can you please help me with the settings I should choose to save as .PDF? In Illustrator do I still choose PDF X4 like you recommended for Photoshop?
 
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