PDF HandShake G8 User manual (Version 6.0.0)  
 

1 About the chapters of this manual

In the following, we give a brief summary of each chapter in this manual. These summaries will help you find the information you are looking for.

Chapter 2 “An introduction to HELIOS PDF HandShake” discusses the use of the PDF file format as an exchange format in a prepress environment or in the printing business.

Installation of PDF HandShake

Chapter 3 “Installation” lists the requirements for the HELIOS Acrobat plug-ins, and describes the installation of the Mac tools.

Preparations

Chapter 4 “Before getting started” summarizes some general information about the structure and behavior of PDF HandShake.

Chapter 5 “Set up PDF HandShake with HELIOS Admin” shows how to choose suitable PDF HandShake settings via the HELIOS Admin program on a client. The chapter describes the relevant dialogs, including options for HELIOS ImageServer users.

Chapter 6 “PDF HandShake utility programs” describes the HELIOS programs of which PDF HandShake is composed, and describes in detail how to change options and attributes of these programs manually.

The print-only workflow

Chapter 7 “Printing with PDF HandShake” describes the “pdfprint” command line tool that allows printing PDF files directly from the server without opening an application. It also describes how to specify the same print options via the PDF HandShake print plug-in for Acrobat on Mac. Using either the plug-in or “pdfprint”, you can e.g. print separations and make use of the PDF HandShake color matching features.

Chapter 8 “Create PDF Server” is a PDF HandShake feature to automate the PDF creation of any PostScript job. Configuration and setup is easy and comfortable through HELIOS Admin. In addition, the chapter shows how to set up a lower quality “Create PDF” queue, e.g. for bitmap documents in an office environment, using the Ghostscript engine instead of the Distiller for PDF creation.

The OPI workflow (HELIOS ImageServer required)

Chapter 9 “Use PDF files in a PostScript OPI workflow” describes how to use PDF files in an OPI environment. It shows how to tag color profiles to PDF high-resolution files, and explains the default behavior of the OPI server when handling PDF files.

Chapter 10 “Export for Imposition with ImageServer” shows how to export PDF files (as PostScript files) for further use in an imposition application. Final printing from the imposition software to the output device requires HELIOS ImageServer.

Chapter 11 “PDF-native OPI workflow” is about an essential component of high-volume PDF document workflows based on Adobe InDesign software.

Additional features

Chapter 12 “PDF-to-PDF color conversion” introduces a hot folder based technology, which allows converting the color space of each object within a PDF document to a specified output color space.

Chapter 13 “Preferences” lists the PDF HandShake preferences and explains what they effect when set.

Chapter 14 “Example workflow” illustrates a possible production environment where a customer uses Microsoft Word for document creation and submits PDF files to his printers.

Chapter 15 “Create PDF files using Acrobat Distiller” gives instructions for how to set up the job options of the Acrobat Distiller software in order to create PDF files that are best suited for being used with PDF HandShake.

Chapter 16 “PDF Transparency” briefly lists PDF transparency requirements and features.

Chapter 17 “PDF layers” gives information on layers in PDF documents and shows how these can be viewed, selected and printed via PDF HandShake and its utilities.

Additional information

Appendix A “About fonts” gives some background information about fonts, different types of fonts and the problems that can arise during printing. The appendix also explains how PDF HandShake deals with fonts.

Appendix B “The fonts we deliver” contains a list of the PostScript Type 1 fonts we include in our software package.

Appendix C “Glossary” explains some product-related terminology.


HELIOS Website © 2020 HELIOS Software GmbH  
HELIOS Manuals September 10, 2020