3.1 PrintPreview utility programs
The "psrip" utility is a command line PostScript RIP application which is suitable for creating previews of vector EPS and PostScript files.
psrip [-v][-o Option][-a Attributes][-A][-l <level>]
[-V version][-e <xpixel,ypixel>][-p <width,height>]
[-s <xshift,yshift>][-N <serialno>]
[-i <InputFileName>]<OutputFilenameBase>
If no
<InputFilename> is specified PostScript is read from "stdin".
Output files will be named
<OutputFilename>.<PageNumber>.<OutputFileSuffix>
The following options can be called with "psrip":
Create a multi-channel image file. This option does only work, if in-RIP separation is enabled (
-o inripseparation).
Note: Not all image formats support multi-channel image files. Formats that support multi-channel images are e.g. TIFF and Photoshop. In Photoshop, spot colors in multi-channel images are converted into process colors during the presentation. "psrip" does the calculation by use of the spot color tables (see Workaround 1: in
A 1.2 "Proof printing files with spot colors".
Do antialiasing (4 times oversampling).
-o PrintResolution <double:72.0>
Device resolution in dpi (default is
72.0).
Select device color space
CMYK,
RGB or
Gray (default is
CMYK).
-o inripseparation <boolean:FALSE>
Enable in-RIP separation. One image file per each colorant is written, unless you want to produce a multi-channel image file (
-m).
-o SeparationOrder <string list:None>
List of colorants, written as output. This option does only work with the
inripseparation option. The value is a list of colorant names, separated by commas.
If a colorant name contains spaces, the whole list must be surrounded by quotes. The colorant names must be defined either implictly by color space (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black, Red, Green, Blue or Gray) or by
SeparationColorNames. If
SeparationColorNames is not used, each unknown colorant (not implicitly defined by color space) is supposed to be a spot color.
-o SeparationColorNames <string list:None>
List of available spot colors. This option does only work with
SeparationOrder and the
inripseparation option. The value is a list of colorant names, separated by commas.
If a colorant name contains spaces, the whole list must be surrounded by quotes. If this option is specified, only colorant names defined here can be used in
SeparationOrder as spot colors. If a PostScript job uses a
/Separation or
/DeviceN color space, the color space tint transform is not used, if the according (spot) color(s) are known (and thus listed for this option).
-o RasterImageType <string:TIFF>
Format of the raster image file (Default is
TIFF). If OpenImage is not installed, this option is not available and images are always written as raw files.
The default raster image format is TIFF. To use a different format specify this option with one of the following supported formats:
TIFF��TIFF image format
JPEG��JPEG image format
8BPS��Adobe Photoshop native format
PICT��Apple PICT format
..CT��Scitex CT format
Image format specific settings, e.g. quality, can be specified via attributes (see
-a attributes below).
-o RasterImageSuffix <string:(see text)>
Suffix of the raster image output file. The default is derived from the image format, e.g.
.tif for TIFF.
-o CompressPrint <string:None>
Compression used by the raster image file. Some raster image file formats support several compressions (e.g. ZIP compression in TIFF files). This option is only available, if OpenImage is installed.
By default, there is no compression method set. To use a compression method, specify this option with one of the following supported methods:
Flate��ZIP compression format
JPEG���JPEG compression format
-o vmsize <uint32:30720000>
Size of the local VM in bytes (default is 30�MB).
-o gvmsize <uint32:5120000>
Size of the global VM in bytes (default is 5�MB).
PostScript language level (1, 2 or 3). Default is
2.
Change the version of the PostScript interpreter
(e.g.
3015.102).
Page dimension specified in device pixels.
xpixel and
ypixel must be separated by a comma. The default values are 595 (
xpixel) by 842 (
ypixel).
-p <double:(8.26,11.69)>
-p <str:A4>
Page dimension specified in inches.
width and
height must be separated by a comma. The default is 8.26 (
width) by 11.69 (
height). Alternatively, the paper format can be specified. The default is
<str:A4>.
Supported paper sizes are:
Letter, Legal, Executive, Ledger, A0, A1, A2, A3, A4, A5, B0, B1, B2, B3, B4, B5, B6
Shift coordinate system in inches. Positive is direction upper/right.
xshift and
yshift must be separated by a comma. The default values are 0 (
xshift) by 0 (
yshift).
PostScript RIP serial number.
File name of the PostScript file. If no file name is specified, PostScript is read from "stdin" (reading from "stdin", "psrip" cannot handle binary EPS headers).
3.1.2 Attributes for "psrip" options
Attributes specify details of the used image format. This option is only available, if ImageServer is installed. Attributes are entered as command line options using the syntax:
psrip -o Attributes=<attributes>=<value> or
psrip -a <key>=<value>
Additional attributes are delimited by commas.
Baseline (JPEG only) <boolean:FALSE>
Saves JPEG layout images per default in progressive method. If this option is set to JPEG layout images are saved as baseline JPEGs instead.
DctMethod (JPEG only) <uint32:0>
Use slow, fast, or precise DCT (0, 1, 2).
Quality (JPEG) <uint32:75>
Quality (JPEG2000) <uint32:100>
Specifies the image quality of a JPEG or JPEG 2000 image in relation to the uncompressed high-resolution original
. The values range from 1-100, or are one of the following named constants:
- Lossless
- Maximum
- High
- Medium
- Low
- Minimum
The default value for JPEG is 75. The default value for JPEG2000 is 100 ("Lossless").
TileWidth (JPEG 2000 only!) <uint32:256>
Specifies the horizontal size of JPEG 2000 tiles. A JPEG 2000 image file consists of juxtaposed tiles. If the value specified is
0, the whole image merely consists of one tile.
TileHeight (JPEG 2000 only!) <uint32:256>
Specifies the vertical size of JPEG 2000 tiles. A JPEG 2000 image file consists of juxtaposed tiles. If the value specified is
0, the whole image merely consists of one tile.
3.2 Setting up PrintPreview with HELIOS Admin
3.2.1 Set up a preview queue
Previews of your print jobs are only generated when printing from your application to a preview queue.
From the
Printers tab select
File > New.
In the
Connection pull-down menu select
Print Preview.
In the
Printers window you can specify settings for the
Print Preview connection.
Fig.�3 shows suitable settings that may be used for a typical "preview-then-print" workflow.
Fig. 3:
Print Preview connection window
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72 dpi is an adequate value for preview files. It is the standard monitor resolution and is therefore best-suited for monitor proofs. If you intend to use the preview files for other purposes later, e.g. if you intend to print them, you may specify a higher resolution here. Note that the resolution has a great influence on the temporary disk space that is needed in the spool directory when generating the preview files. Doubling the resolution (e.g. from 72 to 144 dpi) would quadruple the temporary disk space requirements.
The path to the place where PrintPreview stores the previews. A directory must be specified in order to use the
Create folder for each user,
Name Prefix, and
Notify Program options.
Create folder for each user
If this option is specified PrintPreview creates a folder for each user, in the path specified in
Directory, who prints to a
Print Preview connection.
Name Prefix lets you tag a prefix to your print job name. This serves to identify the files that are coming from this specific queue (in case you have several
Print Preview queues that print to the same destination).
The
Notify Program option lets you enter a path that leads to a specific host program. This program will be started automatically after printing has been finished successfully.
This option will include all separation plates in the preview file. In case you printed composite, the separation plates of the process colors are calculated by PrintPreview and added to the preview file.
This option will include the composite preview in the preview file. In case you have printed separations, the composite preview is calculated by PrintPreview and added to the preview file.
If you check both
Include Separations and
Include Color Preview, your preview file will contain a set of separations preview pages for each document page you have printed (and additional preview pages for a print job with spot colors).
This option makes the
Print Preview queue behave like an in-RIP device. You may already define in the application program to print in-RIP separations or define the output color space by initializing the
Print Preview queue according to the instructions given in
A 1.4 "Using in-RIP separation with PrintPreview".
Suppress Forward to Hold Queue
If this option is active, the jobs will stay in the preview queue until somebody moves (or removes) them manually. The option
must be checked if you do not specify a
Hold Queue. Otherwise, the jobs will - after preview generation - be forwarded to nowhere, meaning that they will disappear completely. In case you wish to activate automatic forwarding, you must specify a
Hold Queue and uncheck
Suppress Forward to Hold Queue (find more details and examples in
3.5 "Possible workflows").
Antialias should remain checked if the preview files are intended for viewing on a monitor. Antialias smoothes the contours of the elements in the preview files and thus makes them more legible on a monitor. Antialiasing will slightly increase the period of time the software needs to generate a preview file. Note that the
Antialias option needs about 4 times more memory.
With this option specified, an info page is added to the PDF preview file which is generated by PrintPreview (
Fig.�4).
Fig. 4:
Print Preview connection info page
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From the
Compression pull-down menu, you can select
None,
ZIP, or
JPEG (Low, Medium, High, Maximum Quality). For details on the
JPEG quality see the
jpegquality preference in
4 "Preferences". We recommend specifying a compression (
ZIP is a lossless compression and is therefore the best choice), because otherwise the program will need about twice as much temporary disk space during preview generation, and will create large preview files as well. The maximum size of a new PDF file will be identical to the temporary disk space needed for its generation in case you do not activate any kind of compression.
3.2.2 Save settings and assign a PPD file
As soon as you press the
Save button in the printer settings dialog, the new preview queue will be established and it will automatically inherit the PPD file and the printer fonts of the queue you have specified as
Hold Queue. This is very useful, e.g. if your
Hold Queue is the printer queue you use for production, because it guarantees that PrintPreview uses the same PPD file information and the same fonts, that will later be used for printing, for preview generation.
If you have not specified a
Hold Queue, HELIOS Admin will prompt a message, asking you to select a PPD file for the new preview queue.
The correct PPD file has a great influence on whether the preview and the final printout are identical. If you move the print job from your
Hold Queue to a printer queue that uses a different PPD file the result on the output side may differ from what you have seen in the preview. The following illustration (
Fig.�5) shows an example environment with several printer queues that use different PPD files.
Fig. 5: Environment with several printer queues using different PPD files
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In an environment like that illustrated in
Fig.�5, you should create a separate preview queue for each printer queue you have - or more precisely, for each PPD file that is in use on one or more printer queues.
To assign a new or different PPD file to any of your queues use the
Select PPD option in the printer configuration menu. The procedure is described in the Base manual.
HELIOS Admin also allows displaying the currently selected PPD file. This can be very useful, e.g. if you want to check whether a certain hold queue and the desired printer queue use the same PPD file information.
To check the used PPD, open the printer configuration window and click the
Edit PPD- button. The exact file name of the PPD file is given in the line "NickName".
3.2.3 Define OPI settings for a preview queue
For a description about how to define OPI settings for a
Print Preview connection printer queue see the respective chapters in the ImageServer and PDF HandShake manuals.
3.2.4 Define ICC settings for a preview queue
Activating
Check ICC Profiles for Pictures will induce the OPI server to check whether all image profiles that have been tagged to any of the image files are available. The server will automatically stop the print job if a single profile is missing and issue a corresponding error message. If this option is not active, OPI will execute all print jobs and use standard profiles for color matching, whenever the correct profile is missing, unless the input color space is the same as the output color space, e.g. Image CMYK = Printer CMYK.
The
Default Printer Profile item lets you choose the correct profile for your output device and, at the same time, serves to switch on color matching for this printer queue. The pull-down menu contains four different options:
- None
switches off color matching.
- Other
opens a dialog that lets you select a specific profile.
- EBU RGB
may be selected if you want to "print" to a slide-recorder or if you use the "print to file" option or HELIOS PDF HandShake to convert your documents into PDF.
- Lab D65
is best-suited if you want to select a device-independent output color space, e.g. if you send your documents to different production sites.
This item will only be available if you have selected a default printer profile. Here, you can select the correct profile for your proof printer.
Note: It does not make any sense to select a proof profile if you have chosen Lab D65 from the Default Printer Profile pull-down menu. In that case, you have not yet specified your output device and thus cannot simulate it with a proof printer.
For a description about how to define settings for a hold queue see the respective chapter in the Base manual.
3.3 Checking the print preview
3.3.1 Access to preview files
Double-click the preview queue in the
Printers list (in our example "ppv") to open the job window, and to monitor the progress of the preview generation (
Fig.�6).
Fig. 6: Print job during preview generation
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In case automatic forwarding to the hold queue has been specified, the print job will disappear from the preview queue after the preview generation and shows up in the hold queue again.
Double-click the hold queue in the
Printers list (in our example "hold") to access the preview file in the job window (
Fig.�7). The PDF icon in front of the file name indicates that preview generation has been successful.
Fig. 7: Preview file on the hold queue
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Note: If Suppress Forward to Hold Queue is checked, the jobs remain stuck in the preview queue. There, preview generation will only be performed for the first job in line. Additional jobs will have to wait.
Double-clicking a job's PDF icon in the hold or preview queue automatically starts the Acrobat application, which must be installed on your system (you may also highlight the job and choose
File > Save As- from the Admin menu to save the PDF file for future use).
Important: For security reasons, the access rights to preview files are restricted: Preview files are accessible as "root", owner of the print job, or member of an administration group. Otherwise, access will be denied!
Structure of preview files
The first page of a preview file is the info page (if included), which presents important information about the file, e.g. generation time, resolution, compression, ICC profiles used (
Fig.�8). The last three lines serve as a placeholder for your individual comments. If you are using Adobe Acrobat you can use the
TouchUp text tool to enter a comment.
Fig. 8: Information on the PrintPreview info page
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Fig. 9: Bookmarks section lists composite preview page, corresponding separations, and spot color plates
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In Acrobat's
Bookmarks section, the table of contents lists the document pages you have printed. There may be subpages if your preview file contains the composite result and the separations (
Fig.�9). The page numbers in the table of contents are copied from the document you have printed - you will find e.g. 1, 2, 3 if you have printed pages 1 to 3. In case your application does not forward page counts correctly, PrintPreview will generate new page numbers for the table of contents.
Following the info page, are the composite preview, and the separations, for each document page, also illustrated in
Fig.�9.
You can also use the Acrobat thumbnails for file navigation. An example is given in
Fig.�10.
Fig. 10: Use thumbnails for file navigation
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3.4 PrintPreview's default behavior in particular situations
Composite or separation previews
From an application, you can print either composite or separations. In a preview file, however, you can have both, the composite preview and the separation plates - independent of whether you have printed composite or separations. This means that PrintPreview has to derive one of the previews on its own: If you have printed separations, the composite preview has to be calculated by PrintPreview, and if you have printed composite, the separation plates have to be be calculated by PrintPreview. For these calculations, PrintPreview must rely on the information that is sent by the application. If the information is not ADSC-compliant, the calculations may fail and this may lead to corrupt (or missing) composite or separation previews in a preview file. This does not affect real printing.
Warnings, e.g. about corrupt separations, are added to the print job accounting file which can - as usual - be opened by a double-click on the job (not on the PDF icon!).
As on any other queue, specific initializations or trailers are recognized. See your Base documentation for details about how to define them.
Page sizes in preview files
PrintPreview usually recognizes the page size of the document that is printed and uses the same size for the preview file. If this is impossible because the application does not forward the correct page size, the default is A4.
Number of copies in preview files
PrintPreview usually generates only one preview for each document page you have printed, even if you have specified a higher number of copies in the print dialog. If you move the job from the preview or hold queue to a "real-printing" queue after checking the preview, the number of copies will be recognized again, meaning that if you have specified e.g. 4 copies you will get 4 printouts of each document page.
Note: If your preview file already contains more than one preview of each document page this indicates that your application prints each page several times instead of printing it once.
3.5.1 Check previews on a monitor in a production environment
In a production environment, you may want to set up a "preview-then-print" configuration that is as efficient as possible, meaning that printing can be started very easily after checking the previews on screen.
Create a new preview queue and select the printer queue you use for production from the
Hold Queue entry in the
Connection pull-down menu.
Suppress Forward to Hold Queue must be turned off in the settings dialog.
Antialias and a
Resolution of 72 dpi are recommended because these settings guarantee maximum legibility of the preview files on a monitor.
Save the
Printers dialog. The preview queue will now inherit the PPD file from the
Hold Queue you specified. This guarantees that the parameters used for preview generation are identical to those used for production.
To activate color matching in your preview queue, open the
OPI/ICC dialog. Choose the
Default Printer Profile that is also used on your printer queue (the one that describes your final output device), and select your monitor profile as
Default Proof Profile.
If you wish to check the preview file on different monitors, you should select the standard EBU-RGB profile as
Default Proof Profile. This will turn out to be a pretty good compromise.
ImageServer users may specify OPI settings in the upper part of the dialog. The configuration should be identical to the one chosen in the printer queue.
Set the printer queue you have chosen as
Hold Queue to
Spool Only. This allows you to check the preview files before printing is started.
Open the document you want to print and select the new preview queue for printing.
Open the preview queue's job window to monitor the progress of preview generation (
Fig.�6). Then, open the printer queue's job window. The new PDF preview files will be forwarded to this queue automatically. To check the previews, double-click the respective PDF icons.
Finally, after you have checked all jobs that are currently displayed in the printer queue's job window, you can set this queue to
Spool & Print and start the production.
Additional settings for backup purposes:
Usually, print jobs disappear after they have been printed. If you want to have them available for reproduction you should set up a hold queue for your printer queue, e.g. one that is called "hold".
For a description about how to define settings for a hold queue see the respective chapter in the Base manual.
Open the printer settings dialog for your printer queue and select the hold queue from the
Hold Queue pull-down menu.
With this configuration, print jobs will automatically proceed from preview queue to printer queue to hold queue. From the hold queue's job window, you can drag them to the printer queue again to restart production.
3.5.2 Let customers preview PDFs - for output on a proof printer
This workflow is recommended if you do not check the previews on a monitor before starting production, but let the customer preview the PDF files, e.g. via HELIOS WebShare. The customer may also print them from their Acrobat application and then check the printouts.
In this example, assume that the customer's proof printer is an "Apple Color LaserWriter".
Create a hold queue, e.g. one that is called "hold". Set the hold time to 0 days and 0 hours, i.e. "on hold forever". Select for the hold queue the same PPD file that will later be used for the printer queue.
Create a preview queue and select the hold queue from the
Hold Queue pull-down menu.
Antialias should be unchecked; antialiasing makes documents more legible on a monitor, but it is not suited for printed previews.
150 dpi is a proper value for
Resolution, because it guarantees good output results on an "Apple Color LaserWriter".
We strongly recommend to specify a
Compression. Otherwise, with a resolution of 150 dpi, preview generation will need much disk space. Moreover, compressed preview files are smaller and can be exchanged more easily.
Save the
Printers dialog. The preview queue will now inherit the PPD file from the hold queue.
Important: Whenever you gather preview files in a hold queue, keep in mind that you have to forward them to a printer queue later. The hold and printer queue must use the same PPD file. Otherwise, the printouts may differ from the previews (Fig.�5).
Now, set up color matching on the preview queue.
The
Default Printer Profile must be the same profile that is specified on the queue you will later use for production. The
Default Proof Profile should be the profile of the "Apple Color LaserWriter" (or of any other proof printer that your customer may use).
ImageServer users may specify OPI settings in the upper section of the
OPI/ICC settings dialog, if required. The configuration should be identical to the one on the printer queue you will later use for production.
Open the document you want to print and select the new preview queue for printing.
Open the preview queue's job window to monitor the progress of preview generation. Then, open the hold queue's job window. The new PDF preview file will be forwarded to this queue automatically. To save a particular preview file into a directory, highlight the file in the job window and select
File > Save As- from the Admin menu.
Finally, open the directory that contains the PDF files and send them to your customer, e.g. via e-mail or WebShare. Tell your customer to print the files to the "Apple Color LaserWriter" printer and to check the printouts.
Alternative settings for preparing the file exchange:
In the
Print Preview printer queue setup in HELIOS Admin, the item
Directory can be specified to save the files to a directory accessible to users via EtherShare, PCShare, or WebShare. Further processing can be automated via the
Notify Program option, or using Script Server (see ImageServer manual).
3.5.3 Sending previews to a non-PostScript proof printer (or final printer)
Usually, PDF HandShake and PrintPreview only support PostScript queues, meaning that printing requires a PostScript device on the output side. With PrintPreview, you can bypass this requirement because printing to a preview queue means printing into a PDF file. The newly created PDF files can be printed again from any Acrobat application on any platform; and Acrobat supports different devices, e.g. serially connected non-PostScript printers. The following example describes how you can produce high-quality color printouts on a non-PostScript ink jet printer. This workflow is meant for customers who have a proof printer - or for customers who want to use their ink jet printer as final output device. In the latter case, see
3.5.4 "Ink jet printer as final output device" at the end of this chapter.
Include Separations should be turned off because printing separations on an ink jet color printer would not make any sense.
Antialias should be turned off as well; antialiasing makes documents more legible on a monitor, but it is not meant for printing.
According to our tests, 360 dpi is a proper value for
Resolution. The default resolution of 72 dpi is meant for monitor display only, it is not suited for high-quality printouts.
Note: We strongly recommend to specify a Compression. Otherwise, with a resolution of 360 dpi, preview generation would need much disk space.
Save the
Printers dialog and select a PPD file. We have tested this workflow with the "Acrobat Distiller" and the "Apple Color LaserWriter 12/600" PPD file. Both PPD files produce correct results. So you should specify one of them, even though you do not print to a PostScript device in the end.
Now, set up color matching on the preview queue.
The
Default Printer Profile must be the same profile that is specified in the queue you will later use for production. The
Default Proof Profile should either be a generic RGB profile (e.g. from the Mac OS X system software), or an RGB profile which came with the ink jet printer you use for proof purposes. Make sure that the proof profile is an RGB profile.
ImageServer users may specify OPI settings in the upper section of the
OPI/ICC settings dialog, if required.
Open the document you wish to print and print composite to the new preview queue.
After preview generation, open the preview file from the hold queue's job window.
Select the ink jet printer as default printer, and print the PDF preview file from your Acrobat or Acrobat Reader application.
After checking the proof printout from your ink jet printer, you can move the job to your production queue.
3.5.4 Ink jet printer as final output device
In case the ink jet printer is your production device, you should choose a suitable profile, e.g. the profile which came with the ink jet printer, as
Default Printer Profile on your preview queue. A
Default Proof Profile is not required. All other settings and steps are identical to those described above.
You can obtain a correct proof using PrintPreview, using host-based separations:
Create a PDF 1.3 (or higher) file from your composite PostScript job resolved by ImageServer (easily done via the PDF HandShake "Create PDF Server" feature). Then print a host-based separation of the PDF file using PDF HandShake (via Acrobat plug-in, Hot Folder, "pdfprint" tool or PDF Internet Printing) into a Print Preview queue.
PrintPreview will recombine the separations into a color matched composite preview, plus the set of grayscale separations for all needed colors. These separations include all information including correct overprinting and knockouting, correct spot colors derived from DeviceN PostScript, and exisiting trapping and color information. If you approve the results, you can generate the final output:
Print the PDF document with in-RIP separations to your final output device, using PDF HandShake.
