Making a book wth FreeHand (using BLURB)

[Handsfree]

I have over the past few years made all the Graphics for a 160 page book + covers using FreeHand. It was printed using BLURB books (which at first rejected FREEHAND files (non compliant with PDFX/3)! Rather than open all the individual pages and re-save as Illustrator files (a chore) I used a simple workaround that was so easy, it's worth sharing with those that still work in print reprographics, CTP, film plates or whatever for colour print. It will not change embedded colour profiles (in my case I uses BLURB Photo ICC profile for that). What you will need is to change the FREEHAND default to preview 'EXPORT' (as PDF) and 'Open' that automatically (chaneg Frehand settings) to preview in Apple 'ColorSync' (rather than Adobe Acrobat) and re-save as a PDFX/3 file. This is then usable to import into your favourite DTP program and won't be rejected by the (BLURB) postscript RIP. This wont work on PC's but on most Macs 10.4 upwards it should still work. Its worth trying out if you have a similar problem.

[FFH Mark]

Excellent tip. I work/design books and this comes in handy.