Making the print file

PDF gives you the inside pages and the cover as two files in one archive. Separate, because that is how a printer needs them: the cover runs through a different machine and has different measurements.

JPEG, spreads gives one 300 dpi image per spread. JPEG, single pages splits every spread at the gutter.

Every sheet is three millimetres larger than the finished book on all sides. Anything you place flush with an edge is extended into that margin, so no white sliver survives the trim.

On single pages only the outer edges keep their bleed. Nothing is cut at the gutter; that is where the fold goes.

You get an email as soon as the file is there, with the link in it. The link is good for twenty minutes; after that you get a fresh one in the editor, and the file stays where it is.

You also get one when something goes wrong. Silence leaves you waiting, and an export that failed quietly looks exactly like one that is still running.

Every spread is laid out again at print size, from the originals rather than the web versions. A book of twenty spreads therefore takes a few minutes. You can carry on working meanwhile; the list in the window fills itself.

One file per book runs at a time. Once it is ready it is there to download.