Re: PDF Creation from Indesign-- Export vs Postscript -Distiller
HappyFriday,
Exactly how do you figure that Adobe has been in any way +untruthful+ about use of Distiller in the past?
Distiller was and is a component of Acrobat dating all the way back to the first Acrobat releases. It name, +Distiller,+ comes from the fact that it +distills+ the graphic essence of a PostScript file into a deterministic, final form representation of the graphical content originally to be represented by that PostScript file. Since virtually all application programs on standard operating system platforms since the late 1980s has been capable of producing PostScript output, by definition, with the addition of Distiller, the same programs were then able to produce PDF corresponding to that PostScript output. Thus, creating PDF was +easy+ and PDF files became ubiquitous.
However, over time, the imaging model used both by Adobe applications (such as Illustrator, InDesign, and Photoshop) as well as the PDF format itself (as supported by Adobe Acrobat) surpassed the imaging model of PostScript language level 3 by including support for ICC color management, non-opaque objects (i.e., transparency), layers, JPEG 2000 image compression, etc. There are no plans whatsoever to augment PostScript to match that more advanced imaging model -- i.e., no PostScript language level 4.
Thus, if you have content (such as an InDesign document) that actually utilizes non-opaque objects and/or full ICC color managment (with individual objects tagged with their original color spaces), any PDF creation from same via distillation of PostScript will in fact be +lossy+ since that +live transparency+ and +color management+ is lost in the creation of PostScript for the distillation process (via flattening and color conversion). Furthermore, you cannot propagate any JPEG 2000 image compression or layer information into the resultant PDF file via PostScript.
For reliable PDF print publishing workflows, you need to maintain content at the highest level of abstraction all the way through the workflow up to the point where the final form file format data (in this case PDF) is rendered/RIPed. By definition, for content that has live transparency and full ICC color management, PDF/X-1a does +not+ qualify as a reliable PDF print publishing workflow since transparency flattening and color conversions require that you know the target device resolution and color space for transparency flattening. PDF/X-1a files are device dependent! That is where PDF/X-4, developed by an ISO committee representing software, hardware, and print industry representatives and recently (March 1, 2008) published by ISO. PDF/X-4 supports live transparency, full ICC color management, JPEG 2000 image compression, and layers (for editioning) with PDF 1.6. (NOTE that the final PDF/X-4 specification does differ a bit from the +draft+ PDF/X-4 support provided by InDesign 5.x. You can expect final PDF/X-4 support in the next major releases of Adobe Acrobat and CS applications.)
You comment that +Distiller is a standalone app+. This isn't really true. It is a component of Adobe Acrobat and Adobe Acrobat Pro is bundled with the Creative Suite. Although Distiller is not necessary to create PDF from InDesign, Illustrator, or Photoshop, we did not think it was prudent to provide a "stripped" version of Acrobat (i.e., sans Distiller) in the Creative Suite!!! Users would scream about being cheated by not getting the full Acrobat Pro package. We will not make Distiller a plug-in hidden behind the scene because there remain many applications, especially non-Adobe applications (such as QuarkXPress) that do not have any native PDF export capability (QuarkXPress "exports" PDF by creating PostScript and converting same to PDF), that rely on the ongoing functionality and interfaces of Distiller to maintain their ability to create PDF.
I don't know what you mean by wanting +official word+ and +official documents+ to back this up. But since I am an +official Adobe spokesperson,+ assume that you just got your +official word+!
- Dov