PDF Print Check

Open the PDF you are about to send to a printer and get a plain report in a few seconds: the finished size of every page, whether bleed is marked and how much, every font and whether it is embedded, every picture measured at the size it is really placed at, whether the colours are RGB or CMYK, and any spot inks, links or form fields. Each point is marked Fix, Check, Know or Good, with a sentence on why it matters and what to do about it, and the whole report can be copied into an email. Printers call this preflight and run it on every file they receive; this is the same kind of check, on your own device, so the file is never uploaded.

How it works

PDF Print Check is a web page that does its work on your own device. The file you choose is opened by your browser, changed there and saved from there; it is never sent to a server, so there is no copy of it anywhere to delete, no queue and no waiting for an upload. Most online tools of this kind send your file to their servers and work on it there, and many keep it for a while. This one does not. There is no account, no watermark and no limit on how often you use it, and the result downloads the moment it is ready.

Why printers send files back

A file can look perfect on your screen and still be wrong for a press. Printers run every file through a check before it goes anywhere near a machine, which the trade calls preflight, and the same handful of problems account for nearly every file they send back. This tool runs the same kind of check on your own device, so you find out in a few seconds instead of in an email the next morning.

What it checks

How the pictures are measured

The number that decides whether a picture prints sharp is not the DPI saved inside it. It is how many of its pixels land on each printed inch, and that depends on how large it was placed on the page. A 1,200 pixel wide photo is crisp at 4 inches wide and soft at 8. The check follows every picture through the page, including ones that were scaled, turned or tucked inside another object, and measures each at its real placed size. The threshold follows how the print will be looked at: a brochure held in the hand needs about 200 pixels per inch or more, a poster on a wall about 100, and a banner read from across a street far fewer.

What the marks mean

• Fix: a printer is likely to send the file back, or the result will disappoint.
• Check: nothing stops the job, but it is worth a look, because it depends on your design or on what your printer asks for.
• Know: not a fault, only something worth knowing before you send the file.
• Good: nothing to do.

What this tool does not do

• It reads what the file says about bleed. It cannot look at the artwork and tell whether the colour really runs past the cut line.
• It counts pixels. It cannot tell whether a photo is in focus, badly compressed or enlarged once already.
• It does not check ink coverage, overprint, transparency or whether the black is a rich black, and it does not certify a file to a PDF/X standard.
• It does not change the file. To fix bleed use Add Bleed and Crop Marks, and to see how large an image can print use the DPI Checker.
• It does not open password-protected PDFs, and it measures pictures on the first 60 pages of a long document.

Every printer has its own specification, and theirs comes first. Treat a clean report as a good sign, not a guarantee, and ask for a proof on a large or costly job.

What it does

• One report on size, bleed, fonts, pictures and colour, with a plain verdict at the top
• Finds fonts that are not embedded, and names them with their pages
• Measures every picture at the size it is actually placed, not by the DPI label inside it
• Judges pictures by how the print will be seen: in the hand, on a wall or from a distance
• Reads the cut line and the bleed the file marks, page by page
• Reports RGB and CMYK use, and lists any spot inks by name
• Says why each point matters and what to do about it
• Copy the whole report as text for an email to your designer or printer

Questions

How do I check if a PDF is ready to print?

Open it here. In a few seconds you get a report on the things printers check: the finished page size, whether bleed is marked, whether every font is embedded, whether each picture has enough pixels for the size it is placed at, and whether the colours are RGB or CMYK. Anything marked Fix is likely to get the file sent back.

What is preflight?

Preflight is the check a printer runs on every file before it goes to press, named after the checks a pilot makes before take-off. It looks for the technical faults that ruin a print run: missing fonts, pictures with too few pixels, no bleed, the wrong page size or colour. This tool runs the same kind of check on your own device.

What happens if fonts are not embedded?

The printer's computer uses a font of its own in place of the missing one. Letters change shape and width, so lines break in different places, text can run off the page, and some characters can vanish. Export the PDF again with fonts embedded, which most programs do by default, or convert the text to outlines.

How does it measure image resolution?

It finds every picture on every page, works out the size it has been placed at in inches, and divides its pixels by that size. The result is the real pixels per printed inch, which is what decides sharpness. The DPI number saved inside a picture is ignored, because it says nothing about how large the picture was placed.

What resolution do pictures need for printing?

As a working rule of the print trade, anything held in the hand wants 300 pixels per inch and prints well from about 200. Posters and signs on a wall are fine at 100 to 150, and banners seen from a distance at 50 to 72. Choose how the print will be seen and the check uses the matching thresholds.

Is RGB a problem for printing?

Usually not. Presses print with cyan, magenta, yellow and black inks, so an RGB file has to be converted, and most printers do that for you. Very bright blues, greens and oranges cannot be matched in ink and come out a little duller. If your printer asks for CMYK, export the file as CMYK so you see the change before they do.

Why does it say no bleed is marked when my design goes to the edge?

Because the check reads what the file says, not what the picture shows. A PDF marks its cut line and bleed with measurements called the trim box and bleed box, and yours has none. If the page is the finished size with nothing extra round it, there is no bleed. Add it with Add Bleed and Crop Marks, or export again from your design program with bleed switched on.

Does a clean report mean my file will print perfectly?

It means none of the usual technical faults were found. It cannot judge whether a photo is in focus, whether the colours are the ones you wanted, or what your own printer insists on. Ask them for their specification, and for a proof on a large or costly job.

Is my PDF uploaded?

No. The PDF is opened and read by your browser on your own device. It is never sent to us or to anyone else, nothing about it is stored, and closing the tab clears it.

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