How can I learn about PDF for book printing ?

[IthacaAuthor2011]

Hi and thanks in advance.
I now have Acrobat Pro DC (new user, just signed up a few days ago), running on a Mac with the latest OS. 
I have been making books for 20 years. I make the PDF files for the cover and interior pages, and then send them to the printing company, and (usually) everything works.

But now I want to do more than push some buttions.
Now I want a deeper understanding of PDF files, in connection with printing paper books.
Does anyone know some resources for getting a deeper understanding about PDF and book printing ?
If there is a book on this subject, I will be happy to buy it.
Thanks again,
Zorba

[Document Geek]

Wow, that's a pretty big subject. Are you interested in learning more about prepress? That would include things like imposition, bleed, creep, trapping... And the prepress needs will depend upon the type of book and printing equipment used. I'd recommend the courses by Claudia McCue: https://www.linkedin.com/learning/instructors/claudia-mccue. Hers aren't specifically to paper books, but printing in general. But I know no one more versed in educating people about the printing process. She is a master.

[gary_sc]

Hi Zorba,

Besides the Geek's excellent suggestion I do have to ask where the "before the PDF" documents are coming from? Were they Word documents? InDesign documents?

Like photography, the more you do in the camera, the less you have to do in Photoshop. If the files are coming to you as a text document, that's a LOT more work than if they are "print ready" from InDesign.

[IthacaAuthor2011]

Hi Gary ... Here are the answers:

I used InDesign for 12 years, and at that time everything was coming from InDesign: the inside pages and the book covers.

Now I do the inside pages with "Apple Pages", then export to its "Best" quality PDF.
For the book covers: with Affinity Publisher.

But a problem came up recently: Affinity Publisher was distorting some of the PDF files (maps and family trees from a designer/artist) that were going into the interior PDF.
So I recently (a few days ago) bought Acrobat Pro DC, to help me replace PDF pages in the interior without distortion; and then to export to a PDF that can be printed for a book.
At this time in my publishing career, I want to learn about PDFs in relation to printing:
Answers to questions such as:
What is PDF/X? ... What is PDF 1.4 ? ... How can I use Acrobat Pro DC to make the PDF versions I need ? ... What is actually happening when I used Acrobat Pro DC ? ... and so on.
Thanks !
Zorba

[gary_sc]

Hi Zorba,

OK, that's a great background, good luck! I just wanted to make sure that what you were hoping to do in Acrobat was not going to be based on something really strange. I occasionally see folks who want to manually type in pages of stuff inside a PDF and want to know why they are having problems with that idea. 

Yeah.

And do check out that LinkedIn link, good luck!!