Support for protected
PDF files
PDF Handshake checks the security settings in a PDF document. All documents with an empty (no)
Open Password are supported, even if other security options are specified.
Printing must be
Allowed for the document. Otherwise, the menu items
PDF Handshake Print and
PDF Handshake Export will be grayed out, and OPI layout generation will be disabled for this particular file.
To find out whether or not a document is protected by security settings, use the Acrobat menu items
File > Document Info > Security... as shown in Fig.
9.
Fig. 9: Checking security options with Acrobat
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If printing is set to
Not Allowed in your PDF document, you have to save the document again (using the
Save As ... option as shown in Fig.
10) and then change the security settings for the new document. An
Open Password - if there is one - must be removed in this way as well. Files with an
Open Password cannot be handled by PDF Handshake.
Important: Setting changes require knowledge of the Security Password. Thus, for proper operation, refer to the Acrobat documentation.
Fig. 10: Changing security options
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Composite and separated PDFs
PDF Handshake can handle composite
and pre-separated PDF documents.
Whether you print composite or separations from your original application (before generating PDF) depends on your workflow and requirements. In case you want to have trapping information in your PDF file, for example, you may be forced to print separations. This is due to the fact that some applications such as QuarkXPress do not include trapping information in a PostScript output if you print composite.
Pre-separated PDF documents are automatically recognized by the "pdfprint" command line program and by the PDF Handshake Acrobat plug-ins. When printing or exporting pre-separated documents with PDF Handshake, the following rules apply:
- Separation printing is turned on.
- The options Convert Spot To Process and Overprint Black are disabled.
- Color matching is disabled.
- The halftone settings for each color are applied to the pages with the corresponding plate colors.
Pre-separated PDF documents are also recognized by EtherShare OPI. They are handled as follows:
- The "layout" and "pdftoeps" command line programs generate DCS files with default composite previews. Both are raster based with a maximum resolution of 150 dpi ("pdftoeps") and server resolution settings (layout). The "layout" program creates single file DCS-style layout images while the "pdftoeps" program creates DCS 1- or DCS 2-style multifile images. The plate file suffices for CMYK will be .C, .M, .Y, and .K. Spot color plate files will be assigned other suffices, namely letters so far unused in alphabetical order. The suffix does not have any relation to the name of the spot color.
- Printing separations and printing composite of documents containing placed layouts of pre-separated PDF files to an OPI printer queue with image replacement is fully supported for all output devices, except for Print Preview:
Important: Composite printing of documents containing placed layouts of pre-separated PDF files to a Print Preview queue will lead to blank picture boxes in the preview.
You may run the PDF Handshake server software in demo mode. If you do so, our server fonts will only be available for OPI layout generation - they cannot be used for printing. The only exception is Courier, this font is always fully accessible.
For background information about the different types of fonts and the way they are handled by PDF Handshake, please see appendix
A 4: "About fonts".
Compressed PDF documents and compressed images in PDF documents can be handled without problems. PDF Handshake recognizes all common modes of compression like JPEG, CCITT, ZIP, etc.
Note that if you are using EtherShare OPI and transform a PDF file into EPSF (either high-resolution EPSF or layout), this new EPSF file will - depending on server settings - not be compressed.
About separations and spot colors
Spot colors in PDF files are recognized. PDF Handshake even offers a
Spot To Process option that lets you convert all spot colors in a PDF file into CMYK when printing separations. The option is available if you print directly from your server platform and if you print from a Macintosh client using our Acrobat Exchange/Reader print plug-in.
About the two different
"image" profiles for PDF documents
PDF files can contain several images and thus can contain different color spaces (like CMYK, or RGB) in one document. Therefore, for correct color matching, these PDF files should have two image profiles - one for the RGB objects and one for the CMYK objects in the document. If you are using EtherShare OPI you can, with the "Tagger" program, assign profiles to your PDF documents. Else, you can at least define server-wide defaults using the EtherShare Admin, or tag PDF documents temporarily before printing. Our Acrobat print plug-in provides pop-up menus for that purpose, and the "pdfprint" program also offers the required parameters (see chapter
9.1 "Printing PDF files using "pdfprint"").
If you receive PDF files from a customer you may use the
Get Info option on a Macintosh to check whether these files already come with profile information that have been "tagged" to the files under EtherShare OPI 2.1.
If so, the names of the profiles will be displayed in the
Comments field of the
Info box (see Fig.
11). EtherShare OPI users may check profile information with the "Tagger" program.
Fig. 11: Access to profile information
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About color data transformations with OPI
The handling of color data transformations is different depending on whether EtherShare OPI 2.1 is installed on your server or not. If you are using EtherShare OPI, please read chapters 5.5 and 5.6 in the OPI manual for details about color data transformations.
About color data transformations
without OPI
In case you are using PDF Handshake with EtherShare 2.6 only, your server will behave as follows:
On principle, you activate the color matching module explicitly by selecting an ICC printer profile on the desired printer queue (this is described in chapter
7.2.2). If you do so, all colors in your PDF files will be transformed into the printer's color space during printing.
If you do not select a printer profile, color data transformations might be performed "behind the scenes" - depending on whether you print composite or separations:
- Printing composite:
All color spaces in your PDF files remain as they are. The color matching module will not interfere.
- Printing separations:
Indirect color matching will be performed. Non-CMYK color spaces in your PDF files (like CIE-Lab, RGB, Indexed colors) will automatically be transformed into CMYK. The server will use the "CMYK standard" for the color data transformations. By default, this standard is Euroscale - you can only change it into SWOP if you are using EtherShare OPI.
Bilevel and Grayscale color spaces always remain unchanged.
Note: Please remember that you may not remove the "ICC-Profiles" volume from your server, because this would disable indirect color matching.
PPD files must be selected carefully to guarantee correct output on the printing device. You can select a PPD file with EtherShare Admin when setting up a printer queue and you can select a PPD file on your Macintosh client when choosing a printer. These two PPD files should be identical. The Acrobat PDF Handshake plug-in checks this for you and will display a warning in case they are not.
Important: The two PPD files are only checked by their name but not by their content. In order to guarantee optimum printing results, ensure that equally named PPD files have the same content.
Profiles for non-
PostScript printers
The ICC-Profiles volume that is automatically created during product installation contains two ICC printer profiles for Epson Stylus Color desktop printers, i.e. for non-PostScript devices. With PDF Handshake, you have to print to an EtherShare printer queue and non-PostScript output devices are not supported. However, HELIOS Print Preview customers can use these Epson Stylus Color profiles for proof printing preview files on an Epson ink-jet printer. See chapter 5.4 in the Print Preview manual for more information about this issue.
Page size problems when distilling EPSF files We recommend to use the Acrobat Distiller software for PDF generation. The Distiller may have problems to recognize the page size of EPSF input files. For details, please see Fig.
A-6 in appendix
A 1: "Creating PDF files using Acrobat Distiller" and the explanation about the
Use Prologue.ps and Epilogue.ps option.
