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Part III - Distiller Job Options

Configuring the Acrobat Distiller
Recommendations will be made in the following for the configuration of the Acrobat Distiller in order to ensure reliable output in the PDF workflow used by Pittsford Printing. The settings for the Windows version of Acrobat 4.0 are shown as an example. If you use Acrobat 5.0 or Macintosh versions, the recommended settings apply accordingly.

To configure the Acrobat Distiller, call up the menu item Settings > Job options... .

The Job options dialog box is opened, which looks as follows in Acrobat 4.0:

General tab
The General tab in Acrobat 5.0 is a little different than in Version 4.0:

• You should deactivate the ASCII Format option as otherwise unnecessarily large PDF files are created.
• Set the Acrobat format you want in the Compatibility list box.
• Check the Optimize PDF or Optimize for Fast Web View option. This removes redundant elements from the PDF file. In general, this optimization leads to smaller PDF files. In the case of complex documents, the processing time of the Distiller can increase quite substantially when the optimization function is active.
• Small thumbnails of the pages are created when you check the Embed Thumbnails option. These icons make it easier to navigate in Acrobat or in the Acrobat Reader. They do not affect the printing process.
• You should not activate the Auto-Rotate Pages option (Distiller 5 only). As the PDF data should be created device-independent, the rotation of pages is only configured, if necessary, for the output process in our imagesetter - which we will do.
• You can leave the settings for the page range (All) (Distiller 5 only) as they are unless you need special settings.
• With the Binding setting (Distiller 5 only), you specify whether the document is to be bound left or right during further processing. This option is intended for automatic workflows, in which information about further processing after printing is already determined on creating the document ("CIP3"). If you are not using such a workflow, this setting does not have an effect.
• The Resolution parameter defines the standard resolution of the Distiller. If the PostScript code which is to be processed does not contain any information about the resolution, the standard resolution is used. PostScript files, for example, which are created using our imagesetter print driver thus do not contain any details about the resolution. The resolution specification has a big influence on the quality of the output.

As a high value only slightly increases the size of the PDF files, you should select a value which corresponds to the highest output quality. For Pittsford Printing, this is normally the resolution of the connected imagesetter or digital printer, i.e. 1200 / 2400 / 2540 dpi, for example.

Compression tab
A big advantage of the PDF format is the compactness of the code. You can greatly influence the size of the ensuing PDF files through the settings in the Compression tab. As a high compression could mean a loss of quality, you should select these settings ONLY with great care. For a high-resolution output using our print devices, you are advised to deactivate Resampling and JPEG compression for color and gray scale images. If the PDF files get too big for certain purposes and
require compression, you should decide on a low compression rate in favour of higher quality (preference should be given to using the loss-free ZIP compression function).

Color images/gray scale images:
The criteria for image compression are more or less the same for color images and gray scale images.
• Resampling:
The Bicubic Downsampling at option provides optimum quality when compressing image data. The desired target resolution (in this example: 300 dpi) specifies which resolution the compressed images should have after compression. To reduce losses in quality, policies are specified in the Distiller according to which the resolution is only reduced when the resolution of the images in the Script code of the job is at least 1.5 times that of the target resolution. In this example, an image must have a resolution of at least 450 dpi for the compression function to be applied. This option should only be used with caution as it can lead to a loss of quality. However, images which have been scanned at too high a resolution can be optimized at a value of 600 dpi.
• Compression:
Here you can choose between Automatic, JPEG or ZIP. The ZIP option offers the lowest compression, but is loss-free. JPEG compression can lead to a loss of quality. As the Automatic setting does not always ensure that the Distiller makes the right decision, you should select the ZIP setting.
• Quality:
For ZIP compression you should select 8-bit quality to ensure highest quality.

Monochrome images:
All available processes for compressing monochrome bitmap images are completely loss-free. The CCITT Group 4 process is usually the fastest.

Compress Text and Line Art
Texts and vector graphics can be compressed without losses. You should therefore always activate this option.

Fonts tab
In the Fonts tab you should activate the Embed All Fonts option. You should deactivate the Subset All Embedded Fonts Below: option.

In order to ensure reliable output of all necessary fonts, you should, if possible, embed all fonts in the Postscript code for the job. To do so, select the corresponding options for the printer driver when printing from the DTP application. If this is not possible, the Distiller tries to find the necessary fonts in the computer's file system. Please enter the references to all font folders in your system in the Font Locations dialog. This dialog is accessed in the Acrobat Distiller
under the menu item Settings >Font locations....

Color tab
The settings made here have an effect on the color reproduction in the proof and the exposure.

If the print job contains color elements, which are to have true-color output, you should embed the corresponding color profiles in the PDF code. To do so, the required profile files must be available. Copy available profile files into the DTP workstation's color profile folder. On a Windows PC, the folder is located in C:\Windows\System32\Color (Windows NT) or C:\WINNT\system32\spool\drivers\color (Windows 2000) (with C: being the system drive). On a Macintosh the folder is located in the system folder under ColorSync Profile.

For output to our imagesetter, you should preferably activate the Tag Everything for Color Mgmt (no conversion) option.

With this option the Acrobat Distiller makes it possible to assign color profiles not only to image data, but also texts, graphics and screen areas.

If you do not need true-color output, or only wish to apply the color profiles to the print data on our systems, activate the Leave Color Unchanged option.

The Convert All Colors to sRGB option is mainly intended for using PDF files on the Internet and not for the Prepress sector. You should not activate this option for imagesetter output intended for Hi-red printing at Pittsford Printing.

In the Options group, you should check the Preserve Halftone Information option for separated data. You should uncheck it for composite data.

Advanced tab
The settings in this tab determine how the Postscript code is processed.

• Use Prologue.ps and Epilogue.ps:
This option is only required for special cases. Normally this option can remain deactivated. In Acrobat Distiller 3.0 it was necessary to activate the Prologue option to retain spot colors embedded in the PostScript code. The Prologue is no longer required for this from Version 4.0 onwards, as this function is integrated in the Distiller.
• Allow PostScript file to Override Job Options:
If this option is activated, Distiller options embedded in the PostScript code override the current Distiller settings. If you want to ensure that any Distiller settings made by the customer override the current settings, deactivate this setting. If you are sure that the PostScript data contains the correct settings, activate this setting.
• Preserve Level 2 copypage Semantics:
This option is of no significance to the Prepress workflow. The "copypage" PostScript command effects the ejection of the printed material out of the output device. However, the page buffer of the output device is not deleted. The last page to be ripped is retained in the device and the following page is printed over it. The mode of operation of this command has changed during the transition from PostScript Level 2 to Level 3. In Level 3 the page content is only copied on calling up the command for the first time, whilst all subsequent pages are empty. In Level 2 the page content is copied every time. If you need the Level 2 functionality, activate this option.
• Save Portable Job Ticket inside PDF file:
If certain output device-specific options have been set in the PostScript file, (e.g. Trapping), they can be embedded in the PDF file if you activate this option. In principle, portable job tickets correspond to the output plans in our imagesetter. Our imagesetter software is able to evaluate some of this information (e.g. Trapping).

DSC (Document Structuring Convention)
Due to the DSC conventions, it is possible obtain information about the document structure when
importing PostScript files without having to interpret the entire file. A graphics program, for example, can thus determine the size of an EPS object without requiring an internal software RIP, which interprets the entire Postscript code and then calculates the size from this.

DSC information is still used for the OPI functionality and for processing color separations.
Certain DSC information can be filtered out / ignored by the following options.

• Log DSC Warnings:
If there are contraventions of the Adobe DSC conventions, they are recorded in the PDF job log file. Such a contravention is not to be confused with a Postscript error and does not lead to the PDF generation being aborted. In general, all DTP applications understand this rule.
• Resize Page and Center Artwork for EPS Files:
EPS code is a device-independent PostScript code.
EPS code therefore does not contain a Postscript command which determines the page size. The corresponding DSC comment is used instead to read out the EPS page size. If this option is activated, the PDF page is given the size which is entered in the DSC comment and is positioned centrically. If the option is deactivated, the default page size is used and the content of the EPS file sits in the bottom left-hand corner of the PDF page. If the content of the EPS file is bigger than the default page size, the objects on the right and at the top are cut off.
• Preserve EPS Information from DSC:
Every EPS file contains information about the creating program, the file name, the creator, the date of creation, etc. If this information is to be transferred to the PDF file, activate this option.
• Preserve OPI Comments:
OPI comments are contained in the PostScript code in the form of special DSC comments. If you wish to use OPI in the PDF workflow, you have to activate this option. Please observe the relevant information in section "Which points must be observed?".
• Preserve Document Information from DSC:
Similar to the EPS header, many PostScript files contain information about the creating program, the creator, the document name, the date of creation, etc. If this information is to be transferred to the PDF file, activate this option.

Default Paper Size:
You can define a default paper size in the input boxes Width and Height. This format is then always used if the Postscript job or EPS file do not contain any information about the page size.

Saving your settings
You can save the settings under their own name by clicking on the Save As... button and assigning a name. If you need different sets of settings, you can save several sets and select them in the Job Options: selection list in the Acrobat Distiller's main window.