pdf

[maggols]

Hello, folks. This isn't strictly a xara question but this is simply the best and most responsive graphics site out there, so I thought I'd give it a whirl...can anyone advise me on the how best to convert graphics intended for high resolution print to pdf? I select Acrobat Distiller as the printer and then try to open the distillation as a pdf...with no success. First, it has taken over 3 hours for one file, and after all that time, either no pdf is generated, or only bits and pieces of the file. The largest page I'm trying to convert is 112 mb. I'm working on a P4 1.3 with 256 ram. ANy ideas would be appreciated.

[traceyp]

maggols

I create pdfs on a fairly frequent basis and I have no problem. Firstly though what version of Acrobat do you have - I'm using v4.

The other point is that I never use Acrobat printer drivers. I've found the Linotronic 930 printer driver to produce very good output and no, I don't have such a printer, the driver is simply for the purpose of producing a .prn file for distilling. However this only produces a black and white output - if you want a colour output you'll need to install a colour printer driver (I use the QMS Magicolor 2+ or the Kyocera Ci1000 Colour but any decent colour printer driver should do).

Incidentally I only have a PIII 450MHz PC but Distiller works nice and quickly on my setup. I would suggest you try a printer other than Adobe's Distiller driver and see what happens. Whatever you do DON'T use the PDFWriter driver as that is a very quick and dirty driver (elementary is perhaps a better word). Experience has found that you'll not get much by way of any quality with it.

Hope this helps.

Tracey

[GroWeb]

Instead of printing to Acrobat Distiller, print to Acrobat PDFWriter. This should do the job for you; though as Tracy suggests, the quality may not be excellent.

Glen.

[Erik Heyninck]

We usually use:
1/Compatibility: Acrobat4. When you choose 5, you need Acrobat5 and PostScript3.
2/Compression: for colour and greyscale bicubic, 300dpi, zip and 8bit, for monochrome 1200dpi and CCITTgroup4
3/Fonts: we include subsets 100%
4/ OPI: for internal use yes, for a printer: no. Then we put the highres images separately on a CD so he can opi them himself.

Furthermore wa always use ASCII. Binary is only applicable when everything is on PS level 3.

Still, for duotone etc you still need EPS.

We usually make our PDF's in InDesign2.

A good alternative for Acrobat is Jaws PDF Creator. Just like Distiller it translates postscript to pdf. It is simpler, but it has a much better printer and lots of tweaking possibilities. www.jawssystems.com

http://www.photoshopgurus.info/forum...ine=1019851685

[mckinney]

Another option might be to use pdfFactory or pdfFactory Pro from Fineprint Software. I've been very happy with my copy. You can download a trial version from http://www.fineprint.com

- Pete

[Peter Clifton]

Maggols

Under no circumstances whatsoever should you use PDFWriter, even Adobe thinks so (I've got a quote somewhere, about them wishing they had not written it.)

Printing direct to a Distiller program or to a PostScript print file and then distilling (which is basically the same thing) is the only way to produce good quality PDFs.

Right, now as I am in the Xara forum I must get my facts correct (no one here picked up on my recent faux pas over in the CorelDRAW forum or were far too polite to say anything).

My knowledge of PDF only extends as far as Acrobat 4, which I believe create V1.3 format PDF files.

This PDF format does not support vector transparency.

The following Xara effects will render as bitmaps in a PDF

Any gradient / plasma fill type transparency
Feathered vectors will be rendered as bitmaps.

Also rendered as bitmaps

Bevel effects.

Their may be others but I am quite sure the above are correct.

What does this mean.

If you are trying to create small PDF files try to avoid using advanced effects or try to simulate the transparency with normal gradient fills.

If these are essential to the Graphic image then convert the relevant effects to bitmap before printing to Distiller.

In the Job Options for the distilling process, set the downsampling for Colour / Greyscale / B&W as low as you can get away with.

To diagnose your image I would create a few copies of it, each containing different elements of the drawing and print each element to distiller and see which parts are slowing things down, which usually means massive bitmap rendering going on and see if these can be made simpler.

HTH

Peter

The style challenged Pete'sCrypt

[traceyp]

Peter

I'm glad you support my feelings about PDFWriter. In fact after I'd posted my earlier message I remembered hearing an Adobe man saying leave it alone!!! Its no good!!! Hence my earlier warning about using it.

I don't know that I've ever used anything other than a postscript printer driver to create my .prn files and distilled them and got my PDF files that way but NEVER PDFWriter!! Thanks again.

Tracey