Printing to PS and distilling to PDF question

[Dov Isaacs]

A few comments about this issue:

(1)	The Adobe PDF PostScript printer driver instance used to create PDF
explicitly by printing or implicitly by the FrameMaker "save as PDF"
feature has a special option in its "driver plug-in" component labeled
"Rely on system fonts only; do not use document fonts." This option is
accessed as follows from the "Adobe PDF" printer:

	Adobe PDF=>Properties=>Advanced (tab)=>Printing Defaults=>
			Adobe PDF Settings (tab)

as well as from:

	Adobe PDF=>Properties=>General (tab)=>Printing Preferences=>
			Adobe PDF Settings (tab)

Both of these areas need to be set the same way although usually, setting
via the Printing Defaults method sets the Printing Preferences (but don't
count on it!).

(2)	The function of this option is (supposedly) very simple. If the
option is enabled, the driver does not put any fonts into the PostScript
stream to be distilled. Why is this important or useful? It turns out that
the PostScript generated by the Windows PostScript driver, PSCRIPT5, and
especially the inclusion of fonts in that PostScript stream, is optimized
for consumption by a PostScript printer, not for creation of PDF. The
driver includes incrementally downloaded font fragments which is not
optimal for the Distiller and could cause problems later in a workflow
when trying to merge PDF file fragments together. When this option is
checked on, the driver puts no fonts in the PostScript; the Distiller
itself finds the fonts and puts them into the PDF file in a more
cohesive, organized manner.

(3)	There are situations, however, that cause problems The first of these
situation is when fonts are passed through to the driver by what is known
as the driver "PostScript escape mechanism." This is the means by which
EPS (or by extension, PDF) placed in a FrameMaker document is passed through
the driver to the final PostScript stream and many such EPS (or PDF) files
have embedded fonts which are then encountered by the driver. In FrameMaker 9,
if you don't use the RGB option for the "save as PDF" feature, FrameMaker's
UNIX PostScript generator (the entity responsible for creating CMYK PostScript)
also embed fonts in the PostScript stream it in generating. In either case, if
the driver senses these fonts being passed through when the "rely on system
fonts only" option is enabled, it throws up (guess that's a good way of
putting it) the error message requiring you to turn off that option.

(4)	The second problematic situation is that of applications that privately
install fonts. There are two examples of this. Microsoft Office application
documents have the ability to carry embedded TrueType and OpenType (TrueType
flavor only) fonts if and only if such fonts allow full embedability. When
Office applications open such documents, they privately install those
embedded fonts for your use while editing the document. Similarly, if you
try to print a font sample for a font that isn't installed on your system
(i.e., you double-click on a font icon and print from the font preview
presented by Windows), the font preview function temporarily privately installs
the font. The nasty however is that, privately installed fonts are passed through
Windows GDI and the driver (resulting in their embedding in the PostScript stream),
but cannot be seen by the Distiller which is run in a separate system process
and cannot access (or even know about) the privately installed fonts. In this
situation, you don't know what's going on until you get either a Distiller warning
or error (depending upon you joboptions).

(5)	There is a known bug in the Acrobat updater that totally resets all your
printer settings for the "Adobe PDF" PostScript printer driver instance every
time you update Acrobat. These days, in order to stay ahead of the hackers, the
Acrobat group at Adobe has been issuing updates on an almost monthly basis which
means that every time you update Acrobat, you had better follow that with resetting
all the "Adobe PDF" settings to your own preference. That includes the default
joboptions used for the distillation process.

Clear as mud?

	- Dov


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Tammy Van Boening
> Sent: Wednesday, March 03, 2010 6:07 AM
> To: framers at lists.frameusers.com; Free Framers
> Subject: Printing to PS and distilling to PDF question
> 
> All,
> 
> FM9 (all patched), Win7/64 bit system, Adobe Acrobat Pro 9. Several months
> ago, after upgrading to all the listed hardware/software, I started having
> issues with printing to PS and distilling the PS files to PDF using very
> staid, well-established files that had never given me issue before. I was
> receiving that contradictory message about "Rely on system fonts only; do
> not use document fonts" when I hadn't changed one thing about the fonts that
> I use in the documents (Arial and TNR only!) or what fonts were installed on
> my system (these two fonts are indeed installed.)
> 
> Long story short - after some guidance from several off list and on list
> replies, I actually went and did this: Start > Device and Printers and on
> the Adobe PDF Printer, right-clicked, selected Printer Properties, and under
> Preferences, cleared the Rely on system fonts only; do not use document
> fonts option.  That seemed to do the trick and I even double-checked that
> this option was still cleared before using Standard or High Quality job
> options to print to PS.
> 
> After the latest rounds of updates from Adobe, however, this preference is
> NOT staying cleared for the Adobe PDF printer. I have to clear it each and
> every time before I print to PS. That is absolutely the only thing that has
> changed in relation to my documents or installed fonts on my system - the
> documents don't use different fonts and I haven't uninstalled these two
> fonts from my system.
> 
> I was just wondering if anyone else had to mess with this setting for FM9
> /Acrobat Pro 9 and if so, had you seen this issue? (As explained to me, I am
> having to mess with this setting for the first time ever in  my  history
> using FM and printing to PS because of how FM 9/distiller 9 have changed
> their font handling -something about the fonts being in the font stream now
> or . . .l can't honestly say that I fully understand the surrounding issue,
> and am just wondering if others have seen it as well - it just makes no
> sense to me.)
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> TVB
> 
> 
> Tammy Van Boening