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Print submission (crop marks, PDF)

Submitting to a commercial printer needs more than an ordinary PDF — crop marks showing where to trim, bleed so color reaches the edge cleanly, and often a PDF/X file in CMYK with embedded fonts. This page covers preparing a print-ready file.

Crop marks and bleed

Crop marks (トンボ) show where the page is trimmed (plus registration). For Western style, the crop package adds them (\usepackage[cam,center]{crop}). For serious Japanese submission, gentombow (texjporg) draws proper digital tombow for self-publishing, takes a default 3mm bleed, and sets the PDF /TrimBox (finished size) and /BleedBox (including bleed). The jsclasses tombow class option only draws “tombow-like” marks, so pair it with gentombow for real submission. Bleed (塗り足し) means extending edge-to-edge artwork about 3mm past the trim line, so a slight cutting variance leaves no white slivers.

latex
% 欧文 / Western: crop package
\usepackage[cam,center]{crop}
% 日本語 / Japanese: jsclasses option + gentombow for proper digital tombow
\documentclass[tombow]{jsarticle}

PDF/X submission

Printers often require PDF/X (X-1a, X-3, X-4) — the print counterpart of PDF/A, with CMYK (and spot) colors, fully embedded fonts, an output intent (ICC profile) for the press, and correct TrimBox/BleedBox (CropBox unset; ArtBox forbidden). The pdfx package produces it: \usepackage[x-1a]{pdfx} (X-1a allows CMYK and spot colors only).

latex
\usepackage[x-1a]{pdfx}   % PDF/X-1a（CMYK＋特色）/ CMYK + spot only

Pre-submission checklist

  • Add crop marks at the finished size plus ~3mm bleed (gentombow for Japanese).
  • Use the printer’s color space (usually CMYK); keep images high-resolution (typically 300–350 dpi).
  • Embed all fonts and export as PDF/X with pdfx.
  • Set TrimBox/BleedBox correctly, and leave CropBox unset.
  • Ultimately follow the printer’s submission spec, and validate PDF/X with a tool like veraPDF.

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