Adobe Creative Suite 4 Printing Guide
3
Chapter 1:
Common Resources
The integration between components in the Creative Suite 4 family allows for such productiv-
ity enhancing features as shared color management settings, common PDF presets files, shared
color swatches, and the ability to use native files—such as Photoshop .psd, Illustrator .ai, Acrobat
.pdf, and even InDesign .indd formats—as artwork. Since there is so much “common ground,”
this section addresses features and issues that are the same across many of the Creative Suite 4
components.
The Adobe PDF Print Engine
The Adobe PDF Print Engine is not a shrink-wrapped product. It is a printing platform based
on PDF and other Adobe core technologies. OEM RIPs and workflow systems incorporating
the PDF Print Engine can process PDF files natively (without converting data to PostScript® or a
proprietary intermediate format), thus maintaining live transparency. Being able to use native,
unconverted (and unflattened) PDF files throughout a workflow provides a complete, end-to-end
PDF environment that uses common technology to generate, preview, and print PDF files.
The Adobe PDF Print Engine combines the strengths of Adobe PDF for content definition and
the Job Description Format (JDF) standard for job ticketing and process control in powering
RIP and workflow systems. Available in printing systems from Adobe print solution partners,
the Adobe PDF Print Engine enhances output consistency throughout the workflow, improving
overall print productivity and profitability. Adobe PDF Print Engine 2 will extends these benefits
to production workflows for Variable Data Printing (VDP) used in personalized publishing (e.g.
direct marketing), and output to a digital color press.
For more information on the Adobe PDF Print Engine and the partners who market RIPs and
workflow systems incorporating it, see
http://www.adobe.com/products/pdfprintengine
.
Adobe Graphics Model
The Adobe Graphics Model ensures consistent rendering and display of color and transpar-
ency effects in Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign and Acrobat. It is essentially a software RIP that
processes graphics instructions and displays the results on screen. The Adobe Graphics Model
allows InDesign to consistently display placed raster and vector art at full resolution, as if you
were viewing the original art in Photoshop or Illustrator. It also enables you to view realistic
rendering of overprinting and special effects such as opacity settings and blending modes.
Color Blindness Preview
Photoshop and Illustrator now offer the option to view content as it would be seen by people with
two forms of color blindness, Protanopia, and Deuteranopia.
PDF Creation
The Adobe PDF Library is used consistently by Creative Suite 4 components which generate PDFs
natively (that is, without needing to generate PostScript and Distill). Consequently, Illustrator,
InDesign, and Photoshop can directly generate PDF files without the need for Acrobat Distiller®.
Of course, Distiller is still available to convert PostScript files into PDFs if necessary, but directly
exporting PDF files is the recommended method of creating PDF files. It’s faster and easier to
generate PDF files through direct export and, in addition, if you wish to maintain live transpar-
ency (if your RIP supports it), directly exporting PDFs is the only way to do so.
Note:
Prior to Creative Suite 2, exported PDFs contained font information encoded in CID (charac-
ter identifier) form. Some non-Adobe RIPs could not correctly process such PDFs, even though CID
encoding had been part of the PDF specification for some time. To work around the problem and
eliminate most instances of CID encoding, many printers created PDFs by generating PostScript
and distilling. Today, most RIP vendors support CID encoding; issues with PDFs containing CID
encoding should be moot. Occasionally, CID encoding is needed to support some glyphs, whether
the PDF is exported or created by Distiller. Also note that you may find that Creative Suite 4 pro-
duces PDFs that are smaller in file size than PDFs exported from previous versions.
