Camera-ready copy: BoD - Books on Demand GmbH

Camera-ready copy

As a general rule, we accept:

hard copy (not for colour printing)
digital copy (PDF files with embedded fonts and illustrations as well as graphics files in TIF format, but only for the cover)

It is important that the book files to be uploaded via myBoD are complete and completely formatted. This means: the page breaks have been inserted, the page numbers are in the right place, the fonts and illustrations have been embedded, the copyright notice has been inserted, the spine contains the final text, etc.

Please note: The quality of the printed book hinges directly upon the quality of the camera-ready copy you submit. As a general rule, digital camera-ready copy leads to a better result.

Different methods of producing camera-ready copy

Option 1: BoD easyPrint printer driver

To make sure that the above requirement is met, we recommend that you use BoD easyPrint. With this printer driver, which we have developed, your book files can be transmitted to us via a simple printer command directly from your running application (e.g., directly from your Word document) and automatically converted into a printable PDF file. You can simply install BoD easyPrint from your personal online portal myBoD.

Download BoD easyPrint

Option 2: PDF files

Ideally, you send both the book block and the cover as a PDF. Your document is converted into a PDF file via the Adobe printer driver (not via PDF Writer), called Distiller up to version 5.0, and from version 6.0 on simply Adobe PDF.

The settings which are ideal for BoD vary depending on the version you use:

From version 4.0 on you only need to set Distiller to “Pre-press” or “Press”.

From version 6.0 on you can optimize your camera-ready copy in just a few steps, thanks to the PDF/X-3 format (ISO standard for the exchange of graphics contents).

Option 3: Hard camera-ready copy

If we receive hard camera-ready copy (printouts), we scan it and convert it into an electronic file. Scanning the hard copy equals “photographing” it – your manuscript is copied exactly as is. Accordingly, the printed result in the book can only equal the quality of your hard copy at best.

Option 4: TIF files

We can accept TIF files only as camera-ready copy for the cover, not for the book block. Even that cannot be recommended without qualifications, since the font is frozen in the picture, which results in diminished print quality. If you would still like to submit your cover as a TIF file, any conventional graphics program allows you to save scans and graphics files in TIF format. In any event, you should select a resolution of 300 dpi early on during the layout process.

Data storage media

You may use the following data storage media to submit your digital camera-ready copy:

CD-ROM (ISO 9660)
USB memory stick
3.5" disk; 1.44 MB
via e-mail to info@bod.com