What generates the PDF that arrives at your portal from a customer or your internal design team does matter to your production efficiency. It matters for print and edelivery! It also matters if the files were made for offset, toner, inkjet production, or edelivery, as well as the target output device or channel, such as the web, through email, or mobile apps. Each has its ideal PDF characteristics, but a common set of issues can foil even the most efficient workflow.  

While these complaints center on print files, remember that everything you do to make the file efficient will benefit every output channel. From missing fonts, color discrepancies, and transparency handling to improper file formatting and mismatched resources, the challenges can come one at a time or in a group. Many printers note that files coming from offshore operations tend to exhibit multiple challenges. Here are the most common complaints and then a look at resolution options.

Since print files are often prepared outside the print shop, a best practice is to have a tool kit to preflight, correct, and optimize the files. Look at the tool kits from Enfocus and Markzware as a place to start with pre-flighting if you don't already have a solution in-house. For optimization, consider the things that cause you the most problems. Solutions like ReadyPDF from Solimar, the callas pdfToolbox, and PDF Optimizer from PDF Tools can help solve problems like missing fonts, incorrect image asset resolutions, and duplicate elements. Correcting these issues not only makes a file more efficient for print but can also help reduce file sizes for archiving and keep network bandwidth from being overwhelmed with large files.