PDF/X-1a Compliant Converter

Originally, I uploaded all my books through KDP. But eventually, I decided to branch out and explored Draft2Digital and IngramSpark.

Both platforms require PDFs to be PDF/X-1a compliant. That’s not an issue if you're uploading a DOCX to D2D, but what if you need precise layout control or want your book to be an exact page count?

That was the problem I ran into.

After hours of research, the solution I kept coming across was the same: buy an Adobe subscription.

But I wasn’t about to pay $20 a month just to convert a PDF.

Eventually, I found a free tool called Ghostscript PDF. It works — but it's not user-friendly, and definitely not made with authors in mind.

So I built my own version.

I come from a background in software development and graphic design, and I wanted to create the simplest tool possible for fellow writers. I trimmed out all the technical fluff and made a lightweight drag-and-drop solution that works on multiple PDFs at once — no installation needed.

This tool automatically makes your files PDF/X-1a compliant and downscales any images to 300 DPI, ensuring they meet printing requirements for platforms like IngramSpark and Draft2Digital.

I've used this for my own books, and it went through IngramSpark with no issues whatsoever.

Note: This tool is Windows-only for now — sorry Mac users, I just don’t have a Mac to build and test a version on.

I hope it saves you the frustration I went through.

– A.J

Why I made this tool

Instructions

Ghostscript PDF/X-1a Batch Converter

This tool lets you easily convert one or more PDFs into the PDF/X-1a format, commonly required by printers for commercial or paperback book printing.

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Drag and drop one or more PDFs onto the "drag_here.bat" file.

2. You’ll see the filename, its page count, and live progress during conversion.

3. Converted files will be saved next to the originals, with "_PDFX1a" added.

You do NOT need to move your PDFs into the tool folder — drag them from anywhere.

INFO:

- No installation needed

- Works entirely offline

Created by A.J Ford