[pdftex] Harlequin RIP 5.3 and PDFTeX

[Jeffrey McArthur]

On Sun, 7 Oct 2001 16:28:18 +0200, you wrote:

>Sorry, but this is nonsense. Some of the largest printing houses
>in Germany use imposition software which uses pdfTeX as a
>backend.

Quebecor, www.quebecor.com,  (which claims to be the largest printing
company in the world) has consistantly rejected all the files we have
generated via PDFTeX.

Since Quebecor is so big, it is like trying to argue that Microsoft produces
buggy software (we all know they do).  But if our clients want to use
Microsoft products (and they do) we have to be compliant.  If our clients
want to use Quebecor (and they do) we have to produce PDF files that
Quebecor will accept.  Quebecor will not accept the output of PDFTeX because
it generates the same errors that we get with our Harlequin 5.1 rev 2 RIP.
We will get nowhere arguing with Quebecor (do you want to tell them that a
large number of their RIPs are buggy and that they have to upgrade all of
them just to run a job created by PDFTeX?).

Quebecor is huge, so I am sure that some branch office of theirs has the
newest version of the RIP, but that does not solve my problem.  Quebecor
chooses which plant to print the books and sets that standards that we are
required to meet.  If we send them a file, and they reject it, we have no
alternative but to create a file that they will accept.  So far, PDFTeX has
never been able to create a PDF file for us that has been acceptable to
Quebecor.

My point is this: PDFTeX is currently unable to create a file that is
acceptable to the company that claims to be the worlds largest commercial
printer (their claim is on their main web page at www.quebecor.com).