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act_98006
Known Participant
June 17, 2020
Question

Options for saving PDF file as separate page PDF files with older software

  • June 17, 2020
  • 2 replies
  • 2238 views

We provide printing services for a number of small publishers in the Northwest. Many of them are using legacy versions of Adobe Software to prepare files they send to us.

Our management has decided that we need to move to an automated pre-press workflow that requires files be sent to us as single-page PDF files. 

Unfortunately, one of our clients is still using InDesign CS4 and he does not have Acrobat Professional.  It is my understanding that anything below ID 13.1 will not generate PDF files in separate page PDF files, and I do not believe Acrobat Reader will allow for auto exporting a composite file into separate page files.

Am I wrong here, or is there another option for this publisher ?

 

Thanks

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2 replies

Dov Isaacs
Dov Isaacs
Legend
June 17, 2020

A few thoughts …

 

(1)    No modern PDF workflow system that we are aware of requires pages for PDF-based print jobs to be submitted as individual pages. Maybe 15 to 20 years ago this may have been true, but not now! Some systems may allow such operations and long-term users of same may be accustomed to such a workflow, but it certainly is not the norm in 2020.

 

(2)    In fact, PDF RIPs and workflow systems are optimized for full document processing and not single-page-at-a-time processing. Typical PDF files generated by InDesign, for example, have only a single subset copy of each font referenced in the source document, not a copy of each font on each page that references same. This significantly decreases the size of the PDF created. Then, during rendering, font caching dramatically decreases RIP processing overhead. Similarly, for raster images, regardless of the number of times you use an image in an InDesign document, only one copy of that image is embedded in the PDF file as an Image XObject, not one copy per use or per page, again cutting overall PDF file size and processing overhead. Finally, some applications such as InDesign and especially InDesign used in combination with XMPie to produce PDF/VT-1 define groups of graphical objects (including text, vector, and/or images) as Forms XOjects, a construct that allows such grouped objects to be defined once in a PDF file and invoked any number of times with significant files size decreases and attendant interpretation and rendering performance increases (due to RIP/renderer caching).

 

(3)   The ISO PDF/X-6 standard based on ISO 32000-2 PDF 2.0 is currently in the final processes of approval and publishing by ISO. PDF/X-6 provides features that not only allow single multiple-page PDF files for a simple job (such as a pamphlet or the text pages of a book), but also use of single multiple part / multiple page PDF files to represent entire printed products such as a book containing a cover, text pages, dust cover, accompanying poster, etc. with capabilitiy of supporting page level output intents and production instructions. Such a PDF file could be fed into a PDF workflow system and parts / pages  of the file RIPed to multiple devices with differing capabilities! Stay tuned!

 

Sorry, but chopped-up-to-single-page PDF workflows belong with such Luddite concepts as requiring all text to be outlined, flattening all transparency and converting all colors to CMYK prior to the RIP process, and PDF/X-1a. Chopped-up-to-single page PDF workflows increase the work required for prepress and decreases reliability; it certainly doesn't cut costs and/or processing time, improve quality, and/or yield greater customer satisfaction!

 

- Dov Isaacs, former Adobe Principal Scientist (April 30, 1990 - May 30, 2021)
    A
    act_98006Author
    Known Participant
    June 17, 2020

    Dov,

     

    I am not here to debate the pros and cons of this system.  I would prefer that it not be used but I have my directions on how our prepress department is requesting files be sent.  It would make my life a lot easier if I did not have to contact each client and request they send individual files.  The system will accept composite files but my directions have been to instruct clients we need individual page files.

     

    We are working with some clients in remote locations that have dodgy internet connections and sending compartmentalized files is frequently the best way to receive files.  (It very frustrating when someone tries to send a 100 meg file only to have it crap-out after half-hour or more of uploading and have nothing to show for it.)  If they can send individual files we can at least get their files in fits and spurts.

     

    Some of our clients are working with ten-year-old software. They are printing a non-profit monthy newsletter that is operated on a shoestring. Their ten-year-old version of ID  it works just fine for preparing their paper. It just does not have all the functionality that has been added over the past decade.  So I am trying to solve an issue so we can keep print them without telling them they need to invest in a software update purchase.

     

    If there is not a way to handle this matter given the tools that these clients have then so be it.  I will tell management they better be prepared to lose some business.  This change is likely an effort to keep our larger business -- publishing newspapers -- afloat.  Since 2004 over 2,000 newspapers have closed down so we are a legacy industry that is fading and C-19 is not helping. Commercial printing is a secondary part of the company's business and, I presume, management's thought is that automating pre-press will help keep the business going...... for now.

     

    I am just trying to find a solution.

     

      try67
      Community Expert
      try67Community Expert
      Community Expert
      June 17, 2020

      A 100-page PDF file divided into 100 1-page files doesn't mean each file is going to be 1/100 the size of the original. In fact, due to the issues mentioned by Dov (fonts embedding, image duplication, etc.) it could very well end up being multiple times MORE in total space than the original file.

      So not only are you asking your clients to invest their money in getting Acrobat or an updated version of InDesign so they can send you the file in the format that's more convenient to you (not for them), you're also making it extra difficult on them to upload it, especially if they have a slow and unreliable internet connection, as you've described.

       

      We understand the issues the print newspaper industry is facing, trust me, but what you're doing is making it worse, not better.

        try67
        Community Expert
        try67Community Expert
        Community Expert
        June 17, 2020

        Don't know about InDesign, but Reader can't export pages from a multi-page PDF file, no.

         

        However, if I may be blunt, your requirement is absurd. No printing company in the world that I'm aware of makes such a demand to its clients. What if I need to print a 1000-page manuscript? You expect me to send you each page as a separate file??? I would switch suppliers if I was your client and was presented with such a demand. 

        And it should be trivial for you to split a PDF file on your end, if you really wanted to. Again, I can't imagine why you'd want to do that, but it is very easily done.

          gary_sc
          Community Expert
          gary_scCommunity Expert
          Community Expert
          June 17, 2020

          I agree with Try here. Take their document. Open it up in Organize Pages, select all pages, click on the Extrat all pages button, you've kept a customer.

           

          Is that really so hard?

           

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