The email the PTXPrint team sent out a month ago with information about Pretore in the Netherlands was pretty interesting. All the print on demand services I have found in the States don't seem to have the specialization in Bible printing that Pretore does. So I wrote an enquiry to Pretore, and recently heard back from them. They sent a technical document which describes what they expect from us for their equipment to work properly. A key part of it said the following:
A PDF consists of multiple page boxes with dimensions of the page. It is important that the
specific page boxes have the correct size.
Media box: is the largest box present in a PDF. Other boxes cannot be larger and must fit
completely into the media box.
CropBox: no use, advice is not to use it or give it the size of MediaBox.
TrimBox: Indicates the final size. This box is important because the pages are positioned
in the print image based on this size.
BleedBox: with the bleed printing, the bleed box is 3mm larger all around than the trim
box.
Our workflow uses this box to automatically control machines. That is why it is important to set
these page boxes correctly.
We only process high resolution or Certified PDFs. The PDFs must be supplied as separate pages
with 3 mm bleed and crop marks.
So the question is whether someone can tell us what the relationship is between these parameters and the various data we specify in PTXPrint. In particular, which of these 4 "boxes" which Pretore mentions is the Page Size on the Layout tab in PTXPrint? Does the page size include the 3mm bleed allowance or do we need to add 3 mm to our "page size" to accomodate the bleed allowance? Also, what is the relationship between the crop marks which we can specify on the Finishing tab and the crop marks Pretore is asking for here? Are PTXPrint's crop marks set for the trim size or the bleed size?
Thanks again to the PTXPrint staff for bringing Pretore to our attention. It seems like a great possibility.
