Quick question: PDF Resolution?

[Wolfgang]

Hi,

I just finished a 12-page 4c folder for a client.
It will be printed at a company I frequently use and never had any problems.

The client had my PDF checked by them and they answered that "the resolution was too low, yet printable".
And they suggest a resolution of at least 300dpi.

But to the best of my knowledge, I exported it with 300dpi, on screen it's nice and sharp even at 500% zoom. Not only the text, but the images as well.
I used the same settings for every printjob there before and they always turned out very nice.

Also, I am not a total newbie and I more or less know what I am doing.
I just exported the file again, definitely in 300dpi and it has the same size and the same appearance as before.

Some of the images inside the folder may not have been 300dpi originally, but still big enough to print in good quality.
Is it possible that Xara (Designer ProX) exports the whole document at 300dpi, but "embeds" images in a different resolution?

Ist there a way in Acrobat (8.3) to check single images inside the document for resolution?
Strangely, Acrobat does not show me any kind of resolution for the document, not even under "Properties" ?

Any suggestions are greatly appreciated!

[Albacore]

Import your PDF then see what resolution the bitmaps are you get that info by selecting and the looking at the bottom left on the info bar. In your original xara file open it and do the same as xara will reduce the dpi of any bitmap when you import them in down to 96 DPI unless you specify otherwise. If the res. is reduced open up the "Page Options" through the File menu, click of the "View" tab and around the middle where you can set different things, I always use "specified by image file". Delete the low res. bitmaps and re-import using the new settings checking on the info bar after each import that it has been done right. This can lead to very large Xara files so you may want to specify 300 dpi in the same View Tab in the Page Options again.

Using the PDF export filter you can just export using "High Quality" or "Commercial printing" but I tend to go the "Advance Option" route where I have more control of the PDF output from Pre-press intent, Objects(bitmaps), Layers right through to PDF compatibility. Hope that helps,, come back if you need more.

[SignPig]

If the original bitmaps/photos are low resolution, e.g. 96dpi, saving them at 300 dpi will not increase their real resolution, hence they will still show as low resolution upon inspection.

[Wolfgang]

First of all thanks!

when I imported the images, Xara gave me the option of lowering the resolution or keep the original (with a large filesize warning or something like that).
I chose "Keep Original Resolution" at all times, because that's just what I wanted.
So this should be what you mentioned Albacore?

Once again, on the screen it looks fine to me and good to print.
I exported the whole thing now with 600dpi and let them check again.

@SignPig: I absolutely understand that. But resolution ist relative to the actual printsize. So if I have an image that is 30cm wide in 96dpi, it will have 9,6cm in 300dpi, without changing any pixels.
Some of the images were lower dpi, but I shrunk them way down while at the same time giving them more dpi. (In Photoshop: Image -> Image Size, set resolution from 96dpi to 300dpi with "Resample Image" UNchecked does exactly that).

[Wolfgang]

The export with 600dpi was OKed by the printer.
I did not change anything in the document itself, just exported it again.

Before they said they needed at least 300dpi, when the printfile was exactly 300dpi.
Now - without any internal changes - they accepted it.

[Albacore]

Glad you got it sorted. I never use "Commercial Printing", I always export under the "Advance Options" and depending where you are you might still go with PDF/X-1a but in the UK I use PDF/X -3 as RGB images are excepted but still no layers or transparencies. I think Xara missed in the new release to take the PDF filter to X-4 so that when importing into Adobe programmes we don't have transparencies recognised. But maybe be this might be changed due to the fact that they have changed the way there new trans are being rendered.