Cannot save PDF-X

At this time I'm not running 10.5.6 but 10.4.11.

Here Print to PDF-X behaves flawlessly.

Always the same advices:

(a) trash the preferences file:
<startupVolume>:Users:<yourAccount>:Library:Preferences:com.apple.iWork.Pages.pl ist
empty the trash and restart the program

(b) Run Disk Utility to repair permissions

(c) try to do the same task from an alternate user account.

(d) try to remove third party components installed on your machine. Some of them are true wrongdoers.

Yvan KOENIG (from FRANCE vendredi 23 janvier 2009 17:37:55)

Do what Yvan suggested.

You can also try printing to PDF-X from another application, to see if the the problem is Pages specific, of if there is a more generic problem.

I am on a Mac in the Sydney Apple Store and just tried this in Pages '09 running on OSX 10.5.6 and it just errored too:

" Alert

Couldn't create PDF/X-3 document"

Double check your PDF-X output, should you ever get it to work.

The resolution may be too low and I doubt there are crop marks and bleeds. So not very PDF/X-3, misnamed or not!

The excuse I keep getting from Apple employees, every time I catch things like this is "It is isn't meant for that"

My question is:

Where are the warnings and caveats, and why are these options there in the first place unless they are Apple's idea of practical jokes?

I'm running OSX 10.5.6 on a 3 month old MBP. Permissions repair run last week.

Saving as PDF X will Not work with iWork '09 Numbers or Pages.
Works fine with Text Edit rtf, rtfd from various places, various jpegs......

Pages '09 running on OSX 10.5.6 and it just errored too:
"Alert Couldn't create PDF/X-3 document"

Hmm ... just like that, draw any shape, drop an RGB TIFF/JPEG in, and it didn't work? Not good.

The resolution may be too low

Eventually, I reasoned backwards to the why. PDF/X-3 allows type PRTR Printer and type MNTR Monitor as OutputIntent, whether the data space is CMYK (: any laydown order) or RGB or CIEL a*b. In principle, this means that it is legal to have 72DPI resolution and type MNTR Monitor profile as OutputIntent.

It is possible e.g. in Acrobat Professional to add a rule that audits resolution, but it is not possible in the mechanism that configures the PDF/X-3 printing master to prohibit a low resolution. For instance, I could have a contract for a kiosk to be rendered on colour displays, and I could then set e.g. sRGB as OutputIntent and 100DPI as resolution.

PDF/X-3 is intended to allow RGB/CIEL a*b and that includes film recorders (that natively run RGB) and high quality photo presentation inkjets (type PRTR Printer with data space RGB) and much more. Fair is fair, with the flexibility to target devices beyond traditional process offset printing comes other configuration challenges.

The excuse I keep getting from Apple employees, every time I catch things like this is "It is isn't meant for that"

It has been my experience that high tech companies internally are low tech. If a high tech company cannot use its high tech products for its internal publishing purposes, then the high tech company is in trouble. This is like the management of Volvo or Mercedes being unable to hop into Volvo or Mercedes vehicles, turn the ignition key, and count on the cars being able to run on the road reliably.

/hh

It works for me with exactly that setup. 10.5.6 and iWork '09. In addition I checked both PDF/X compliance and the resolution of a picture in Adobe Acrobat, and everything was fine.

Could it be hardware related? Some information that for some obscure reason is read from the monitor driver?

It works for me with exactly that setup. 10.5.6 and iWork '09. In addition I checked both PDF/X compliance and the resolution of a picture in Adobe Acrobat, and everything was fine.

Phew, for a minute I thought this had turned into mayhem.

Some information that for some obscure reason is read from the monitor driver?

What in the world would the state of the video system have to do with the system stating that for the objects in the page and the selected settings, it could create a PDF/X-3 printing master?

There is nothing the process of creating a PDF/X-3 printing master that involves the state of the video system. Well, unless one picked the present display profile as the OutputIntent profile, which would be legal even if not useful, and the profile would simply get embedded irrespective of the state of the video system. Trouble is the alert has next to nothing that helps troubleshooting.

/hh

Henrik Holmegaard wrote:
What in the world would the state of the video system have to do with the system stating that for the objects in the page and the selected settings, it could create a PDF/X-3 printing master?

Nothing obvious at all. My guess was based on a mixture of the following two problem solving techniques:

"When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth."

"If you lost your keys where it is too dark to search, look somewhere else instead. You won't find your keys, but it will make you feel better."

"If you lost your keys where it is too dark to search, look somewhere else instead. You won't find your keys, but it will make you feel better."

Ah yes, Nasredin Hodja, a figure in Turkish folklore. And what a wonderful troubleshooting technique it is -:).

/hh

There is a possibility it may not save the PDF/X-3 file due to some obscure naming requirement, just as ColorSync has a similar problem.

The whole procedure of saving/converting the misnamed PDF/X-3 file is so unlike anything else you do in the Print dialogue I wouldn't be surprised that it is due to some cocked up programming that went untested by Apple's engineers.

Hello--here's a hint from a newbie on this forum. Since I upgraded to 10.5, I haven't been able to print to pdf-x, either, but following another person's hint, I took a look in the ColorSync profiles, and sure enough, there is a "Create Generic PDF-X" profile. So, I exported a PDF from Pages (file>share>export...), then opened the PDF I created in Preview. In Preview, using the Save As menu (File>Save As), on the bottom of the Save As dialogue box, there is a dropdown menu "Quartz Filter." Open the dropdown menu, choose "Create Generic PDFX-3 Document," then Save. This worked for me! I don't have a preflight type program to check it with, but I'm sure my printer will let me know if it's OK or not.

I did some tests and there are certain templates which error, probably because of a font or graphic.

See the results:

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1879180&start=0&tstart=15

Please also note that trying to produce PDFX-3 files suitable for a commercial printer will not work for the reasons outlined in that thread.

I exported a PDF from Pages

If you build out a PDF/X-3 printing master, then the default template for PDF/X-3 is not recommended. First, it sets the OutputIntent for the intended printing condition to US SWOP which is a very, very small colour space for low grade gray coated paper, and second, it sets the transparency flattening to 72DPI which is too low.

The further problem is that if you set up a PDF/X-3 filter for the right printing condition and the right transparency flattening, it does not seem that the filter is registered as a system-wide service even if the domain is set as such, so you wind up with a template that does not appear in system-wide menus.

It helps with a bit of technical history. ColorSync itself has been a faceless and scriptable application since version 2.5 in 1998, so if you keep that in mind you can still make it work for the basics. Set up your PDF/X-3 template and try the following:

File > Print > Copies & Pages > (scroll down to) ColorSync > Color Conversion: Standard and Quartz Filter: [MyPrintingMasterTemplate]. This should work for you, and if not drop a line as it is interesting to try to map the interface matrix issues.

/hh

Thank you Henrik for the link, but it leads to the root of the Discussions Forum pages.

Is PDF/X-3 really set to 72 dpi or only Apple's filter here?

I can not understand any print destination choosing such a low resolution in combination with wildly excessive ink saturation, when by your account it is destined for the worst paper stock available. That is doubly alarming.

By the way Henrik are you aware that the menu in the .pdf Print menu is actually kicking off an Automator action to run the Quartz PDFContext?

Something I would love to get a handle on as I want to batch convert .eps and .ps files using Quartz PDFContext.

May be useful to look at:

http://maben.homeip.net/static/computers/apple/ADC%20Reference%20Library%20jan06 /documentation/GraphicsImaging/Conceptual/drawingwithquartz2d/dqpdf/chapter_14_section4.html

Yvan KOENIG (from FRANCE dimanche 1 février 2009 16:35:47)