Adobe 65023809 - Creative Suite 4 Master Collection Printing Manual page 7

• Standard specifies whether the setting achieves a defined PDF/X format for the file
(such as PDF/X-1a, PDF/X-3, or PDF/X-4), or meets the definitions for one of the
PDF/A (archival) standards.
• Compatibility indicates the minimum version of Acrobat required to read the file.
The label in parentheses shows the PDF file specification that applies; for example,
"Acrobat 5 (PDF 1.4)" indicates that the resulting PDF will be compatible with
Acrobat 5.0 and later, and that the file meets the PDF 1.4 specification. Proper
compatibility also affects other applications that must process the PDF, such as
imposition software. While an Acrobat 9-compatible file may seem more "modern,"
your imposition software may not allow you to use it. Consult the documentation for
such software, as well as the requirements for your RIP, to determine the appropriate
compatibility setting.
• General includes basic file options, such as page range. The choices in the "Options"
and "Include" sections of the General pane (such as Bookmarks, Hyperlinks, and
Tagged PDF) affect only web-appropriate PDFs and do not pertain to print-ready
PDFs. However, if you are producing a document that may be used in various media
or that could be archived, it is recommended that you configure these options appro-
priately as well.
• Compression allows you to specify settings for compression and downsampling of
images. Additional options let you compress text and line art, and crop images to
frame limits.
• Marks and Bleeds options let you include crop and bleed marks, as well as page
information, bleed, and slug area.
• Output controls how colors are converted (or preserved), based on your choices and
the color management settings in effect.
• Advanced controls font embedding and subsetting, OPI comments, transparency
flattening (if necessitated by the PDF compatibility setting), and the inclusion of JDF
information.
Embedding includes the entire character set of a font in the resulting PDF; subsetting
is a form of embedding that includes only characters used in the document, and
results in a smaller file size. Although Illustrator, InDesign, Photoshop and Distiller correctly
embed fonts in PDF files, some non-Adobe applications may not. Additionally, some fonts can-
not be embedded in PDFs because of vendor licensing restrictions. It is advised that you never
create a PDF without embedding or subsetting fonts.
• Security allows you to add password-based security to the PDF file. (Security
options are not available during creation or editing of a PDF preset. Security options
are available only at the time of PDF creation or later within Acrobat). Note that
imposition software may reject a PDF with security settings, even if the file does not
require a password. It's best to avoid any security restrictions on PDFs intended for
print. If a customer supplies a PDF with security settings applied, request that they
submit a replacement PDF without security settings. Note that security is not sup-
ported in PDF/X compliant files for this reason.
• Summary displays an overview of the PDF settings. To expand the description for
each category, click the arrow to the left of the topic. If any conflicts occur (such as a
source color profile that doesn't match the color settings file in effect), a warning will
appear in the Warnings area.
Default PDF settings
Several of the default PDF presets (also referred to as joboptions files) are specifically intended
for commercial printing, with some important differences noted. Typically, it's most appropri-
ate to start with one of the default settings, modify it to suit your needs, and save that setting
as a custom job option. Since PDF settings are stored in a common repository and shared by
InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop, and Distiller, you can create custom presets in one of the
applications, and the settings will automatically be available to the other applications. (However,
some installed presets are available only within Distiller or Illustrator). Adobe applications
install a default set of PDF creation presets, which cannot be edited; however, you can start with
Adobe Creative Suite 4 Printing Guide 5