1. Avoiding PDF pitfalls
Dwight Kelly
Apago, Inc.
Premedia Conference – Lancaster, PA 2002

2. Avoiding PDF pitfalls
Research and understand
Design your workflow
Test and tune
Implement
Promote
Premedia Conference – Lancaster, PA 2002

3. 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
Premedia Conference – Lancaster, PA 2002

4. 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
Premedia Conference – Lancaster, PA 2002

5. 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)
Premedia Conference – Lancaster, PA 2002

6. Color spaces
PDF supports several types of color
Grayscale
RGB
CMYK
Color managed
ICC and Lab
Special types: Pattern, Separation, DeviceN
Premedia Conference – Lancaster, PA 2002

7. 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
Premedia Conference – Lancaster, PA 2002

8. 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)
Premedia Conference – Lancaster, PA 2002

9. Misc. stuff
ASCII vs. Binary encoding
OPI
PDF 1.4 transparency
New features with every revision of Acrobat
Premedia Conference – Lancaster, PA 2002

10. 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
Premedia Conference – Lancaster, PA 2002

11. 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
Premedia Conference – Lancaster, PA 2002

12. Best practices – Native document
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)
Premedia Conference – Lancaster, PA 2002

13. Best practices – Native document
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
Premedia Conference – Lancaster, PA 2002

14. Best practices – Native document
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
Premedia Conference – Lancaster, PA 2002

15. 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
Premedia Conference – Lancaster, PA 2002

16. Trapping
Don’t trap in design application …
rather, do trapping later in production process
Premedia Conference – Lancaster, PA 2002

17. 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.
Premedia Conference – Lancaster, PA 2002

18. 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)
Premedia Conference – Lancaster, PA 2002

19. 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.
Premedia Conference – Lancaster, PA 2002

20. 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
Premedia Conference – Lancaster, PA 2002

21. Enhanced Distillers
Agfa Apogee Create
Creo Synapse
JAWS PDF Creator
Workflows
Agfa Apogee
Creo Prinergy & Brisque
DALiM Twist, DSEA, Fuji, and many more….
Premedia Conference – Lancaster, PA 2002

22. 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”
Premedia Conference – Lancaster, PA 2002

23. Preflight PDF
There are several really nice PDF preflight tools
Adobe InProduction is dead
callas pdfInspektor2
Enfocus PitStop
Premedia Conference – Lancaster, PA 2002

24. Other useful PDF tools
Agfa BleedViewer (free)
Apago imageAlter
Creo Geometry tool (free)
Creo Pagelet
Creo Seps2Comp
Enfocus Eyedropper
Quite a Box of Tricks
Premedia Conference – Lancaster, PA 2002

25. Other useful PDF tools (cont’d)
callas pdfOutput
Lantana CrackerJack
Heidelberg SuperTrap
Scenicsoft TrapWise
Premedia Conference – Lancaster, PA 2002

26. 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.
Premedia Conference – Lancaster, PA 2002

27. 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.
Premedia Conference – Lancaster, PA 2002

28. 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
Premedia Conference – Lancaster, PA 2002

29. 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
Premedia Conference – Lancaster, PA 2002

30. 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
Premedia Conference – Lancaster, PA 2002