PDF Research Print Workflow...
  1. Investing in PDF Research for Pre-Press
  2. Learning More through User Forums
  3. Researching Seybold Reports on PDF
  4. Monitoring Agfa PDF Workflow Development
  5. Integrating Quark XPress 4.0 and PDF

1. Investing in PDF Research for Pre-Press

The reasons that graphic designers SHOULD be interested in the application of PDF for their work are manifold and pretty well discussed in the Universal Design section and the Acrobat Uses pages of this website.

The reasons that graphic designers and printers MUST become interested in PDF are as follows:

  • The printing industry is tired of looking for missing fonts and addressed files provided by graphic designers. 50% of the time they spend pre-flighting files for production could be saved if PDF files were to become the standard.
  • Publications are beginning to indicate their preference for PDF files over any other digital file type and over camera-ready art or film.
  • A whole new generation of workflow products are in development based on PDF as the foundation block. These files can contain job ticket and tracking information, can be processed page-independently, and are pre-rasterized so they flow through more easily.
  • Simple changes to the text of PDF files (like price changes) can be edited directly on the file without shuttling documents back and forth with the printer (security features allow the designer to delete this feature if desired).
  • PDF documents can be repurposed on-the-fly. This means that a single saved and optimized file can be processed for digital printing, offset printing, and access on the internet automatically - without separate processing.
  • The reduction in the number of variables printers have to deal with means that the results from producing with PDF files are more predictable.

As an introduction to the subject of the whys and hows of PDF in a prepress workflow, Thad McIlroy (associate conference director for Seybold Seminars) has published a brief (9 pages) article titled "PDFWorkflows that Work." It first appeared in DPx Magazine in 1998.

For the latest information on emerging PDF Workflows for pre-press, check out Adobe's PDF Workflows reference site. Currently (10/98) this site contains four references:

  1. Book - How to Create Adobe PDF Files for Print and Press - (693KB/ 53pages)
  2. Mac Tutorial - How to Create Adobe PDF Files for Print and Press (2.1MB, 26 pages)
  3. Windows Tutorial - How to Create Adobe PDF Files for Print and Press (2.4Mb, 25 pages)
  4. PDF for Prepress Workflow and Document Delivery White Paper (69Kb, 8 pages)
  5. White Paper - How to Create Adobe PDF Files for Press (185K, 12 pages)

For those who are interested in the PDF standard for pre-press, definition is underway by CGATS (The Committee for Graphic Arts Technologies Standards) for a refined version of PDF just for pre-press. Go to their site to download the latest version of the definition - it is called PDF/X.

Another excellent set of information about pre-press PDF workflows has been written by Stephan Jaeggi and printed by Heidelberg. You can either download PDFs of the documents (through PlanetPDF) or order free prints of the documents direct from Heidelberg.

Adobe has published the Adobe Postscript Extreme White Paper defining the Portable Job Ticket Format (PJTF) - " It combines an integrated Portable Document Format (PDF) workflow and job ticketing to bring the highest level of productivity to both high-speed printers and graphic arts production workflows." It introduces the concept of using a transitory file system called a "Page Store" in which pages are stored only aas long as they are needed to assure they were imaged correctly - it can even be RAM-based. This paper also lists the advantages, components, and customization opportunities made available with this format.

Steven Beale (June, 1998, Macworld) has written a good overview of the how to prepare prepress-ready PDFs from Quark Xpress in an article titled Acrobat Distiller Smooths the PDF Process.

2. Learning More through User Forums

There is an incredible amount of information available on the web concerning PDF Workflows. Besides the vendors and trade show links referenced below, a good place to get insight into the rapidly developing field of pre-press workflows using PDF is user forums. Most PDF User Forums deal primarily with IT (Information Technology) issues. However, for those interested primarily in pre-press issues, subscribe to the Infomania Pre-Press User Forum.

3. Researching Seybold Reports on PDF

It should be no surprise that PDF was the big topic of conversation at the Seybold conference in New York this Spring. A visit to the Seybold website features the Editor's analysis which reports in detail on the developments, product launches, standards issues, and controversies involving the the implementation of the PDF format for printers, graphic designers, software manufacturers (particularly Quark XPress), etc.

PDF--It Works! -
This is a special website offered by the folks at Extensis. It is used to support their trade show PDF Workflow Pavilion (Seybold Seminars, NY - March, 1998) To quote them:

"By adopting PDF as a universal file format for entire print production workflows, industry leaders are committing to a solution that is application, platform, network and output device independent" said Mary Sommerset, a senior product marketing manager at Extensis. "The result is an improved digital workflow that ensures greater flexibility, reliability and increased performance."

4. Monitoring Agfa PDF Workflow Development


AGFA Screen Test
& Distiller Settings (112k PDF)

Adobe Systems and AGFA (makers and marketers of a full range of pre-press systems and supplies) have teamed together to promote the PDF format and AGFA's developing workflow products to the pre-press and printing industry. For an update of current event dates and press releases for development visit their AGFA News website. Look specifically for information on AGFA Apogee for PDF-based high end prepress and publishing environments and request their excellent pamphlet, "The Future of Production Workflows."

AGFA and Adobe have enlisted the considerable research clout of Rochester Institute of Technology's (RIT) Distinguished Professor of Graphic Arts, Frank Romano, who has written an excellent book titled PDF Printing and Publishing: The Next Revolution After Gutenberg (available from MicroPublishing Press). Frank has spoken at many Seybold Conferences and has an interesting print industry perspective on PDF, digital printing processes, Quark Xpress Xtensions, etc. He also publishes a monthly online PDF newsletter titled Digital Printing Report.

Michael Jahn of AGFA, writing the Afterword of Romano's book, has also provided us with a printer's screen test image (112k PDF file) that has suggested settings for Acrobat Distiller imprinted on it for high-end color output. He is quite enthusiastic about the use of PDF as a foundation format for all manner of digital printers. The complete Afterword is available here with the permission of the author.

5. Integrating Quark XPress 4.0 and PDF

There are many trends that suggest that the very nature of publishing is changing. The repurposing of print documents such as magazines, brochures and newsletters into HTML and PDF versions is becoming such a prominent trend the question has to be asked, "which tools best facilitate the simultaneous creation of print and electronic publications?"

Up until now, Quark XPress has dominated the serious print publication design & production field by creating files that are the de facto standard of the service bureau, pre-press imagesetting, and print industry. The range and depth of expensive Xtensions has bandaged the shortcomings of the base program. If the announced upgrade to Quark XPress 4.0 (the first major upgrade in 4 years) is any indication of the direction Quark is headed, its domination is in serious jeopardy. See this review of Quark 4.0 by the Seybold Editor titled, "Are 75 features enough?".

Adobe, with Illustrator and Photoshop, already dominates the other two legs of the publication design 3-legged table. Adobe has bought PageMaker, the previously unsupported contender to XPress, and brought it up to the level of Adobe's other products. Adobe owns PostScript and PDF and controls their destiny. FrameMaker, also purchased by Adobe from Frame Technology, fills out the long-document niche never fully addressed by either PageMaker or Quark (even with Xtensions).

PDF Import/Export Filter for QuarkXPress

OCTOBER 1, 1997: It appears that Quark has decided to "grant unto Caesar what is Caesar's"--today it has announced new plug-ins (see its Press Release) that will ship AFTER the anticipated release of Quark XPress 4.0. These plug-ins will enable Quark users to save from XPress directly to the PDF format and import PDF files into Quark XPress. Let's hope that it will also include support for pdfmarks so that its users won't have the devil's dilemma of sacrificing file archive and experience "equity" in XPress for the recent advances native to Adobe's PageMaker.

Quark has released a downloadable, BETA version of its The PDF Import/Export for QuarkXPress 4.02 (and later). It is QuarkXTensions software that allows you to save a page or range of pages from a QuarkXPress document as a PDF file. The filter saves the pages in PostScript® format and employs the Adobe® Acrobat® Distiller to create the PDF file. The filter also allows you to import a page of a PDF document into a QuarkXPress picture box. This filter only works with QuarkXPress or QuarkXPress Passport 4.02 or later. NOTE: Early reports are that it "does not work very well" and "I couldn't even get this beta PDF Filter to see the PDF files on my hard drive" (PDFPre-Press User Forum postings).

A PDF import filter is available as part of Extensis' QX Tools. The specific tool is called "Vector-Edit." Rather than just importing the PDF file, it breaks it up into vector components that can be edited in the XPress 4.0 version. How this might complicate output to print or exporting to PDF needs to be tested. Presumeably, Quark is still developing a PDF Import filter per their 10/1/97 announcement (above).

Buyout offer of Adobe by Quark

Considerable interest has been expressed about announced plans for a buyout of Adobe by Quark, Inc. (8/18). Immediate reaction industry-wide has been shock and skepticism, followed by rumination by all parties (see Frank Romano's insightful "Wag the Mouse" commentary).

Suspicions abound including the possibility that K2 - Adobe's purported new "Quark killer" PDF native layout program still under development - may have backed Quark into a corner. The subject was picked up at Seybold SF in an impromptu panel discussion titled "Quark and Adobe: Can We Talk?" The text of the meeting was transcripted and is now available at the Seybold Seminars website.

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