Printing PDF Files
Most of the options in the Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro Advanced Print Setup dialog box are the same as for other Adobe applications. When you’re ready to print the document, the Acrobat 9 Pro Print dialog box contains the settings you need to ensure successful output. However, you should first set up the document’s pages correctly for your requirements and processes. Choose File > Print
Setup (Windows) or File > Page Setup (Mac OS) to see these settings.
To print an Adobe PDF document:
1. Choose File > Print.
Print Dialog
Choose page range and scale factor, as well as options for printing the content of comments and forms . Click the Advanced button for more options .
2. Choose your output device from the Name menu (Windows) or the Printer menu (Mac OS).
3. Specify which pages to print, page-scaling options, page rotation, and other basic settings.
Acrobat displays a preview of the document that reflects the settings you’ve selected. The Print dialog box displays the standard print settings for the operating system you’re using, based on the PPD of the selected printing device.
4. To view printing tips, click the Printing Tips button to launch a browser and access helpful tech notes on the Adobe website. Click the Summarize Comments button to generate a summary of comments in the PDF.
For more output options, click the Advanced button.
Advanced Print Setup
Choose options for composite or separated output (depending on the capabilities of the output device), as well as marks and bleeds, PostScript options, and
Color Management controls .
1. In the Output panel, specify settings for color separations., Transparency Flattener preset, screening, and whether to simulate overprint. You also have access to Ink Manager through this panel. Select the option to Print As Image only if the file is too complex to print normally.
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If you are outputting separations, click the printer icon to the left of an ink name to suppress printing for that color. In Composite mode, select the option to Simulate Overprinting to more realistically render overprinting attributes, if you are printing to a device that does not natively support overprint. Choose the appropriate Transparency Flattener preset. Note that frequency and angle options will most likely be overridden by functions in the imaging device. Click the
Ink Manager button to remap spot colors or to convert spot colors to process for output.
2. In the Marks and Bleeds panel, select the marks you want to print. Choose from several styles of marks—InDesign, Illustrator, and QuarkXPress. Include registration marks, color bars, and page information.
3. In the PostScript Options panel, select the settings for your workflow. Consult the documentation for the printing device to determine the appropriate PostScript options for correct output.
4. In the Color Management panel, set options for handling color:
• Color Handling: Determines if color management is used and whether it happens in the application or at the printing device.
• Acrobat color management: Enables you to select an ICC Profile that describes the target output device.
• Printer Color Management: Sends the document’s color data along with the document profile directly to the printer and lets the printer convert the document to the printer color space. The exact results of the color conversion can vary among printers.
• Same as Source (No Color Management): Discards all color management information and sends device color to the printer.
• Color Profile: Determines the profile used for handling colors during printing.
• Output Color: Specifies the output color based on the settings in the Output panel of the Advanced Print Setup dialog box.
• Apply Output Preview Settings: Simulates the print space defined by the device identified in the Simulation Profile menu of the Output Preview dialog box. (Choose
Advanced > Print Production > Output Preview.) This option allows you to simulate the appearance of one device on another.
Color Management
Choose color handling options, color profiles, and profiles for proofing simulation .
5. If you want to save the settings you’ve selected in the Advanced Print Setup dialog box, click
Save As, and then name the settings file. If you do not save the settings, Acrobat retains them only as long as the document is open.
Click OK to close the Advanced Print Setup dialog box, and then click OK to print.
Setting Up a PPD file
A PPD file contains information about the output device, including printer-resident fonts, available media sizes and orientation, optimized screen frequencies, resolution, and color output 133
capabilities. Selecting the PPD that corresponds to your PostScript printer or image setter provides Acrobat with the available settings for the output device, and determines which PostScript information is sent to the printer. For example, fonts listed in your PPD file reside in the printer, so they are not downloaded unless you explicitly include them.
Because so many advanced printing features depend on the PPD for information, it’s important to set up the correct PPD before you print. For best printing results, Adobe recommends that you obtain the latest version of the PPD file for your output device from the manufacturer. Be sure to store PPDs in the location specified by the operating system. This is usually accomplished by the installer for the printer driver. For details, consult the documentation for your operating system.
Note: Certain PPD features commonly found in imagesetter PPD files won’t be accessible from the
Advanced Print Setup dialog box. To set these printer-specific features, use the Printer Properties dialog box (Windows) or the Print Center (Mac OS). See “Setting Adobe PDF printer properties” in
Complete Acrobat 9 Pro Help.
Setting PostScript Options
You can set options for a particular PostScript printer, such as how to handle nonresident printer fonts and how to download Asian fonts. In addition, if a PDF file contains device-dependent settings, such as halftones and transfer functions, you can send these settings in the PostScript output to override the default settings in the printer. To use these options, you must be connected to a PostScript printer or have a PostScript printer driver installed with a PPD selected.
To set PostScript options in the Advanced section of the Print dialog box:
1. Choose a PostScript printer as your target printer and choose File > Print. In the Print dialog box, click the Advanced button and choose PostScript options in the dialog:
2. For Font And Resource Policy, specify how fonts and resources are downloaded (consult the printer documentation for appropriate font download setting):
• Send at Start: Downloads any fonts and resources that are used on more than one page at the beginning of the document. (This is the fastest option, but it uses more printer memory.)
• Send by Range: Downloads fonts and resources with the first page that uses them, and removes them when they are no longer needed. (This option uses less memory.)
• Send for Each Page: Downloads the fonts and resources with each page on which they are used. (This option uses the least amount of printer memory.)
3. For Print Method, choose the PostScript level of the output device.
4. Select other options in the PostScript panel as desired:
• Download Asian Fonts: Prints documents with Asian fonts that are not installed on the printer or embedded in the PDF file (they must be present on the system).
• Emit CIDFontType2 as Emit CIDFontType2 (for PostScript v. 2015 and up):
Preserves hinting information in the original font. Otherwise, CIDFontType2 fonts are converted to CIDFontType0 fonts, which are compatible with a wider range of printers.
• Emit Undercolor Removal/Black Generation: Retains undercover removal (UCR) and black generation settings if they exist in the PostScript file. Black generation calculates the amount of black to be used when trying to reproduce a particular color.
UCR reduces the amount of cyan, magenta, and yellow components to compensate for the amount of black added by the black generation. Because it uses less ink, UCR is generally used for newsprint and uncoated stock.
• Emit Halftones: Retains any halftone information in the file. Note that your RIP may override this information.
• Emit Transfer Functions: Retains the transfer functions traditionally used to compensate for dot gain or dot loss that may occur when an image is transferred to film.
With this option, Acrobat keeps the transfer functions as part of the file, and applies them to the file when it is output.
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• Emit Flatness: Uses the currently chosen flattener setting.
• Emit PS Form Objects: Generates PostScript form objects for Form XObjects within the PDF file. This option may reduce the overall size of the print job, but it will increase the printer memory required. Form XObjects are used to create a single description for complex objects, such as background objects, that can appear many times in a single document.
• Discolored Background Correction: Addresses severe discoloration issues that might occur during printing, such as white backgrounds printing as yellow.
5. Click OK to exit the PostScript Options dialog box. Then click Print in the main Print dialog box.
Creating a PostScript File
Acrobat 9 Pro can convert a document to a PostScript file, which can include full Document
Structuring Conventions (DSC) comments or not, depending on how you create the file.
To create a PostScript file for imposition or other print processes, you can attain better results by using the Save As command. Choose PostScript from the Save As Type (Windows) or Format
(Mac OS) menu. You can include full DSC comments and other advanced information, including device dependency, font inclusion, comments, and language level. For more information, see
“Converting to PostScript or Encapsulated PostScript (EPS)” in Complete Acrobat 9 Pro Help.
In Windows only, you can print a PostScript file from Acrobat through the Print dialog box by selecting the Print To File option. Acrobat creates a device-dependent PostScript file, which may not fully meet DSC conventions. It is recommended that you use the Save As command to create a PostScript file for compatibility with more devices and workflow systems.
Note: To create device-independent PostScript files from Acrobat, you must save as PostScript or
EPS format. To create PostScript Level 1, save as EPS.
Working with Asian fonts
Select Download Asian Fonts in the Advanced Print Setup dialog box if you want to print a PDF document with Asian fonts, but the fonts are not installed on the printer or embedded in the document. (Embedded fonts are downloaded whether or not this option is selected.) You can use this option with a PostScript Level 2 or later printer. To make Asian fonts available for downloading to a printer, make sure that you have downloaded the fonts to your computer using the
Custom or Complete option during installation of Acrobat.
If Download Asian Fonts is not selected, the PDF document prints correctly only if the referenced fonts are installed on the printer or embedded in the document. If the printer has similar fonts, it substitutes those. If there are no suitable fonts on the printer, it prints text in Courier.
If Download Asian Fonts does not produce the results you want, print the PDF document as a bitmap image. Printing a document as an image may take longer than using a substituted printer font.
Note: Some fonts cannot be downloaded to a printer, either because the font is a bitmap or because font embedding is restricted in that document. In these cases, the printer substitutes the font, and the printed output may not match the screen display.
Printing documents with layers
Many documents include layers, which provide flexibility by separating content. For example, graphics may be on one layer and text on another. A multilanguage file may contain separate layers for the text for each language. You can export layers that are created in Illustrator CS4 and
InDesign CS4 into a PDF 1.5 and later file.
Acrobat 9 Pro can show, hide, and print layers that were created in the original application. You can rename and merge layers in Acrobat, change the properties of layers, and add actions to layers through the Options menu on the Layers tab. Layers are supported in PDF 1.5 and later.
Typically, if a layer is visible, it prints.
To view layers in a PDF document:
1. Click the Layers tab or choose View > Navigation Tabs > Layers. Note that the “eyeball” visibility icon is not the only influence over whether a layer prints. In the Layers panel, select a layer and choose Options > Layer Properties to determine whether a layer is set to print.
2. Click the eye icon to hide a layer’s content, or click the empty box to display a layer’s content. This setting temporarily overrides the settings in the Layer Properties dialog box.
3. From the Options menu on the Layers tab, choose one of the following options:
• List Layers For All Pages: Shows every layer across every page of the document.
• List Layers For Current Page: Shows layers only on the currently visible page.
• Reset To Initial Visibility: Resets layers to their default state (as saved in the original file).
• Apply Layer Overrides: Displays all layers, regardless of the settings in the Layer Properties dialog box. You must first turn off this command before you can click the eye icon to hide a layer. You can edit layer properties in the Layer Properties dialog box, but changes (except changes to the layer name) do not take effect until you choose Options > Reset To Initial
Visibility.
Note: You cannot save the view of a layered PDF file that you create by using the eye icon on the Layers tab to show or hide layers. When you save the file, the visibility of the layers automatically reverts to the initial visibility state. If you want to save a different view of a layered PDF file, you must change the default state of the layers in the Layer Properties dialog box.
To edit layer properties, choose Layer Properties from the Options menu in the Layers tab. You can rename layers and set the default initial visibility, print, and export states.
You can combine the default state setting, the visibility settings, and the print setting to control when a layer is visible and when it prints. If a layer contains a watermark, for example, you may want the layer to be invisible on screen but always print and export to other applications. The layer does not need to be listed in the Layers tab, because
Acrobat handles all the state changes automatically.
Note: A locked icon in the Layers tab indicates that a layer is for information only. You can’t change the visibility of a locked layer; the only property you can change is its name.
To merge one or more layers in a PDF document, choose Merge Layers from the Option menu in the Layers tab, and then specify the target layer into which they merge. Merged
Layers
Acrobat 6 .0 and later support layers . Both InDesign and Illustrator can create layered PDF files, which can be useful for managing multiple versions of content .
Click the eyeball icon to control the visibility of a layer, and check the layer options to control printing of layers . To merge layers, choose Merge Layers from the Options pop-up menu at the top of the Layers pane .
