Make a PDF print-ready
Fix the four things print shops send files back for: mixed page sizes, no bleed, no trim marks, and live form fields. Done in one pass, with nothing stored.
- Never stored
- No queue, no waiting
- No signup, no watermark
How it works
Add your PDF
Drop the document you are sending to the printer.
Set the trim and bleed
Choose one trim size for every page, how much bleed to add (3 mm is the usual request), and whether to draw crop marks.
Download
You get a PDF with proper trim and bleed boxes that a print RIP reads directly.
The four things a print shop sends back
Commercial printing rejects files for a short and predictable list of reasons, and this fixes that list. Mixed page sizes are normalised to one trim size, because a document whose pages disagree cannot be imposed onto a sheet. Bleed is added as extra paper around the trim — three millimetres is the standard ask — so that artwork intended to run off the edge still does after the guillotine lands a fraction out, which it always does. Crop marks are drawn in that bleed area to show where the cut belongs. And live form fields and comments are burned into the page, because whether a reader prints them is genuinely unpredictable, and a contract that prints without its filled-in answers is the classic expensive mistake.
Artwork is scaled to fit the trim rather than cropped to it, which is the conservative choice and worth knowing about. A page whose proportions differ from the target — US Letter artwork onto A4, say — keeps all of its content and gains a small even border, instead of having its edges silently trimmed off. If you need the artwork to fill the page exactly, it has to be laid out at the right proportions in the first place; no downstream tool can invent the missing millimetres.
What this deliberately does not claim is the part that matters most. A true PDF/X file requires CMYK separation, ICC-based colour conversion against the specific press profile, an output intent naming that condition, and every font embedded. Colour conversion needs the printer's own profile — the paper, the press and the ink change the numbers — and guessing at it produces a file that validates and prints the wrong colours, which is worse than one that fails. So this normalises geometry and flattens the interactive parts, and leaves colour to the people who know what the press is.
Practical consequence: send the result to your printer and ask them to preflight it. Most will, most will tell you exactly what their workflow wants, and the four things fixed here are the four they were going to ask about first.
When you want something else
For genuine PDF/X, Ghostscript with a PDFX_def.ps definition and the press's ICC profile does the conversion properly — gs -dPDFX -dBATCH -dNOPAUSE -sColorConversionStrategy=CMYK -sDEVICE=pdfwrite -sOutputFile=out.pdf PDFX_def.ps in.pdf — and it refuses rather than producing a file that claims compliance it does not have. veraPDF validates the result for free and names the clause that failed.
If the job is going to a press and the budget allows it, the real answer is upstream: set the bleed, the trim and the colour profile in InDesign, Affinity Publisher or Scribus before exporting, so the PDF is born correct. Scribus is free and exports PDF/X-3 and PDF/X-4 directly. Repairing print geometry afterwards is always second best to laying it out right.
Frequently asked questions
What is bleed and why does my printer want it?
Bleed is extra artwork beyond the cut line. Guillotines are accurate to about a millimetre, so without bleed a slightly off cut leaves a white sliver along the edge. Three millimetres on every side is the standard request.
What do the crop marks do?
They are thin corner lines sitting in the bleed area that show exactly where the page should be cut. They sit outside the trim, so they disappear when the job is cut.
Does this convert my colours to CMYK?
No, and no online tool honestly can. Proper separation needs your printer's own ICC profile and belongs in their RIP — a generic conversion usually makes the result worse. Everything else a printer asks for is handled here.
Why flatten form fields for printing?
Because interactive fields print inconsistently — some drivers omit them entirely. Burning them into the page removes all doubt.
Is my file stored anywhere?
No. Nothing is stored.
Good to know: This does not produce a certified PDF/X file, and does not convert colour spaces or embed missing fonts — those need press-specific profiles. Artwork is scaled to fit the trim size rather than cropped, so a page whose proportions differ from the trim gains a small even border.
Put this tool on your website
Free for any blog, class page or help article. Paste one snippet and your visitors can use it right on your page.