Tips For Viewing And Printing PDFs


With digital artwork becoming more and more sophisticated it is of utmost importance that people who exchange information using PDF files view them accurately. Many of today's digital artwork jobs contain many advanced overprints and transparencies which are now fully supported in PDF files and Adobe Acrobat/Reader. Because of this fact it is necessary to review your settings within Acrobat to display these transparencies and overprints correctly.

If you find you are experiencing problems either viewing or printing any PDF file we send, please follow these steps to correct these issues. These steps were done using Adobe Acrobat Reader v9.0 (available from http://get.adobe.com/reader/) on Mac OS X 10.5.


For Viewing Problems

  1. Make sure you are using the latest version of either Adobe Acrobat or Adobe Reader.
  2. If needed, you can download the latest free version of Adobe Reader from: http://get.adobe.com/reader/
  3. When you have the latest version installed enable 'Overprint Preview' in the preferences.
    1. Open 'Preferences' from the 'Acrobat' menu.
    2. Select the 'Page Display' category.
    3. Under the 'Page Content and Information' heading, set 'Use Overprint Preview' to 'Always' and click the 'OK' button.
  4. This setting is now permanently applied.

For Printing Problems

  1. Make sure you are using the latest version of either Adobe Acrobat or Adobe Reader.
  2. If needed, you can download the latest free version of Adobe Reader from: http://get.adobe.com/reader/
  3. When you have the latest version installed enable 'Simulate Overprints' in the printing preferences.
    1. Select 'Print' from the 'File' menu.
    2. When the 'Print' dialog box appears expand it fully by clicking the small blue button with the arrow on (next to the 'Printer' drop-down menu).
    3. Click the small button marked 'Advanced...'.
    4. In the next window, make sure the 'Simulate Overprint' is ticked on.
    5. Click the 'OK' button to save the setting, and click the 'Print' button in the 'Print' dialog box to print the file.
  4. This setting is now permanently applied.

If you have any problems with any of the above steps please see the Adobe Acrobat/Reader manual or ask your IT department for clarification.