Cannot save PDF-X

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

Ah, I see what you mean. I did not mean to write a link, I meant to write a placeholder name for a Quart filter. I wrote the placeholder name in square brackets why for whatever reason the Apple server software turned into a link.

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

I wish you well, but it would take a Landrover and a cable to drag me there -:)

/hh

Just two more comments, then I'll get out of here and let the pros get to work. First, after I published my last post, I looked around in ColorSync a bit longer and discovered that the reason my "print to pdf-x" didn't work anymore is that the in the Domain section of the filter, the checkbox for "Printing" was not checked and that I could not check it because that filter is locked (and not by me). So, I duplicated the filter, upgraded the output resolution to 300X300 instead of 72X72, used Generic CMYK as the destination profile, and checked "Application," "PDF Workflows" and "Printing" in the Domain boxes. Then, I went back to Pages and printed myself a PDF-X without going through Preview.

Secondly, I should make something clear: I am not preparing documents for an off-set printing operation; I am preparing them for digital printing by a short-run (POD) printer. The only problem I've run into with generating PDFs from Pages is that last time I sent a "plain" pdf (because I couldn't print to PDF-X) and the pdf I generated caused some problems with paragraph indents in the set-up process. My digitally-printed books look just as good as anyone else's digitally printed books. It's the (second) small press revolution, you know. And I am doing everything I can to keep from buying an $800 program just to produce print-ready PDFs; I love page-layout in Pages, it's simple and affordable and because it's simple and affordable, it's democratic. If I still can't make PDFs from Pages work for my printer (the indent problem), I'll learn to use Scribus. For the same reasons. JLC Mish, Editor, Mongrel Empire Press (www.mongrelempire.org) (PS: I'm also using Pages to put out a magazine--available as online PDF, PDF & extra goodies on CD, and in print--from my very nice duplexing color laser printer.)

Henrik Holmegaard wrote:
I wish you well, but it would take a Landrover and a cable to drag me there -:)

/hh

Oddly enough I just happen to have here… 🙂

Then, I went back to Pages and printed myself a PDF-X without going through Preview.

Right, the setup is silly, but if the correct customised information is inserted it should work.

It's the (second) small press revolution, you know.

Yes.

/hh

jlcmish wrote:
Just two more comments, then I'll get out of here and let the pros get to work. First, after I published my last post, I looked around in ColorSync a bit longer and discovered that the reason my "print to pdf-x" didn't work anymore is that the in the Domain section of the filter, the checkbox for "Printing" was not checked and that I could not check it because that filter is locked (and not by me). So, I duplicated the filter, upgraded the output resolution to 300X300 instead of 72X72, used Generic CMYK as the destination profile, and checked "Application," "PDF Workflows" and "Printing" in the Domain boxes. Then, I went back to Pages and printed myself a PDF-X without going through Preview.

That does not sound right to me, but perhaps it is. If you duplicate a filter, it would still not be taken into account by the Print dialogue, unless you associate it to a PDF Service. And once you try to edit those pesky PDF Services in Mac OS X 10.5, you break them so they do not work.

Could you double check to see if it really is the new duplicate filter that is used when you print to PDF/X?

It would be interesting to know if I am that much wrong.

Thank you Yvan,

Interesting yes, useful hmmm. I note that the articles are not recent, are these the latest?. I can see the Quartz PDFContext that Preview uses. What is it? A filter or framework?

I have absolutely no programming training or experience.

I have purchased a couple of books on Cocoa and hope to learn something of how it works.

Even the supposedly "easy" Automator is anything but easy, if you are not a programmer and the vital bits are missing.

Peter

I discovered this in the *BeLight Swift Publisher* forums where they are having similar issues to us:

http://www.belightsoft.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=383

No doubt because they are attempting to create PDF/X files as well.

No doubt because they are attempting to create PDF/X files as well.

For what it's worth, the person posting as Laurabel is saying that Adobe Acrobat 8 shows muddier colours. She isn't saying how she set up Adobe Acrobat 8, that is, whether the application is doing a cross-rendering which is correct for a softproof. And if she set up a cross-rendering, she also isn't saying if she set it up to a Relative Colorimetric proof or an Absolute Colorimetric proof (i.e. with media white point matching).

The other person posting for BeLight/Swift Publisher is comparing the system service for PDF with the system service for PS, but not how the two relate to one another or how producing a printing master from the PS service will work. The assumption is simply that one should produce a PostScript file as a basis for producing a PDF file because that is how prepress has had to work since 1993, and so it has to be correct.

For what it's worth, which isn't much, I used Adobe Acrobat 4.05 InProduction for Mac OS and Adobe Acrobat 5 to figure the ins and outs of the colour space conversions when writing the GretagMacbeth iQueue manual and the GretagMacbeth Eye-One Color Cookbooks, but the matrices are very complicated, very time consuming, and you can do nothing whatsoever when you have the information because the software is what the software is until the software is updated.

Overall, PS to PDF should in principle never be used. It introduces plenty of problems as well for Unicode imaging as for ICC imaging.

/hh