XMF PDF proof preflight action list

[AaronH]

Hey guys, I'm digging into my PDF post flight action list since it does weird things with outlined fonts and we get questions all the time about it. I wasn't here when XMF was setup so I don't know where this action list came from exactly, except that it does say the authors name and Fujifilm in the metadata. It is called "PDF Proof Postflight.ppp".

Anyway, when we do buyouts for other printers and get pdf proofs from them, they're always small enough to email and are rasterized, no idea what resolution they are off hand but they're almost always 3MB and smaller. Anyone have an idea how to do that with a Pistop Preflight Profile?

What do you guys do for PDF proofs?

Here's a dropbox link to our profile: https://www.dropbox.com/s/fd6oh04bd9wipvw/PDF%20Proof%20Postflight.ppp?dl=0

[Slappy]

What do you guys do for PDF proofs?

We have a few PDF Proof Out options, I'll have to look at the settings tomorrow as it's been so long I don't remember how we created them. I'll check out your Profile too.

Sometimes if the XMF Proof PDF is still too large for my liking, I'll run a Pitstop Optimize PDF 3.0 Action on it. I guess I could add that to the existing XMF setup. Hmmmmmm.

[Joe]

The Pitstop action named "Minimize File Size 3.0" does a fantastic job of making a PDF smaller.

[abc]

That one you put on dropbox just resamples images and outlines fonts.
There's a lot more you can do to get the size down.

We had a file recently that had 900mb of just metadata!!!.
Also bear in mind if there is an ICC profile embedded they can be over 1mb each easily.

Lot's of other things you can add!

[AaronH]

Yeah I definitely need to add more stuff to get this right.

The outlining fonts usually causes confusion for just about all of our customers since in acrobat L's and I's that are outlined that are sans-serif look bold. We've had people refuse to approve jobs because of it.

[abc]

Outlining fonts is a bit old school now and not recommended.
PDF has moved on a long way, in fact missing fonts used to be the biggest preflight problem, but since Creative Cloud and the associated font libraries, it's much less of an issue.

[AaronH]

abc, is it possible to rasterize everything even type? I have the newest Pitstop 2020 update, but I tried making one that had Select All, then Rasterize Selection and XMF didn't like that one. It threw an error and failed the PDF creation.

I've got one now that sort of works by doing the Outline Fonts action list, then the Rasterize Page Keeping Text. It doesn't always outline all fonts though for some reason in my testing so far today.

Cool thing is I'm getting PDFs down to around 1 MB. I would just use XMF's rasterization, but we're stuck with only two rasterization licenses for two Epsons and can't make rasterized PDFs straight out of XMF without doing this Pistop Preflight Profile stuff.

[AaronH]

abc can you force outline with a pitstop action list? It looks like the ones that aren't outlining are restricted license fonts.

[Joe]

abc can you force outline with a pitstop action list? It looks like the ones that aren't outlining are restricted license fonts.

Make sure your Pitstop preferences are set to skip the license check.

[AaronH]

Make sure your Pitstop preferences are set to skip the license check.

Would that work in a Preflight Profile? I'm having XMF apply the Preflight profile to our Proof PDFs. Trying to get a good PDF Proof out of XMF so we can feel fairly confident in the content going out to the customer.

We had an issue today where XMF got the placement of text right in the Plate images and Epson proofs, but for non-rasterized PDFs out of XMF the type moved all over the place. I'm trying to figure out how to fix that.

[Joe]

It works in actions so if your preflight is running an action it would work. But if you are trying to use the actual preflight functions to outline text I'm not sure if it would apply to that too but I would think it would. Only one way to find out.

[abc]

XMF won't be on PitStop 2020 yet, but the rasterization actions are from older versions so should work ok.

There are a variety of different options, from rasterizing the whole page to selected objects.

What's your ideal solution?

[AaronH]

XMF won't be on PitStop 2020 yet, but the rasterization actions are from older versions so should work ok.

There are a variety of different options, from rasterizing the whole page to selected objects.

What's your ideal solution?

Ideally I'd like to rasterize the entire page. The only two actions I'm finding in 2020 are "Rasterize Selection" and "Rasterize Page Keeping Text". I tried Rasterize Selection after Select All, but there were fonts that it hadn't rasterized. I tried adding an Outline fonts function but it wouldn't Outline the fonts I was having trouble with.

I've tried adding a check for licenses before the outline fonts to see if I can get around trouble fonts, but Pitstop doesn't allow Checks in the Changes section of Preflight Profiles, so I can't add action lists to the Changes if it includes any checks.

[Joe]

Just wondering why you need to get the file size small enough to email and why do you need to rasterize them? There are several free services to upload PDF's to and send download links to people. The best representation would be a file with fonts embedded and not rasterized.

[frailer]

I've had manager get a pleading Labrador look at times and say 'they really would prefer to get it as email attachments'.
One would then graciously say, 'oh ohkay...' swearing under breath of course. Some ppl either don't know how, or are too lazy, to click on a download link and wait a minute.

I did come unstuck (notice I'm using past tense here) a few times with non-integrity/still vector-present PDFs, so would often, instead, Export a plate-faithful PDF outa Black Magic. They could get big, but I then downsized them with a Custom Optimise in Acrobat.

This is also a dementia test for me; hope you don't mind too much.