"Advanced" tab

You can set special options for PDF generation with the settings in this tab.

"Compress Text and Line Art" option

Texts and vector graphics can be compressed without losses. You should therefore always activate this parameter.

"Allow PostScript XObjects" option

Special objects that cannot be described by PDF can be imported to the PDF as PostScript XObjects. This parameter can be disabled in many cases as normal printing processes do not require PostScript XObjects.

However, this parameter must be enabled if the incoming documents have PostScript XObjects that are needed for further processing in the Prinect workflow, for example, like dynamic PostScript marks.

"Preserve Original JPEG Images, if Possible" option

Compressed JPEG images (images that were already compressed with DCT encoding) are processed to PDF without any further compression if this parameter is enabled. Performance is enhanced if this parameter is disabled because there is only one decompression but no compression again.

"Convert Gradients to Smooth Shades" option

Stepped gradients (cross-fading) are converted to smooth shades by this parameter, making the PDF files smaller and the improving the quality of the final output. Shades (gradients) of older Adobe Illustrator^©, Adobe InDesign^©, Adobe Freehand^©, CorelDraw^©, Quark XPress^© and Microsoft PowerPoint^© versions can be converted.

"Preserve Halftone Information" option

All screen settings (screen ruling, screen angle) that are defined in the input documents will be kept in the generated PDF files and used for output if this option is enabled. Generally, you should define the screen settings solely in Prinect Production as they are matched optimally to the printing process there. For this reason, this parameter should be normally be disabled.

"Preserve overprint settings" option

Information about overprinting that is found in the input documents is kept when generating the PDF files and is processed in the Prinect workflow when this option is enabled.

"Overprinting default is nonzero overprinting" option

Select this parameter to prevent overprinting objects without CMYK data covering CMYK objects lying lower down.

"Preserve Level 2 copypage semantics" option

This parameter normally is not important for the prepress workflow in Prinect Production. The "copypage" PostScript command effects the ejection of the printed material out of the output device. However, the page buffer of the output device is not deleted. As a consequence, the last page to be ripped is retained in the device and the following page is printed over it. The mode of operation of this command has changed during the transition from PostScript Level 2 to Level 3. In Level 3 the page content is only copied on calling up the command for the first time, whilst all subsequent pages are empty. In Level 2 the page content is copied every time. Enable this parameter if you need the Level 2 functionality, for example, for printing PDF documents on a Level 2-compatible laser printer.

"Re-Normalization of PDF by Conversion into PostScript (Refrying)" option

All incoming PDF documents are always first converted to PostScript and then again to PDF if this option is enabled.

Note: You should enable this option only in an emergency because it entails a drop in the system performance. But: Renewed Normalizing can make processing of critical or faulty PDF documents possible if these were rejected by the Normalizer or Preflighter.

You can use "Transparency Flattening Quality" if this option is enabled. At the same time, the "Preserve Transparency" option is disabled (and vice versa). When Normalizing runs on PDF files again, any transparency elements in the input documents (possible with PDF 1.4 or higher) are generally flattened to one layer. This is necessary for further processing in the Prinect workflow.

"Preserve Transparency" option

You can use this option only if "Re-Normalization of PDF by Conversion into PostScript (Refrying)" is not enabled. Any transparency elements in the input documents (possible with PDF 1.4 or Acrobat 5.0 or higher) may have to be flattened to one layer for processing in the Prinect workflow. There is no transparency flattening in the Normalizer if "Preserve Transparency" is enabled. In this case, you can enable the "Transparency Handling" option in a downstream "Prepare" sequence. See "Transparency Handling" Option.

Note: Flattening to one layer may not be set up for jobs where trapping is used.

"Transparency Flattening Quality" parameter

This setting affects only PDF files as of PDF version 1.4 (or as of Acrobat Version 5.0). As of this PDF version, PDF documents can contain elements that are defined as transparent, known as transparency elements. Such transparent elements are created on several layers in the PDF, with some layers defined as being more or less "transparent". For certain cases, it is necessary to flatten these transparency elements to one layer.

Use "Transparency Flattening Quality" to set how accurately flattening of the transparency elements to one layer will be. This affects solely the quality of characters and graphics that are converted to pixel data with this setting.

The default is 100 %, giving you the highest quality. We recommend that you keep this setting as it only minimally affects the file size of the resulting PDF files.

A warning is issued in the Prinect job history when normalizing PDF documents that have transparency elements (PDF 1.4 or higher).

The difference in the file size of the normalized PDF files between 1% and 100% quality is negligible.

"Process DSC Comments" option

DSC data that may be in the PostScript code of the input documents is kept during PDF generation if this option is enabled. Due to the DSC (Document Structuring Convention) , it is possible obtain information about the document structure when importing PostScript files without having to interpret the entire file. A graphics program, for example, can thus determine the size of an EPS object, without requiring an internal software RIP, which first interprets the entire PostScript code and then calculates the size from this.

DSC information is also used for the OPI functionality and for processing color separations.

"Resize Page and Center Artwork for EPS" option

EPS code is a device-independent PostScript code. EPS code does not therefore contain a Postscript command, which determines the page size. A DSC comment, if available, can be used to determine the page size of EPS files.

The page size set in the DSC comment is assigned to the generated PDF documents when this option is enabled. The pages are centered in the PDF.

The default page size is used and the content of the EPS file is positioned at the bottom left corner of the PDF page if this option is disabled. If the content of the EPS file is bigger than the default page size, the objects on the right and top margin are cut off.

"Preserve EPS Information from DSC" option

EPS files have information about the creating program, the file name, the creator, the date of creation, etc. Enable this option if you wish this information to be used in the PDF file.

"Preserve OPI Comments" option

When you enable this option, OPI comments in the processed files are kept. OPI is not supported in the Prinect workflow.

"Preserve Document Information from DSC" option

Similar to the DSC EPS information (see "Preserve EPS Information from DSC"), many PostScript files contain information about the creating program, the creator, the document name, the date of creation, etc. This information is copied to the PDF files when this option is enabled.

"Transfer Functions" parameter

Transfer functions are used for different purposes:

​•​To compensate the weaknesses of output devices (imagesetters) relating to dot gain.

For this purpose, dot gain is not needed in Prinect Production and you should select "Remove".

​•​For graphic effects (duotones). In this case, transfer curves should be included.

The transfer functions are kept as part of the generated PDF file and used during output if you set "Preserve". This setting makes sense if the transfer curve was used as a design element.

The transfer functions are not kept as part of the generated PDF documents if you set "Apply" but are used during further processing of the documents. This can cause the reproduced colors to change. You can use this option, for example, to create color effects in your output.

Applied transfer functions are already taken into account when PDF page objects are created as the objects already have modified tonal values. The transfer functions originally in the PostScript code are no longer required afterwards. As a result of the "Apply" setting, there are no conflicts about the used transfer functions during further processing. However, one disadvantage is that you cannot remove these transfer functions later if you discover that they were applied incorrectly.

PDF/X files must not have any transfer functions for the reasons mentioned above.

UCR and Black Generation

This parameter concerns information about "Under Color Removal" and "Black Generation" that can be found in the PostScript documents. In under color removal, cyan, magenta and yellow are reduced in favor of a corresponding amount of black at dark and neutral points in the image. This causes black generation (amount of black in CMYK) to change compared to printing without UCR.

​•​Preserve

Any settings for under color removal and black generation that are in the PostScript documents are kept in the generated PDF documents.

​•​Remove

Any settings for under color removal and black generation are removed.

Note: All the documents are available as PDFs after Normalizing is finished. Consequently, "document" always means PDF document in the descriptions below.