A 1 Create PDF files using Acrobat Distiller
PDF HandShake offers the opportunity of using PDF as an 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 every customer who submits PDF files to you. We recommend to use Acrobat Distiller for PDF generation, and to consult the Acrobat online help.
In the following, we briefly discuss the Distiller job options that might be relevant for 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 Adobe Acrobat.
Start Acrobat Distiller, open
Settings > Edit Adobe PDF Settings- and select the
General tab to open the dialog shown in Fig.
A-1.
Compatibility should be set to
Acrobat 4 (PDF 1.3) in order to provide a high grade of compatibility with different Acrobat versions.
The default document page size can be arbitrarily specified in this section.
In the
Units pop-up menu select
Centimeters or
Inches.
Fig. A-1:
Setting up General settings
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Then select the
Images tab as shown in Fig.
A-2.
Sampling should be switched off in the pop-up menu, and
Compression should be
ZIP. Even though PDF HandShake is able to uncompress every kind of PDF file, any type of
JPEG,
JPEG2000 or
Automatic compression will entail data loss and will thus reduce quality on the output side.
Here, the same settings as described in
Color Images above should be applied.
If you intend to decrease the file size for monochrome bitmap images switch
Sampling off and select
CCIT Group 4 or
Run Length from the corresponding pop-up menu.
Fig. A-2: Setting up
Images settings
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Switch to the
Fonts tab to specify the fonts you want to include in your PDF file. Fig.
A-3 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.
Fig. A-3: Setting up
Fonts settings
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The
Subset Embedded Fonts When Percent Of Characters Used Is Less Than option should be used, and set to 100%, to make sure that the fonts embedded in the PDF file are really used for printing.
When printing with the 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 Embedded Fonts When Percent Of Characters Used Is Less Than 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 coincide with the standard font names on a printer.
Note: If you work with Subset Embedded Fonts When Percent Of Characters Used Is Less Than 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.
The
Color tab can be used to apply color settings. We recommend to use the settings shown in Fig.
A-4.
Fig. A-4: Setting up
Color settings
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Choose
Leave Color Unchanged from the pop-up menu, as shown in the example, unless you intend to edit the colors in the PDF document.
The profiles pop-up menus for
Gray,
RGB and
CMYK remain grayed out as long as you maintain
Leave Color Unchanged.
Preserve Under Color Removal and
Preserve Halftone Information can be checked if required. If your PostScript file contains e.g. halftone information you want to use for later printing, check
Preserve Halftone Information. The "pdfprint" program and the Acrobat plug-in both have an option that allows to use for printing the halftone information that is included in the PDF file.
Switch to the
Advanced tab as shown in Fig.
A-5.
Fig. A-5: Setting up
Advanced settings
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Preserve OPI Comments is only relevant if you are using ImageServer. Both choices are possible: If you are fairly sure that your input document is complete, meaning that all required fonts and high-res 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-res 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 also send the high-res 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.
Finally, switch to the
PDF/X tab as shown in Fig.
A-6.
Fig. A-6: Setting up
PDF/X settings
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PDF/X, a subset of the PDF specification created by Adobe, eliminates many of the color, font, and trapping variables that lead to printing problems.
There are two commonly used versions of PDF/X, both approved ISO standards:
PDF/X-1a is a specification for the blind exchange of PDF files which contain CMYK and spot color information.
The second, PDF/X-3 is very similar to PDF/ X-1a, except it allows using device independent color (Lab, color profiles and calibrated color spaces).
Note: PDF/X-2 is not supported by Acrobat 6.0 Professional. It permits externally referenced PDF content, like OPI substitution and other components.
PDF/X Reporting and Compliance Enforcement defines which PDF/X specification is to be used, what Distiller is to do when it finds files that are not compliant, and so on.
PDF/X-1a and
PDF/X-3 checkboxes - these are used to specify which version of PDF/X is desired. PDF/X-1a is used for device CMYK and spot color workflow; PDF/X-3 is used for color managed workflow.
When not compliant - Distiller can either fail a non-compliant job, or it can continue to create a PDF file that is as close to PDF/X compliance as possible. Using
Continue is not recommended, because it does not create PDF/X compliant files when documents do not meet the standard.
If neither TrimBox nor ArtBox are Specified - The specification of at least one of these boxes is a requirement of PDF/X (even if the value is set to
zero.) It is always best to check with the printer to get this setting correct, otherwise, leave it set to
zero. This will cause the trim box to be set to the page size.
If BleedBox is not specified - The Bleed Box specification is another requirement of PDF/X. If it is not specified, or Distiller cannot detect the bleed box from the incoming Quark file (Distiller contains smarts to detect this information, even if the user does not specify it), you can set the bleed box value in relation to the trim box value. Because the size of the bleed box is always greater than the size of the trim box, the offset indicated here is the distance outside the trim box.
Default values if not specified in the document - The document output intent is specified in this document. This describes the intended output condition for the file. The PDF/X specification allows you to identify these two ways. You can either choose an ICC profile that describes the device or condition for which the file is prepared, or a characterized printing condition can be used. Distiller has a preference for specifying an ICC profile. Based on the profile chosen, Distiller will select the proper characterized printing condition for you.
If you do specify a characterized printing condition, it must be registered in order for it to comply with the PDF/X standard.
In addition, the
Trapped parameter is specified in this section. This parameter is meant to indicate whether or not the file contains trapping information. In almost all cases, the value of this flag will be "false." Unless you are manually trapping a file, using a trapping plug-in, or do not want the file to be trapped, leave this as "false".
