Professional Zone

PDF Upload in the Online Store

1. Go to the Online Store
2. Choose the Photo Book you’d like in the Photo Book category, and click on Design.
3. Choose the PDF Upload option.
4. Please, follow this guide before uploading your PDF:
   • You should create your PDF files according to the format and number of pages in your Photo Books following the instructions given on this page.
   • You’ll need to take the specified dimensions into account in order to obtain a perfect result.
   • The cover and inner pages must have the correct dimensions and be uploaded as two separate PDF files.
   • Once you have checked this, you can proceed to add the PDF files.
5. Uploading the PDF file may take a few minutes. Your images will not be displayed in the desired format while uploading. Please wait until all images are fully loaded.
6. The number of uploaded images is displayed at the bottom of the page in the Online Store.
7. Click “Next” to display the Photo Book preview.
8. All images will be automatically placed within the pages.
9. Review all pages, and make any necessary adjustments.

Please, pay attention to the following details:

• Always use sRGB for your data.
• You can upload PDF or JPG files at our Online Store.
• Do not place any elements directly on top of the bleed line. In other words, either cover the whole page, or keep about 0.4 in of distance from the bleed line. Otherwise, edge halos might appear, or some important elements might be cut off.
• Fonts: please note that all fonts must always be embedded in the PDF file. Alternatively, you can also convert them into paths.
• Minimum font sizes: Please note that font sizes differ among typefaces. Sans-serif fonts, regular or bold, should be at least 8 pt (measurement using Arial), while Serif fonts should be at least 10 pt (measurement using Times New Roman).
  If the weight of a font is "Light", the size should be at least 12 pt. For light text against a dark background, the font size should be at least 14 pt.
• Stroke width: The stroke width of lines should not be less than 1 pt.
• Do not leave any register or crop marks.
• The specified number of pages does not include the cover (the front and back side of the cover).
• The value of bleed and joint space is always applied to one page and, therefore, must be taken into consideration for every page in a Calendar as well as in Photo Books (e.g. value x 2 for left and right).
• Only one PDF file is needed for the entire Photo Book cover (front and back).
• The inside of the front and back cover will also be printed. If you want it to be white, please leave the first page of the first spread and the last page of the last spread blank. (The Photo Book starts immediately with the first spread.)
• PDF files must be optimized in Adobe Acrobat Pro (see instructions below).
• There is no exact file size limit. If your file is too large, please contact Support.
• Please double-check all the pages carefully before placing your order. Contact Support if you have any problems. You can examine all the details in full screen. We are not responsible for any mistakes in the product if they are already visible in the preview.

Professional Tips:

When using the PDF Export function (recommended when using InDesign and QuarkXPress), we suggest using "High-quality printing" when exporting, or use our Adobe PDF Saal Digital preset. In "Output", please change the target color space to RGB-Color Space - sRGB IEC61966-2.1 (see screenshot below). If you use the "Double Pages" function (for Photo Books) with a layout program such as QuarkXPress or InDesign, please ensure that you have selected the "Print Sheets“ (QuarkXPress = Moutning Surfaces) checkbox. It is important that we receive every double page as one page in the PDF.

Please note that the "Use interface settings of the document" checkbox is activated when you use our templates (see screenshot below). 

You do not have to combine the PDFs (the double page cover, and the inside pages); you can also upload 2 PDFs.

Please always optimize your PDF prior to uploading to reduce the amount of data and to convert any masks, transparencies or metadata that may cause problems during import.

Trimming (for PDF Export): In the PDF export field, under "Marks and Bleeds", please check the "Use interface settings of the document" checkbox, if you have previously defined the trimming in the document.

Adobe PDF Presets: In order to avoid problems with the production of printable data, we also offer you a PDF export of our Saal Digital Joboptions for download at no charge. You can use these for all versions of InDesign. Please, download the joboptions here and install them on your computer.

To load the joboptions in InDesign or Photoshop, click File and under Adobe PDF Presets, select Define. Then click Load, and select Saal Digital.joboptions from the saved location on your computer.

You can now select the Saal Digital profile under Adobe PDF Presets and then export your PDF.

PDF optimizer

Open your PDF in Adobe Acrobat Pro and select "File -> Save as -> Optimized PDF". Please, adjust the following settings:

Compatibility: "Retain existing”

• Images: here we recommend "Bicubic Downsampling to" 300 or 301 PPI for images above 300 PPI (JPEG, maximum quality)
• Fonts: tick the “Do not unembed any font” checkbox
• Transparency: select “High Resolution”
• Discard Objects: tick all the checkboxes except
  - Convert smooth lines to curves
  - Detect and merge image fragments
• Discard User Data: tick all the checkboxes
• Clean Up: set object compression options to "Compress document structure," and tick all the checkboxes except
  - In streams that use LZW encoding, use Flate instead
  - Discard unreferenced named destinations
  - Optimize the PDF for fast web view

Especially for Photoshop
If you are using photo editing programs such as Photoshop, we recommend saving the double-page spreads as JPG (quality 10). Please, rename your photos to sequential numbers (01..., 02..., etc.); that way, your Photo Book or Calendar will be filled automatically.

Export multipage PDF file from Photoshop
In CS3: You can save more than one document as a multipage PDF file in Photoshop. Please select “File -> Automate -> PDF Presentation”. Click on "Add open files“ to open the files needed, and then select "Multipage Document" to save all the files in one PDF.
In CS4: This function is integrated in Adobe Bridge. Please, select the needed files from the folders. Then, go to the output panel (Window -> Workspace -> Output; the panel appears on the right side). Select "PDF" and set "Template" to "Custom." Now, enter the page size accurately. In the "Layout" tab, set the margin values (top, bottom, etc.) to zero. You can ignore the "Overlays," "Header," "Footer," "Playback" and "Watermark" tabs and save the document at the end.

Especially for Scribus
Scribus 1.4.4 can embed fonts in PDF files, while older versions do not support this function. Therefore, if you are not using the latest version, it is necessary to convert the fonts to outlines (also "convert to paths") before exporting.

Please note: Although multi-page photography products in Scribus can be structured with double pages, the double pages are exported separately as single pages in PDF export. The PDF file is needed in the online store (with Photo Books) but with coherent double pages, so that it can be interpreted correctly. In order to create your data in Scribus, we recommend creating a single page in a double-page format and creating the corresponding markers and help lines.