RE: PDF problem: Acrobat display

["Dov Isaacs" <isaacs@xxxxxxxxx>]

You will not get any argument from me that documentation
of the color options for Acrobat are at best somewhat sparse.
The same is true vis-a-vis Reader versus the full Acrobat
product in terms of color management.

I assume that you are saying that to produce PDF, you are
using PostScript generated for a printer other than one
described by the Distiller PPD. This can cause a number of
significant problems. Furthermore, I assume that you are
claiming that PostScript coming out of the Distiller printer
instance is up to six times the size of that coming out of
the printer instance for your PostScript "office" printer.
This could indeed be true if your driver is grossly
misconfigured. For example, the default setting for the 
Acrobat Distiller printer instance is ASCII. Pure binary
(or "binary") can save you up to 50%, depending upon
file content. If your Acrobat Distiller printer instance
is set for let's say 2400 dpi and your office printer is
set for 600 dpi and your document has large numbers of images,
all less than 600 dpi in resolution, the PostScript to
the Acrobat Distiller printer will have non-EPS images that
are 16 times the size of those sent to the office printer
in terms of image data. Don't select resolutions higher
than you really need!!! FrameMaker resamples the non-EPS
images to the drivers' specified device resolution.

By the way, another problem with using the PostScript
"office printer's" printer instance to generate PostScript
is that such instances may in fact have color profiles
associated with them or driver plug-ins that DO modify
the color coming from the application to the driver and/or
generate color-managed PostScript which could contribute
to the types of problems you first mention.

Lessons:

(1) Unless you have workflows that really need it and you
have all the tools, planets, and stars lined up right, disable
any color management options with FrameMaker and PDF.

(2) Always use the Acrobat Distiller printer instance (Windows)
or Create Adobe PDF printer (Macintosh) to generate PostScript
for distillation.

(3) Don't select a device resolution with either of the printer
instances described in (2) above that is significantly higher than
really needed. Generally speaking, even with prepress needs,
600 dpi is sufficient. 

        - Dov



At 4/26/2001 02:10 AM, Thomas Michanek wrote:
>> I am going to go out "on a limb" with this one. My gut feel
>> is that during distillation, you have some type of color
>> management turned on. With FrameMaker documents, you should
>> set your Distiller job options to "Leave color unchanged".
>> You want NO conversions to managed color since FrameMaker 
>> doesn't really it and your would otherwise need to change
>> the rest of your workflow to support it.

*

>Thank you, Dov! This was indeed the problem.
>Unfortunately, the Acrobat Distiller pre-defined set of job options
>called "ScreenOptimized" has the setting to convert all colors to
>RGB turned on. This setting is highly recommended by the Distiller
>guide for online viewing purposes, and says that the setting "Leave
>color unchanged" may be useful for some print shops... (I don't have
>the English text). I can find no information at all that this setting
>could be useful or necessary for online viewing purposes, for files
>originating from FrameMaker or any other application.

*

>> Acrobat versus Acrobat Reader? Acrobat supports color
>> management and looks at that information. Acrobat Reader
>> doesn't.
>
>Interesting. Is this documented somewhere?
>
>I still wonder why this problem shows in Acrobat 4.05a on
>Windows NT, but not on Windows 2000.
>Unfortunately, our existing PDF workflow does *not* call for the
>Acrobat Distiller printer to be used when producing the PS file for
>distilling. Since the problem *goes away* when using our default
>office printer instead, it makes it hard to motivate a change
>in the workflow... The fact that the intermediate PS files become
>6 times larger when using the Acrobat Distiller printer doesn't
>help either :-(
>
>I'd apprciate any further comments, from Dov or anybody else.
>
>
>- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
>Thomas Michanek, Technical Writer


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