FAQ wrt Printing & PDF & Some Personal Notes

[Dov Isaacs <isaacs@xxxxxxxxx>]

Based upon a real flood of email that I have recently received both via
these lists and personally, a few comments and the augmented reposting
of some important information is in order. You will all forgive me in
advance for the length of this missive and/or if you personally know all
this stuff and it is not of any value to you whatsoever. Thank you!


(1)	The AdobePS 4.2.4 Text Layout Bug
	=================================

I am very sorry if anyone was offended by a previous post of 
mine regarding the AdobePS 4.2.4 text layout bug. The problem is very
serious. The good news is that we know of the problem, there is a 
workaround, and that the fix is in for the next release of AdobePS 4.x
(more later). The bad news is that having to do such workarounds is a
royal pain the butt, especially when dealing with a large number of
users, systems, and printers in organizations managed by IS czars,
many of which are as flexible about these things as a two-by-four!
The thrust of my current position at Adobe is to work with all parts
of Adobe to deal with issues of interoperability of Adobe products
with each other and with third party products as well as part of user
workflows. This particular problem is a prime example of how I believe
Adobe must do better to test products and when problems are found,
deliver fixes in a more timely fashion.

I have reposted the "workaround" for the AdobePS 4.2.4 text layout
problem below. (For those who couldn't find the original postings, 
please note that postings to at least the "original" Framers
group can be accessed via http://www.frameusers.com/ )

======================================================================

There is a bug in the AdobePS 4.2.4 driver that affects all GDI 
applications (Word, Excel, FrameMaker, etc.) printing to Adobe PostScript
printers with versions less than 2015. This includes most all HP LaserJets
that have Adobe PostScript Level 2 including III, IIID, 4M, 4M Plus,
4MP, 4siMX, 4MV, 5M, 5MP, 5siMX, and 6MP.

The workaround is as follows:

(a) Delete the printer instances of such printers. (In plain English, 
that means delete the icons of these printers in the printer window.)

(b) Use an ASCII text editor ("Notepad" will work; "UltraEdit" or other 
such programs are great) to edit the PPD files of the printer so-deleted.
Change any and all occurrences of "2010", "2011", "2012", "2013", or "2014"
to "2015". You should obviously save the original PPD file in a "safe" place.

(c) Create new printer instances to replace those deleted in step (1) above
via the AdobePS 4.2.4 setup program, making sure to restore the proper 
settings, i.e., printer properties.

======================================================================


(2)	The Permanent Fix for the AdobePS 4.2.4 Text Layout Bug
	=======================================================

The AdobePS 4.2.4 text layout bug is fixed in AdobePS 4.3. This version
of the driver is still a few months from release. I will endeavor to
make its availability known to members of these lists.

Note that if you have made changes to the PPDs to workaround the 4.2.4
problem, you do NOT need to back out those PPD changes with future driver
releases. Unless you have a Kanji pre-2015 Adobe PostScript Level 2 printer
running the Japanese version of Windows'95 and are using some very 
non-standard software, the different PostScript that the workaround induces
will not affect you. (In fact, more efficient PostScript is actually 
generated than for the pre-2015 versions.) 


(3)	Creating PostScript Files
	=========================

PostScript as actually implemented by Adobe OEMs and generated by the
drivers as well as by applications such as Adobe PageMaker and Quark XPress
IS HIGHLY DEVICE DEPENDENT!!!! (Yes, I am SHOUTING!)

You MUST use the PPD file with the driver for the target device, configured
correctly for printer options present, in order to generate the proper
PostScript for the device you are trying to print to.

What if you don't?

(a) You may end up with PostScript job errors for undefined operators, 
pagedevice keys, values for operators, etc.

(b) You may end up with monochrome images where you expect color.
Or the color may be wrong.

(c) Using a "Generic PostScript" PPD may be "safe" but the results
may be very unpleasant. Many paper sizes and printer features are
not supported. For example, native support of TrueType fonts (i.e.,
Type 42 font support) is not an attribute of the generic PPD. Your
quality can and will suffer!


(4)	Creating PDF Files
	==================

To properly generate PDF files, you need Acrobat Distiller 3.02.
3.02 is a "patch" update to Acrobat 3.01 which is a free update to 3.0.
Anything less than Distiller 3.02 has significant known problems.
Don't ask for help until you have 3.02 installed.

There is something called PDFWriter that comes as part of Acrobat and
installs as an additional driver. Don't use this if you are otherwise
using a PostScript-based workflow, i.e., you have EPS files, placed PDF,
etc.

PostScript for distillation by the Distiller should be produced by the
latest AdobePS drivers, i.e., AdobePS 4.2.4 for Windows'9x, AdobePS 5.0.1
for Windows NT 4, and AdobePS 8.5.1 for Macintosh. These should be
configured with the PPD for Acrobat 3 that is in the Acrobat directory.
Use of any other PPDs or drivers can and will yield problems that don't
occur with the PPD and drivers that are supported.

Despite what the Acrobat 3 installer "says" you don't need the Microsoft
PSCRIPT driver in order to use the Distiller Assistant. Install the assistant,
have it in your startup group, and use the AdobePS setup program to create
a printer instance that uses the Distiller PPD and goes to a port by the
name X:\DISTASST.PS where "X" is a volume identifier to which you have
write access and enough room for the intermediate generated PostScript.
For this printer instance, there is no reason to spool, print direct to
this "pseudo-device." You will probably need to create this X:\DISTASST.PS
port via the Add Port function in the driver.

>From FrameMaker, create PDF files via the "print" function going to the
Distiller Assistant's "printer", NOT the "save as PDF" function. Results
are more predictable (I won't get into why in this forum).

Note: Adobe knows that the process for creating PDF in Acrobat 3 is somewhat
arcane and difficult. The next version of Acrobat installs and integrates
with the driver in a much, much improved manner. I have used it and it works!


(5)	Spot Colors in FrameMaker
	=========================

WRT/ spot colors printing diffently in composite color in FM 5.5.6 
under Windows, there is a new maker.ini setting:

	GetLibraryColorRGBFromCMYK=Printing

Spot colors may print more to your liking, or the pre 5.5.6 look
by editing maker.ini to have:

	GetLibraryColorRGBFromCMYK=Off

In terms of separations, FrameMaker in Windows is a GDI application that
does NOT generate its own PostScript. It uses the driver to do most of that.
As such, the composite PostScript output from the driver is RGB PostScript,
not CMYK, and not with any spot color information other than that which
may be in EPS files.

The only method of doing separations fairly accurately from FrameMaker
(at least in the case of Windows) is via the separations capability
in the FrameMaker menu.

Sorry ... that is how it works in the current version of FrameMaker.


(6)	"Printing to a Docutech (or fill in your favorite high-speed
	on-demand printing device) at a service bureau"
	============================================================

You have only two choices here:

The first is to get the PPD file matching the exact model of 
printer used by service bureau with all the configuration information
necessary to set the printer properties properly.

The second is to generate a proper (see above) PDF file and have
the service bureau print from that. Use the option of embedding all
fonts! Don't do any color conversions!

I most strongly recommend the second option. Why? Because this leaves
the problems of cover pages, and duplex options, and which bin the paper
is in, binding, etc. to the folk who can deal with it best. These printers
come with utilities and console programs that with proper operation by
trained personnel, can do wonderful and miraculous stuff. Trying to
do this yourself for the service bureau via a PostScript file is only
a recipe for disaster. If your service bureau doesn't know what to do
with a PDF file, you are dealing with the wrong people at the service
bureau or the wrong service bureau. Period!


(7)	"Printing to an Imagesetter"
	============================

Same general advice as (6) above although this is problematic if you
are trying to deal with spot color and have very sophisticated color
management needs.


(8)	ATM
	===

If you are using Type 1 fonts for any purpose whatsoever, you really
need to run ATM on Windows or Mac. No "ifs", "ands", or "buts" about it.


(9)	A Personal Note
	===============

Although an Adobe employee, I am not Adobe Technical Support. I am also
not part of the FrameMaker marketing, QA, or development staff. My general
expertise is in the printing and drivers area. My knowledge of FrameMaker
is almost totally based upon just using it. I do most of my lurking on these
lists in my alleged spare time. Why do I do this? Because it necessary for
Adobe to understand the problems that end users have with workflows and to
provide solutions for same in future releases of existing products and in
future products. We learn quite a bit from your postings.

On the other hand, it is fairly obvious that I cannot and will not
personally respond to everybody's questions about how to configure this,
that, and something else if I have previously responded to such a topic
before. I assume that these missives are archived someplace. Please take
the time to look up this stuff in archives first before posing questions
to the list and trying to make me feel personally guilty for not
personally responding to your queries. If you have truly new, interesting,
and gnarly problems, this is certainly the forum to post these issues
and see whether others know about them, have solutions, and/or to get
it in front my and other Adobe eyes. The postings of users on these forums
have done much to improve FrameMaker, the Adobe drivers, and Acrobat!

	- Dov


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