[Desktop_printing] RE: PDF/X + PDF/A

Kurt Pfeifle k1pfeifle at gmx.net
Mon Apr 17 19:45:59 PDT 2006


On Monday 17 April 2006 20:41, Dov Isaacs wrote:
> If you are looking for a reasonable international standard
> to look at with regards to PDF for printing, I most strongly
> recommend that you look at the draft PDF/X-4 specification
> currently being worked on by CGATS and ISO. Expected to be
> ratified in early 2007 (not that long off when you consider
> international standards and the overhead it takes to get them
> approved), PDF/X-4 goes well beyond PDF/X-3 by supporting
> (1) PDF 1.6 (PDF compatible with Acrobat 7), (2) color 
> management (untagged CMYK with a target printing condition
> as well as ICC profile-tagged CMYK, RGB, and spot colors),
> (3) live transparency, and (4) layers.

Hi, Dov,

good to hear a voice from Adobe speaking up here :-)

> Any and all earlier PDF/X standards effectively represent 
> device-dependent PDF (either device-dependent colors and/or
> flattened transparency) which is absolutely what you DON'T
> want! 

What we also *don't* want, is a PDF that can't be printed by our
current users, with their current tools and their current printers
-- I hope you understand that :-)

Whatever all the earlier PDF/X standards represent -- they *are*
a standard now, and if that standard is requested by some industry
workflow, or by some government regulation, we should make efforts
to output it.

> (We considered such PDF that does not represent final 
> form content at the highest level of graphical abstration
> as "ruined" PDF!)
> 
> 	- Dov

Cheers,
Kurt [*not* speaking on behalf of Scribus or anyone
      else, just for himself only]


> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: desktop_printing-bounces at lists.osdl.org 
> > [mailto:desktop_printing-bounces at lists.osdl.org] On Behalf Of 
> > Andreas Vox
> > Sent: Monday, April 17, 2006 5:47 AM
> > To: desktop_printing at lists.osdl.org
> > Subject: [Desktop_printing] PDF/X + PDF/A (was: "Common 
> > statements from the 
> > 
> > Kurt Pfeifle wrote:
> > 
> > > Short newbie summary of the main characteristics:
> > > -------------------------------------------------
> > > PDF/X3 prohibits a lot of things in newer versions of PDF that are
> not 
> > > appropriate for graphic arts and that can cause problems when
> printing 
> > > the files (no embedded movies and sounds, no encryption to name a
> few 
> > > striking examples).
> > >
> > > PDF/A requires *all* resources used in a document to be truly and 
> > > fully embedded (f.e. no usage of an external font server) so that 
> > > there is a good chance of a document's long term viability.
> > >
> > > Both are derived from PDF-1.3 (AFAIK no PDF-1.4 elements are
> allowed).
> > 
> > That's exactly why I am against at narrowing on one of the 
> > PDF-X or PDF/A standards.
> > One of the more important PDF-1.4 features is f.ex. transparency.
> > 
> > My proposal:
> > 
> > -	RIPs and PDF consuming apps should fully support at least PDF
> 1.4 and 
> > try to provide
> > 	reasonable fallbacks for post PDF 1.4 features (f.ex. ignore).
> > 	The PDF 1.5 extensions for JPEG2000, 16bit images and 
> > stream objects should be
> > 	strongly recommended.
> > 
> > -	Scribus and other PDF producing apps should be able to produce
> at 
> > least one of the
> > 	standards PDF/A, PDF/X-3, PDF/X-2 or PDF/X-1 (in 
> > addition to any other PDF variants)
> > 
> > This should allow for safe document exchange and printing 
> > while still enabling high end graphics.
> > 
> > /Andreas
> 
> 



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