PDF upload in the Online Shop

1. Go to the Online Shop
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 need to have the correct dimensions and be presented 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 Online Shop.
7. Click on “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, take note of the following details:

• Always use sRGB for your data.
• You can upload PDF or JPG files at the Online Shop.
• Do not place the elements directly against the bleed line. In other words, please cover the whole page or leave a gap of about 1 cm from the bleed line. Otherwise you might get edge halos or cut off important elements from your image.
• 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 differs among typefaces. Sans-serif fonts, regular or bold, should be at least 8 pt (measurement using the Arial font), 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. If light text is against a dark background, the font size should be at least 14 pt.
• Stroke width: The stroke width of lines should not go below 1 pt.
• Please leave no register or crop marks.
• The specified amount 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 should therefore 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).
• For the entire Photo Book cover (front and back) only one PDF file is needed.
• 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 empty. (The Photo Book starts immediately with the first spread.)
• PDF files must be optimised in Adobe Acrobat Pro (see instructions below).
• There is no exact file size limit. If your file too large, please contact our support team.
• Before placing the order, please double-check all the pages carefully. If there are any problems, please contact our support team. You can examine all the details in full screen. We are not responsible for any mistakes in the product if they were visible to you 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 photobooks) 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 a 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 (Double page cover and inside pages) but you can also upload 2 PDFs.

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

Adobe PDF presets: In order to avoid problems with the production of printable data, we have made available to you a PDF on our Saal Digital Joboptions to download, free of charge. You can use these for all InDesign versions. Please, download the joboptions here and install them on your computer.

To load the joboptions in InDesign or Photoshop, click on File and under Adobe PDF Presets, select Define. Then click on Load and select the 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 optimiser

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, maximal quality)
• Fonts: please tick the checkbox “Do not unembed any font”
• Transparency: please select “High Resolution”
• Discard Objects: please tick all the checkboxes except
  - Convert smooth lines to curves
  - Detect and merge image fragments
• Discard User Data: please tick all the checkboxes
• Clean Up: please 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
  - Optimise the PDF for fast web view

Especially for Photoshop
If you are using photo editing programs like Photoshop, we recommend saving the double-page spreads as jpg (Quality 10). Please rename your photos to sequential numbers (01..., 02..., ...); that way your photobook or calendar will be automatically filled.

Export multipage PDF file from Photoshop
In CS3: In Photoshop, it is possible to save more than one document as a multipage PDF file. 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: 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). Please select "PDF" and set "Template" to "Custom". Now you have to enter the accurate page size. In the tab "Layout", please set the values of margin (top, bottom...) to zero. You can ignore the tabs "Overlays", "Header", "Footer", "Playback" and "Watermark" and save the document at the end.

Especially for Scribus
Scribus 1.4.4 can embed fonts in PDF files, while other old 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 the export.

Please note: Although the structure of multi-page photography products in Scribus is possible with double pages, in PDF export, the duplicate pages are exported separately as single pages. The PDF file is needed in the webshop (with photobooks) but with coherent double pages, so that this can be interpreted correctly. In order to create your data in Scribus, we recommend that you create a single page in the format of a double page and to create the corresponding markers and help lines.