Comments on: InDesignSecrets Podcast 037

By: David Blatner

David Blatner — Wed, 13 Dec 2006 13:59:17 +0000

Craig, I wonder if it would make any difference if you set the opacity of the EPS file to 99.9% in the Transparency palette. That will force InDesign to read and redraw the image using the Flattener technology, and perhaps it would do the conversion then.

By: Craig Schleunes

Craig Schleunes — Mon, 11 Dec 2006 18:44:04 +0000

Another difference between export and print:

Place an Illustrator EPS file that contains a spot color. In ID, set this color to be a process build.

When exported, this color indeed is a process build in the PDF. When printed, the color remains a spot.

FYI, .ai files do not behave the same way; in both cases an .ai will end up as process.

By: Diane S

Diane S — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 21:20:29 +0000

Its really great that you posted about printers that are more CS and PDF savvy. However, our company likes to use minority and women owned or operated printers. Can you get me a list of those? We have visited many across the country, over the years but they can’t handle PDF workflow or the high volume we need printed. Please help. Thanks

By: Bob Levine

Bob Levine — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 15:44:41 +0000

Just a quick note on Dave’s comment. On Windows the printer button he mentioned is labeled setup.

By: Raphael Freeman

Raphael Freeman — Wed, 06 Dec 2006 06:46:36 +0000

Your comment about smaller files is illustrated as follows:

I had a small booklet with an image repeated many many times. The exported pdf was 1 GB and the distilled pdf was only 1 MB.

CS 2 is somewhat better, but I’ve found that exported pdfs are on average twice as large as distilled files.

By: David Blatner

David Blatner — Tue, 05 Dec 2006 17:13:00 +0000

Hey, by the way, if you want more on the Export PDF vs. Distill argument, see Steve Werner’s post on this. We should have mentioned that earlier!

By: Branislav Milic

Branislav Milic — Tue, 05 Dec 2006 16:06:16 +0000

I always use a PS to Distill workflow because it’s just the standard way that has create zero bad feedbacks out of 120,000 pdfs I made since ID 2.0.

And I use the Watched Folders technique on a remote Mac + Automator Scripts to create huge batch processing (8,000 PDFs created during the whole night).

Hard to achieve with the Export PDF workflow.

By: Dick Noordhuizen

Dick Noordhuizen — Tue, 05 Dec 2006 15:23:23 +0000

See for the issue on taking the ‘direct’ PDF vs. the Distiller route also the excellent Adobe seminar by Dov Isaacs (Reliable PDF Print Publishing Workflows), which he gave (and still gives I believe) at various locations in Europe. On the dutch section of the Adobe site, there is actually a link to the slides used in his seminar in Amsterdam, last november. But beware, the PDF is extremely large (some 200 Mb). Still, an excellent seminar and a lot of myths were busted by an entertaining Isaac.

In short: let the printers’ RIP do its job, so don’t flatten yourself, don’t outline fonts and use the direct PDF route.
For all those interested: the actual link is http://www.adobe.com/nl/pdfs/20061108_Reliable_PDF_Seminar.pdf

By: Jean-Claude Tremblay

Jean-Claude Tremblay — Tue, 05 Dec 2006 12:30:03 +0000

Here are a few reasons I often use to Print to PDF instead of Exporting.

- When I need a Grayscale PDF out of a color document. Export to PDF does not allow you to create a GrayScale PDF. Print to PDF yes.

- When I need to Scale up or Down a PDF, Export to PDF does not offer you to enter any scale % value when creating a PDF. Printing Yes.

- When I need to create a PDF that is of another orientation than the one in the document. Export to PDF does not allow you to do that. Printing yes.

By: Anne-Marie

Anne-Marie — Tue, 05 Dec 2006 04:40:32 +0000

You’re absolutely right, Dave, and thanks for chiming in with that extra info. I listened to the podcast today and thought, “dang, forgot to mention how to choose a joboption when you print to the AdobePDF 7 printer.”

Another thing you can do there in the Printer… area (on Windows I think the button is “Settings…”) is you can name the PDF and figure out where it’s going to save it … and you can instruct ID to open the PDF in Acrobat when it’s done.