Adobe PDF Print Engine (APPE) - dp-college

Application Notes

Adobe PDF PrintEngine (APPE)

Adobe PDF Print Engine (APPE)

Adobe PDF Print Engine (APPE) i

The ErgoSoft RIP is available in different editions. Therefore the description of available features in this document does not necessarily reflect the license details of your edition of the ErgoSoft RIP. For information on the features included in your edition of the ErgoSoft RIPs refer to the ErgoSoft homepage or contact your dealer.

Rev. 1.1

ErgoSoft AG Moosgrabenstr. 13 CH-8595 Altnau, Switzerland © 2012 ErgoSoft AG, All rights reserved. The information contained in this manual is based on information available at the time of publication and is sub-ject to change without notice. Accuracy and completeness are not warranted or guaranteed. No part of this manual may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic me-dium or machine-readable form, without the expressed written permission of ErgoSoft AG. Brand or product names are trademarks of their respective holders.

Adobe PDF Print Engine (APPE) ii

Contents

Introduction ................................................................................................................................................................. 1 Requirements for Using the Adobe® PDF Print Engine ............................................................................. 2

Installing Adobe® PDF Print Engine ............................................................................................................ 2 Activating/Deactivating Adobe® PDF Print Engine ..................................................................................... 3

Global Activation/Deactivation ....................................................................................................................... 3 Activation/Deactivation for Single PDF Files ............................................................................................. 4

Configuring PDF Color Management ................................................................................................................ 5 Recommendations for Using Adobe® PDF Print Engine ........................................................................... 7

Saving PDF Files ................................................................................................................................................... 7 Selecting the PDF Version .......................................................................................................................... 7 Saving Raster Data ........................................................................................................................................ 8 Color Spaces .................................................................................................................................................... 9 Fonts ................................................................................................................................................................... 9 Transparency Flattening ........................................................................................................................... 10

System Configuration...................................................................................................................................... 10 Limitations of the Adobe® PDF Print Engine .............................................................................................. 11

Adobe PDF Print Engine (APPE) 1

Introduction

Starting with version 14.1, the Adobe® PDF Print Engine 2.5 is implemented in the ErgoSoft RIP software. With the Adobe® PDF Print Engine 2.5 (APPE 2.5) the ErgoSoft AG now supports the latest PDF workflow technology. The Adobe® PDF Print Engine 2.5 is avail-able as an option to the complete product range of the ErgoSoft RIP that includes support of PostScript/PDF files and is setting new standards for the handling of PDF files.

Adobe® PDF Print Engine 2.5 (APPE 2.5) Options The Adobe® PDF Print Engine 2.5 ensures fast, reliable, and consistent printing even for

complex PDF designs. The Adobe® PDF Print Engine 2.5 eliminates the need for early conversions such as col-

or conversions or flattening transparency. Even gradients from one spot color to another do not need any special treatment.

The Adobe® PDF Print Engine 2.5 leverages the same PDF rendering libraries, color management systems, and other technology components used in Adobe Acrobat® and Adobe Creative Suite, ensuring that complex designs and effects, such as transparency, can be consistently reproduced.

This document explains the installation, activation and usage of the Adobe® PDF Print En-gine. It also explains the color management settings and gives recommendations for PDF file creation and system configuration. All information in this document are for usage with Ado-be® PDF Print Engine only and replace the information of other application notes to Post-Script and PDF color management when different.


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Requirements for Using the Adobe® PDF Print Engine

In order to use the Adobe® PDF Print Engine the following requirements must be met: The license must include the APPE option, Minimum version 14.1.1. of the ErgoSoft RIP is installed on your system. The APPE update is also installed on your system.

Installing Adobe® PDF Print Engine

Before installing the APPE update (link for download) close all open modules of the ErgoSoft RIP including JobComposer, JobCenter, Rip Servers, and Print Clients.

After having downloaded the APPE up-date (link for download) double-click the

*.esup14 file (14.1.1.4803 Adobe APPE.esup14) to start the ErgoSoft update installer. Please note that you need to have administrator rights for your Windows system in order to install the update.

Ensure that your version of the ErgoSoft RIP is minimum V14.1.1 (2a) and that

the name of the update is Adobe PDF Print Engine Update (2b) before you click the In-stall button (2c). The update will automatically close still running processes of the ErgoSoft RIP.

When the update is installed successful-ly (3a) click the Close button (3b) to

close the ErgoSoft update installer. The Ado-be® PDF Print Engine is now ready to be used.

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http://www.ergosoft.net/download.php?key=c34a6f43ad7aff8f64e3d5964e7ea37f




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Activating/Deactivating Adobe® PDF Print Engine

The Adobe® PDF Print Engine can be configured that it will be used For all PDF files that are imported after having activated the Adobe® PDF Print Engine

(global activation) For each PDF file in a job separately (activation for single PDF files)

Global Activation/Deactivation

Launch menu Tools > Options to open the global settings.

In the left tree menu, select Preferences > Image > PostScript/PDF Parameters to open the Post-

Script/PDF options dialog.

Select the Interpreter for PDF Rendering:

Selecting Ghostscript will activate the default PostScript/PDF interpret-er (Artifex Ghostscript).

Selecting Adobe APPE will activate the Adobe® PDF Print Engine for ras-terizing PDF files; Post-Script files will still be rasterized using Artifex Ghostscript.

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Activation/Deactivation for Single PDF Files

Right-click on the PDF file in the job and select Edit

Parameters from the Image Context Menu or select menu Image > Edit Parameters to open the PostScript/PDF Pa-rameters dialog.

Select the Interpreter for PDF Rendering:

Selecting Ghostscript will activate the default Post-Script/PDF interpreter (Artifex Ghostscript).

Selecting Adobe APPE will activate the Adobe® PDF Print Engine for rasterizing PDF files; PostScript files will still be raster-ized using Artifex Ghostscript.

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Configuring PDF Color Management

To set the color management for the selected image(s), select Color

Management in the Properties window.

Select a preset for PostScript/PDF files.

The current settings can be edited. Furthermore, a new preset can be

created based on the current one.

The global color management is set in menu Tools > Options.

For automatic color replacement the spot color names in the PDF file must

match (case-sensitive) with color names in the Named Colors Profile.

The current settings can be saved as a preset.

When using the Adobe® PDF Print Engine for rasterizing PDF files, the

color space of PDF file is set to “separated” (SEP in the status bar of the program win-dow) so that no additional color manage-ment is used.

The Adobe® PDF Print Engine supports the following options:

The color management can be specified separately for both CMYK and RGB data. Different input profiles and different rendering intents can be used for images (raster da-

ta), graphics (vector data), and text. Embedded profiles can be used together with the embedded rendering intent instead of

external profiles and rendering intents that are selected in the list.

Checking Adobe APPE: Use black point compensation will activate the Adobe® black point compensation. Please note that the rendering intent type “relative colorimetric

black point compensation” of the global settings will be automatically converted into “rela-tive colorimetric” when using the Adobe® PDF Print Engine.

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If the current print environment does not use a printer profile, the Default Output Profile of the PostScript/PDF color management is used.

When there is not an embedded input profile in the PDF file but an embedded output intent, the embedded output in-tent can be used as an input profile (PDF/X: Use embedded output intent, if no embedded input profile is avail-able). Embedded input profiles take priority over the embedded output in-tent which takes priority over external input profiles.

The embedded output intent can be used instead of the printer profile provided in the print environment (PDF/X: Use embedded output intent as output profile).

Hints for using PDF/X options PDF/X is a standard for creating color managed PDF files for the graphic arts and conven-tional printing industry. The PDF/X file contains embedded profiles, rendering intents, and the description of the output color space (output intent). The output intent within a PDF/X file is less suited for digital printing workflows. The PDF/X settings are meant for experienced users that want to have more control over their documents. In most cases it is inadvisable to check the PDF/X settings. One specific exception would be when the PDF/X file contains colors that are already con-verted to the output intent and do not contain an embedded input profile. In this instance, the embedded output intent can be used as an input profile in order to revert back to de-vice-independent colors.

Please remember that the output of the Adobe® PDF Print Engine is already color managed and will be treated as separated files by the ErgoSoft RIP. This means that additional color manipulation functionalities like color replacement and tuning will not be available.

The following options are only available in the global color management settings for com-patibility reasons when using the Artifex Ghostscript interpreter for rendering. When using Adobe® PDF Print Engine, these options are ignored:

Treat gray as RGB (Otherwise it is treated as K) Use CMYK color management for DeviceN color spaces. Use “Named Colors Profile” to interpret DeviceN color spaces PDF/X: Use embedded output intent as printer simulation profile

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Recommendations for Using Adobe® PDF Print Engine

Saving PDF Files

PDF export/saving dialogs normally offer numerous options. Some of these options are im-portant for optimal printing. The following information illustrates these options with the help of the PDF export dialog of Adobe Illustrator CS3. Other PDF export dialogs may look differ-ent, but the mentioned options are typically available.

Most of the recommendations below do not depend on the selected PDF version unless spe-cifically noted for PDF compatibility and compliance.

Selecting the PDF Version

The selection of the PDF version (Com-patibility) depends on some other op-tions, you want to use.

Automatic flattening of transparen-cies requires that you save in Com-patibility “Adobe 4 (PDF 1.3)”.

Keeping transparencies require that you save in any higher Compatibility than PDF 1.3, e.g. “Adobe 5 (PDF 1.4)”.

The PDF/X versions (Standard) may be linked to specific compatibility re-quirements (PDF/X-3 or higher rec-ommended). Please read the “Hints for using PDF/X options” for infor-mation on its usage.


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Saving Raster Data

Raster data that are included in PDF files can be compressed as well as converted into lower resolutions.

Most of the available presets may hold quality problems so that you should check the settings for Compression.

To reduce the file size, raster data often is compressed. This Com-

pression method (automatic, JPEG, JPEG2000, ZIP, etc.) may not only reduce the file size but also the quality of the saved raster data.

All JPEG compression methods will reduce the file size by reducing the quality of the data; the ZIP compression methods just reduce the file size but not the quality. ZIP compressions always results in larger file sizes than JPEG compressions, but the quality of the raster data is (much) higher. Thus, we strongly recommend favoring the ZIP compression methods over the other options.

Automatically downsampling images reduces the PDF file size as well as the resolution. For optimal image quality it is generally recommended to select Do not Downsample.

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Color Spaces

When saving the PDF file, all colors may be converted into one single output space (e.g. converting RGB colors into a CMYK color space).

To keep the original colors and benefit from the possibilities of

the Adobe® PDF Print Engine color management, we recommend to select No Conversion for Color Conversion options.

The input profile and possibly the rendering intent that are selected

in the color management setting of your image editing software may be embed-ded in the PDF and used for printing to replace the selection in the list of input profiles and rendering intents.

For future reference about the color setup of the PDF file, it may be useful to embed pro-files without using them for the Adobe® PDF Print Engine color management (but when later re-opening the PDF in the image editing software).

Please read the “Hints for using PDF/X options” for information on the usage of PDF/X.

Fonts

For compatibility reasons with other operating systems we recommend to either

embed the fonts in the PDF file, convert all text into outlines or convert some text into outlines and

embed the remaining fonts.

Text generated with embedded fonts will be recognized as a Text object type while text converted with outlines be-come Graphics object types.

It is important to note that text in a file without an associated embedded font may be rendered incorrectly.

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Transparency Flattening

Automatic transparency flattening is only available for PDF 1.3 format. For higher PDF formats, transparencies must be flattened manually when needed. Please note that we do not recommend manual flattening of transparencies when you want to benefit from the Adobe® PDF Print Engine color man-agement.

For high-quality printing, we strongly recommend to select High Resolution options for transparency flattening.

System Configuration

Converting PDF files into printer dependent data requires two steps: Step 1: Rasterizing the PDF file which means that the complete file is converted into raster

information. Step 2: Ripping the rasterized data which means that the data that is saved in step 1 is

converted into printer dependent data which can be sent to the printer.

Since the generation of the raster data and the ripping of the raster data can be divided over multiple CPU cores the calculation time will be reduced if more CPU cores are available. Espe-cially when multiple instances of the RIP Server are running in parallel a multi-core system is advised. Tests showed that having more CPU power reduces rastering and ripping time more than having more cores with less CPU power. The Hyper-threading option for Intel CPU’s does not improve the calculation time but even may slow it down.

As conclusion, at least two CPU cores per RIP Server are recommended.

Memory (RAM) also has a big impact on calculation time. The amount of RAM and the fre-quency (memory speed) at which they are clocked is important. When using a 32 bit operat-ing system, the maximum amount of RAM that can be used is limited by the operating sys-tem. When using a 64 bit operating system you can benefit from its RAM usage:

For 64 bit operating systems, 2 GB of RAM for Windows plus 2 GB of RAM per RIP Server is recommended. If for example the license for the ErgoSoft RIP allows using 2 RIP Servers the computer should have 6 GB of RAM.

Fast memory of type DDR-3 (PC10600, PC12800, PC16000, …) is recommended.


Limitations of the Adobe® PDF Print Engine

Compared to the Artifex Ghostscript PostScript interpreter the Adobe® PDF Print Engine has the following limitations:

The number of DeviceLink profile channels has to match the number of the output profile channels.

Simulation profiles, which are set in the print environment on the tab “Extras” for simula-tion another output device, are ignored when using the Adobe® PDF Print Engine.

Documents

Adobe PDF Print Engine (APPE) - dp-college