Checking exports in PDF by Zaweba from Publish

Once an export finishes, the sensible next step is to look at the result. Publish by Zaweba makes that a single click: after exporting, the PDF can be opened in PDF by Zaweba, the suite's own PDF app. If PDF by Zaweba isn't installed and registered on your PC, Publish falls back to whatever program Windows uses for PDFs by default.

It's a small link between two apps, but it turns checking your work from something you might skip into something that happens naturally every time.

Why checking the PDF matters

What you see in Publish is a close match for the PDF. Publish measures text from the font files themselves, so line breaks and spacing on screen are what end up in the export. But there are still things you only really see in the finished file. Bleed and crop marks around a print-ready export, the smaller pictures of a web PDF, hyperlinks that should now be clickable, and the order of pages in a booklet export are all best checked in the PDF itself.

A PDF also shows the publication the way other people will meet it. A print shop, a committee member or a reader on a laptop won't see your layout in Publish; they'll see the PDF. Looking at it through their eyes catches the things that look fine while editing but odd as a finished document.

What to look for

Start with the overall pages. Flick through and check that nothing has gone missing, that every page is there and in order, and that a long story flowing through linked frames ends where it should. Then zoom in on the details: headings, the small print, the contact details, any phone numbers or web addresses. Click a link or two if you added them.

For a print-ready export, look at the edges. Backgrounds and pictures that should run off the page ought to run into the bleed past the crop marks. For a booklet PDF, check that pages are paired in saddle-stitch order and that any blank pages added to make up a multiple of four sit where you expect.

For a web PDF, look at the pictures at normal size. They're reduced to 150 dpi for a lighter file, which should look sharp on screen, but it's worth a glance before you e-mail a hundred people.

How the two apps fit together

Publish is where the layout is made and changed. PDF by Zaweba is a PDF app in its own right, so once the file is open there you have it in a program built for working with PDFs rather than designing pages. Keep the roles clear: if something needs fixing, fix it in the .ozp publication in Publish and export again, rather than patching the PDF. That way the publication stays the master copy and next month's edition starts from a correct file.

The same suite thinking runs elsewhere in Publish by Zaweba. Pictures can be sent to Paint by Zaweba for editing and come back updated, and old .pub files come in through Pub Converter by Zaweba. Each app does its own job and hands over to the next when the job changes.

If PDF by Zaweba isn't there

Nothing breaks. Publish simply opens the export in your default PDF reader, and everything above still applies. The fallback means the step works on any PC, whether or not you use the rest of the Zaweba apps, and you never have to go hunting through folders for the file you just saved.

Making a quick look at every export a habit is one of the cheapest ways to avoid a reprint, and having it one click away makes the habit easy to keep.