• Contents
  • 1 About the chapters of this manual
  • 2 An introduction to HELIOS PDF HandShake
  • 3 Installation
  • 4 Before getting started
  • 5 Set up PDF HandShake with HELIOS Admin
  • 6 PDF HandShake utility programs
  • 7 Printing with PDF HandShake
  • 8 Create PDF Server
  • 9 PDF preflighting
  • 10 Using PDF files in a PostScript OPI workflow
  • 11 Export for Imposition with ImageServer
  • 12 PDF-native OPI workflow
  • 13 PDF-to-PDF color conversion
  • 14 Preferences
  • 15 Example workflow
  • 16 Create PDF files using Acrobat Distiller
  • 17 PDF Transparency
  • 18 PDF layers
  • A About fonts
  • B The fonts we deliver
  • C Glossary
• <
• 7 Printing with PDF HandShake
  • 7.1 pdfprint
  •  7.1.1 Program behavior and defaults
  •  7.1.2 Options
  •  7.1.3 Set up halftoning
  •  7.1.4 Examples
  • 7.2 Print PDF files using the Acrobat plug-in
• >

 

7 Printing with PDF HandShake

7.1 pdfprint

The “pdfprint” program is a command line tool that allows printing PDF files directly from the server without opening an application. The Acrobat software is not required.

7.1.1 Program behavior and defaults

The “pdfprint” program comes with a number of parameters. You may specify, for example, the number of copies, the pages you want to print, and whether you want to print composite or separations. The parameters that are available with “pdfprint” are similar to those that are offered by the printer driver on a Mac computer.

Before describing the parameters in detail, we would like to give you some information about the program behavior and its defaults:

… the “pdfprint” command can only deal with one file at a time. If you want to have more than one PDF file in your print job you may use our “pdfcat” tool and write several PDF files into one (see 6.1 “pdfcat”). Of course, if ImageServer is installed, the HELIOS Script Server “printpdf” script enables multiple PDF files to be automatically queued and printed via a hot folder.

… “pdfprint” sends the print job to a HELIOS PostScript printer queue. Thus, you can make use of all the benefits offered by the HELIOS print server. The parameters you set are applied to the file before the job is sent to the queue. This is useful because errors, e.g. missing fonts, can be detected before the job is spooled.

There are two different page sizes, namely the page size of the document and the one of the output medium (paper size). By default, “pdfprint” adjusts the bottom left corner of the document page to the bottom left corner of the output medium.

“pdfprint” prints the pages you have specified according to the order you have specified; the program prints the separations for every page, and for each separation it prints the number of copies you have defined. If you print e.g. separations, and want to have two copies of pages 1 to 2, the order of printouts will be as follows:

1       page 1    Cyan      copy 1 
2       page 1    Cyan      copy 2 
3       page 1    Magenta   copy 1 
4       page 1    Magenta   copy 2 
5       page 1    Yellow    copy 1 
6       page 1    Yellow    copy 2 
7       page 1    Black     copy 1 
8       page 1    Black     copy 2 
9       page 2    Cyan      copy 1 
10      page 2    Cyan      copy 2 

By default, all dimensions, e.g. page size, are expected to be given in inches (2.5 means 2.5 inches). You can switch to centimeters by specifying the unit explicitly, e.g. 2.5cm.

Some print options are not available when printing pre-separated files. If you specify the respective parameters, they will be silently ignored. See 4 “Before getting started” for more details.

Usage:

pdfprint [options] <pdfFilename> [-|<psFilename>]

7.1.2 Options

- (at the end)

Direct job to “stdout”. The optional output parameter can be either - for “stdout”, or, can be the output file name <psFilename>.

Note:

You can specify several options at a time. Each option must be preceded by the -o option, e.g.: -o orientation=landscape -o negativeprint

-P

Printer name is meant to direct your print job to a specific HELIOS printer queue. This parameter must be followed by the queue’s name. If you do not specify it, “pdfprint” will print to “stdout”. If you specify a queue, but add a minus (-) at the end of the command line, “pdfprint” will use the features of the selected printer, but nevertheless send the job to “stdout”.

-p

Media or Page size is used to specify a certain output medium or its size respectively. If you do not specify this parameter “pdfprint” uses the default medium of the selected printer – unless you have specified the -I option (see the parameters -P, and -I). The media or page size can be specified in four different ways:

• Width:Height (e.g. 14.8:21cm). If you skip the unit, it is expected to be inches. These exact values are valid no matter whether you did specify a printer (using the -P parameter) or not. In case that you did specify a printer, these values together with the -f option can for example be used to scale your document independent of the printer’s medium size. For example, if your printer uses A4 sheets, you can scale an A4 document down to A5 by specifying -f, followed by -p 14.8:21cm.

• Using one of the program’s medium names. The “pdfprint” program contains a list of medium names with width and height being pre-defined. You can use the following names – instead of specifying exact values as described above. Note that all these names are case-sensitive:

  • letter (21.59 x 27.94 cm)

  • lettersmall (21.59 x 27.94 cm)

  • legal (21.59 x 35.56 cm)

  • b5 (17.6 x 25 cm)

  • a5 (14.8 x 21 cm)

  • a4 (21 x 29.7 cm)

  • a4small (21 x 29.7 cm)

  • a3 (29.7 x 42 cm)

  • pdf (PDF Page Size)

• If you specify an arbitrary medium name – one that is not specified in the above list, e.g. “Tabloid” or “A4” – you have to make sure that you did specify a printer as well (using the -P parameter). “pdfprint” will then check with the current PPD file whether the medium name is valid for one of the paper trays. If not, this can produce a PostScript error – depending on the printer’s default behavior.

• You may specify pdf to make each PostScript page exactly as large as specified in the PDF page, e.g.:

  $ pdfprint -P myPrinter -p pdf myPDF.pdf
  

Note:

You can use the -P parameter together with the -h option to display the general usage of “pdfprint” and all medium names that are valid for the current printer (see example below):

$ pdfprint -P lw -h 
... 
The printer 'lw' supports the following paper sizes: 
*Letter 
Legal 
A4 
B5 
LetterSmall 
LegalSmall 
A4Small 
Com10 
Monarc

The “*” marks the PPD’s default paper size. The default size will be used automatically if you do not specify the -p option and if you do not specify -l either (see the -l option below). Please note that in specific situations, this can cause problems: For example, if *Letter is the default paper size in the PPD file, but the printer only has an A4 paper tray, the job will be aborted. In such a situation you will have to specify -p A4 on the command line explicitly.

As already indicated above, there is an interdependency between the options -p and -l. In case that you specify neither of them, the defaults from the current PPD file will be valid. If you specify only one of them, the paper size and paper tray entry from the PPD file will both be ignored – meaning that if you specify e.g. B5 as paper size, the corresponding paper tray (e.g. OptionalCassette) will be selected automatically.

-l

Paper tray can be used to select a specific paper tray for the printer. The string you enter must be valid for the current printer. Use the -P parameter together with the -h option to display the general usage of “pdfprint” and all paper trays that are available (see example below):

$ pdfprint -P lw -h 
... 
The printer 'lw' supports the following paper trays: 
*StandardCassette 
Multipurpose 
OptionalCassette 
Envelope

The “*” marks the PPD’s default paper tray. The default tray will be used automatically if you do not specify the -l option and if you do not specify -p either. For details about the interdependencies between -l and -p, see the -p option above.

-d

Resolution allows to specify the printer’s device resolution. You have to enter one of the strings that are valid for the current printer. You can prompt the list of valid strings by using the -P parameter together with the -h option:

$ pdfprint -P lw -h 
... 
The printer 'lw' supports the following resolutions: 
*600dpi 
300dpi

The “*” marks the printer’s default resolution. The default value will be used if you do not specify the -d parameter.

-E

Export for imposition lets the program generate a PostScript file instead of printing to a spooler. This PostScript file can be used with imposition software. See 11 “Export for Imposition with ImageServer” for a detailed description.

-L

Generate PostScript Level 1 compatible code that uses some PostScript Level 2 features, provided that they are supported by the printer.

-1

Forces the program to generate PostScript Level 1 compatible code only, when transforming the PDF data into PostScript.

-2

Forces the program to generate PostScript Level 2 compatible code only, when transforming the PDF data into PostScript.

-3

Forces the program to generate PostScript 3 compatible code only, when transforming the PDF data into PostScript.

-n

Number of copies lets you specify the number of copies you want to print. The default is 1 – if you do not specify this parameter at all.

-r

Page selection lets you select the pages you want to print. There are different options available as shown in the example below:

• 2 (prints page 2 of the document only)

• -11 (starts with page 1, prints pages 1 to 11)

• 11- (prints pages 11 to last page)

• 2-11 (prints pages 2 to 11 – starts with page 2)

• 11-2 (also prints pages 2 to 11 – but in reverse order)

You can specify several comma-separated ranges at a time, e.g. -r 3-6,12-. Do not use blanks within such a specification.

If you do not specify this parameter, all pages of the document will be printed.

-M

Registration marks prints registration marks. The document pages will be re-adjusted on the output medium so that the registration marks will fit in the bottom left corner. This could lead to cropping of the upper and right part of the document if the document pages and the registration marks do not fit on the output medium.

-b

Set bleed margins left:top:right:bottom[cm] to specify the left, top, right, and bottom margin individually or margin[cm] to use the same amount for left, top, right, and bottom margin. The dimension are inches (default) or centimeters.

-f

Shrink to fit an center centers the document pages and scales them (proportionally) – if necessary – to fit on the output medium, e.g. on the paper that is used by the selected printer. Printing without the -f option will induce “pdfprint” to adjust the bottom left corner of the document pages to the bottom left corner of the output medium. Do not set the -f option if the output medium has no size specified, e.g. if you print to an imagesetter that uses film rolls. This could lead to unexpected results.

-m

Margin can be used to re-adjust the document pages on the output medium. This parameter is followed by a floating point value, e.g. 0.69, which is used for both directions – the document pages will be shifted upwards and to the right. Using a value without a unit will imply inches. You can switch to centimeters by specifying the unit explicitly, e.g. 1.75cm.

-o flip

flip=horizontal or flip=vertical specifies whether the PDF pages are flipped around the horizontal centerline (swap top and bottom) or around the vertical centerline (swap right and left).

-o orientation

orientation=portrait or orientation=landscape specifies whether the PDF document pages are printed to portrait or landscape orientation. The default (if this parameter is omitted) is portrait.

-o usemediabox

This parameter uses the “MediaBox” (always present) of a page instead of the “CropBox” for clipping the page.

-o usecropbox

This parameter uses the “CropBox” of a page for clipping the page. This is the default behavior.

-o usebleedbox

This parameter uses the “BleedBox” (if present) of a page instead of the “CropBox” for clipping the page.

In the PDF HandShake Print... dialog, the options -o trimboxmarks and -o usebleedbox can only be switched on together with the Use PDF TrimBox/BleedBox checkbox (see Paper Settings in 7.2 “Print PDF files using the Acrobat plug-in”).

-o usetrimbox

This parameter uses the “TrimBox” (if present) of a page instead of the “CropBox” for clipping the page.

-o useartbox

This parameter uses the “ArtBox” (if present) of a page instead of the “CropBox” for clipping the page.

-o layer=<selection>

Select or deselect layers. The layer selection is specified as

[-]layer1:[-]layer2:...

Without this option, all layers with the default state ON are printed. See also 18 “PDF layers”.

-o noopi

This parameter specifies whether OPI references within the PDF document are converted to PostScript or not. This can also be specified in the PDF HandShake Print... dialog (see OPI Settings in 7.2 “Print PDF files using the Acrobat plug-in”).

-o gap
-o offset

gap=value and/or offset=value

These parameters are mainly meant for imagesetters. The gap parameter defines the length of the form feed at the end of the page. This distance will be added to the page height. The parameter is also recognized by standard desktop printers. The offset parameter defines the distance from the left film boundary to the left page boundary and is used to shift the whole page in X-direction. The value will not be added to the paper width. This parameter is ignored by most desktop printers. See also Paper Settings in 7.2 “Print PDF files using the Acrobat plug-in”.

gap and offset are specified by a floating point value, e.g. 0.69, and a unit. Using a value without a unit will imply inches. You can switch to centimeters by specifying the unit explicitly (e.g. 1.75cm).

-B

Black overprints When printing separations and “Black” appears on a colored background, usually the background separation plate will show knockouts. Setting -B will make sure that there are no knockouts on the background separation plates, i.e. Black will overprint the background color. This option applies to composite printing, host-based and in-RIP separations, except for pre-separated documents. This parameter is ignored for pre-separated PDF files.

-S

Spot to process lets the program convert all spot colors into process colors. The process color space depends on the printer profile that has been defined for your current printer queue and can be Grayscale, Lab, etc. Without a printer profile spot colors are converted to CMYK. This parameter is ignored for pre-separated PDF files.

-i

Ignore missing fonts induces the program to ignore fonts that are not available in the PDF file or on the server. The job will be sent to the queue and – depending on the printer’s default settings for missing fonts – the job will be aborted by the printer or the missing fonts will be replaced, e.g. with Courier. If you do not specify this option, missing fonts will induce “pdfprint” to abort the job before it is spooled.

-s

Separations lets you specify the list of separations you wish to print. The -s parameter must be followed by a specification, as e.g.:

• -s all (prints all separations that occur on a specific document page, at least Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black)

• -s Black (prints the Black plate only)

• -s "Pantone 387 CV","Pantone 647 CV" (prints the specified spot colors only)

Color names that contain blanks must be quoted (see the example above), several names must be separated by a comma. Color names are case-sensitive, meaning that e.g. the CMYK color names must begin with a capital letter (Cyan,Magenta,Yellow,Black). Additionally, you can set up halftoning for each separation plate. For that purpose, you have to add an angle and a frequency to each color name.

More details about halftone settings as well as an example are given in section 7.1.3 “Set up halftoning”.

Note that printing separations is pre-defined for pre-separated PDF files. e.g. -s Black will be ignored for a pre-separated file, and all separation plates will be printed.

-o inripseparation

Prints separations using in-RIP separation instead of host-based separations. This option requires the -s option. If the PDF file is pre-separated, this option is ignored.

Note:

This option can only be used when the printing device supports in-RIP separation.

Example 1:

 (Print all separations)

$ pdfprint -o inripseparation -s all -Pprints

Example 2:

 (Print only the black plate and one spot color)

$ pdfprint -o inripseparation -s "Black","HKS13" -Pprints

-o negativeprint

Set this parameter to negative print the whole document. Usually, this is only applied when printing separations.

-o preservedevicen

This parameter preserves DeviceN color objects in PDF files instead of converting them to the output color space. This also means that DeviceN color objects are excluded from any color transformation if color matching is active.

Note:

This option can only be set when printing to a PostScript 3 device.

-G

Grayscale Profile lets you specify a path to a Grayscale profile that should be used as default source profile for color matching. The default profile will be used for PDF files which are not yet “tagged” with profile information.

It is possible to specify that Grayscale colors should print with their values from the PDF document without any color matching applied. This is achieved by specifying “None” as the file name of the Grayscale input profile.

-R

RGB Profile lets you specify a path to an RGB profile that should be used as default source profile for color matching. The default profile will be used for PDF files which are not yet “tagged” with profile information.

It is possible to specify that RGB colors should print with their values from the PDF document without any color matching applied. This is achieved by specifying “None” as the file name of the RGB input profile.

-C

CMYK Profile lets you specify a path to a CMYK profile that should be used as default source profile for color matching. The default profile will be used for PDF files which are not yet “tagged” with profile information.

It is possible to specify that CMYK colors should print with their values from the PDF document without any color matching applied. This is achieved by specifying “None” as the file name of the CMYK input profile.

-o ignoreinputprofiles

Ignore all ICC profiles within the PDF document.

The following tables summarize the “pdfprint” color matching strategy. The term “-C/-R option” means for CMYK color data that the -C option was specified, and for RGB color data that the -R option was specified:

	no option -C/-R no option -o ignoreinputprofiles	option -C/-R no option -o ignoreinputprofiles
Color data without ICC profile	Color matching only with color space change using server default profile	Color matching with option -C/-R profile
Color data with ICC-based color space (PDF 1.3)	Color matching with ICC-based profile	Color matching with ICC-based profile
Color data with ICC-based color space (PDF 1.3) and with HELIOS ICC tag	Color matching with ICC-based profile	Color matching with ICC-based profile
Color data with HELIOS ICC tag	Color matching with HELIOS ICC tag profile	Color matching with HELIOS ICC tag profile

	no option -C/-R option -o ignoreinputprofiles	option -C/-R option -o ignoreinputprofiles
Color data without ICC profile	Color matching only with color space change using server default profile	Color matching with option -C/-R profile
Color data with ICC-based color space (PDF 1.3)	Color matching only with color space change using server default profile	Color matching with option -C/-R profile
Color data with ICC-based color space (PDF 1.3) and with HELIOS ICC tag	Color matching only with color space change using server default profile	Color matching with option -C/-R profile
Color data with HELIOS ICC tag	Color matching only with color space change using server default profile	Color matching with option -C/-R profile

The following tables summarize the “pdfprint” color matching strategy for Grayscale (option -G) data:

	no option -G no option -o ignoreinputprofiles	option -G no option -o ignoreinputprofiles
Color data without ICC profile	No color matching, output data is Grayscale	Color matching with option -G profile
Color data with ICC-based color space (PDF 1.3)	Color matching with ICC-based profile	Color matching with ICC-based profile
Color data with ICC-based color space (PDF 1.3) and with HELIOS ICC tag	Color matching with ICC-based profile	Color matching with ICC-based profile
Color data with HELIOS ICC tag	Color matching with HELIOS ICC tag profile	Color matching with HELIOS ICC tag profile

	no option -G option -o ignoreinputprofiles	option -G option -o ignoreinputprofiles
Color data without ICC profile	No color matching, output data is Grayscale	Color matching with option -G profile
Color data with ICC-based color space (PDF 1.3)	No color matching, output data is Grayscale	Color matching with option -G profile
Color data with ICC-based color space (PDF 1.3) and with HELIOS ICC tag	No color matching, output data is Grayscale	Color matching with option -G profile
Color data with HELIOS ICC tag	No color matching, output data is Grayscale	Color matching with option -G profile

-D

PPD file name allows specifying a server path for a specific PPD file. With this parameter you can select for this particular job a PPD file other than the one that has been specified for your current HELIOS printer queue.

-H

Preserve PDF halftones will use the halftone information that is contained in a PDF file for printing.

A PDF file can contain halftone information for individual elements or for all elements. When setting the -H parameter, the available halftone information will be used. Else, if you do not specify this parameter, all halftone information in the PDF file will be ignored. Note that it depends on the Distiller’s job options whether a PDF file contains any halftone information at all.

For more explanations about halftone settings, see 7.1.3 “Set up halftoning”.

-a

Select halftone angle lets you specify a global halftone angle for printing. The parameter must be followed by a floating point value, e.g. 84.8. If you print separations you can set a different halftone angle for each separation plate. For that purpose you have to use the -s parameter.

-l

Select halftone frequency lets you specify a halftone frequency for printing. The parameter -l is followed by a floating point value, e.g. 33.39. Using the value without a unit will imply lines per inch. You can switch to lines per centimeter by specifying the unit explicitly (e.g. 84.8lcm).

You can list the frequency options from the current PPD file by using the -P parameter together with the -h option.

Example:

 

$ pdfprint -P lw -h
...
The predefined halftones of printer 'lw' are:

60lpi at 300dpi 
53lpi at 300dpi 
*85lpi at 600dpi 
71lpi at 600dpi

The “*” marks the PPD’s default setting. If you wish to select another option from the PPD file you must specify both the -l and the -d parameter. For example, to select the first entry from the PPD file, you must specify:

pdfprint ....-l 60 -d 300dpi

With the -h option, you can also display the complete halftone settings for your current print job, the “*” marks the halftone settings for spot colors:

$ pdfprint -P lw -h 
... 
The default halftone frequencies and angles are:

Black at 84.85 lpi and 45.00 degrees 
Cyan at 94.87 lpi and 71.57 degrees 
Magenta at 94.87 lpi and 18.44 degrees 
Yellow at 30.00 lpi and 0.00 degrees 
*CustomColor at 84.85 lpi and 45.00 degrees

The values that are displayed above are related to the default of the current PPD file (85 lpi at 600 dpi). If you switch for example to 60 lpi at 300 dpi and use -h again, the list will be updated accordingly (see example below):

$ pdfprint -P lw -l 60 -d 300dpi -h 
... 
The default halftone frequencies and angles are:

Black at 84.85 lpi and 45.00 degrees 
Cyan at 94.87 lpi and 15.00 degrees 
Magenta at 94.87 lpi and 75.00 degrees 
Yellow at 30.00 lpi and 0.00 degrees 
*CustomColor at 84.85 lpi and 45.00 degrees

If your PPD file did not contain any halftone specifications at all, the above list would show the defaults we set with PDF HandShake. These PDF HandShake defaults would be used if you did not specify any frequency or angle values (with -s, -l or -a), if you did not specify -H or -u, and if there were no information in the PPD file.

Find more details about halftone settings in 7.1.3 “Set up halftoning”.

-u

Use printer’s default screening is only relevant for printing composite. If you print separations this parameter will be ignored.

With -u, the default halftone settings of the final output device will be used when printing the PDF document. If you use -u together with -H the printer’s halftone settings will only be applied to elements that do not have their own halftone information.

For more explanations about halftone settings, see 7.1.3 “Set up halftoning”.

-h

Display help. Additionally, you can list all medium names, paper trays, resolutions, halftone information, and features that are valid for your current printer by combining -h with the -P parameter that specifies a particular printer. Examples are given below; see options -p, -I, -d, -l, and -F.

-T <Title>

Title uses <Title> for this print job in an “lpr” printer queue. The default title is the document file name.

-F <Feature>

Feature allows selecting printer features. <feature> is constructed of a key name and an optional option, separated by '='. You can only specify valid features. The list of valid features for the current printer is prompted by using the -P parameter together with the -h option (see example below):

$ pdfprint -P lw -h 
... 
The features of printer ‘lw’ are: 
InstalledMemory=None 
InstalledMemory=16Meg 
InstalledMemory=32Meg 
OptionalCassette1=True 
OptionalCassette1=False 
OptionalCassette1=Preferred 
OptionalEnvelopeFeeder=True 
OptionalEnvelopeFeeder=False 
Smoothing=True 
Smoothing=False 
BitsPerPixel=4 
BitsPerPixel=None 
TraySwitch=True 
TraySwitch=False

You can specify several features at a time. Each feature must be preceded by -F. Note that some features do not have any effect on your output results.

Check your printer’s manual for more details.

7.1.3 Set up halftoning

The PDF HandShake software has its own default halftone settings. When printing composite, the program’s defaults can be overwritten by the PPD file (if it contains halftone settings) or by specifying the -l and/or the -a option. Note that halftoning will be set for CMYK if you print composite to a color printer, and it will be set for Black only if you print composite to a B/W printer.

Neither you, nor PDF HandShake, nor the PPD file will be able to set any values at all if you specify -u. The device defaults will be valid then.

Finally, the -H option will make sure that the current halftone settings are only applied to those elements in a PDF file that do not have their own halftone information.

There are two differences between printing composite and printing separations: First, the -u parameter is not available for printing separations. Second, you can use the -s parameter to specify individual frequency and angle values for one or more separation colors.

7.1.4 Examples

In the following examples, the file “abc.pdf” in the HELIOS volume “data” is being printed to the HELIOS printer queue “lw”:

$ pdfprint -i -n 3 -r -6,85- -P lw /usr/data/abc.pdf

prints three copies of pages 1 to 6 and pages 85 to last page and ignores missing fonts, if there are any.

$ pdfprint -s "Pantone 387 CV" -r 1 -P lw /usr/data/abc.pdf

prints one plate of spot color “Pantone 387 CV” of document page 1.

$ pdfprint -S -s all -r 1 -P lw /usr/data/abc.pdf

converts all spot colors into process and prints page 1 of the resulting separation plates (here: CMYK).

$ pdfprint -f -r 22-1 -P lw -p a5 /usr/data/abc.pdf

prints pages 1 to 22 in reverse order and scales them to size A5 (5.76 x 8.26 inches).

$ pdfprint -P lw -R /usr/ICC-Profiles/Scanner/"TOPAZ Durchsicht Fuji ICC"
                  /usr/data/abc.pdf

prints the complete document and uses the profile “TOPAZ Durchsicht Fuji ICC” as default RGB source profile for color matching.

$ pdfprint -P lw -r 1-3 -l 71 -d 600dpi -H /usr/data/abc.pdf

prints pages 1 to 3 with 71 lpi, 600 dpi, and default halftone angles, while preserving the halftone information that is already included in the document.

$ pdfprint -P lw -r 1 -s all -l 60 -a 44 -B /usr/data/abc.pdf

prints all separation plates of page 1 with 60 lpi and 44°. Black overprints any background color.

7.2 Print PDF files using the Acrobat plug-in

Our Acrobat print plug-in allows printing PDF files from your Acrobat application with many options that are not available with the built-in print dialog.

Make sure that the “PDF HandShake” plug-in for Acrobat is already available in the “Plug-Ins” subfolder of your Acrobat program folder. Otherwise, see 3 “Installation”.

Start your Acrobat application. The PDF HandShake Print dialog is opened from the File menu as shown in Fig. 7.1.

Note:

If you made any changes in your document you must save them before printing. The PDF HandShake plug-in always prints the last saved document version. If this differs from the version that is currently open, access to the print dialog is impossible and an error message appears instead.

Fig. 7.2 shows the “PDF HandShake Print” dialog. The selected printer queue is stated in the dialog’s title bar.

In the “General” section of the dialog, you can specify the number of copies, the page range you want to print, the orientation (Portrait/Landscape), and whether you want to flip pages.

The “Paper Settings” section contains the default settings of the PPD file that is currently selected for your spooler.

From the Paper Size pop-up menu you can choose one of the printer’s paper sizes (as shown in Fig. 7.2) or Custom. Custom must be selected if you want to enter individual values in the Height and Width text fields (Fig. 7.3). Dimension units can be displayed either in inch or cm. Note that if you print with custom values these values will be saved. They will be available the next time you open the dialog. The Paper Size pop-up menu contains the entry (PDF Page Size). This entry can be selected to make sure that the pages in the PostScript file are exactly as large as the PDF pages in the document. If you choose (PDF Page Size), the Orientation and Center/Shrink To Fit options will be disabled.

If you select Custom from the Paper Size pop-up menu, two new options in the dialog will become available, namely Offset and Gap. The Offset value defines the distance from the left boundary of the print medium, e.g. a film on an imagesetter, to the left page boundary of the document, and is used to shift the whole page in X-direction. The Offset value will not be added to the page width. If your width is e.g. 15 cm, it will still be 15 cm after specifying an offset of e.g. 1 cm. In that case, the document page must fit on the remaining 14 cm. This parameter is ignored by most standard desktop printers. The Gap value defines the length of the form feed at the end of the page. This distance will be added to the page height. This parameter is recognized by desktop printers as well.

If you specify one of the printer’s paper sizes you must make sure that the selected input tray uses this paper size. Otherwise, the printer may be pending until you either submit the right print medium or delete the job and restart the printer. Center/Shrink To Fit can be selected to fit your document pages on the selected paper size.

PDF HandShake includes a feature called “Bleeding”, which is used by direct printouts via the PDF HandShake plug-in or the UNIX “pdfprint” command (see also 7.1.2 “Options” above in this chapter). With PDF 1.2 based files and layout applications, e.g. QuarkXPress, the customer needs to create a larger page size (e.g. A4 + 3 mm bleeding) or create PostScript from QuarkXPress with registration marks.

The PDF HandShake plug-in allows specifying the bleeding parameters for the four page-borders (top, left, right, bottom). The correct bleeding parameters will be used to adjust the registration marks in order to represent the real document size.

Beginning with PDF 1.3, PDF documents can include a “TrimBox” to define the intended dimensions of the finished page. They can also include a “BleedBox” to define the region to which the content should be clipped when output in a production environment, including extra “bleed area”. When printing such a document, enable the Use PDF TrimBox/BleedBox checkbox.

Activate the Registration Marks option to print PDF documents with registration marks. The document pages will be re-adjusted on the output medium so that the registration marks will fit in the bottom left corner. This could lead to cropping of the upper and right part of the document if the document pages and the registration marks do not fit on the output medium. When this option is active, you can click the Bleed Margins... button and additionally specify Bleed Margins for Left, Top, Right, and Bottom (Fig. 7.4).

If you specify an Input Tray keep in mind that the selected paper size must be valid for this particular tray.

With the Print Separations option selected, individual plates to print and individual angles/frequencies for each plate can be specified.

A check mark () adjacent to each plate color indicates that it will be printed. You can click on a check mark to unselect the respective separation color. An example is given in Fig. 7.5 below.

In-RIP Separations: If separations are selected for composite PDF documents, PDF HandShake offers two ways to separate color plates from each composite PDF page. The default host-based separation generates a monochrome PostScript page for each composite PDF page and for each separation plate. The PostScript file consisting of these monochrome pages is sent to the printer. The other method, called in-RIP separation, generates one composite PostScript page for each composite PDF page. The PostScript file consisting of these composite pages is sent to the printer, which is configured to make separations from it. The In-RIP Separations option is ignored for pre-separated PDF documents. If your printer does not support in-RIP separation, it generates composite output.

PDF HandShake will convert all spot colors to process colors if Convert Spot To Process is checked. The spot colors in the text field will then be marked by the “locked” symbol to indicate that they will not be printed on their own separation plates (Fig. 7.6). The process color space depends on the printer ICC profile that has been defined for your current printer queue. By default, (i.e. if the Default Printer Profile in the HELIOS Admin ICC is set to None), the spot colors are converted into CMYK.

Whenever Black appears on a colored background, the background separation plate will usually show knockouts. Overprint Black prevents this by overprinting the background color.

A PDF file can contain halftone information for individual elements or for all elements. When specifying Preserve PDF Halftones, the available halftone information will be used. Else, if you do not check this option, all halftone information in the PDF file will be ignored. Note that it depends on the Distiller job options whether a distilled PDF file contains any halftone information at all. From the Halftone pop-up menu you may select global halftone settings. These settings will be used for all elements in the PDF file unless you have checked Preserve PDF Halftones, and they will be used for all separation plates unless you enter individual values for a specific plate (this is described hereinafter). Fig. 7.7 shows the Halftone pop-up menu. It contains all entries that are available in the PPD file. The Printer / *dpi entries at the end of the list are only available if you print composite. These options can be used to set a resolution, but leave the halftoning setup to the final output device.

All angles and frequencies that correspond to the halftone setup are listed in the text field after the color names. Frequencies can be displayed either in lpi (lines per inch) or in l/cm (lines per centimeter). You can select the desired unit from the Frequency Unit pop-up menu.

You can overwrite the global halftone settings by individual settings for each separation plate. For that purpose, double-click the desired color in the text field and then edit the dialog that is shown in Fig. 7.8.

The Negative Print option affects the whole document and is usually only applied when printing separations.

The PDF RGB Profile, PDF CMYK Profile, and PDF Gray Profile pop-up menus are used for color matching. Together with the printer profile that may be specified for your printer queue (see 5.2.2 “Printer queue settings for PDF”), accurate color matching for all RGB, CMYK, and Grayscale objects in your PDF document can be achieved.

When opening the print dialog for a document that does not contain any profile information, you may set the profile pop-up menus to Server Default to use the default server source profiles (see 5.2.2 “Printer queue settings for PDF”). Switch to Choose to select other profiles from the “ICC-Profiles” volume or any other server location you may use. For documents that are already tagged with profile information, the behavior is different: Explicitly stated profiles in the dialog (path and file name) indicate that your current document has been tagged by reference. The statement “embedded” indicates that the profiles themselves are contained in the document. Examples are given in Fig. 7.9.

You can also choose None from the PDF RGB Profile, PDF CMYK Profile, and PDF Gray Profile pop-up menus to suppress color matching during output. For example, the printer profile that has been specified in the queue’s ICC settings dialog (in HELIOS Admin) is a CMYK profile, you may set the PDF CMYK Profile to None to print the CYMK colors in your document without any color matching. This can be desired if the CYMK colors in the document are already matched to the printer. If you select Server Default from the pop-up menu, the default profile that has been set in the HELIOS Admin PDF HandShake Settings dialog will be used as input profile for color matching.

It does not make any sense to set the PDF RGB Profile, the PDF CMYK Profile, and the PDF Gray Profile to None because color matching will always be applied to objects that are not in the printer’s color space. For example, if your printer profile is a CMYK profile, all RGB and Lab colors in your document will definitely be matched.

Printing PDF documents can be done without resolving OPI references. This is useful e.g. if the high-resolution images are already embedded in the PDF document and the images are not stored on the HELIOS server where the PDF document is printed. If you wish to ignore OPI references that are embedded in the PDF document, activate the Ignore OPI References checkbox.

The button Pre-separated pages in the print dialog opens a window that allows you to check the separation plate information of all pages in your document. The button is activated for pre-separated documents only; for composite documents it is grayed out. In case the button appears grayed out even though your document is pre-separated, you should open the HELIOS Plate Control dialog to check whether each page of the document has been assigned a plate color. In case one plate color entry is missing, e.g. by deletion, the document – though it may be pre-separated – is no longer regarded as pre-separated.

Finally, the plug-in will look for missing fonts. In the case that a non-embedded document font is not available on the HELIOS server or on the final output device, there will be a warning that allows you to abort the job or to print anyway (Fig. 7.10). Obtain more details about font handling in A “About fonts”.

Whenever you click Print, most of the PDF HandShake Print settings are saved and preserved for the next time you open the dialog. This does not affect the “General” section; the entries in this section will always be reset to default.

Pre-separated PDF documents are automatically recognized by the “PDF HandShake Print” dialog. When printing pre-separated documents with PDF HandShake, the following rules apply:

• Print Separations is turned on

• The options In-RIP Separations, Convert Spot To Process and Overprint Black are disabled

• Color matching (PDF RGB/CMYK/Gray Profiles) is disabled

• The halftone settings for each color are applied to the pages with the corresponding plate colors

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