PDF/X Problems in Leopard

With Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) some people got problems printing PDF/X files. It seems the people who did not get problems did not print complicated documents.


Problem one - some documents. Certain documents, like the Pages '09 template Word Processing > Reports > Visual Report simply refuses to create any document. You can choose the menu item in the Print dialogue, you can enter a file name, but then you get a message: "Alert Couldn't create PDF/X-3 document."


Problem two - resolution. This limitation was likely here even before Leopard, but it is worth mentioning. PDF/X-3 does not support layers, and that means that the PDF/X-creator has to rasterise vector graphics over pictures, like text over shadows. The problem is that Mac OS X rasterizes to 72 dpi, and that is no way good enough for printing on most modern high resolution printers.

The resolution is defined in a Filter in ColorSync (Applications > Utilities > ColorSync Utility). Go to Filters and check the properties for "Create Generic PDFX-3 Document". The resolution is defined next to the "Flatten Transparency" checkbox. The annoying thing is that the Filter is read only, so we cannot change the resolution.


What we can do, is to create a copy of the original Filter and change the value there. (Do not try to change the values for Trimbox or Bleedbox. I do not know anyone who has made them work.)

Next, is something you should NOT do. The entry in the Print dialogue to print to PDF-X is defined in /Library/PDF Services. Do not be tempted to change any of those entries. You will get a warning message saying: The behavior of this workflow may have changed because of the reasons listed below. The workflow was saved with an older version of the action "Apply Qua... If you try to resave it, you may break it and stand with one less working entry in the Print dialogue.

Instead, to solve the resolution problem, follow the following steps.

Setup

1. Open ColorSync.
2. Go to Filters.
3. Click on the circled triangle next to the filter Create Generic PDFX-3 Document and select the option "Duplicate".
4. Double click on the name of the new filter and change the name, if you want to.
5. Expand the filter elements and change the resolution to 300 and 300. You do not need to save the changes, but you may want to quit ColorSync and reopen it, to make sure that the change has been taken into account.

Usage

1. Open the document you want to make into PDF/X.
2. Print to PDF (standard PDF).
3. Right click or control click on the created PDF file and select Open With > ColorSync Utility from the pop up menu.
4. In the document window in ColorSync select the filter you created above from the list in the bottom left corner of the window.
5. Click on Apply. (The Filter list will be reset to "None" through some quirk, but do not let that scare you.)
6. Select Save or Save As... from the File menu. You will now have a high resolution PDF/X file. Probably.

Warning: The error handling in ColorSync is abysmal. If you have too complicated a file - for example one that would not even allow you create a low resolution PDF/X file from the Print dialogue, then the resulting file may not be compliant with PDF/X even after the ColorSync treatment. The only way I know of verifying this for sure, is to open the file in Adobe Acrobat and do a "preflight".

Print shops and embedded fonts

With some print shops you may get an error back saying something like "This file was created with Mac OS X 10.4.11 Quartz PDFContext / Pages. We cannot print files created with this application."

Mac OS X embeds several subsets of the same font, just like many other applications. However, for some reason some printers (like Lulu) are not able to handle the way Mac OS X does it.

A solution that in some cases works is to create the PDF using Print > PDF > Print to PDF-X. In contrast to a standard PDF, which can be used for many purposes, a PDF-X file is dedicated to facilitate printing.

You can find some more information at the following sites:

• http://athleticaid.com/yaquinapress/PDF-FAQ.html#Mac_PDF_issues
• http://www.lulu.com/en/help/index.php?fSymbol=reasons_files_dont_print
• http://www.prepressure.com/pdf/basics/osx_quartz
• http://www.lulu.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=25428

Which of Pages' methods to create PDF files should I use?

If you prioritize a small file, use Share > Export > PDF (Good) or PDF (Better). "Good" means roughly 72 dpi for the embedded images. "Better" means roughly 150 dpi. Images will lose quality, but it should be acceptable for display on a computer screen.

If you prioritize high quality graphics, use Print > PDF > Save to PDF or Share > Export > PDF (Best). These two methods seem virtually identical. Graphics included in the document keep the original quality and resolution.

There is no difference between any of the methods for text and inserted shapes. They are vector graphics and keep their infinite resolution.

If you will send the PDF off for professional printing you can try one of two options.

• Print to PDF/X. This is supposed to produce a file with colour profiles that a printer can handle correctly. See further information.
• Print to PostScript and then convert the postscript file to PDF - preferably using Adobe Acrobat. In some (or all?) cases this produces a file that is easier to colour separate. See further information.

(Note: The "Share" menu mentioned above was called "File" before Pages '09.)

For information about some of the features that Pages supports in PDF files, see this post.


On the left a 300% view of a picture scaled to fit one square inch in Pages. In the middle, the same Pages file exported as "Good" PDF. The loss of quality is clearly visible at 300% magnification. To the right is the result of a "Preflight" in Adobe Acrobat. The image dimensions are 73/73 pixels.

How does Pages handle PDF-X files?

Pages does not handle PDF-X files at all, but MacOS X does through the standard print dialogue. There are some known problems with it - especially in Leopard, but if you have simple documents, it should work fine. Some of the problems are described here.

When MacOS X 10.4 prints to PDF-X it creates a PDF/X-3:2002 compliant file, probably regardless of the original content of the file. All fonts are embedded. RGB images without color calibration get a generic ICC profile called "Generic RGB Profile", if you generated the file from an English system. The file itself contains the specification of this profile. The ICC profile for an embedded image typically looks like this:

Profile version number: "2.2.0"
Color Management Module (CMM) type: "appl"
Profile/Device class signature: "mntr"
Color space of data: "RGB "
Profile Connection Space (PCS): "XYZ "
Magic number: "acsp"
Primary Platform: "Apple Computer, Inc. (APPL)"
Device manufacturer: "appl"
Device model: ""
Profile creator: "appl"
Creation date: "13/5/02 12:00"
Default rendering intent: Perceptual
Profile illuminant
- Illuminant X: 0.964203
- Illuminant Y: 1.000000
- Illuminant Z: 0.824905
Copyright information: "Copyright 2002 - 2003 Apple Computer Inc., all rights reserved."
Profile description: "Generic RGB Profile"

The output intent of the file is defined as "CGATS TR 001 SWOP". This basically means that it follows an agreed standard for printing with CMYK color space. CGATS is the Committee for Graphic Arts Technologies Standards. SWOP is an abbreviation for Specifications Web Offset Publications. Both organisations are American but the standard could be applied throughout the world.

To see more of this data go to Applications > Utilities > ColorSync Utility > Filters.

In theory, it should be possible to create your own Filter and apply them with Automator. The general idea is to take an existing workflow from /Library/PDF Services and copy it under another name to your own equivalent folder ~/Library/PDF Services. Edit the PDF service and data with Automator and give it a PDF file as input.

However, the process to create new filters is buggy, unless you know exactly which way to take. It was bad in Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) and it is not better in Mac OS 10.5 (Leopard). The I work in Pages blog has one process which is said to work. Again, there is a list of known problems and workarounds here.