Poor quality PDF created from Word documents. What happened to Adobe Distiller

[foaad61]

I am constantly hearing Acrobat DC Pro replacing Adobe Distiller, which was a great tool to get books ready for print. All I had to do was to set up a high-quality print profile and dump the document into the Distiller. Now, I set up Acrobat DC's preferences (which I am confused about is DC and DC Pro the same or two different software?). Then I create a PDF of my Word file, and all I get is what you see in the attached image. This is a 1200 pixel per inch logo coming from Illustrator. How can this be acceptable as a print-ready book. This is the very first page.

[Dov Isaacs]

Distiller has been and continues to be a component of every shipping version of Acrobat on Windows and MacOS.

Acrobat DC can possibly refer to either Acrobat Standard DC (Windows only) or Acrobat Pro DC (both Windows and MacOS).

You give us very little details about exactly what you are doing. You mention Word and Illustrator. If you are using Illustrator to produce artwork for a Word document, you shouldn't be exporting a 1200dpi raster image. For Office documents, you should save vector SVG from Illustrator and import that into a Word document. And to create PDF from Word, you should be using the Acrobat PDFMaker facility (Save as Adobe PDF) and absolutely not Distiller.

Maybe if you provide us with more clarity as to your actual workflow we can better assist you.

[foaad61]

I am using MS Word 365 and Adobe Acrobat 2021.001.20142. I do understand you feel like you are talking to a newbie. However, I have been doing this since Adobe products were on floppies. I have processed a 270-page transcript for print to creating an 8.75 x 5.75 with bleeds. It contains three TTF Farsi fonts which are embedded and also on my system. I should not have a problem with printing Farsi text and then using the "save as pdf" or the Acrobat ribbon on Word to create a pdf file no matter how large the file might be. The fonts are embedded as printers need them to process the file for printing. However, the quality is so abysmal that I felt to quit using Acrobat and send it to the printers in Word format. I have used all different profiles in the advanced tab of the Acrobat preferences and saved them one by one. There is no quality in any of them. The high-quality print looks exactly as ugly as the standard version. Where is the quality? Attached you will find the image of all versions I have created. In the final version, I have replaced the logo to make it look better. Creating pdfs was the least of my worries in this job, and now it has become my nightmare.

[Test Screen Name]

It looks to me as if the problem may be deeper. Perhaps Illustrator is not doing the job right, of saving the graphic. Please describe in full detail how you save the graphic from Illustrator, and how you place it in Word. We cannot help you without this detail. It might also be useful if you can share the ACTUAL graphic for us to test with it.

[Test Screen Name]

By the way you write "I am constantly hearing Acrobat DC Pro replacing Adobe Distiller, " I don't know who is telling you this nonsense. If you want to use Distiller, you still have it, so use it if it works fot you...

[foaad61]

Hi @Test Screen Name 

Thank you for taking the time to respond. The issue is not Illustrator at all. The image comes through fine, and it looks fine even when I print the Word document on a laser printer. However, when I save the document to PDF, everything goes haywire. The logo becomes jaggedy, and the fonts are not strong and sharp. This certainly something new as everything was fine even 3-4 weeks ago, and I used to create PDFs with great quality all the time, right from Word without even going to Distiller. Yes, you are right about the Distiller as was @Dov Isaacs.  I found Adobe Distiller DC on my other machine. I tried Distiller on it (Win 10), it gave me an error:

%%[ Error: undefined; OffendingCommand: setdistillerparams; ErrorInfo: PDFXOutputIntentProfile setdistillerparams ]%%

Does this mean the pdf print profile might be damaged or faulty?

[Test Screen Name]

Please answer the question. We do not ask these things randomly. "Please describe in full detail how you save the graphic from Illustrator, and how you place it in Word."

Also, I think we will need the exact graphic to do our own tests.

Please concentrate on answering our questions, not on telling us why you don't need to. Thank you.

[foaad61]

@Test Screen Name<

I have created the logo in Illustrator and export it in jpeg and png. I then place the file into the Word document. Actually, I tried @Dov Isaacs's suggestion, and exporting from Illustrator as an SVG works amazing for using the logo in Word. I do not know what else I can elaborate on about exporting to png, jpeg, or SVG. I have attached the Illustrator file as well. Thank you

[foaad61]

Apparently, the file did not stick to the last message.

[Test Screen Name]

It is the exported file we need to see. The Illustrator file may be useful too.

" I do not know what else I can elaborate on about exporting to png, jpeg"

All the settings in Export. Also, the design size of the Illustrator graphic in inches or mm.

[foaad61]

The width is  82.731 mm, and Height is 187.233 mm. I have attached the two exports and the original. Please delete after use. Thank you

[Test Screen Name]

This is a public forum and your pictures are visible to everyone in the world. It is no use to ask that people delete after use !! If you do not want to share these pictures I suggest you click the REPORT button below your post and ask for them to be deleted.

[foaad61]

@Test Screen Name,

Thank you for reminding me about the images.

[Test Screen Name]

Anyway, I have downloaded your pictures. For the benefit of other people trying to help, they are each 1003 x 2291 pixels, 300 ppi, RGB, PNG with a transparent background. The work is pure black and white (no greyscale) with a mixture of a fine line drawing and display text. There is much more detail than in the original image. 

Now, foaad, we need to see the PDF. Or at least a screen shot showing the PDF open in Acrobat or Acrobat Reader. Like the screen shot you first showed, but that did not give any context. Also, the settings you used to make the PDF - all of them. Remember, we cannot look over your shoulder, and we do not know what your choices are. But there are many important choices.

[Test Screen Name]

By the way, I have used your images, placed them in Word and made a PDF with SAVE AS ADOBE PDF. I used Conversion settings: Standard. The result looks fine, and nothing like your original screen shown. 

[foaad61]

@Test Screen Name 

Thank you for testing it. I am not sure, but I have never had this issue even with the Farsi fonts (TTFs) and saving as PDF before. That is why I am wondering if the conversion settings might be corrupted in my system. Do you suggest uninstalling and re-installing Acrobat might help?

[foaad61]

Thank you, @Dov Isaacs  and @Test Screen Name, for your assistance. I realized something might be wrong with the print profiles I have in my Acrobat installation. Uninstalling and reinstalling Acrobat fixed the issue. Kudos to you.