PDF development in printing
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Since Adobe introduced the version of Acrobat 4.0 and Portable Docuemnt Format 1.3 in 1999, PDF has established a new world in the printing and publishing industry, truly becoming the exchange file format for many prepress and printing processes. .
More than 500 kinds of products can be accepted in PDF format. Looking for it on the Internet, you will find that many kinds of software tools can be used to generate, manage and edit PDF files in the printing production process. PDF is gradually becoming a printing process. The standard format is gone.
However, just as electronic prepress work began to develop, there are still some problems when actually using PDF for printing. How many high-quality prints are printed in PDF format?
What is the difference between the PDF file and the application's original format file used in print production? Does PDF really meet the industry's requirements for file compression, consolidation, cross-platform, and real-time printability?
If PDF can't solve these problems, but it causes problems in prepress and printing, what do you do with it? PDF is on the printing industry's horizon, where is the user's expectation of PDF?
● Print PDF
The above problems have been lingering in the hearts of many industry observers or analysts. In 2002, GATF and Seybold Publications made a statistical report on the current industry PDF applications. Their findings were from analyzing the use of PDF in the printing process. Questionnaires and problems encountered in the PDF process, and the results of various PDF tools output after being dumped into PDF files with various applications.
In the GATF Press report "PDF Century: PDF Usage in the Real World", the 21-question questionnaire opened a new horizon. GATF has obtained 85 effective ones from pre-press, printing company full-time management or technical managers. Questionnaire. When asked "What is the ratio of the use of files in different formats?", QuarkXPress accounted for 53%, PDF accounted for 23%, and the rest were PS/EPS or other original format files. At the same time, it reflects the main advantages and disadvantages of PDF.
The survey shows that the five benefits of using PDF are: fewer problems when cross-platform, smaller files, faster system processing, soft proofing and easy preview. Conversely, 88% of respondents said that the biggest problem with PDF was that customers didn't get the files done, or even completely forgot the printers to remind them to pay attention. The most common problem with PDFs from customers is that the fonts are not embedded, the resolution of the image file is too low, no blood is made, or the wrong color space is used.
The Seybold Report expanded the scope of the survey from the GATF questionnaire and collected 2,221 valid questionnaires, including those responsible for producing PDF files in the company and providing services in prepress and printing in PDF format. The usage of PDF displayed in the Seybold Report "PDF Workflow Shootout and Usage Survey" is higher than the GATF survey. 33% of the files were filed and 40% of the people who received the file thought that QuarkXPress was their most common format, while 30% of the files were filed and 29% of the people who received the file thought PDF was their first choice. The choice is for files in other formats.
When asked what the first three advantages of using PDF are, the answers to the questions are that cross-platform problems are less, the process becomes more efficient and the files become smaller. Conversely, the three most important issues in using PDFs are that fonts are not embedded, image resolution is too low, and the wrong color space is used. People who create PDF files sometimes find that PDFs and native files sometimes differ somewhat.
Therefore, although there are many benefits to using the PDF process, a certain percentage of people or technically encounter some problems before the digital printing, and a smart PDF tool is needed to help manage. The common problems are as follows:
1. The font uses a special TrueType word or OpenType word labeled "not embeddable".
2. Problematic bitmap files, including DCS, two-tone special color, TIFF, JPEG....
3. The reference line of the vector diagram, the font is turned to the outer frame, and the EPS or PDF nest structure is imported.
4. Color management issues, wrong ICC profile or wrong use.
5. Separation problem, special color name designation error, misuse of four-color black or use RGB mode.
6. Direct compression and overprinting, for example using the transparency function of PDF1.4, but the prepress/printing system is not updated synchronously.
7. Page settings, such as spreads, bleeds, and border settings.
This and other data from the two reports show that PDF usage is improving. Although PDF can improve the prepress and printing production process, the PDF process is also plagued by various problems as the beginning of the digital process. What method do you solve the problem?
● PDF tools
The problems with the PDF file mostly originated from the design phase when the original application was used to create the file, and the ratio was higher than when the PDF was generated. That is to say, all content in the design process must follow all the basic specifications for making a complete file, at this stage you can use preflight software to check the file content.
Pay attention to the stage of generating PDF, whether Acrobat has been installed correctly, whether the Postscript printer driver has the latest version installed, and Distiller Is there a proper setting? Simple users usually don't know that Distiller has four standard settings, such as screen, e-book, printer, and printing. If you use the standard settings, be sure to select the settings for printing. In many processes, it is not enough to use only the preset print settings. You need to do other manual settings to make the resulting PDF files. High quality prints. These settings include the version of the generated PDF file format (1.2, 1.3 or 1.5), the compression ratio of images and text, embedded color management messages, even work order information, OPI or direct pressure settings.
In Acrobat 6.0, there are some new functions for creating and managing PDF files for auxiliary printing. Because the PDF files for printing are too complicated for the production and management of the general PDF, some units such as CGATS, ANSI and ISO have developed. Standards such as PDF/X-1, PDF/X-1a and PDF/X-3 are available for prepress or print formats. Acrobat's plugins also have PDF/X compatible files. Software co-authors have also designed the appropriate software for each process of PDF.
Standard Acrobat is the most common and used software for PDF generation.
● PDF/X standard
PDF/X is correctly said to be a limited subset of PDFs developed by CGATS, ANSI and ISO, initially to achieve the correct digital data exchange for printing, especially for advertising processes in publications, PDF/X It is defined as a trustworthy, no special technical discussion or involvement. PDF/X defines a set of required, forbidden, restricted, and suggested conditions for PDF. The related PDF/X distinguishes between several different definitions.
PDF/X-1:2001 and PDF/X-1a:2001 (ISO 15930-1:2001) are used in the printing production process, the difference between the two is that the latter prohibits the use of encryption and OPI objects, etc. There is no difference between the two. In PDF/X-1 or 1a files, all fonts must be embeddable and embedded. The image part must be CMYK, DeviceGray, DeviceN or special color. You cannot use RGB or Lab color mode. The trap setting can only be set to on or off.
PDF/X-3:2002 (ISO 15930-3:2002) is similar to PDF/X-1 except that it allows the use of device-independent color spaces such as RGB or Lab, for processes that require simultaneous use of different color spaces. It is very important to either give the camera output or put an ICC profile for color management for other output.
PDF/X-2 (ISO 15930-2:2002) CGATS is still under development, but in the middle of last year there was an unfinished document describing its international specifications (not yet an international standard), PDF/X-2 will Mainly used as data and message exchange between file provider and receiver. When approved, it will become part of the PDF/X-3 collection and will also allow the use of device-independent color spaces.
● JDF standard
JDF is an XML-based file format that serves as a specification for work orders in the production process of the industry, including standards for message description and protocols for message exchange. JDF was originally composed of four alliances of Adobe, Agfa, Heidelberg and MAN Roland. The purpose was to combine the information on management and process that belonged to MIS and try to integrate with CIP3.