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

[Adam Korman <Adam@xxxxxxxxxx>]

: My point was that the PostScript needs to be the same for us to
: ensure that what we .pdf matches what we print. I'm talking about
: pre-distillation; PostScript.

That's the major flaw in your thinking. There's no good reason that the
Postscript needs to match. It would make sense if you were trying to achieve
exact replicability in a controlled environment, but that's not why anyone
creates PDFs. What you're insisting is that your PDFs should be no better
than the printers you use at the time you publish. In fact, the PDFs should
include the quirks (as minor as they may be) of your printer's driver. Why
would you want to include information that's only relevant to your printer
in a PDF?

: It's called a _portable_ format because it can travel.

Yes, but it doesn't always travel well. How well it travels depends on what
you do when you create the PDF. If you use device-dependent input
(Postscript made with your printer driver), you will get device-dependent
output. The instructions from Adobe are clear and unequivocal: to create
device-independent PDFs, use the Distiller driver. There is nothing to be
gained by using your printer driver.

Of course, that begs the question -- if this is the case, why allow it at
all? I'm guessing that it's just an implementation hack rather than of any
real benefit to users.


Cheers, Adam

========== 
Adam Korman
Senior Designer
Cooper Interaction Design
adam@cooper.com
650.213.5104

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