Print-ready PDF
Every template renders to PDF. Most PDFs are read on a screen, sent by email or printed in the office — a standard PDF is right for them. A document that goes to a print shop needs a print-ready PDF/X-4: an ISO standard that printers accept without surprises, carrying the colour profile of the press it is meant for.
Standard PDF or PDF/X-4
Section titled “Standard PDF or PDF/X-4”| Standard PDF | PDF/X-4 | |
|---|---|---|
| For | screens, email, messaging apps, office printers | commercial print |
| Photos | larger photos are reduced to about 144 pixels per inch of their printed size, to keep the file small | the original pixels are kept |
| Colour | RGB | RGB with the printer’s CMYK ICC profile embedded as the output intent |
| Links | clickable | left out — a print file does not carry interactive areas (the render reports DESIGN_LINKS_OMITTED_FOR_PRINT) |
| Text and vectors | vector, fonts embedded | vector, fonts embedded |
For a flyer that is both printed and shared, produce both: the PDF/X-4 for the printer, a standard PDF or page images for the screen.
The printer’s ICC profile
Section titled “The printer’s ICC profile”A PDF/X-4 needs the ICC profile of the press — a file the print shop gives you (for example PSO Coated v3, output condition FOGRA51). Profiles belong to the workspace; a workspace can hold several and mark one as the default.
- Upload it in Settings → Print & Color (Upload ICC profile), or with
POST /api/v1/print-color-profiles(a printer-class CMYK profile, ICC version 2 or 4, at most 5 MB, with its output condition identifier). The file is immutable; archiving it removes it from new choices without breaking workflows that pinned it. - The profile must be the one the printer asked for. A PDF/X-4 does not replace the printer’s own checks: page size and profile must match their specifications.
See Design templates API for the endpoints.
Exporting
Section titled “Exporting”In the editor
Export in the top bar offers Standard PDF and PDF/X-4. PDF/X-4 asks for the Workspace color profile (the first time, it asks you to upload one) and exports with it.
In a workflow
The Render Document Template node (design/template_render) has pdf_export_mode — standard (default) or pdfx4
— and color_profile_guid, the profile to use. When the workflow is published the profile is pinned, so every run prints
with the same one; the node’s layout report records the mode and the profile. The direct render of a template through
REST or MCP produces a standard PDF.
What PDF/X-4 does not do yet
Section titled “What PDF/X-4 does not do yet”Madoo’s print path is deliberately simple. It does not offer:
- bleed and crop marks — the PDF page is the trimmed page; for colour that must reach the edge, agree with the printer how they want the file;
- soft proofing, spot colours, overprint, trapping or total-ink control — colours are authored in RGB and converted by the printer’s workflow using the embedded profile;
- imported PDFs and intro/outro PDFs in PDF/X-4 — use a native template.
Before sending a file to print
Section titled “Before sending a file to print”- The page size is the size the printer expects.
- Photos are large enough at their printed size (about 300 pixels per inch: 2,500 px for the long side of an A4 page).
- Every character prints (check the preview: a glyph missing from a font does not print).
- Text is not closer than 5–8 mm to the page edge.
- The workspace has the printer’s ICC profile, and the export uses it.
- Links are not needed in the printed file (they are left out).