Normally I send PDF files to commercial printers or book printers I work with. In handing off a design job, this is often best. If I'm unsure of a printer or just don't have a personal working relationship with someone in prepress, I can rest assured that the custom printing job that is delivered will match the design files I upload to the commercial printer.
Sometimes a job needs to be saved.
I had been working on and off for almost a year designing a friend's cookbook, as her time had allowed. Design fees were adding up. Fortunately the book was to have a limited press run through a digital, on-demand book printing vendor, but the overall price was still rising, and the custom printing cost would add to this substantially.
As noted in prior PIE Blog articles, in addition to other custom printing related pursuits, I install “standees” and signage at movie theaters. This gives me first-hand access to many printed products I otherwise would not see. I'd like to make a few observations that you may find useful, whatever kind of custom printing products you yourself may buy.
Printing trade custom allows offset printing companies to deliver up to 10 percent more, or 10 percent fewer, copies of a job. The commercial printer or book printer can then apply this surcharge (or discount) to your invoice for the actual number delivered. The key word here is “actual.” This is not an arbitrary number. The printer can only charge for what he hands off to the customer.
A client of mine just produced a “galley” of her book, 100 digitally-printed reader's copies for her reviewers to critique before the final offset custom printing run. She loves it, but her husband thinks the type is too small.
I recently received a digital proof for a small poetry book I had designed for a client. The following paragraphs describe the items I looked for in checking the proof. You may want to take a similar approach in reviewing your proofs.