What is the Best Way to Provide Art to the Printer? 

It is always advisable to provide "native" art in its original design format to the printer. PDF-formatted art does not allow the printer to make significant design changes at their end. Native does not refer to aboriginal art but rather to artwork in its original design format such as Adobe InDesign or QuarkXpress. Although the trend is to supply high resolution (high-res) art as a PDF (Portable Document Format), in  most cases it is not the preferable format for direct mail printing.  

Why? In many cases there are inevitably last minute changes required in the final art that is supplied by the client. This could range from minor changes like typos to much more critical revisions such as moving graphics or text. With PDF art it is not possible to make these changes. Revised art is then required from the client. In the case of more advanced revisions, possibly due to direct mail production requirements, more time may be needed to make the changes. With new proofs and approvals needed, delays start to kick in. By the time a new PDF has been produced, the printer's schedule may require your job to be bumped.

With native art, the printer can make the changes in his own pre-press department. While additional costs may apply, depending on the complexity of the revisions, it certainly would be a more efficient and ideal solution than going back for new client art. One of the more common revisions that occur on client-supplied final art is the moving of text or graphics on a shell letter (pre-printed stock to be used for laser personalization) that will be used as the addressing vehicle. If not designed properly, it is very frequently necessary to make revisions to allow only the address block to appear through the window envelope. A line of text requesting various donation amounts showing above the donor's name could be a response killer and should not be showing through the window. It is especially important to supply native art if you are not using a designer familiar with direct mail. This is usually when most, although not all, of these situations occur.

However, it does not mean that you should not use PDFs at all. 

There are definitely steps in the production process when PDFs are very useful. One of these is at the very beginning when jobs are being quoted. PDFs will:

• confirm client specifications
• help clarify the print requirements since many clients are not familiar with print terminology
• allow for a quick review of the art to ensure that the design complies with postal requirements
• determine if the design meets the most cost-efficient production standards

PDFs are also useful for the printer as:

• a quick preliminary check that the art matches the quotation
• a preliminary reference to check against the art
• a confirmation for the purchase order 

Reduce Page Counts

Mail is a critical customer communications medium, it has to be produced with the greatest accuracy, at the lowest cost, and have a significant impact on the recipients. Not taking advantage of ways to make mail better puts the departments or vendors that produce the mail at risk. Neglecting to make changes because they just weren't identified in time would be a waste of time and money. Page-count reduction is just one of many possible document-production modifications that can turn into big savings.Here's how to do it:

• Change fonts and margins
• Eliminate blank or nearly-blank pages
• Eliminate redundant or irrelevant text
• Print summaries instead of details
• Move disclaimers or terms and conditions to the web
• Smaller barcodes for inserter control
• Variable size sections instead of fixed, reserved space

Source: Mailing Systems Technology