Tips for creating your PDF file for the LDC Online Comics Fair

• Scan or create your art so that the files are 300dpi at 100% of the desired print size. For example, if your art needs to be enlarged 200%, scan your art at 600dpi. 
• Lower the resolution to 150dpi and save a COPY of the art file for screen resolution. So you should have two copies: a hi-res file for printing, and one that is for your digital PDF file for the online fair. 
• We recommend setting your type in and laying out the comic book in Adobe Indesign, Affinity Publisher. Once you have it laid out, you can output the file as a PDF, as spreads, so it reads like a book (without trim marks or bleed, etc). Adobe Illustrator, Affinity Designer or Clip Studio can be used to do this, but there will be limitations as you wouldn’t be able to do a whole book with spreads, and you’d have to do separate pages and put them together in Acrobat, which may make the file size larger. A software program that is raster-based like Photoshop is not advisable to use, but it’s not the end of the world if that’s all you have access to; but there is a chance that the type will look bitmapped or blurry.
• When outputting a PDF for printing, you’ll want to use the best resolution (300dpi or higher — high quality or press quality) possible, but if it’s for the online fair, the PDF does NOT have to have the highest resolution — you actually want the smallest file-size possible, that is still legible onscreen. You can have the resolution around 150dpi to start and then if it’s still too much, you can try the art at 96dpi and see if that’s acceptable.
• Have a look at the file size. If it’s over 10MB, please try to reduce the file size. There are two ways to do this. if you have Acrobat (not Reader), you can reduce the file size, but if most of your file consists of placed images, the file size will not change significantly. So, you will need to reduce the art images from 150dpi to 100dpi in Photoshop, and update them in your layout, and output the PDF again. You may notice a slight difference in image quality to the images, so this is why it’s better to keep the resolution as high as possible, and reduce it bit by bit, as you can’t go backwards from a lo-res file and make it better.

If, after reading the above instructions, you’re not sure how to do this or if you still have questions, please consider taking our Production 101 seminar, offered at £6 (a 50% discounted price exclusive for exhibitors of our online comics fair).