Premedia Presentation

Premedia Conference – Lancaster, PA 2002

Avoiding PDF pitfalls

Dwight Kelly

Apago, Inc.


Avoiding PDF pitfalls

Research and understand

Design your workflow

Test and tune

Implement

Promote


PDF 101

Designed by Adobe for storing digital documents

Now used for web, ebooks, forms, etc.

Evolved over time to support Print needs

Not proprietary allowing developers to innovate

Free Acrobat Reader

Retail Acrobat & Distiller

Current versions are PDF 1.4 / Acrobat 5.0.5


What’s in a PDF?

PDF stores everything as objects

A table of contents is used to locate each object

Objects can refer to other objects

Objects can be reused

Some object types include:

Pages, Content, Fonts, Images, Color spaces

Annotations, Forms, Job tickets, Metadata


It all starts with the Page

A PDF document is organized into Pages

A Page is composed of:

One of more Boxes (Media, Trim, Bleed)

Content stream

Resources (Colorspace, Images, Fonts)


Color spaces

PDF supports several types of color

Grayscale

RGB

CMYK

Color managed

ICC and Lab

Special types: Pattern, Separation, DeviceN


Images

Images are typically the largest component

May use any PDF color space

Many be any resolution

PDF supports several compression types

Lossy: JPEG

Loss-less: LZW, RLE, Flate, G3/G4, JBIG2


Fonts

PDF supports just about any font format

Type 1, TrueType, Bitmap, CID

Fonts can be embedded or omitted

Unused characters can be removed (subsetted)

Encodings maybe customized (Euro symbol)


Misc. stuff

ASCII vs. Binary encoding

OPI

PDF 1.4 transparency

New features with every revision of Acrobat


Getting your toes wet

Join an association such as GATF or DDAP

Use industry standards such as PDF/X-1a

Or use vendor provided specifications

Review legacy data issues (DCS, TIFF/IT-P1)

Think about future use of content (web, ebooks)

Identify potential problem areas

Design a workflow for your requirements


Best practices – Native document

Using specs, design master document templates

Set page, trim and bleed sizes

Include printer marks and slug info

Gluon Cropster & Slugger plug-ins

Remove any unused colors (Red, Green, etc.)

Make sure “design-only” colors are set to process



Try to stick with Type 1 fonts

or verified TrueType fonts

Understand your font licensing agreements

Use high-resolution images in TIFF or EPS format

Photoshop EPS w/color management problems

Photoshop multi-tone images

Quark tinted images (Agfa CTIFF, Prinergy XT)



If you have DCS files….

Photoshop – open and resave as composite EPS

Photoshop – DCSmerger from impressed software

Other – Total Integration SmartXT

or print separations and recombine later with

Creo Seps2Comp Acrobat plug-in

Agfa Apogee workflow



If you have TIFF/IT-P1 or Scitex files….

Try to keep them in LW + CT formats

Otherwise, convert them to PDF LW+CT Apago Piktor Rorke Data PageComposer Shira CEPS2PDF

Pro: Smaller than original LW+CT

Con: Can be a RIP killer


Transparency

New feature in PDF 1.4

Available in Illustrator 9+ and InDesign 2.0

Not supported by all RIPs and workflow tools

Must be flattened if converted to PostScript

During flattening, elements are rasterized and spot colors maybe converted to process

Not visible in Acrobat 4.0 and earlier

Maybe created using new Drop Shadow tools


Trapping

Don’t trap in design application …

rather, do trapping later in production process


Preparing to create PDF

Preflight native document

Extensis Preflight Pro

Gluon QualityCheck

Markzware FlightCheck

CompuSense FlightAlert

Adobe InDesign

Verify page sizes, fonts, image resolution and scaling, colors, etc.


Making a PDF with Distiller

Step 1 – Create PostScript

Use latest Adobe PostScript printer driver (8.7+)

Use Acrobat or DDAP Universal PPD file

Print composite not separations

Remove unused colors, embed all fonts

Tools callas MadeToPrint XT Agfa CTIFF XT (free) Creo Prinergy XTs (free)


Making a PDF with Distiller Step 2 – Convert PostScript to PDF

Distiller has way too many options

Settings can be stored in a “Job Options” file

Use Acrobat’s built-in “Prepress” job options…

or the DDAP job options

Use Creo’s free Prinergy Distiller Tools

Use impressed DistillerSecrets or custom Document Info to track what Distiller options were used and what workflow produced the file.


Save as PDF

PageMaker and InDesign have “Export PDF”

Illustrator 8/9 “Save as PDF”

Illustrator 10 is native PDF

Photoshop can save as PDF

Quark’s PDF filter requires Adobe Distiller


Enhanced Distillers

Agfa Apogee Create

Creo Synapse

JAWS PDF Creator

Workflows

Agfa Apogee

Creo Prinergy & Brisque

DALiM Twist, DSEA, Fuji, and many more….


Post-Distiller issues

Recommend Acrobat 5.0.5

Configure Acrobat viewer

enable “Overprint preview”

disable “Use local fonts”

disable “Smooth images”

disable “Optimize for Fast Web View”


Preflight PDF

There are several really nice PDF preflight tools

Adobe InProduction is dead

callas pdfInspektor2

Enfocus PitStop


Other useful PDF tools

Agfa BleedViewer (free)

Apago imageAlter

Creo Geometry tool (free)

Creo Pagelet

Creo Seps2Comp

Enfocus Eyedropper

Quite a Box of Tricks


Other useful PDF tools (cont’d)

callas pdfOutput

Lantana CrackerJack

Heidelberg SuperTrap

Scenicsoft TrapWise


PDF/X to the rescue?

PDF/X was designed to make it easier to create and exchange reliable PDF files for printing

Both a US and International standard

Early adopters report great success

Major publications have announced a 100% switch to PDF/X from native files, DCS and TIFF/IT

Organizations such as the DDAP have developed detailed workflow implementation guidelines.

Tools to create and preflight PDF/X are cheaper and easier to use.


Why two PDF/X versions?

Both PDF/X-1a and PDF/X-3 require the PDF file to be complete. All fonts must be embedded and all images must be high-resolution. Pages must have Trim and Bleed boxes.

PDF/X-1a was designed primarily for the U.S. advertising market and is limited to grayscale and CMYK.

PDF/X-3 adds support for color-managed RGB and Lab.


How do you create PDF/X?

Follow the previous guidelines for creating your native document.

Create good PostScript using DDAP PPD file

Create good PDF using DDAP Distiller Job options

Preflight and make PDF/X using:

Apago PDF/X Checkup

callas pdfInspektor2

Enfocus PitStop 5 and InstantPDF


Bedtime reading

DDAP recommended workflows

Adobe’s “PDF Workflows for Print Production”

Adobe’s “How to Create PDF Files for Print and Press”

Articles by: Scott Tully – “Tully Talks” Stephan Jaeggi Michael Jahn Online forums – CTPP, PlanetPDF, Adobe forums


Links

www.adobe.com www.agfa.com

www.apago.com www.callassoftware.com

www.creo.com www.ddap.org

www.enfocus.com www.extensis.com

www.gluon.com www.impressed.de

www.lantanarips.com www.markzware.com

www.pdfzone.com www.planetpdf.com

www.printwriter.com

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