Smoothing a PDF means that transparent objects in the document are converted to a format that can be better processed by our printers. When these transparencies are not properly smoothed, problems can occur when printing.

You usually do not see these transparent areas on your screen, but they will be visible on the final printed product. Think of blurred edges, blocks or unwanted white areas around text or images.

To avoid this, it is important that you flatten your file before submitting it to us. This ensures a reliable and professional end result, exactly as you intended.

You can do this smoothing with Adobe programs, for example.

Tip:
When in doubt about layers and transparencies in your pdf file, you can open your pdf in Photoshop, when opening the document set the correct size and set the resolution to 150 dpi. Open the layers menu and choose the function: Flatten Image. After this, you can save your document as a pdf again. This way you get a pdf that prints well and avoids unwanted surprises.