Acrobat’s Adobe PDF Printer Replaced in Snow Leopard
You’ve purchased a copy of the new Mac OS X version, Snow Leopard (10.6), and installed it on your computer. But the Adobe PDF Printer installed by Acrobat Pro isn’t working. For example, an early poster in the Adobe Acrobat Mac forum reported:
Attempting to print to PDF via Adobe PDF 9.0 printer/driver causes the printer/driver to fire up and the progress windows indicates that distiller launches, but after that, the prompt for where to save the PDF to never appears and the file in the print queue disappears.
What you need to know is that in Snow Leopard, the Acrobat team replaced the functionality of the Adobe PDF printer with an Automator function in the Print dialog called Save as Adobe PDF. It appears in the PDF menu at the bottom of the Print dialog.
Choosing this option opens a dialog where you can select an Adobe PDF setting and choose to launch Acrobat or another PDF reader. (When you used the Adobe PDF Printer, you needed to discover that you had to choose “PDF Options” from the unlabelled popup menu in the dialog to make these choices. Alternatively, you had to choose the PDF setting in Distiller ahead of time. Now the options are much more obvious.)
After making your choice, you’ll be prompted for a name for your PDF file and a location to save the file.
Why the change? An Adobe TechNote provides a brief explanation: “Mac OS X Snow Leopard (v10.6)’s enhanced security features prevent Adobe’s PDF Printer from functioning as it did in previous versions.” Leonard Rosenthol, Adobe’s PDF guru, provides additional details:
In a nutshell, Snow Leopard no longer supports the necessary OS features we need to install a Distiller-based printer. It’s just as well, as that print path (of PDF->PS->PDF) is REALLY SLOW and full of a HUGE number of bugs for many years now that we couldn’t fix due to how the Apple printing system works ?. With Snow Leopard, you now have a new PDF Workflow entry (the things in the “PDF” menu in the print dialog) called “Adobe PDF” which will convert the Apple-based PDF into an Adobe-based PDF using your supplied/chosen Job Options. It does so via native PDF transcoding – no Postscript here!! So we still provide a method for creation of Adobe-quality PDFs – but it’s FASTER and MORE reliable!
A few more issues you should know about:
- For this new feature to work, you must upgrade to Acrobat 9.1.3, the current version (or at least Acrobat 9.1). Acrobat 9.0 and earlier didn’t have this new capability.
- If you upgrade from Leopard (Mac OS X 10.5) to Snow Leopard (10.6), the Adobe PDF Printer installed by Acrobat 9 Pro is not removed. You’ll need to remove it yourself. To do so, choose Apple > System Preferences > Print & Fax. Select the printer “Adobe PDF 9.0″ and click the minus (-) sign.
- If you install Acrobat 9 Pro new in Snow Leopard, and immediately upgrade to the current version (9.1.3), the Adobe PDF 9.0 print is not installed.
- Inevitably, since this is a new feature (and I suspect not very well tested), there are glitches. On one of my computers where I installed Snow Leopard, the feature worked a couple of days ago. Today, it’s failing in the PDF creation process with a crash. There are other reports of this in a thread on the Adobe Acrobat Mac forum. (If I get information on workarounds to solve these crashes, I’ll post it here.)
- If your printer requests that you use the largely outmoded workflow of creating PDF using Distiller, you’ll have to use the old method. First create a PostScript file, and then process it through Distiller to create the PDF file.
This is the kind of articles that should be printed on the box of CS4 or on the DVD or as a splashcreen message… Why users have to wonder where it is, why it does not work, why it is not simple, why…
It crashes everytime after I’m prompted to give a name to the PDF.
I entirely agree, Branislav, that the Adobe product teams need to provide better information about what will and will not work when a new OS version is released. There seems to be no overall mandate that this be done.
What we get is pablum from the Adobe Marketing department: “Working closely with Apple, Adobe has tested and determined that our Adobe Creative Suite 4 products and components are compatible with Mac OS X Snow Leopard.” Some product managers, notably John Nack, in the Photoshop team posts additional information on their blogs, but most of the teams provide little information at all.
I knew about this situation ahead of time, but was warned not to post it until Snow Leopard release because Adobe was under NDA with Apple about the release. But there was no information provided by the Acrobat team when Snow Leopard was released that would reach a general audience. I only knew of the TechNote because a person, apparently an Acrobat engineer or QA person, posted about it on the Acrobat Mac user forum.
I’ve had a running battle with the Acrobat team for years about how they denigrate the Mac platform in favor of Windows, and this is a perfect example!
Steve,
From the tech note: ‘Users of non-Adobe Postscript-based publishing applications should be aware that due to this change, they can no longer print directly to Adobe PDFs and instead need to use another method for PDF creation.’
I take it from this and your description above that this change in OS X 10.6 does not affect Export to PDF from ID and other app’s in CS4. Correct?
LTM
LTM – that is correct.
Direct export from Adobe applications OR any other application is NOT impacted by the removal of the Adobe PDF printer. Since that is the method that we have been telling our customers to use for years now, and since the Mac OS already has native PDF generation – this switch away from the PDF printer shouldn’t be a shock and should have no impact on most users.
As Steve points out, we could not talk about this change until Apple released us from our NDA concerning Snow Leopard. As soon as they did, we provided the guidance in a FAQ and via two TechNotes.
I will also point out that instead of making you wait for an update the fixes the problem – we shipped the fix MONTHS before SL was complete so that users would not have to wait. (though perhaps something changed in the final version of SL which is where the crashes are coming from). You can never win the software vs. OS compatibility war
.
Leonard Rosenthol
PDF Standards Architect
Adobe Systems
> Direct export from Adobe applications
> OR any other application is NOT
> impacted by the removal of the
> Adobe PDF printer.
TWO QUESTIONS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Does that mean that in fact Adobe’s Automator script does not rely on Adobe’s PDF Library but on Apple’s one !!!???
Does that mean that it is not possible anymore to create a PDF with built-in trapping features from an InDesign document !!!???
The more we pay for updates, the more features are removed : InDesign contact sheet from Bridge CS4, AdobePDF printer in Snow Leopard, the Photoshop features (placed in fact on the Content CD,…)
What we do is let Apple do the original creation of the PDF using their Quartz technology and then we “transcode” their PDF into one of “Adobe quality” based on your job options settings. So while it starts out as Apple, it ends up as Adobe (using our PDFLibrary, etc.)
I don’t know how you are doing trapping today with InDesign – so I can’t comment on what would have changed. Assuming you use the Adobe recommend method of direct export from InDesign to PDF – then nothing has changed.
The choice to remove the PDF Printer was due to the enhanced security features of Snow Leopard – we had no choice – Apple made it impossible(!!) for us to deliver that printer. However, in the long run, it’s a GOOD THING – since the new PDF Workflow item is MUCH faster and generates BETTER PDFs.
Leonard
The world upside down
Leonard,
Are you following this thread in Adobe’s forums? http://forums.adobe.com/thread/483911?tstart=0
I started the thread and there’s at least 2 or 3 of us not having any luck with Acrobat 9.1.3’s new “Save as PDF” feature/workflow.
Leonard, thanks for contributing to the discussion! Keep it coming!
Leonard wrote :
“I don’t know how you are doing trapping today with InDesign – so I can’t comment on what would have changed. Assuming you use the Adobe recommend method of direct export from InDesign to PDF – then nothing has changed.”
Very simple
- In InDesign’s Print dialog box, select the AdobePDF printer.
- In the Output pane of the Print dialog box
- Color > In-Rip Separations
- Trapping > InDesign built-in
- in the lower part of the Print dialog box, click on the Printer button
- in the new dialog box > Instead of Layout et Pages fo to PDF Options : choose PDF/X-1a:2001
- OK, give a name to the PDF and Save
- back in ID’s Print dialog box and click Print
- the AdobePDF printer pops up and creates the PDF
- Open the PDF in Acrobat and Overprint Preview : the PDF with built-in trapping is created.
Leonard,
Can you educate me on why a PDF with settings “X” exported out of Indesign is a much larger file than the same file saved to postscript and distilled using settings “X”? I would much prefer the direct export route, but file size is often an issue.
I have noticed that the “Save as Adobe PDF” option in the PDF menu under the Print Menu does not work for Adobe PDF forms. When attempting to print a PDF form, the message received directs the user to “Save” using the File Menu. This method simply creates a copy of the form (albeit with the information that may have been inserted in fillable fields).
However, there is often a need to convert a ‘live’ form (one that is fillable) into a fixed PDF document (i.e., without fillable fields). This used to be possible using the print to PDF option which created a nice clean flat PDF file. On the other hand, using the File Menu and “Save” or “Save as…” do not create a flat PDF. the alternative, Apple’s native PDF creation facility (with their Quartz technology) does not seem to handle Adobe Acrobat forms very well (e.g., fields often loose information and embedded calculations are not performed).
The inability to print to PDF from a form using Adobe Acrobat and create a flat PDF file is a significant problem for us…it means that we have to find a PC and print to PDF using Adobe Acrobat installed on PC. So, what is the point of purchasing and using Adobe Acrobat on our Mac’s? Surely, there is a better way (maybe in the works?).
Wow wow wow, wait a minute…
Does that mean that the PDFMaker icons can’t be created by Acrobat when Microsoft Office 2008 is installed ?
Does that mean that creating accessible PDFs from a Microsoft Office is not possible anymore because there is no more PDFMaker script ?
And what about TOCs ?
And what about Hyperlinks, Destinations,… ?
Please don’t tell me that all this is stripped away from the Mac platform ?
Mike,
What you’ve been doing with Adobe PDF printer is called “refrying” the PDF. Essentially, you’ve been creating PostScript and then using Distiller (which is what the Adobe PDF printer used in the background) to make a new “flat” PDF.
You can still do that, but you’ll have to use a different method: You CANNOT use the Save as Adobe PDF function within Acrobat. Instead, choose File > Export > PostScript in Acrobat. Then process the PostScript file through Acrobat Distiller. You’ll get exactly the same result.
Branislav,
>Does that mean that creating accessible PDFs from a Microsoft Office is not possible anymore because there is no more PDFMaker script ?
Nothing has changed in terms of the capabilities of exporting PDF from Word on the Mac.
Word on the Mac has NEVER had those capabilities because Microsoft has crippled Word on the Mac. It doesn’t give Adobe the hooks to create a PDFMaker like in Windows. (I would maintain that, if they were motivated—which they’re not—the Acrobat team could find a way to do it, but that’s another old story.)
Dave,
I’d suggest you take that discussion to the Adobe Acrobat Mac forum. It’s a very complex issue getting the smallest file size. There are so many settings either way which affect it.
What should I do about Acrobat 8 and Snow Leopard?
After upgrading to Snow Leopard, I got the PDF printer error and cancelled at that time as I did not know what this meant. I followed Adobe’s instruction per article http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/509/cpsid_50981.html to “Remove the Adobe PDF Printer driver from the System Preferences (although my Acrobat is v8 not v9) and then tried to use the PDF print however, “Print as Adobe PDF” does NOT appear as it should. Even after Restarting, which I thought might be needed to take effect.
Did I remove the Adobe PDF printer when I should not have?
( I can export from InDesign CS3 to PDF and it appears OK).
I’m confused. Should I return the Acrobat 8 printer driver to the system (are other things going to break without it) — and I checked the Trash and the Acrobat V8 Printer Driver is not even there, so where did it go? (and I didn’t empty the trash…) oh no, as a graphic designer I need PDF capability…oy!
Help — suggestions please?????
Donna,
First, the change from the Adobe PDF printer to the Save as Adobe PDF function should have no effect at all on using File > Export > Adobe PDF from InDesign CS3 (or CS4). That’s the recommended way of creating PDF from InDesign (and there are similar methods for Illustrator and Photoshop).
The Save as Adobe PDF function can only be used by Acrobat 9.1 and higher so it can’t be used in Acrobat 8 Professional. And you might as well leave the Adobe PDF printer uninstalled because it will NOT work in Snow Leopard.
So when would you need the (now defunct) Adobe PDF printer? If you’re making a quick PDF from Word or from a browser like Safari, just use the Save as PDF choice under the PDF menu in the Print dialog. This uses the Apple PDF mechanism and it works fine!
If your printer wanted you to create a PDF using Distiller (old technology but some printers still like it), you could export a PostScript file from InDesign and process it through Distiller to create a PDF file.
So you’re really not missing anything.
How is one suppost to redistill a pdf file using this new system? In the past, I have printed a pdf from Adobe Acrobat Pro through the Adobe PDF printer in order to consolidate redundant embedded font subsets. In many cases, this results in a much smaller output pdf that is printable on a postscript printer with a limited (default) amount of memory. My tests so far show that there is no way to obtain this result with the new system; outputting postscript from Adobe Acrobat and then redistilling does not consolidate the embedded fonts.
Warren,
I have talked to Leonard Rosenthol and Dov Isaacs, Adobe’s experts on PDF and PostScript. They have said that all the Adobe PDF Printer did was to capture the PostScript generated by the application and pass it to Distiller. So I can’t explain why outputting PostScript from Acrobat and then redistilling would do anything different than it ever has.
Sorry, but the Adobe PDF Printer isn’t coming back. If you want to keep a computer forever in Mac OS X 10.5, you can continue to use it.
Steve: I’ve noticed that it is not possible to use the “Save as Adobe PDF” workflow within Acrobat itself from the File/Print… menuchoice; printing to make pdfs is permitted only in other apps. (Well, the workflow keeps crashing when I try to print to it from the other apps, but from within Acrobat Pro itself, a message box comes up to say that it isn’t permitted to print a pdf that you are reading to make another pdf.) This means that the “redistilling” code has been disabled; one had to print to the Adobe PDF printer or make postscript (and then use Distiller on the postscript) from Acrobat Pro.
Sure, I will retain a disk image of 10.58 so that I can redistill when necessary, but it is kind of disappointing that capability that is still possible within Windows is going to be lost from the Macintosh side. (Don’t get me started about FrameMaker.)
Question — I already had Acrobat Pro 9.1.3 installed and did a recent upgrade to 10.6, but I’m not seeing a “Save as Adobe PDF” option.
If I launch Acrobat Pro 9.1.3 and do a “repair installation” — it doesn’t do it there, either.
How do I get this Automator option installed?
Thanks!
- Steve
Steve,
That should be the way to do it. Have you removed Adobe PDF 9 printer. You might try that first, then use the Repair Installation.
Good luck.
Whoops — the repair *did* work. Sorry about that….
except when I actually try to use it, I get a crash:
Process: Save as Adobe PDF [3778]
Path: /Library/PDF Services/Save as Adobe PDF.app/Contents/MacOS/Save as Adobe PDF
Identifier: com.apple.automator.SaveasAdobePDF
Version: 1.0 (160)
Build Info: Automator-1600000~1
Code Type: X86 (Native)
Parent Process: launchd [193]
PlugIn Path: /Applications/Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro/Acrobat Distiller.app/Contents/Frameworks/AdobeACE.framework/Versions/A/AdobeACE
PlugIn Identifier: AdobeACE
PlugIn Version: ??? (???)
(etc…)
I’ve been trying to figure out the work around for a while now and don’t seem to be getting much of anywhere. I’m fine with changing my process, but everything that I’m trying doesn’t give me the results I need. My old process was file>print, set up the file, go to printer and choose pdf options>press quality, name the file and location, then print and then print on the original menu. That would kick out my file perfectly.
I keep trying to use the export and Adobe PDF Presets. I export it. It kicks out a PDF like it should. Only any effect that I put on it in InDesign is removed, which kills any design that I made… Any help on that? I’ve tried all the things suggested from Adobe, in this blog, and every other blog I could find. Help?
I do have another “problem”, however, it’s somehow related to the changes mentioned here.
Not only is the Adobe PDF printer not working anymore, the Adobe PDF 9 PPD has been removed! In InDesign, I used to print to a Postscript file using this very PPD. No PPD, no PostScript file. So I copied the PPD back from a 10.5 machine. So far, so good. I can write a PostScript file via the Print dialogue in InDesign and put it manually in Distiller 9. But alas, Distiller is super slow in 10.6! A 82MB PS-file took 94 seconds to proceed, while the same file with the same settings on a machine running 10.5.8 only took 7 seconds! There’s a thread in Adobe forums mentioning this problem.
To be clear: I used to select “PostScript file” as a printer in the print dialogue and “Adobe PDF 9.0″ as PPD to save my InDesign doc as a PostScript file. This file I put manually into Distiller. Why so complicated? I turned out that this way seems to create PDFs that are usually a little bit smaller in size and are less error prone in several print shops (they might have older RIPs that don’t like PDFs exported directly from InDesign). Problem is, that the distiller got extremely slow with 10.6 for no apparent reason.
Second, the workflow described here (“Save As Adobe PDF”) does not work with InDesign, does it? Which printer should I select in InDesign’s print dialogue? When I select “Save As Adobe PDF” in the system’s print dialogue, nothing happens. For me, “Save As PDF” only works in applications, that use the system’s print dialogue (e.g. Pages, Preview etc.).
Oh, this requires V9 (and I have Acrobat 8 Pro), I see now.
I’ve never had to manually distill anything and guess I hope not to if it’s an older technology.
I just package my InDesign files and send the whole package folder along with a quality PDF.
Thank-you so much, Steve.
Great having you guys and gals so up to date on all things InDesign plus all the tips – keep up the great work!
How does one get the new pdf print functionality after doing a standard update install of 10.6 from 10.5?
I had both Acrobat Pro 9.1.3 and Reader 9.1.3 already installed. After reading the above discussion, I deleted the pdf printer, and also deleted the Reader, then re-installed the Reader (9.1, 9.1.1, 9.1.2, 9.1.3 –no combo updaters!
).
I did not uninstall Acrobat Pro since that is a site license and I don’t have the install CD at home.
Having done all that, there is still no sign of the new “Automator function in the Print dialog called Save as Adobe PDF.”
One problem with this (and the reason I had to downgrade back to Leopard last week)
I had to do “print booklet” in InDesign to get printer spreads for a 24 page booklet we were doing.
Unfortunatly theres no “export” setting for this you have to print booklet – thus selecting the adobe PDF printer was perfect for this.
Now ive found this and upgraded back to Snow Leopard I have to use my “Epson” driver as the printer but go into it and select “save as Adobe PDF”
This works, except by using my Epson printer drive I cant create custom paper sizes which i need to do, and I can accurately apply crop marks etc…
I need the adobe PDF driver back to set paper sizes etc properly this way, but now I can’t get Adobe to install the printer driver/plugin..
Bah . Adobe Fail!
@Daniel:
I don’t have SL installed yet, so I can’t try this myself, but why can’t you create a new printer (doesn’t matter which one — as long as it’s postscript) and assign the Adobe PDF printer driver to the printer. Then you can select it in the print window and create the PDF using the “new way”.
Does SL remove the Adobe printer driver altogether?
If that’s the case (bad!) then you really can use any printer driver out there which supports the page sizes you need…
As far as I can tell the Adobe PDF PPD is removed altogether. But you can get it back from a backup or a machine still running 10.5.x. The PPD is located in “Library > Printers > PPDs > Contents > Resources > en.lproj” (true for german system, might be slightly different with other languages). Copy it back to “Library > Printers > PPDs > Contents > Resources”. Don’t use the subdirectory “en.lproj”, because it seems like from there it is removed again every time Acrobat/Distiller is launched.
Still, this “new way” doesn’t seem to work with InDesign, no matter what. Selecting “Save As Adobe PDF” just doesn’t do anything here :/ (It works in other apps, though).
@Harbs – yes it removes it all together
Save as adobe PDF worked for me on print spreads, but as i said i couldn’t change the paper size to a custom size for my booklet (which is A5, but A5 spreads with bleed, colour bars, and crop marks – thus a very custom size)
Also the quality of the text was dire, lots of jaggies, very strange – print using the distiller produced a perfect result so its a odd change at the minute…
In 90% of situations export to PDF will work anyway, I cant see why anyone would want to do save to PDF except in my position where you want InDesign to do impositions for you…
Hi there,
As some have mentioned, removing Adobe PDF represents a problem in booklet printing to PDF.
When I used to print a booklet from InDesign to PDF I would select Adobe PDF printer, select the paper size (Defined by driver) and all would be fine. Or alternatively PostScript printer and Adobe PDF PPD.
Now, as Adobe PDF printer is no longer listed as an option (and can’t be added as a printer in General Settings/Print&Fax section) I’m forced to use PostScript printer.
Preview looks ok (two A5 pages, one next to another, making it a landscape A4), but when I check the summary, and check the Setup section, it says Paper Size: A4, Page Orientation: Portrait. Which is wrong. It should be A4 (or Defined by driver) and Landscape orientation.
When I try to edit PostScript Print settings, everything is greyed out, nothing can be edited/changed.
When I distill a .ps file I then get A4 portrait pages with A4 landscape (2x A5 portrait) artwork on them – part of artwork cut off and empty space on top.
My question therefore is, how do I edit the PostScript setting when printing a booklet? And how to get a proper PDF?
I hope this makes sense.
Thanks.
Howdy. I had CS4 Master Collection with Leopard. Everything worked fine. But when I upgraded a week ago Friday, I have had problems with Acrobat as noted in other threads.
I also have problems with InDesign and Illustrator. When I try to select File > Print. I get the spinning ball, and I have to force quit the applications. I had removed the Adobe PDF Printer as instructed prior to doing anything else.
So, now what might be causing the problems with no ability to print? I’m at a loss.
wow it took me 3 different google searches to find this — thats a shame – i like the ease of printing to pdf printer.. i find the drop down menu an extra step (and i print probably 50 websites a day w/ this)… shame.. i will miss it
thanks so much for letting us know what happened (too bad adobe couldn’t mention it eh?)
thanks
ciara
Resolved my issue. Apparently I had to reload my printer drivers (even though it was to be automatic, it wasn’t).
At least I can use the programs.
Matz,
I’m having exactly the same issue as you…the only thing I’ve figured out is to change the driver to one that supports whatever paper size/layout I need, export as an EPS, then run it through distiller.
That should be a totally unnecessary step considering Adobe themselves call running things through Distiller an antiquated way of doing things. They don’t seem to leave us any other choice…
Hope it gets resolved soon, I use the Print Booklet feature multiple times a week, and this would add an extra 2 or 3 hours of non-productive time to my year. (Kind of makes you more irritated when you think of it in terms that big, doesn’t it?)
who do they think they are at apple and adobe?
i´m downgrading to leopard again, anyway i couldn’t see the big progress in 10.6., and finder seems to be really slow/delayed in snow leopard. as many said before, 64bit is hardly to notice.
no way to keep up my old distiller based workflow, export out of indesign is really uncomfortable, same is “save as adobe-pdf” feature. by the way this feature is hard to reach when you’re trying to print with indesign.
i truly wish someone had warned me about this issue. and don´t tell me they didn’t know at adobe and apple.
“no incompatibilities expected!”
* rofl *
maybe i’m ready to upgrade with release of 10.7 or cs5, if they manage to provide a pdf-workflow, that makes sense to me.
i at least am not willing to work with this shit and betatesting for them!
Those of us who knew this were coming were constrained because Adobe was under NDA about the details of Snow Leopard.
If you have “classic” (meaning “old”) workflows, your best bet is sticking with older versions of the OS. Just realize that it’ll get harder and harder to maintain them as things move forward.
i like it if things move forward, otherwise i wouldn’t have updated.
but what adobe offers with it´s “save as adobe pdf” feature is no option, if you have to generate about 50 pdfs a day, each with different settings in size and crop.
as already mentioned you can hardly access this feature if you work with indesign.
i hope they find out something new, that offers the choice of individual settings for each new pdf that has to be written, accessible within one or two mouseclicks out of indesigns printmenu, as it has been in Leopard.
till then i´m back on 10.5.
For those upset at the inability to “Print to PDF” from within Acrobat itself, try using the “Save As…” feature.
The second option in the pull-down menu is for an Optimized file, and selecting it gives you access to the “Settings” button where you can specify and save setting similar to Distiller. Not quite as convenient as using Distiller’s own settings files, but I find it useful, especially for trimming those enormous PDFs that CS3 applications create.
I’m having a real issue with this in my workplace. I work at a printing establishment and rely heavily on the ability to create saddle stitch PDFs. I need the ability to specify crops and bleeds as well as specify an output document size. All of this has been taken away with this new update. If I’m doing something incorrectly to make this happen, could someone please enlighten me because if I can’t quickly paginate a PDF using InDesign’s “Print Booklet” feature, specify a job option and choose my output PDF size then how is this a step forward? And why is the “Save as Adobe PDF” menu so buried? And why does the print diolog box still seem to be wanting information from a PPD. None of this is intuitive and further more, nothing I try works or gives me the results I used to get. I really hope this gets taken care of because I know thousands of pre-press departments are being affected by this.
This is a major Pain in the A>>. I work in a virtual office and share a pretty high volume of PDF documents as software requirements, diagrams, etc. I almost never print to actual paper, the PDF driver was my default printer. I would hit Cmd-P, Return, print a file name, Return and presto a PDF. Now I have to mouse around and find the “save to PDF” option from some ridiculous nearly hidden list of options in a drop down button. There’s no keystroke or shortcut that I can find that allows me to do this w/out mousing around.
Sounds like Apple and Adobe ran out of time and the usability got left on the cutting room floor.
BTW, I’m on Acrobat 8 still, so I don’t even have the option to “Print to Adobe PDF” – AND if I print to landscape mode, the view isn’t rotated, the document is “sitting on its side” in portrait — very frustrating…
Hi all,
Apple loses his mind, or something, but removing the ability of making postscript from indesign with PDF9 ppd is just ridiculous.
Anyway, for you, download the right PPD here
http://a.imagehost.org/download/0880/en_lproj
f**k adobe and apple for this, osx was such a great OS, and every version brings it more down, very very very sad
Thanks a lot Thomas!!!!!
That tweak works great for me. Again, i can now publish High Res pdf using InDesign for printing .ps file and distiller to make pdf (the best way for me). I feel free again!!!!!
So… I might be a little slow but how do you use the PPD… I want it to work. I’m just not knowing what to do with it.
Where I’m really missing it is on the Windows side — I’m running XP in VMWare Fusion and I used to print to Adobe PDF from there…
@JulCy: So you are using Distiller on 10.6.x? And Distiller (8.x or 9.x) runs fine? On my MacBook Pro it runs terribly slow for no apparent reason (by slow I mean about 10 times slower than before). I still don’t have a clue if this is just an odd side-effect on my very machine caused by anything other than Acrobat an 10.6 and if so, what might be the cause.
It’d be helpful if users report on Distiller performance on 10.6(.1) when dragging a .ps-file manually on it. Thanks!
@ DrWatson
Distiller runs a bit slower on my mac pro (8core early 2008) but not 10 times slower…
Joe L. and Daniel Sheppard, my problem is the same as yours. It’s been two weeks since you posted here, have you discovered a solution?
I’ve been looking for a solution since 9:AM (it’s now Midnight). I also spent an hour-half on the phone with Adobe inDesign support (no help at all). This thread seems to be at least the right group of people.
I’m running SL with Adobe 9.1.3; CS3 and CS4
Most of my inDesign needs are printing booklets (like Joe L. and Daniel Sheppard, above). I am now completely unable to do this. Most of the information in this afore mentioned article (http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/509/cpsid_50981.html) works for every application… all but inDesign. Most notably, when I select File > Print booklet… the dialogue box comes up but the “PDF” button is missing in the lower left corner and I am unable to designate paper size.
I am able to print PostScript, with spreads distributed in booklet form, but the pages are showing as individual (9 x 12) facing pages, not one big (12 x 18) page that I need. So, if I distill the doc, I end up with 16 individual pdf pages instead of 8 large spreads.
I’m hoping someone in this thread can give me the answer, solution, trick, that persuades me to not have to revert to OSX.
gwadmin,
You can kind of get around this by installing a PS printer on Windows, and then converting the saved PS file to PDF using Distiller or Preview. Yes, it is a hassle, but it’s better than nothing.
I think I can help with the print booklet issues.
I too upgraded to Snow Leopard & have just wasted hours trying to impose a 24 page booklet – A3 saddle stitched to A4.
The process I have used follows…
InDesign CS4 – file>print booklet
select .ps & check preview is ok (if not fix in printer settings) click PRINT & you’ll get the save as box.
When it is done go into distiller, using press settings *make sure the paper size is right* in ’settings’ The default page size is at the bottom of the General tab. Save this as what ever you want & run your .ps file though.
Worked for me – I know an extra step but at least I have met my deadline (just) & I have the correct settings for future use.
I hope this helps someone!
Now that the InDesign print dialogue box has no reference to creating pdfs I made a press quality file of a print ad using the Export Adobe pdf option. It seems to have the same default options for a press quality file as the Distiller had. The only problem that came up is that the size of the pdf file is now 5 times larger the than the the same ad produced before upgrading to 10.6.
It really bothers me that needs of people who make a living using this software have been overlooked. Adobe Creative Suite is expensive and this is how they treat us.
I just cant resize my pdf I would like to print. Although I did like http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/509/cpsid_50981.html suggested, I don’t have any “PDF” menu in my print-box. Whats the point of replacing working patterns with inefficient and complicated methods? And how can I produce PDFs from InDesign from now on?
Thats devinitvely not a business-friendly solution !
After upgrading to Snow Leopard, I can no longer creat “booklets” from InDesign files. I was advised to first export to Postcript and then Distiller (with Press quality settings) , but I invariably get an A4 default final size format. In other words, my document is a small 3″ x 3″ manual, but I get a lot of white all around… How should I proceed to maintain the original size?
I finally got to make it, thanks to Jinny Coyle’s post. I did not realize earlier that one has to MANUALLY define the spread size, INCLUDING bleed. Makes no sense that one has to go to such length to create a booklet pdf. I hope there will be further clarifications regarding the booklet issue.
I cannot believe how difficult this has now become, I have set up a hot folder, ( regression). But still I cannot get my paper size customised correctly anymore. all my presets are stuffed up and The PPd That goes through outr A4 laser printer actually prints a page instead of saving as an adobe PDF. FIX THIS NOW, all we need is the PPD, honestly, this is really counter-productive.
Thomas, a few post upper, gave us a link where we can dowload the PPD. It works for me… Should work for you.
http://a.imagehost.org/download/0880/en_lproj
I have created a virtual Printer that prints to my distiller, I struggled to find the PPD for distiller 9. any suggestions?
i have just post the link in my previous message.
Thomas, thank you for posting the PPD. Just what I needed.
For those interested, I made a tabloid-size chart comparing PDF-creation features across Adobe InDesign CS4 Print to PostScript, InDesign CS4 Export to PDF, and Distiller CS4. It shows where you can (or can’t) find the same settings between the dialogs of the different methods.
You can find it here:
http://www.mediafire.com/file/crerznmiigm/PDF%20Workflow.pdf
Here is a low-res preview:
http://skitch.com/sodiumpowered/nneqk/picture-1
Well this would have to be the worst set of upgrades I have seen, ever. I am still repairing various things after having installed SL.
I have used PDF since the early days so going back to the “old” method is not such a big deal and is possibly an approach for others.
Before starting, use Distiller to create a pair of watched folders in, for example, Documents. This will create two folders, “in” and “out”. Postscript files get saved in the “in” folder and distiller puts the completed outputs into the “out” folder.
In Distiller select the output quality required.
In SL create a printer instance that uses the Adobe PDF 9 PPD.
In inDesign, print to postscript by selecting save as postscript in the print dialog, with the print choices you desire. Save the resulting ps file in the new “in” folder.
When Distiller sees the completed ps file it will distill it.
Oh and, contrary to the Adobe staffers’ protestations, Apple has taken steps to make their product more secure. It is Adobe who are insisting on using old technological approaches and it is little wonder their Adobe PDF still works on MS Windows. What Adobe needs to do is get with it and change their process to one that is more secure, after all if printer manufacturers can do why then can’t they?
Alan L @9:52 pm, This is exactly what I had done as well and thanks to Thomas and Juicy’s link, I use the Adobe 9 PPD and all is working well. I have not heard any protestations from my printers and media houses, so Hot (watched) folders it is. Although I have to remember to open Distiller and minimise it.
If Adobe was trying to be so security compliant, why does the PPD still work?! Just goes to show that its a poor excuse on their part.
@ jimmy Coyle
Thank you for your suggestion, using distiller and manualy setting the page size to make a good booklet pdf.
Just one problem: the imposed pages don’t appear on the center of the page but on the left and bottom of the page.
This is not what I want bevause I want to print on both sides of the page. In the ‘print booklet-menu I can’t choose to set to center of page because this is greyed out.
Does anyone know how to sidestep this?
Help! I have InDesign CS (NOT CS2,3, or 4) and have been happily printing PDF’s using the Export command. Post-Snow Leopard, though, everything’s a mess. It works sometimes… but usually not. The above advice seems only to apply to newer software than I have – I don’t even get the “PDF” menu in the Print dialogue box that my other apps have.
I only have Acrobat 6, not 9, but since I don’t directly use it for exporting PDF’s, doing it directly from InDesign, I’m not sure how that’s relevant? Do I need to upgrade it too for some reason?
I do my invoicing via PDF’s from InDesign, so it’s pretty urgent that I sort this out.
Thanks!
adam
Oh, and also, Acrobat 6 gives me an error message when trying to print a PDF using an exported .ps file from InDesign:
“Acrobat could not open ‘filename.eps’ because it is either not a supported file type or because the file has been corrupted (for example, it was sent as an email attachment and wasn’t correctly decoded). To create an Adobe PDF document, go to the source application. Then print the document to Adobe PDF.”
What am I doing wrong? It seems like all avenues to PDF from InDesign are blocked.
adam
Well, perhaps (and luckily for me) I spoke a bit too soon. It must have been just the one file that was giving me grief – for subsequent attempts on other files, exporting to PDF seems to work now, albeit sometimes with (sometimes) a bit more of a delay before the process commences.
Sorry about the previous panic!
But a few problems just cant be solved: Neither can I print pages above A3, nor can I print single pages from a document – I just brought PDFClerk Pro – pitifully my Acrobat sums up to 690€ (660€ for my Accrobat + 30 for PDFClerk) …
For what it’s worth, I’ve been having similar issues to the problems described in this thread (OSX 10.6.1, Acrobat 9.2.0, save as Adobe PDF routine crashes). I discovered that it DOES run without crashing, and makes the pdf, if I choose “Desktop” as the destination directory, whereas iIt crashes when I choose a different directory. I am perplexed by this, and I have no idea if it contributes to to a solution to this really annoying problem (really convenient feature in an upgrade, removing the ability to save pdf’s using Adobe PDF Settings).
I’ve also found that Acrobat 9.2.0 appears to have trouble opening pdf’s created using Apple’s direct Save as PDF routine, so going that route (save as PDF, apply settings with Acrobat) doesn’t work either.
I’ve heard there are some wildlife groups trying to get Apple to do more stuff with the actual S.L.’s lol. I don’t know- people are saying it’s good PR for Apple- they should jump on that.
The “Save As Adobe PDF” Automator action works in other apps (e.g. Safari, Mail, etc.), but when used from InDesign (File > Print > Printer… > PDF > Save As Adobe PDF) it fails every time!
Thank you for this very helpful explanation. I agree, the new way of handling the PDF printing needs to be more widely publicized. Instead of trouble-shooting to “fix” something, we need information to understand the new method.
Pete: When using InDesign, use File > ADOBE PDF Presets > then choose your preset setting of choice. You will be given the chance to name your document, then the PDF options window will pop up so you can change settings. Alternatively, use the File > Export function and select the file type “Adobe PDF” to “print” to a PDF. After naming the document (and locating where to save it), you will get the Adobe PDF settings window.
I hope that helps.
I prefer the old “print” feature because, among other things, it would let me “fix” upside down PDF files.
I know I can rotate a file within Adobe so it’s right side up, but even if you do that and save it, when you re-open it, it’s upside down again. I want to be able to send it to people right side up.
Any ideas?
DOH! Problem solved. It turns out HOW you rotate the pages determines whether the rotation stays put.
If you use the button on the tool bar, it won’t stay rotated. If instead you hit “Document” on the menu at the top, then “Rotate Pages,” the rotation can be saved.
That’s a nuance I’d rather not have to learn.
: )
@Walter
Yes, the one on the toolbar is Rotate VIEW, whereas the one on the Document menu is Rotate PAGES. The former only changes your view during the current session; the latter alters the document permanently.
Thank you so much for this post – I’ve been searching for the answer to the print to pdf option after upgrading my mac to snow leopard. It’s been driving me crazy! tytyty
There wouldn’t be a problem if we could still create an imposed booklet as another ID file. Why was feature ditched in CS4?
Jinny Coyle, you are a lifesaver!
Creating a PostScript file and running it through Distiller is about the most ludicrous way to produce a booklet from InDesign, but it worked!!
Thank you thank you thank you!
And to Apple and Adobe: Thanks for nothing!
Mmm… there’s something missing here.
Supposedly the ‘old’ method was doing PDF(1)->PS->PDF(2) ; PDF(1) being OSX’s own, and PDF(2) being Adobe’s.
I still use AppleWorks; my Word Processing doc has a couple of pasted PDF graphics, one being my logo and the other my signature.
In Tiger: if I use Apple’s “Save to PDF” it comes out as almost 1Mb and with the graphics turned into bitmaps, horrible. But if I use instead Adobe’s printer, it comes out as 70Kb and with nice vector graphics.
In Leopard: same except for the fact that I have to do a “first use” of the AdobePDF printer in any other application, otherwise AppleWorks won’t recognize the margins and will output a blank page.
In Snow Leopard: the only way to get vector graphics is to print to “Save as Postscript” and then go to distiller.
Stats (Snow Leopard):
via Apple’s Save As PDF: 954kb and bitmap
via Save As Adobe PDF: 82kb and bitmap
via PDFShrink: 901kb and bitmap
via Save As Postscript: 1.5Mb
same Postscript to Distiller: 61kb and vector
SO…. it seems to me AppleWorks embeds some vector postscript code or something like that in the original PDF, that makes it huge. PDFShrink for some reason can’t make it smaller. But “Save as Adobe PDF” indeed results in a reasonable size, so I bet it’s discarding that extra info. However, in doing so, it’s taking the lower quality representation (bitmap) instead of the higher quality one (vector – and smaller too).
Something in the old PDF->PS->PDF workflow resulted in better quality than your new PDF->PDF transcoding workflow…
And I wonder how will the iWork apps (Pages, Keynote, etc) behave at this… because Pages for example, also used to create gigantic PDF files (on direct export) compared to PS->Distiller or AdobePDF printer.
Once again, apple and adobe acomplished to leave us all searching for answers on PDF Print, so useful for all of us pre-press professionals…
I havent tested it yet, but I will…
Here’s a solution from codepoetry guys…
http://www.codepoetry.net/projects/cups-pdf-for-mosx
Hope it’s useful
cheers
iMike
Mmm… more results.
Same AppleWorks file, converted to iWork’s “Pages” app:
- Pages’ “export to PDF” = 475k
- print, “Save as PDF” = 475k
- print, “Save As Adobe PDF” = 78k
- print, “Save As Postscript” = 422k ps file
- distill that ps file = 33k
so again, we have the very best result from printing to postscript and then distilling.
and yes, I checked, in that ’smallest’ file, all fonts are embedded subsets.
So, with a modern Apple application such as Pages, depending on the method we get PDFs from 33k to 475k that look exactly the same (and contain no bitmaps).
And if we stay in the older AppleWorks, we get PDFs from 61k to 954k, with only the smallest (distilled) being vector, and all the others ugly bitmaps.
Could someone make a “printer” that will output to postscript, distill, and delete the ps file? that’s what would be needed…. it still produces files half the size of Adobe’s brand new “PDF Transcoding” – probably slower but size is more important for business docs that’ll be emailed…
“Could someone make a “printer” that will output to postscript, distill, and delete the ps file? that’s what would be needed…. it still produces files half the size of Adobe’s brand new “PDF Transcoding””
That printer existed in Leopard, and it’s called PDF Printer. No longer exists in Snow Leopard, unfortunatly.
You just had to hit PRINT, select PDF Printer and than save as pdf. On the pdf options/Adobe PDF Settings you have to had Smallest File Size, and Voilá. A PS file was created and sent to Distiller that would convert to tiny pdf.
I know cause I’m a pre press professional that uses PDF to send pages to CTP (computer to plate) printers. Instead of selecting Smallest File Size, just used PDFx1-a. I was able to make A4 PDF’s 300dpi with bitmaps 1mb big. Thats WAS great. Good old times. Now the same pdf is 6mb big. Goodbye ftp upload
Hope QUARK make a new QUARK CUPS Extension to correct this problem created by apple and adobe.
My organization cannot afford Acrobat Pro 9 so I’m still on Pro 8. InDesign CS3 and Snow Leopard on an Intel Mac. When I export a CS3 file to PDF that was on a light blue background, it comes out purple or dark red! Any ideas?
@Ruth, what export settings are you using? Are you seeing this on screen or in print? Do you see the same problem if you enable overprint preview in InDesign?
Hello all.
My “saves” seem to be working fine, but I can’t get past the PDF issues I’m having. Every time I try to create a PDF form the new PDF menu in the Print window, a crash occurs. I can’t even Export a PDF in InDesign CS4 without the app crashing. I have updated Acrobat Pro to 9.2, removed the Adobe PDF Printer, etc. and still crash. Anyone have any ideas? I am lost without being to create PDF files!
@Chris: That sounds terrible! It sounds to me like some preferences have gone bad. Have you tried rebuilding the preferences? Is it just InDesign, or other apps, too?
Hi Dave.
Any app seems to crash when trying to create a PDF. I work in InDesign a lot and am upset to see my trusty Eport option fail. I was considering trashing preferences next, or is there another way to “rebuild” them? I’ll give it a try tonight and let you know how it goes. Thanks for the quick response.
Dave,
Thanks again for the reply. I rebuilt preferences and so far everything is working. Sure beats starting from scratch…
HELP!
I cannot tell you the level of frustration I have experienced with the switch to Snow Leopard and its fallout in my work flow.
All I want to do TODAY is to take a two-color inDesign CS4 (on the Mac) file — a 24-page booklet — and create a one-color .pdf file for my commercial printer to use in printing this job.
In the past, printing to Acrobat .pdf file converted the color to greyscale (when selected from the inDesign print dialog box), giving me a one-color job.
Any ideas on how to do this? It costs me extra each month to have my commercial printer run this through their software and convert all color to b&w.
Thanks!
Hi there!
Nice to see such great collaborative effort.
Hope that Adobe and Apple can get these issues resolved in a user friendly fashion ASAP.
My situation is unusual, though. I’m using InDesign (now CS4) to produce film for making photopolymer plates for letterpress. So, all my art is spot colors, and I don’t want any process plates emitted. Prior to this 10.6 disaster, I would export a PDF, open in Acrobat 8, Print to Adobe PDF, and in the Advanced dialog, turn off all but the spot colors. This would produce a very nice PDF, one separation per page (with reg marks, etc), which I then send to my service bureau to print as a simple B&W PDF.
The service bureau is a local printer who still has an imagesetter. However they are not technically expert, and have complained about unseparated PDFs “We would have to do it manually” (Ahem)
I’ve attempted to follow some of the advice here, and produce a .PS file from Acrobat 9, but when run through the Distiller, I get the following:
Start Time: Sunday, 27 December 2009 at 2:50 PM
Source: /scratch/exquisiteletterpress.com/Jobs/20091203 Semiotx Cards/SemiotxCards2009.ps
Destination: /scratch/exquisiteletterpress.com/Jobs/20091203 Semiotx Cards/SemiotxCards2009.pdf
Adobe PDF Settings: /Library/Application Support/Adobe/Adobe PDF/Settings/Press Quality.joboptions
%%[ Error: undefined; OffendingCommand: Adobe_AGM_OnHost_Seps ]%%
%%[ Flushing: rest of job (to end-of-file) will be ignored ]%%
%%[ Warning: PostScript error. No PDF file produced. ] %%
Distill Time: 8 seconds (00:00:08)
**** End of Job ****
And that’s the end of it.
Google shows no useful results for “Adobe_AGM_OnHost_Seps”
I’ve also tried setting “In-RIP Separations” but that brought the same grief.
Greetings to Anne Marie from way back
Would very much appreciate any further hints or possible work-arounds.
This is severely impacting my business at the moment!
Cheers!
Peter Fraterdeus
slowprint.com
OK, well, shortly after posting this note here, I found the following:
Adobe InDesign CS4 * Print or save separation…
http://bit.ly/7q7ugW
Which works very nicely…
Whew.
Thanks!
PF
slowprint.com
ideaswords.com
Peter! The type designer? Studio in Evanston?
I have Snow Leopard and Acrobat 9.0 and whenever I attempt to print a PDF adobe crashes. Is there some software I can use to fix this?
Hi, Anne Marie!!
Yes, although I’m in Galena now for 12 years.
(Still plenty of time in Evanston, though!)
Back to the letterpress, & a little type design when time allows
Peter
slowprint.com
alphabets.com
ideaswords.com
There is a solution I found for creating booklets even for those of us still using CS3 through a “plugin” called “Create Booklet”. I had used this before, but then did not need to when Adobe had the print booklet option. Then, with Snow Leopard, I went back to see if this was still around. In fact, it has been updated for Snow Leopard. You can find it at:
http://web.mac.com/vogelbusch/Site/Programs/Einträge/2009/7/22_Create_Booklet_1.1_support_Snow_Leopard.html
Not only is the Adobe PDF printer not working anymore, the Adobe PDF 9 PPD has been removed!
I just want it back so I can write a PostScript file because I prefer to make a PDF in this way!!!!!!!
I wrote a little piece of software that allows the PDF printer from version 7 (which I own) and 8 (reportedly) to run. Nobody’s tried version 9, but there is no reason it shouldn’t work (if you get your PPD file back, that is).
I wrote this for myself, but am willing to share. The installation is a bit rough, but if you’re not scared of running a shell script, it should work just fine.
Let me know what you find, http://www.busysignal.net/pdfagent.html
Incidentally, if anyone wants to host the project, please let me know.
I hope this is useful, it certainly was an interesting little software project.
Robert