Adobe Creative Suite 4 Printing Guide
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While it may be more familiar to create PostScript and use Distiller to generate PDFs rather
than exporting PDFs, that’s unnecessary in current workflows. Even if your imposition soft-
ware or RIP dictates that you submit Acrobat 4.0-compatible files, there should be no issues in
using exported PDFs created using the PDF/X-1a preset, which meets the PDF 1.3 specification.
Contact your RIP and imposition vendors to obtain updated versions that support more modern
PDF formats. For more information on PDF specifications, see the “Acrobat 9 Pro” section in
this document.
If your workflow includes a RIP that utilizes the Adobe PDF Print Engine (APPE), take advan-
tage of the support for unflattened transparency by exporting to the latest level of PDF supported
by your RIP, or to standards-based PDF such as PDF/X-4, rather than generating PostScript and
Distilling to create a PDF (which would flatten transparency).
PDF settings: An overview
Whether you are generating PDFs from Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign, or through Distiller,
the categories of PDF settings are the same. These settings are found in the Export Adobe PDF
dialog (InDesign), the Save As dialog (Illustrator and Photoshop), and under Edit PDF Settings
(Distiller).
PDF Export Options: InDesign
PDF Save As Options: Illustrator
PDF Save As Options: Photoshop
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Adobe PDF Preset
indicates whether a default preset or a user-created preset is
being used. If you’ve started with an existing preset and modified some of its set-
tings, the preset name is followed by “(modified).”
