Exporting CD cover (4.724" square) to PDF, it prints as 8" square

Report · Jun 02, 2018

Hi,

My apologies for the newbie question, I am very new to Indesign. I am exporting a CD cover from indesign to PDF. The CD cover in indesign is 4.724" square. When I export it to PDF however, it comes out as 8" square.

I have tried exporting with and without bleed marks, crop marks, and with and without using document bleed settings. How can I get indesign to export at exactly the same scale as the document I am exporting?

Report · Jun 02, 2018

What is 8 inches?? The entire PDF or the space between the crop marks? How are you measuring this? What are your PDF export settings? Are you printing with Scale to page turned on?

Report · Jun 02, 2018

Again, apologies for my newbie-ness:

I can see on the measurement ruler at the top and side of indesign that the CD cover measures 4.724", but when I print it to a PDF the CD cover is almost as wide as the PDF and when I print that to paper and measure it with a measuring tape it is 8" across.

I have noted my export options in my reply to Scott Citron.

Report · Jun 02, 2018

This sounds to me like you're printing the artwork as Fit to Page. Check this and make sure you're printing at 100%.

Report · Jun 02, 2018

Apologies, I really am a newbie here.

I can see on the measurement ruler at the top and side of indesign that the CD cover measures 4.724", but when I print it to a PDF the CD cover is almost as wide as the PDF and when I print that to paper and measure it with a measuring tape it is 8" across.

What I am doing is File->Export, which gives the ability to save as a PDF. If I click save it then gives me a whole bunch of options.

I am doing 'general' settings as:

Export as 'pages', layout 'default', view 'Actual Size', 'create tagged pdf' is checked but no other options are.

I have tried 'Marks and Bleeds' settings as: 'crop marks' checked and nothing else checked, 'type' is default.

Is there some other way I should be printing it?

Many thanks and apologies again for my newbie-ness.

Report · Jun 02, 2018

I should probably mention that I am printing to a PDF because I don't have a printer at home, I print to a PDF and then take it to Kinko's.

Report · Jun 02, 2018

I *think* this may be resolved.

If I export to a PDF, for some reason it scales the image and crop marks to basically the width of the PDF. even though I don't see any export options saying 'scale to width' or anything like that I can't print directly to a printer because I don't have one.

However, because the replies above assumed I was printing to a printer I decided to print to a postscript file as the next best thing. Once I loaded that postscript file into Adobe Acrobat it looks at least on the screen that the width of the CD cover is correct. I will be able to confirm once I've actually printed it out.

I really appreciate the help from everyone! I will leave this open until I have been able to confirm that it is resolved by printing it out.

Report · Jun 02, 2018

Now I'm really lost. Why did you print to a PostScript file? I can't imagine any need to do so. Fact is, I haven't printed to PostScript in about 30 years!

Report · Jun 03, 2018

Apologies if it was confusing. As I mentioned in a reply to my own post previously, I can't print directly to a printer because I don't have one. Thus I have to take a file to kinko's and get it printed there.

However, it all worked fine once I printed to a postscript file, imported that into a PDF, and got that printed out.

Report · Jun 03, 2018

Summarizing how to make a PDF for print from InDesign...

These are basic all-purpose settings that will work for most PDFs that will be printed. More advanced settings can be made per your print shop's requirements.

File / Export
Navigate to a location to place the PDF file.
Select "Print" (not Interactive) from the Save As Type DropDown menu.
The next dialogue are the controls for how the PDF will be created. From the Top part, select...
- One of the predefined presets, something like Press Quality or PDF/X-4
From the Marks and Bleeds section, select
- Use Document Bleed Settings (hopefully, you set up your document with 1/8" bleed on all trim edges)
Click Export to create the PDF.

As I said above, you can alter these settings based on what your print shop requires, such as a higher resolution or different color settings under the Advanced settings section. But the above default settings pretty much work for most generic printed products, like CD covers/inserts.

If you did indeed set up the InDesign document to be 4.724" square, then these settings will produce a PDF that is 4.724" square. They do not changed the document size.

As you're discovering, working with InDesign requires a lot more knowledge than just mouseclicking away in the software! You really need to understand what media you're designing for and the standards/requirements for that media, like Printing & Graphic arts standards in this case.

Hope this helps.

Report · Jun 03, 2018

I really appreciate the info - I will try that next time! For the moment I have managed to workaround the problem by printing to a postscript file and then importing that postscript file into a PDF and then taking the PDF to get printed out - everything works fine, the images for the CD cover are exactly the right size in the PDF if I do that.