Exporting press-ready PDF

DadaKopf

I'm having a lot of trouble explorting press ready PDF's, on both PC and Mac.

On the Macs, when I choose to export, an error occurs when converting the file from a PostScript file to a PDF file through the print dialogue box. Errors occur and the PDF isn't produced.

Adding to that, whenever I do manage to create a PDF on PC, when I export to PDF using the press ready option, it produces a fine PDF but the page size is exactly as needed. Since the pages require bleeds, I need to print out those registration marks for the printer to know where to cut.

Ironically, I managed to output one of those press ready files on the Mac.

I need answers soon because of two urgent jobs, one a magazine, one a newspaper.

So: I don't expect many answers here but does anyone know of good resources with info on creating press ready PDFs?

Morello

Hi,

I guess you can find some help here:

http://www.adobe.com/support/database.html

Cheers, Alex

Figment

What program are you exporting from and what program are you using to convert to PDF?

Whats the error its giving?

raphaelS

Yes, it will be helpfull to know from where you want to create your PDF.
Just for info, you can create a PS file on Mac or PC and distill it on the PC or Mac, as long as you're using fonts available on both machine or you're embedding the fonts.

You might also try different printer drivers to create your PS file, like the Generic Postscript Driver from Adobe on your PC...

Raphael

beaver

Also, the PDF will generally be made from the size of your page. If you want to leave bleed, you ought to make your document larger and include crop marks.

DadaKopf

Wow, I think I got that far 'Morello'.

You're site is totally awesome, I swear.

beaver

The two most common problems I have when PDFing are corrupt fonts or images (maybe they saved wrongly or were saved as RGB).

Have you tried changing fonts or removing different elements of the document to see if it's one specific things that's causing the PDFing to fail.

What's the error message that given?

DadaKopf

Depends on the day .

I'm trying to get it to work on two systems.

Sys1: MacOS 9.0; Quark 5; Warez Distiller 4.0; AdobePS PPD
Sys2: MacOSX; Runs in Classic; see above

Sys 2 works now but is tempramental.

Sys1: not working at all. Creates PostScript file, cannot convert to PDF because of errors, which aren't always the same. Usually, it's to do with 'Courier Font', which isn't even used in the documents.

I dunno at all at all.

beaver

Well, you should be able to tell that Quark is creating your .ps fie okay by opening it in Photoshop.

Outside of that, I usually use Apogee Normalizer for creating PDFs, but just looking at Distiller 5 there and it seems to embed a certain amount of fonts, regardless of those used in the document -- under Settings/Job Options, go to the Fonts tab and see if "Base 14 Fonts" is selected. It it by default on my system and Courier is one of the families included.

Maybe removing it will solve your problem?

HTH.