Files and images

Any PDF or image in Files opens in the 1-up editor, without an imposition job. You get every tab you know from a job's artwork, with a File tab where a job's artwork has Item: line types and the die, bleed, separations, trapping, 3D and the tools. The file itself never changes: what you make is a print-ready file kept next to the version you opened.

Open a file#

Prepare a file from Files in any of these ways:

• In Files, select a PDF or an image and press Open in 1-up editor in the side panel, double-click it, or use Open in 1-up editor in its right-click menu. Open in editor on a row of the Versions tab opens that version.
• On your team's home page, press Prep a 1-up (on the Files card, or Choose a file in the Get started checklist), choose a PDF or an image, and the editor opens it. You can upload a file from there too.
• From a proof or a report: Open in 1-up editor in the menu of an approval artwork whose proof came from Files, and at the top of the report of a checked Files version.

The editor opens the file's current version (or the version you chose) on its first page and reads its inks and lines the first time, as it does for a job's artwork.

• Another version. Each version has its own settings and print-ready file. The header shows which version is open, for example "v3", and v5 available when the file has a newer version (see Files and images).
• Another page. Every page of a PDF (or of an image with several pages) is prepared on its own: its own die, bleed and print-ready file.
• Back to Files (the arrow at the top left) opens the file's folder with the file selected.

The editor's address names the file, the version and the page, so you can bookmark it or send it to someone on your team. A version saved from the editor as print-ready (see below) opens the version it was made from instead, so bleed is never added on top of bleed.

What opens#

• PDFs, including Illustrator files saved with PDF compatibility.
• Images: JPEG, PNG, TIFF, WebP, BMP and GIF (its first frame).

Other files (Word documents, archives, fonts…) can't open: the editor says so and links back to the file in Files.

Images#

An image opens as a page the size of the image at its own resolution: 300 × 200 pixels at 150 ppi is a 2 × 1.33 in (50.8 × 33.9 mm) page. An image without a resolution is read at 300 ppi. Colours are never converted, so an RGB image stays RGB; transparency is kept.

An image has no cut lines of its own. On the Die & lines tab, choose the trim box as the die (see The die) or create one: a shape, an outline traced around the artwork, or one you draw (see Create a die). Then add bleed as usual; Extend background fills it with the colour at the image's edges (see Bleed and the print-ready file). The Tools tab prints the image larger or smaller, keeping its pixels or resampling them (see Size and resolution). The image in Files is never changed.

The File tab#

The File tab says which version and page you are preparing, and what the file is.

• v3 of 5 is the version open and the file's newest version. Open v5 opens the newest version: its own settings, carried over from this one (see Files and images). Print-ready versions saved from this version are not offered: they open this version again.
• Settings carried over from v2 shows when the version got its settings from an earlier one.
• Show in Files opens the file's folder with the file selected.

Needs a die check#

When a new version's die could not be found again or its cut lines moved, a bar under the header says The cut path changed since the version the settings came from: check the die. Check the die opens the Die & lines tab (see The die); The die is right clears the message once you have looked, and so does making a print-ready file.

Page and product#

• Front page opens the editor on that page. Every page is prepared on its own, with its own die, bleed and print-ready file.
• Back page is the page printed on the back (None for one-sided work). It is what the inks-per-side report reads.
• Product is flat, bound or folded, as for a job's artwork.

Back page and product save at once. They are also the document/ endpoint of the API.

Properties#

The file's properties and tags, read-only. Edit in Files opens the file in Files on its Properties tab.

The print-ready file#

Bleed, spot renames, page boxes, overprint of technical inks and traps make a print-ready file, exactly as for a job's artwork (see Bleed and the print-ready file). It belongs to the version it was made from and is not a version itself. Print-ready files count toward your team's storage as Print-ready files (see Storage).

The ⋯ menu of the header has Download original and Download print-ready file. Share proof for approval… sends the print-ready file for approval while it is up to date, and the version itself otherwise; the proof round goes to the approval artwork of that file (see Sharing proofs from the editor).

The File tab shows its state: No print-ready file yet, Building…, Out of date (made before your latest changes) or Up to date, with its trim size, bleed and whether it is trapped. Download print-ready downloads it named after the file, for example "Postcard A (print-ready).pdf".

Save print-ready as new version#

Save print-ready as new version (on the editor's File tab, in the Files panel's Prepress block, or save-version/ in the API) makes the print-ready file the file's next version in Files, marked Print-ready, with an optional note. The bytes are not stored twice. It is refused while the print-ready file is out of date or still being built: rebuild it first. It is also refused when a newer version was added after the one you are preparing, because the older file would become the current version on top of it: open the newer version and prepare that one, or download this print-ready file. Once saved, the tab says Saved as v6 and the button is off until something changes.

An image's print-ready file is a PDF: saved as a version of the image's file, it downloads with ".pdf" at the end of its name, and Files shows the file as a PDF from then on.

The Prepress block in Files#

The Details tab of a PDF or an image in Files has a Prepress block for its current version: each page you opened in the editor, with its status, the print-ready file's size and bleed, when it was built and whether its settings were carried over, plus Open in editor, Save print-ready as new version and Download print-ready.

A new version can also show Preparing…, Needs a die check, Not prepared or Not rebuilt: storage full (see below).

On the Versions tab, each version shows its print-ready files, for example "Print-ready (210 × 297 mm · 3 mm bleed · traps)", and the die checks it needs (see Versions).

New versions prepare themselves#

When a new version of a file you prepared arrives (you upload the file again, or an app adds a version), it gets the settings of the version before it: ink mappings, the die, bleed, traps, the output tools, the 3D scene and the safe area. The new version is read in the background and, when the version before had a print-ready file, its print-ready file is made again with the same bleed and traps. A file counts as prepared once a page of a version has a die or a print-ready file: a file you only looked at in the editor passes nothing on. When something needs you, the Files panel, the version's row and the editor (under its header) say so (the API's review, see Prepress API):

Making a print-ready file for the version clears its status. A page that had no die in the earlier version has none to lose, so it never needs a die check. The back page carries over only when the new version has that page.

This is the Prepare new versions automatically switch in Files settings › Automation (on for a new team; see Files). Versions saved from the editor and files brought in by the Files import are never prepared again. With the switch off, a version still gets the settings of the version before it when you open it: the header then says the settings were carried over from that version.

Files and jobs#

A job never shares its settings with a file in Files: when a file is added to a job, the job's artwork gets its own copy of the settings and of an up-to-date print-ready file. Editing the file later doesn't change a job that was already laid out. An image goes to the job at the size set on the Tools tab (see Size and resolution). A PDF you scaled can't: a job prints a PDF as it is in Files, so the File tab says so and Apply to jobs is off. Save its print-ready file as a new version and use that version instead. Pointing a job's artwork at a newer version that was never opened in the editor reads the new version and makes its print-ready file again with the same settings; the one made from the older version is dropped at once.

Add a file to a job from the imposition workspace (see Jobs and artwork). Once a job uses a page you prepared, the File tab lists those jobs, and after a change to the die, bleed, trim or safe area, Apply to jobs asks which jobs take it: draft jobs are ticked, jobs with saved layouts or runs are not. The others keep their copy and show Prep updated in Files in the workspace (see Jobs and artwork), so the change can be taken later.