Print to File (PS)

I prefer to use Distiller or Normalizer. I'm still a bit old fashioned and I like the absolute control Distiller/Normalizer gives me for a prepress work flow. But these things are good to know. Although I'll admit I've never had problems with PS code that are not caused by poorly created files in the first place.

Agreed, Distiller gives a great deal of control during the conversion process. It is a great and very useful product.

However, one thing that is often overlooked about Mac OS X Panther and Tiger is that, according to others, it includes Normalizer, albeit without the controls provided by Distiller.

"Apple licensed the Adobe Normalizer technology for Panther"
http://blogs.msdn.com/decheung/archive/2004/04/12/112059.aspx

"Apple's Mac OS X makes broad use of Adobe's PDF technology. It is the first example to date of an operating system that contains an actual Adobe Normalizer embedded as a system component."
http://www.creativepro.com/story/feature/21266.html

"Do YOU really know what is underneath "ps2pdf"? ...It is Adobe's PDF Normalizer licensed from Adobe."
http://www.freeframers.org/archive/04/msg00169.html

One problem I did not see mentioned here was the fact that digital printer doing variable printing need a straight PS path like it was in Panther and Janguar and even OS9. Some applications output a PS that contains the variable information embeded into it, which is then recognized by such rips a Fiery, Creo, and DocuSP.

By using the Tiger path of PDF to PS, that embeded VI information would be lost as Acrobat does not know what to do with that information, as most likely the build int PDF writer in Tiger will also loose that information.

The direct path still exists for those applications which generate PostScript when printing. For those few applications the menu item (wrongly) says "PDF to PS" but there is no intermediate PDF file. It works just like Panther and Jaguar.

RBI, good article on the pdf environment and creation in Panther. One thing I noticed is that it speaks about the limitations of PDF creation for printing purposes. This is kind of scary in the fact that many of the controls I need to create a decent print job are simply not available or ignored.
There are still applications that create PS from PDF for previewing purposes or to take advantage of PS level 3 for printing purposes.... (but not for long I assume).

I would like to jump in. I just installed Tiger and noticed when printing to a .ps for download to a viper rip ps2 for a agfa 1000 imagesetter that Apple moved the pdf/post script function to the bottom of the file and a selection button. However, in ID CS2, CS, Acrobat 6 & 7 pro, that this PDF button fails to actually work as intended. In many tries it connected once to make a .ps file for ripped.

Any suggestions would be helpful.

Edward, If I remember correctly, Viper is fairly old Ripping software. It's primarily made for Capstan Imagesetters. If memory serves it was made for PS level 2 and Pdf 1.2 or 1.4. I would suggest you use the Acrobat 6 advanced capabilities and not create PS for drag and drop Cue's, but rather print direct from Acrobat. The Global trapping built into Agfa software will kick in once the file starts to RIP.... of course, you'll have to configure it first. You may want to have a look at the Taipan 3 PDF RIP software, or go to the Agogee X work flow instead. I'm not sure how Viper handled transparancies and other PS level 3 issues.