PDF/X (ISO 15930, Print-Ready)

PDF/X (ISO 15930) is the PDF profile for the printing industry. It removes from the file everything that print production stumbles over: fonts must be embedded, the colour space described by an output profile, scripts are forbidden, and the trim and bleed boundaries are set explicitly. Print houses ask for exactly this kind of file, because it prints predictably.

Exporting a map into PDF/X is what you need when the sheet goes not to an office printer but into production: a poster, an atlas spread, a diagram in a magazine, a banner, souvenir goods. An ordinary PDF is sometimes accepted there too, but in prepress it more often needs manual touch-up.

We deliver the PDF/X-3:2003 profile (ISO 15930-3). The map is rendered by the QGIS print layout, then the required markers are added to the file: an output profile with an embedded sRGB ICC profile, the PDF/X version identifier in the metadata, TrimBox and BleedBox frames on every page, the trapping flag and the document title. The PDF version is fixed at 1.4, as this profile requires.

An important detail about colour: PDF/X-3 permits RGB if the working space is set by an embedded profile — and sRGB in our file is exactly that. We do not do automatic conversion to CMYK: it is more correct for the print house to do it for their own press and paper. If your print house has a hard requirement of PDF/X-1a with ready CMYK, ask them to run the conversion with their own profile, or do it yourself in Acrobat Pro or pdfToolbox.