Re: Distiller Trivia (WAS RE: Frame 6 files only distilling in Black and White - help!)

[Dov Isaacs <isaacs@xxxxxxxxx>]

Art,

What a wonderful opening you provide for me to explain this.
Simple formatting and line breaks (at least in FrameMaker) are NOT
the problems I refer to. I'll give a few examples of what can go 
wrong by using a printer instance other than one using the Acrobat 
Distiller PPD:

(1) Limited paper sizes and/or the inability to specify arbitrary
custom page sizes up to the full PDF page size limit. Other PPDs
put much more stringent limitations on what you can do here.

(2) Margins. Since most, although not all, physical printers
do have imageable areas that are smaller than the physical paper
size, you may end up with parts of your content missing from the
top, bottom, left, and right margins. The driver masks anything
out of those "unprintable" regions.

(3) Resolutions. Limited ability to specify same with regards to
what the application believes the output should be (less of a
problem with FrameMaker than with other applications).

(4) Color (Mis)management. Some printer instances from Adobe's
OEMs and others use driver plugins that override regular driver
settings and insert PostScript to somehow "manage" the color
either via changing the color settings or forcing color-managed
RGB colorspaces. This make work fine and dandy for output destined
directly for that device, but not for PDF which is also displayed
and could be printed elsewhere. In other words, you don't want
device-dependent PDF.

(5) Other problems. Per (4) above, other unusual device-dependent
PostScript may be injected into the output stream that is either
superfluous and/or damaging.

Note that not all "damage" is readily apparent.

        - Dov


At 3/20/2002 10:46 AM, Art Campbell wrote:
>Well, I won't argue Acrobat or PostScript with The Master. But I do 
>have two questions for you, Dov. 
>
>You say that because we're using an Adobe PS driver that isn't 
>the Distiller instance,  "I'm looking for trouble big-time." 
>But the Xerox/Phaser drivers to which I'm referring have been 
>producing consistent results for several years. What's going 
>to suddenly change the stable set up that's been working 
>and create artifacts and overcompensation?
>
>And the second... As I noted, we seem to be producing printer output and
>
>.pdfs that match, at least to the eyes that have seen them. 
>If everything is the same in the setup that produces an identical 
>PS file for both the PS printer and Distiller, why would you assume 
>that the .pdfs are not formatted the same as the copy that rolls 
>out of the printer?
>
>Thanks!
>
>Art
>
>
>Art Campbell

*

>-----Original Message-----
>From: Dov Isaacs [mailto:isaacs@adobe.com]
>Sent: Wednesday, March 20, 2002 1:30 PM
>To: Framers List
>Cc: framers@frameusers.com; framers@omsys.com
>Subject: RE: Frame 6 files only distilling in Black and White - help!
>
>
>Art,
>
>You are looking for trouble big-time. You don't necessarily make 
>your PDF files match your printed output by creating PostScript
>for distillation using the printer driver instance of your target
>printer. In fact, you may overcompensate and cause some very strange
>artifacts to occur, especially with regards to color.
>
>Again, our advice is consistent! Use the Acrobat Distiller printer
>instance (or a printer instance created with the Acrobat Distiller
>PPD) to create PDF via PostScript.
>
>To respond to another response, if you use PDFWriter to generate
>PDF from FrameMaker, you certainly are a glutton for punishment.
>Forget about any imported EPS graphics printing or bookmarks,
>hyperlinks, etc., etc., etc. The best think you can do with
>PDFWriter is to make believe it doesn't exist. In fact, with
>Acrobat 5.0x, it is not part of the default installation and
>will likely totally disappear in future releases.
>
>        - Dov
>
>
>At 3/20/2002 10:17 AM, Art Campbell wrote:
>>Hmmmph. I haven't had a problem with _any_ genuine Adobe PS driver. 
>>And because I'm keen to have my .pdfs match my printed output, I
>>use my hard copy printer driver. Without any problems.
>>
>>A. 
>>
>>Art Campbell

*

>>-----Original Message-----
>>From: Sean Brierley [mailto:seanb_us@yahoo.com]
>>Sent: Wednesday, March 20, 2002 1:07 PM
>>To: Framers List
>>Subject: RE: Frame 6 files only distilling in Black and White - help!
>>
>>
>>Not just any old color printer, _the_ Distiller
>>printer.
>>
>>The Distiller printer is the _only_ printer
>>recommended for use in creating PDFs with Acrobat
>>Distiller.
>>
>>Cheers,
>>
>>Sean
>>
>>--- Diane Evans <Diane.Evans@marconi.com> wrote:
>>> I'm really new at FrameMaker, but I quickly learned
>>> that I had to select a
>>> color printer for the "save as PDF" for the colors
>>> to show.


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