Create press-quality PDFs by default

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

Correct Bob.

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