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Creating PDF ebooks

Most designers create PDFs for printing. These PDFs contain high-res images and printer’s marks (for cropping, bleed, registration, colour, and page info).

PDF is also used for delivering content to readers as ebooks. The settings for creating PDF ebooks are different to those for creating press-ready PDFs. For instance, the file must be smaller, and exclude printer’s marks.

This is a brief guide to creating basic PDF ebooks. This should take a designer or typesetter about ten minutes. So PDF ebooks can be easily produced at the same time as final, press-ready print PDFs.

Most typesetters will use InDesign and Acrobat Pro for this. So our guidelines speak most to those applications. However, the steps apply to almost any applications for editing source files, exporting to PDF, and editing the resulting PDFs.

Working on the source files

Arthur Attwell 22 April 2010
This information is more than two years old, and may no longer be accurate.

If you’re creating a PDF ebook from a print PDF, skip straight to the next section about working on the PDF. If you’re working on the source files, though, there are a few things you can do in your document before creating the PDF that will make things easier later. … Read more

Working on the PDF

Arthur Attwell 8 September 2020
This information is more than two years old, and may no longer be accurate.

Note: You need a good PDF editor to do this. Most designers and typesetters have Acrobat Pro. If you don’t, you can try other PDF editors like Foxit Phantom 2.0, PDF Studio or Proview. We’ve not tested these options extensively.
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Arthur Attwell 8 September 2020
This information is more than two years old, and may no longer be accurate.