[pdftex] Harlequin RIP 5.3 and PDFTeX

[Hans Hagen]

At 10:43 PM 10/7/2001 -0400, Jeffrey McArthur wrote:

>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).

never heard of them and large does not per se means good -) recently we 
send some rather complicated pdf files to a demanding customer / printing 
house and it was no problem at all. pdftex produces rather normal pdf 
unless you add low level pdf code (using pdfliterals) with crap content. 
hwo does the printing house handle the pdf? [there were times that printing 
houses had problems with postscript simply due to the fact that they used 
quark as previewer and postprocessor]. Also, keep in mind that pdf (for one 
part) was meant for high end/speed printing with distributed ripping etc 
etc. For this, printing houses (engine) use dedicated software. For 
prepress related tasks they can use plug ins into acrobat (or tools like 
martin's); maybe you should download a demo copy of crackerjack; this 
plug-in accepts pdftex files quite well which for me is an indication that 
the pdf is ok. Btw there is a project going on with regards to standardized 
pdf (pdf/x and so), but this more has to do with putting some limitations 
on pdf code (like no cmyk -). Interestingly there will be several sub 
standards, since there are differences in demands from european and usa 
based printing houses (and in europe between northern and southern countries).

BTW, one potential areas of problems is bitmaps, but i assume you don't use 
them.

Hans


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