Sometimes preparing your files for print can be tricky! We want to make it easy for you to save your artwork correctly. This tutorial should help you work out the details of saving your Scout Book cover artwork as a print-ready PDF.

We suggest designing in Adobe Illustrator. It is our preferred application as it makes it easy to save a high-quality, print-ready PDF. Our design templates can be opened in different versions of Adobe Illustrator. Find Scout Books design templates here.

Is your artwork looking the way you want it? Great. Let’s start.

Step 1

In Adobe Illustrator, go to the File Menu. Choose Save As.

Step 1

Step 2

In the dialog window that appears, you’ll choose where you are going to save your PDF.

In the Format pull-down menu, as shown here, you will see the magic words, “Acrobat PDF.” You want that. Now, name your file and hit Save.

Step 2

Step 3

The Save Adobe PDF dialog window will pop up. There are a lot of options here, but don’t worry. Let’s keep it simple. From the top pull-down menu, choose High Quality Print.

Step 3

Step 4

You’ll notice that some things switch around. Don’t worry, it’s doing the right thing.

Step 4

Step 5. The next step is to set your trim marks and your bleed.

In the side bar of the dialog window, select Marks and Bleed. You’ll want to check the Trim Marks box just like the picture shows.

Down at the bottom of this box, you’ll want to set your bleed to 0.125″ (1/8″) all around. Make sure it is set for all four sides of your document.

*Note: if your increments are being measured in something other than inches, don’t worry. Illustrator will convert it for you. 1/8 inch also reads as 0.125″, op9 (picas), or .3175 centimeters.

Step 5

You did it! Hit Save PDF. You’ll want to open the PDF in Adobe Acrobat to make sure it saved as you intended. Does your document include a bleed?