HELIOS PDF Handshake 2.0 User manual
3 An introduction to
PDF Handshake
3.1 Product description
Fully
integrated within
EtherShare and EtherShare OPI
PDF Handshake is fully integrated within EtherShare 2.6 and EtherShare OPI 2.1.
PDF Handshake together with EtherShare 2.6 offers e.g. the following features:
PDF Handshake's built-in color management is based on the Apple ColorSync 2.6 color matching module (CMM). The module is based on ICC-compliant profiles. For your convenience, we include in our software package a number of ICC profiles for different devices. Note that PDF Handshake recognizes embedded ICC profiles in PDF files and supports tagging-by-reference where only a reference to the profile is embedded.
If you are using EtherShare OPI 2.1 as well, some more features will become available for PDF files - for example:
Please note that OPI comments that are included in a PDF file can be resolved by the EtherShare OPI Server; nested OPI references are recognized. Furthermore, PDF Handshake (with EtherShare OPI) smoothly co-operates with the HELIOS ColorSync 2 XT software utility for QuarkXPress. More information on this subject can be found in appendices A 2 and A 3.
Print Preview extension
The HELIOS Print Preview product, which is an extension for PDF Handshake, offers powerful preview options for all EtherShare print jobs. For details, please read the Print Preview data sheet or the manual that is available on your distribution CD-ROM.
Flexibility
The PDF Handshake product consists of:
Each of these modules supports a specific workflow. Together, they offer maximum flexibility when using the PDF file format (see explanations below).
pdfprint
"pdfprint" allows printing of PDF files directly from the server to an EtherShare/PDF Handshake printer queue (compare Fig. 1). Features like color matching and proof printing are available for each queue. Pre-separated files cannot be printed composite. That would only be possible in an EtherShare OPI workflow.
Fig. 1: Printing PDF files directly from the server

PDF print plug-in for
Acrobat
The print plug-in for Acrobat Exchange (or Reader) is currently available for Macintosh computers only. It is the equivalent of the "pdfprint" program and also prints to EtherShare/PDF Handshake printer queues (compare Fig. 2). Again, without EtherShare OPI, pre-separated files can only be printed as separations.
Fig. 2: Printing PDF files with the Acrobat plug-in

PDF extension for EtherShare OPI
With PDF Handshake and EtherShare OPI 2.1, you can use the PDF file format as input format for the EtherShare OPI layout generation. Moreover, you can use the "PDF Handshake" Acrobat plug-in (or the "pdfprint" command line tool) to export PDF files for further use in an imposition program. Figure 3 shows these two features at a glance.
Fig. 3: The options for PDF files on an EtherSHare OPI Server

The OPI Server uses the first page of a PDF file for layout generation. Further pages are ignored. The file format of the layout representation is EPSF for composite PDF files and DCS for pre-separated PDF files. This allows you to place the layouts into any popular layout application, as e.g. QuarkXPress, PageMaker, etc., and into any editorial or page composing system.
pdfcat
The "pdfcat" tool allows concatenating or exploding of existing PDF files. An example is shown in Fig. 4. In the illustration, the "pdfcat" tool is used to explode an existing PDF file for use in an OPI workflow. The original file is a multi-page document, meaning that only the first page of the document would be used for layout generation on the OPI Server. The "pdfcat" program creates three new PDF files - each of it containing one page only. These new files are then used as input for layout generation - either automatic generation (after the files have been touched) or explicit generation using the "layout" program.
The "pdfcat" tool also works the other way round, i.e. it is able to create one multi-page PDF document out of several separate files. This can be useful if you want to print several single-page PDF files directly. Concatenating the files will save time, because you will have to start one print job only.
Fig. 4: Creating new PDF files with the "pdfcat" tool

pdftoeps
If you have an EPSF-only workflow, but receive PDF files from your customers, you can use the "pdftoeps" tool to transform PDF files into EPSF files. The tool is available for EtherShare OPI users only. It allows you to specify the color space, the resolution, and the type (Mac-EPSF, PC-EPSF) of the EPSF output files. An example of the "pdftoeps" tool is given in Fig. 5. The illustration shows a situation where "pdfcat" and "pdftoeps" are used to convert a multi-page PDF document into several single-page EPSF files.
Fig. 5: Creating EPSF files using the "pdftoeps" tool

Font quality
We include in our software package 131 original PostScript 3 fonts. They are available automatically after installation and appropriate activation of PDF Handshake on the server. They guarantee high-quality printing, and high-quality font representation on screen and in layout files (for EtherShare OPI). Our fonts are listed in appendix A 5.
3.2 Arising opportunities
The PDF file format allows to store illustrations, text, and images in one file, it supports several color spaces like RGB, CMYK, or LAB, several compression modes such as JPEG, ZIP, CCITT, and several types of fonts (PostScript and TrueType). Editing does not require a specific software on a specific platform as e.g. QuarkXPress on Macintosh; you only need the Acrobat Exchange software on no matter what platform.
With PDF Handshake, PDF becomes a perfect exchange format. Logos, illustrations and complete documents can be provided as PDF and used for any workflow, depending on your individual requirements. The PDF files can be transformed into EPSF (with EtherShare OPI) and then be placed in other documents, or they can be printed directly, or exported for imposition.
In the future, PDF will be more and more supported as far as PDF creation is concerned. Many applications will be able to save a file in PDF format directly. At the moment, the Acrobat Distiller software is best suited to create PDF files for exchange purposes.
© 2002 HELIOS Software GmbH