Create press-quality PDFs by default

[NJ Author]

Hello all,

When I print to PDF using InDesign CS6, it only prints using the "standard" job definition file in Acrobat. Absolutely nothing I do will save my preference as "Press quality" instead. Can this be done?

I've switched to using Export instead of Print and can easily select press quality there, but honestly, I'd rather just use the print dialog instead. Is this possible, and if so how?

Thanks in advance.

[BobLevine]

Why would you want to use an archaic method to produce PDFs?

[NJ Author]

Because that's the only way I know how to do it?? How should I be doing it?

[BobLevine]

By exporting, preferably to PDF/X-4

[Willi Adelberger]

Never use print to create a PDF from InDesign, Illustrator or Photoshop. Use in InDesign export to PDF print.

Where do you see a problem? The settings are not so different from printing?

[Geоrge]

Don't listen this cultists of the new wave. Print to Adobe PDF is a normal way too.

Did you try to set print settings for deafault here? (this is printer as other printers 😞

[Derek Cross]

Listen or not, one of the world's greatest experts on PDF's, Adobe's Chief Scientific Officer, Dov Issacs, recommends selecting PDF/X-4. It's your choice, George or Dov!

[jane-e]

https://forums.adobe.com/people/Derek+Cross  wrote

Listen or not, one of the world's greatest experts on PDF's, Adobe's Chief Scientific Officer, Dov Issacs, recommends selecting PDF/X-4. It's your choice, George or Dov!

Tagging https://forums.adobe.com/people/Dov+Isaacs

And I am adding my two cents in agreement that Print to PDF is outdated and shoud not be used with InDesign. Use Export to PDF instead.

I only slightly disagree with Derek when he offers a “choice”. It’s a choice of one: choose Dov.

Actually, we agree.

[Derek Cross]

Hooray!

[Barb Binder]

LOL.

[Willi Adelberger]

Sorry, you are wrong. Prnting a PDF used PostScript, a technology which should not be used with modern programs like InDesign. Why should someone use a complicated and errative way when simple export does a better job.

[BobLevine]

Cultist? New wave?

Printing to PDF was replaced by export as the preferred method 15 years ago. To recommend anything but export is a great disservice to the OP.

[Eugene Tyson]

Printing to PDF is only there to support archaic workflows. Nothing wrong with archaic workflows, some systems don't need to be updated, therefore they need older methods to remain active.

But where possible we should push towards more modern workflows.

Whereas, PDF X4a is preferred and I wish everything was like this - I don't know a single printers that can support it.

I'm still flattening PDFs as printers have not caught up technology wise, and therefore, PDFx1a is the only way to ensure that the 1000's of files I produce and send to 100's of different printers across the country all get printed the same with no issues coming back my way.

Hey - it's not for everyone - but everyone is different.

[BobLevine]

But you’re still doing so by export, not printing to postscript and distilling.

[Geоrge]

Printing to PDF was replaced by export as the preferred method 15 years ago.

No, there is not. I have installed CC2019 and last Acrobat DC on win10 and still can use it Adobe PDF-printer. Why not? Only because some cultists believe only in export? What about printing to this "printer" from other software? What if print-shop use it old hardware?

Printing to PDF is only there to support archaic workflows. Nothing wrong with archaic workflows, some systems don't need to be updated, therefore they need older methods to remain active.

Yes, it is. Golden words with platinum coating.

Why should someone use a complicated and errative way when simple export does a better job.

Have has few times when export failed, but print to PDF works. And have has opposite examples.
Customer decide by yourself what method needs to use it. Time is money.

[Eugene Tyson]

George Salnik - Please be coherent in your posts, instead of ramblings of gold/platinum - if you have a point to make can you please make clearly, concisely and with actual information you wish to convey.

Otherwise, it's just ramblings.

[rob day]

still can use it Adobe PDF-printer. Why not?

It depends on the content of the document.

Any document that includes transparency or color other than document CMYK (RGB images, RGB colors, or CMYK images with conflicting profiles) could have output problems no matter how old the device is. So if you are willing to avoid inDesign's transparency features, and make sure all color is converted to document CMYK before output, there wouldn't likely be a problem.

It's not as if PDF/X-4 is foolproof, it's just much more flexible at the print end. The color and transparency problems introduced via distilling wouldn't be fixable downstream.

[Eugene Tyson]

Correct Bob.

[Barb Binder · Accepted solution]

Hi W2IRT:

Let's get back to the original question, which I think boils down to how to quickly create a PDF using the desired settings, and not have to mess with changing defaults. (Note that I am on Team Export.)

1. Open an InDesign document
2. File > Export > Adobe PDF (Print)
3. Choose your desired settings
4. Click Save Preset in the lower left corner of the Export Adobe PDF dialog box and give your settings a logical name.

Now, whenever you want to create a PDF using your favorite settings, just choose File > Adobe PDF Presets > [Your Preset Name].

~Barb

[NJ Author]

So I'm convinced and will use this method from here on. I've been doing it the old way since I first started distilling from the other software in the '90s, so it just naturally flowed. But honestly, control+E is not a whole lot different than control+P so I'm good with the change.

I'm not familiar with the differences between X-4 and X-1, however. I don't use ID professionally in a production environment, just for a little home side-project that I revise yearly. Is there an advantage of X-4 over X-1, or are there pitfalls of using one format over another? My printer has been accepting my old distilled files for years without a complaint, and the results have been OK. I can't tell you what equipment is in use on his end, just that it's high-speed copying (print-on-demand) essentially.

[BobLevine]

In a nutshell:

X-4 is a modern standard which maintains transparency and allows RGB. Modern workflows use RGB images properly tagged with color profiles.

X-1a is a rather archaic standard which flattens all transparency, supports only CMYK and no color management.

Hope that helps.

[jane-e]

Hi W2IRT​,

To add a little to what Bob said, PDF/X is an ISO standard for print. You can see that the ones created in 2001 and 2002 use Acrobat 4. Transparency in Acrobat was not supported until Acrobat 5. These three (but use X-4) will open the Standards panel in Acrobat so the standard can be verified.

~ Jane

[Dov Isaacs]

I've been watching this thread for a few days now and having watched the comments go back and forth and that my name has been used in vain, I figured that I might as well make an appearance …

From the beginning of InDesign (i.e., InDesign 1.0 and before), this product was designed to generate PDF directly by export. Although the first few releases of InDesign suffered from issues of PDF bloated file size, such problems are of the distant past. In the general case, PDF produced via export of PDF is of much higher quality than that generated by producing PostScript and subsequently distilling that PostScript into PDF.

Why is this so? A few points to consider:

• InDesign's imaging model, especially after the introduction of live transparency, is much closer to that of PDF than it is to PostScript which supports neither live transparency nor ICC color management. By definition, except for the simplest InDesign document, PDF via PostScript is a “lossy” process.

• When printing to PDF via PostScript, fonts are placed in the output stream in a form optimized for direct consumption by PostScript printers, not for disciplined use within a PDF file including rational encodings that allow for searching and touch-up editing within Acrobat. Exporting PDF embed fonts assuming subsequent PDF file searches, edits, and other manipulation.

• When printing to PDF via PostScript, you have less control over the compression and downsampling of raster imagery.

• When printing to PDF via PostScript, you lose all ICC color management in your original InDesign document, limiting the options in terms of printing from that PDF file.

• Given that PostScript doesn't support live transparency, all explicit transparency as well as transparency effects in your InDesign document are flattened into opaque PostScript. This may cause either outlining of some text or rasterization of some text and vector components, yielding PDF that is not properly searchable or editable. You may also end up with transparency flattening stitching artifacts (including unexpected thin white lines) in the resultant PDF file. Since transparency flattening is device dependent (both in tems of color spaces and device resolution), your options for printing and viewing may be severely restricted.

Our strongest recommendation for PDF production from InDesign (other than for “interactive PDF”) is for users to use the predefined PDF/X-4 preset (.joboptions), using the predefined values as a starting point.

• You might want to enable the Optimize for Fast Web View and possibly the Create Tagged PDF options under General.

• The predefined Compression settings are generally good enough for at least 1200 dpi (if not higher) offset or digital printing and with very rare exception yield any image degradation.

• Marks and Bleeds should match your specific document needs although in the general case, your print service provider should be providing printer marks. Bleed and Slug settings obviously depend on your content's needs.

• Output should not be modified in terms of Color Conversion. One of the major features of PDF/X-4 is that you let the RIP (or Acrobat when printing to a printer from Acrobat), handle the color conversion as late as possible in the workflow, maintaining the highest level possible of device independence. The Output Intent Profile Name defaults to the CMYK color space you have set in InDesign for the document. Changing that here may cause some issues. Make sure your color settings in InDesign are properly set.

• For the Advanced settings, we recommend you leave these as-is. Don't muck with the font subsetting value. It doesn't work the way you might think it does and there is no guaranteed means of embedding the full font (and there is no reason to do)!

• The ​Security settings are disabled since none of the PDF/X standards allow for locking or password protecting a PDF file. (If you really need such security, put the resultant PDF/X-4 file in a password-protected ZIP file after the file is created!)

One other major, important consideration before I get off my soapbox. From our years of experience, if you need to print from InDesign, you are better off taking the extra 30 to 60 seconds to export a PDF/X-4 file, per above, and then print that file from Acrobat or Reader to your target device. Especially for those of you fretting over non-PostScript printers and those old PostScript RIPs or the like, you will achieve much higher quality using this PDF/X-4 file as an intermediate than printing directly from InDesign.

          - Dov

[BobLevine]

Thanks, Dov!

[jane-e]

Thank you for chiming in, Dov, and please don’t ever get off your soapbox!

~ Jane