Old Postscript Distiller Challenge

[Inspetta]

Hopefully, someone can be of assistance.

I have an older collegue, that authored a book many years ago in Pagemaker.

They would click the PDF icon and viola, the very complexly formatted pages went to pdf..

..Exactly as he wanted, for years, and would send the pdf to his printer.

Occassionally, a typo or adjustment is requested for a reprint

Ah, and to add, he has Windows 7 with little likelyhood of changing.

In the past 2 weeks, something changed and he no longer can print PDF
It says Postscript file must be installed.
When I emmulated on another computer, if I got past that, (on a windows 10)
..Pagemaker was then looking for Distiller installation in order to complete the PDF process

On his Windows 7 postscript connection, possibly distiller as well seems to have vanished.
On his machine adobe acrobat 5.0 was installed pre 2017 and adobe 2017 was installed in 2017

I could assume that something disconnected or some file modified..
..I could assume, ok, so let's reinstall acrobat 5.0(having distiller) or adobe2017(having distiller in it's folders)

Only the original disks... can not locate
As on my tests, it appears Pagemaker looks FIRST for postscript install, then jumps to distiller
..I and looking at the many adobe installs and tries in 2017
..I believe the acrobat 5.0 with distiller was the operational path and adobe2017 may not have been successful, as it seems the process PM uses to hit first Postscript then Distiller may or may not be the same.

Searching Adobe forums, links to download acrobat 5.0 are all removed/broken
And many spam sites with virus downloads exist

Is there a way, with the files existing in a normal install, currently on his machine
..to reinstall/repair itself without asking for keys, or able to locate the keys on his machine before doing reinstall

..or, where can I get 5.0 Postscript and Distiller to get him rolling?

Windows 7, an Old Pagemaker.
He's a dear old friend and upgrades to modern indesign are pretty much out of the question now.
And the almost 1000 page book, orphan page settings, margins, margin notes, etc become lost

I need to find a path in locating to repair what is there, or to get a fresh 5.0 or 7.0 download with PS and Dist

Can anyone assist?... without the spam virus files...

[jane-e]

Hi @Inspetta 

Since no one else has answered this after four days, I'll give it a try. I'm working from memory here, as I haven't used PageMaker for many years, but I used it from v. 1 through v. 7.

I started with PageMaker before Acrobat was available in those days, the workflow was:

• File > Print
• Click the checkbox for "Print to File" to create a PostScript file
• Send the PS file to the print shop

When Acrobat 2 came out, the workflow changed:

• File > Print
• Click the checkbox for "Print to File" to create a PostScript file
• Change the extension manually from .prn to .ps
• Open the Distiller > Choose the appropriate joboptions
• File > Open to open the .ps file

Acrobat Distiller is a separate application from Adobe Acrobat and it still comes with Adobe Acrobat, although using it is considered archaic these days because there are newer, better methods of making a PDF. It still works, though.

If Distiller is not in his Applications folder, try doing a search of his hard drive to see if it got moved into another folder.

Is his computer connected to a PostScript printer? Did he change printers recently? If he still has the PS Printer, he should switch to that. Can you post a screen shot of his list of printers?

~ Jane

[Brad @ Roaring Mouse]

Has your friend been using PM and Acrobat successfully on this same Windows 7 system up until recently?

My guess is there has been a change in installed printer drivers, perhaps your friend deleted the driver that Distiller was using.

So, let's answer a few questions:

Is Acrobat Distiller on this machine now? (which version... you mentioned 2017) and can it be opened successfully on its own?

Is Pagemaker 7 currently on this machine and can it also be opened successfully?

Has there been ANY changes to the installed printers on this machine?

I don't know much about Windows 7 as I pretty much jumped to 8 when it came out. I do know that it was possible to install PM 7 and Acrobat/Distiller on a Win 8 ( I did: although it squacks about compatibility issues). Unfortunately, despite that, the printer install portion of that does NOT install nor will it work anyway as the newer system handles printers differently.

That being said, this just means you can't use the default "click the Acrobat icon" Export PDF workflow as it will not function. All that button does anyway is the same thing as if you pull down the File menu and select Export to PDF.

INSTEAD, I suggest your friend will have to change their workflow either to A)  PRINT to another installed PDF driver (like the "Microsoft Print to PDF" driver, or better yet, B) print the file to Postscript and distill it manuallywith whatever Distiller that's installed an functioning. You would need is to have an installed Postscript printer driver (as you can't create a PS file without one) even if you don't have that printer.

As you have found, you cannot find these installers online.. and you won't.. this is 20 years ago stuff you're talking about. And even if you could find them, you need the legal serial numbers to install them both. FYI: although if this computer had them installed at some point it is possible to retrieve the full install serial numbers using a program like Belarc (google it to find where to download it) . If so, at least you can attempt to use them for a reinstall should you be lucky to find installers.

I can give you instructions on how to make and distill Postscript files, but there's no point if you don't have working programs.