Sherman,
On behalf of Adobe Systems Incorporated, let me assure you that printing to a PostScript printer driver instance based on some arbitrary PostScript printer model (in your case, a Tektronix Phaser 550J) redirected to the FILE: port is not recommended and highly discouraged for a number of important reasons.
PostScript as generated by the OS PostScript driver is
highly device dependent with the device dependencies coming from the contents of the PPD file and any driver plug-ins provided by our OEMs for their model printers! You may end up with PostScript that will yield errors if redirected to another printer model, including the Acrobat Distiller, or with anomalies in the results, including bogus PDF.
Specifically, problems you can get into:
(1)
Font Embedding. The printer model PPD files list upwards of 136 typefaces as resident in the printer. If you create PostScript for distillation that rely on this information, you may (but not necessarily) end up with weird font embedding problems, unexpected font substitutions, and/or PostScript errors.
(2)
Color. Many of the OEM-specific driver enhancements (including those invoked in the PPD) yield results that are inappropriate for PDF files when such PostScript is distilled.
(3)
Resolutions. The Distiller's PPD provides a range of resolutions by use of the driver that are appropriate for generation of PDF. A real printer's PPD gives either no such choice or limited choice.
(4)
Page Sizes. The Distiller's PPD provides a remarkable range of available page sizes plus the ability to have custom page sizes up to 200"x200" (I think that is the limit with Acrobat 7). Such flexibility is not available when using a physical printer's PostScript printer driver instance and PPD (which limits you to paper sizes accepted by that printer model, including any manual feed trays).
(5)
Margins. By definition, the entire physical PDF page may be imaged. This certainly is
not true for the vast majority of actual printing devices for which the margins are set at anywhere from a few millimeters to up to a half inch around the page. Many of the my headers and footers are missing issues on this forum and on various Framer lists stem directly from attempts to print in these margins when using an inappropriate PostScript printer driver instance (especially the so-called Generic PostScript one). PDF doesn't have such margins and use of the proper PostScript printer driver instance assures that this particular problem does not occur!
I am sorry if anyone in Adobe Tech Support suggested that using a Tektronix Phaser 550J PostScript printer driver instance was appropriate for generating PostScript for distillation into PDF. Such advice, if given, is absolutely
wrong and not supported by Adobe Systems Incorporated. We would appreciate it very much if you assisted us by not propagating such wrong advice.
Thank you.
- Dov
- Dov Isaacs, former Adobe Principal Scientist (April 30, 1990 - May 30, 2021)