A 1: Creating PDF files using Acrobat Distiller
Our PDF Handshake offers the opportunity of using PDF as exchange format in the printing business. The results on the output side, however, depend on the quality on the input side. So, for PDF generation you should follow the instructions given below - or communicate the instructions to any customer who submits PDF files to you.
We recommend to use the Acrobat Distiller for PDF generation - and to read the online help file "DISTILLR.PDF" (Macintosh) or "Distillr" (Windows) that is located in the "Help" subfolder of the Acrobat program folder.
In the following, we briefly discuss the Distiller job options that might be relevant to one of the PDF Handshake workflows.
Note: Please note that some of the Distiller settings described below are best suited for printing only - they may be disadvantageous for other purposes such as Web production or re-editing of files using the Adobe Acrobat.
To set up Distiller parameters, select
Settings and
Job Options... from the software menu as shown in Fig.
A-1.
Fig. A-1: The Acrobat Distiller menu
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First, select the
General tab to bring up the dialog shown in Fig.
A-2. Make sure that
Compatibility is set to
Acrobat 4.0.
Fig. A-2: Setting up General job options
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Then, select the
Compression tab as shown in Fig.
A-3.
For all image types, uncheck the
Average Downsampling... choice. This prevents the loss of image data and allows high-quality printing of your PDF files.
Select
ZIP (Quality: 8-bit) in the
Compression pop-up menu. Even though PDF Handshake is able to uncompress every kind of PDF file, any type of
JPEG or
Automatic compression will entail data loss and will thus reduce quality on the output side. If you want to decrease the file size for monochrome bitmap images select
CCIT Group 4 or
Run Length from the corresponding pop-up menu.
Fig. A-3: Setting up Compression job options
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Switch to the
Fonts tab to specify the fonts you want to include in your PDF file.
Fig. A-4: Setting up Fonts job options
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Figure
A-4 shows the settings that are best suited for printing.
Embed All Fonts guarantees that all fonts used in the original document will be contained in the resulting PDF file. This is especially important if you plan to use the PDF file with PDF Handshake on a different system later. Note that the Distiller software can only embed fonts that are either embedded in the PostScript file or available in one of your system's font locations. TrueType fonts will only be embedded if they are already included in the PostScript file.
If you are fairly sure that the fonts you used for document creation are available on the system that will be used for production, you may uncheck
Embed All Fonts.
The
Subset All Embedded Fonts Below option should be used to make sure that the fonts embedded in the PDF file are really used for printing.
When printing with our Acrobat plug-in or "pdfprint", all fonts that are embedded in a PDF file will be sent to the printer. However, depending on the printer's default settings, a font from the document might be rejected in case the printer already has a font of the same name. Problems can arise if the font in the PDF file, e.g. Chicago, is not identical to the printer's Chicago font.
If you use
Subset All Embedded Fonts Below and set it to the highest value -
100 % - you can make sure that
every embedded font in the document will be assigned a new and unique font name (e.g. "CMFONL+Chicago" for a Chicago subset font) that does not collide with the standard font names on a printer.
Note: If you work with Subset All Embedded Fonts Below and set it to a rather high value you should keep in mind that the Adobe Acrobat cannot re-edit text - in a PDF file - that uses subset fonts.
Switch to the
Color tab which is shown in Fig.
A-5.
Fig. A-5: Setting up Color job options
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Check
Leave Color Unchanged in the
Conversion section, as shown in the example, unless you intent to edit the colors in the PDF document.
The
Assumed Profiles pop-up menus remain grayed out as long as you maintain the above mentioned
Leave Color Unchanged checkbox.
Preserve Overprint settings and
Preserve Halftone Information can be checked if required. If your PostScript file contains e.g. halftone information you want to use for printing later, you have to check
Preserve Halftone Information. Our "pdfprint" program and our Acrobat plug-in both have an option that allows to use for printing the halftone information that are included in the PDF file.
Finally, switch to the
Advanced tab in the palette as shown in Fig.
A-6.
Fig. A-6: Setting up Advanced job options
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The
Use Prologue.ps and Epilogue.ps option may behave differently, depending on whether you distill a PostScript or an EPSF file.
You must always check
Use Prologue.ps and Epilogue.ps if your input document contains spot colors you want to preserve for printing separations. This, however, may cause problems if your input document is an EPSF file. In that case, the option influences the document's dimensions, i.e. they will be ignored by the Distiller. If you have a small EPSF file - e.g. 2 by 2 inches - the resulting PDF file will be much larger, namely the Distiller's default page size 8.5 by 11 inches.
So, if you do not have spot colors in your document, you should uncheck
Use Prologue.ps and Epilogue.ps - at least for EPSF input files.
Preserve OPI Comments is only relevant if you are using EtherShare OPI. Both choices are possible: If you are fairly sure that your input document is complete, meaning that all required fonts and high-resolution images are embedded, you should uncheck the option. In that case OPI comments are no longer relevant. If you check
Preserve OPI Comments this would mean that OPI comments that are already included in your EPSF or PostScript file will be included in the PDF file as well; and they will be resolved by the OPI Server later. For example, if the PDF document contains a TIFF layout file and a reference to the high-resolution original, the OPI Server will be able to perform image replacement according to the reference in the PDF file. Problems can arise if you send PDF files with OPI comments to another company and do not add the high-resolution images. In that case, the OPI comments cannot be resolved and the PDF files cannot be printed correctly.
Note: Creating PDF files from separated PostScript files using Acrobat Distiller works as well as with composite files.
