Why I go to .PS instead of exporting to PDF

[Gregg]

I recently posted a thread about some overprint issues I was having when creating a .PS and then Distilling a PDF. A lot of the responses were on the lines of "don't create a .PS, just export". I wanted to stay on topic for my issue, so I ignored those replies, temporarily. Now, I would like to address that topic. There are a couple of reasons why I have always created PDFs by first printing a .PS then distilling a PDF - the exception being if I wanted a layered PDF.

Here are the reasons:
• Often times we need to supply a Black plate separation only
• The ability to create a PDF that includes all pages (including blanks) of a multi-page document
• Avoid getting CID fonts in the PDF (see attached PDF) which often result in "Passed With Warnings" returns from vendors using automated preflight systems
•*Ability to flatten transparency, when using a non-PDFx job option

It's worth noting that we have just recently upgraded to CS4, we were running CS2 for many years. So, it appears that the CID font issue is no longer an issue (i just discovered that as I was typing this post).

Are there ways to export PDFs that would handle the bullet-points I mention? It may be that I have just been using an outdated version of ID/Acrobat for far too long.

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

[DCurry]

• The ability to create a PDF that includes all pages (including blanks) of a multi-page document

You'll still get your blank pages when direct exporting.

•*Ability to flatten transparency, when using a non-PDFx job option

Simply change the compatibility to Acrobat 4 (PDF 1.3) to flatten during export.

Your other 2 points are valid.

[Colorblind]

See also ID Export to PDFX1a different from PS to PDFX1a

[prepressguru]

We still write PS files as our intermediate files before bringing them into the prepress workflow. Heck we are still using the CPSI rip. Everything works. But we have a few exceptions Illustrator which we export to PDF most times as it saves some time/steps. Quark 8 is another. Also I think CS5 might have an impact on this. But not yet, only a few customers are using it.

Do what works. But I am sure you know that already.

p

[Gregg]

You'll still get your blank pages when direct exporting.

Right! I realize I was saying the opposite of what I meant. I was not wanting blanks. When we send off files for ePub conversions we don't want to include blank pages.

Sorry for the confusion.

[Gregg]

So there's no way around .ps when you need separations, correct?

[Stephen Marsh]

So there's no way around .ps when you need separations, correct?

Gregg, the answer is....no and yes! It can depend on the complexity of the job and the colour builds.

One can dupe the PDF and then using the ink manager map/alias the spot colour to the black plate.

This does not handle CMYK elements. I would like Acrobat to be able to alias/remap CMYK plates like it does for spot colours.

I have "blank" PDF pages that contain a spot colour white...I can then insert this PDF into a dupe of the original PDF and map other spot colours to the white separation to make them "invisible" (and then delete the blank inserted page). I can then make the spot white colour four colour process if needed. I then map the required spot colour to the black plate. This has to be repeated for each spot colour in the file, using duped docs.

Yes, it is a lot of work to avoid Distilling. 99% of the time I just print to seps using Acrobat Pro and Distill separated PDF files.


Stephen Marsh

[Lukas Engqvist]

Interesting reading. Thank you for the explanation.
We can re-map colours in our workflow (Agfa apogee), but that is the advantage of having control of the whole flow. Phantasm CS lets you remap in Illustrator, I think pitstop will let you do that in PDF, haven't seen enough of Neo, or other PDF swiss-army knives.

[leonardr]

Right! I realize I was saying the opposite of what I meant. I was not wanting blanks. When we send off files for ePub conversions we don't want to include blank pages.

InDesign does not (AFAIK) have an option to skip over blank pages when exporting (or printing). The dropping of the blank pages is due to a setting in Distiller when producing the PDF - if you were to print the Postscript, you'd get blank pages out the printer.

So what you can do on the PDF side is then remove the blank pages with Acrobat and a Preflight "Quick Fix" or via Pitstop or Callas pdfToolbox. (or various other tools).

[Slammer]

I still like the .ps for a lot of reasons, but mostly when printing out of Illustrator I just dump the .ai file on the Harlequin and pick up the .tif's at the other end.