Re: ConTeXt output & commercial printing houses

[Bill McClain <wmcclain@salamander.com>]

On Sat, 24 Jul 2004 13:41:38 -0600
Matt Gushee <mgushee@havenrock.com> wrote:

> I am planning to publish a book that is typeset using ConTeXt, and
> very soon I am going to start contacting printers for estimates. Given
> that a shop prints from PDF files, does it matter that the PDFs are
> produced by ConTeXt?

I've only dealt with one print shop (www.bookmobile.com) for my books,
but have never had any problems with pdf files produced by
Context->pdftex. You have to be somewhat self-sufficient, in that if you
ask questions they'll tell you all about the right Pagemaker settings,
etc. Obviously, you should have all fonts embedded. 

Different shops might have different requirements, but Bookmobile simply
requires an exact image of the book, page size defined to be the paper
size. Easy. 

This has all been for digital printing and perfect-bound paperbacks. I
would like to know if an offset press generating folded and gathered
signatures takes the same pdf input. And where to go for sewn hardcovers
in small quantities and short run leatherbound books for "collector's
editions." I haven't explored those issues yet but will do so
eventually.

-Bill
-- 
Sattre Press                                      Pagan Papers
http://sattre-press.com/                    by Kenneth Grahame
info@sattre-press.com          http://sattre-press.com/pp.html