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| What
is a PDF? What is Adobe® Acrobat® Distiller? What is the Adobe® Postscript® Driver? What is the CREO® Distiller Assistant? What is the Prinergy® Refiner PPD? Why does NCI request PDF files for Agency Ads? What does "embedded" mean when referring to PDF files? What applications do I need on my computer in order to create PDF files? What graphics applications does NCI provide support for PDF submission? What
does QuarkXPress™ do? |
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| What
is a PDF? “PDF” stands
for Portable Document Format. This format was created by Adobe®
to help with the development of the “paperless office”; forms and documents
can be stored electronically on a computer in this format rather than
in a filing cabinet, saving space and reducing search time.
PDFs are capable of displaying
photos, text, and other graphical elements common in the publishing industry
in a resolution high enough for print quality.. Because of this and the
format’s “portability”, many printers have adopted the PDF as their standard
submission.
What is Adobe® Acrobat®
Distiller?
Adobe® Acrobat Distiller is an application that converts Postcript files into PDF files. What this means is that after you save the ad you built in QuarkXPress™ as a Postscript file, you will need Adobe® Acrobat® Distiller to make the final leap to PDF format. Adobe® Acrobat® Distiller is not available as free download, but comes packaged with the purchase of Adobe® Acrobat® 7 Professional or Adobe® Acrobat® 7 Standard. Click here to go to Adobe®'s website for purchasing information.
What is the Adobe®
Postscript® Driver?
The Adobe® Postscript® Driver is a file that "tells" your computer how to interpret Postscript files. You simply need to download it and place it in the correct folder on your computer. Instructions for this are available for Mac or PC. What is the CREO®
Distiller Assistant?
CREO® Distiller Assistant is file that contains the correct Adobe® Acrobat® Distiller settings that will help ensure that the PDF files you create will meet NCI's specifications. This file simply needs to be downloaded and placed in the correct folder on your computer. Instructions for this are available for Mac or PC.
What is the Prinergy®
Refiner PPD?
The Prinergy® Refiner PPD is a Postscript Printer Description file that "tells" your computer what type of printing device the PDF file will be used for printing. You simply need to download it and place it in the correct folder on your computer. Instructions for this are available for Mac or PC. Why
does NCI request PDF files for Agency Ads? What
does “embedded” mean when referring to PDF files? When a photo or other element is “embedded”
in a PDF file, this simply means that a copy of that element has been
included in the PDF and will travel with the PDF when submitted to the
printer. This is a great advantage, because if all elements are embedded
in the submitted PDF file, then there is no need for “support” files like
in a QuarkXPress™
document. The PDF contains everthing needed by the printer to produce
the page.
What
applications do I need on my computer in order to create PDF files? At the very least you will need Adobe®
Acrobat®(the full version, not Reader) and a graphics
or page layout application capable of outputting to PostScript. The full
version of Adobe® Acrobat®
comes with Adobe® Acrobat®
Distiller, which is the engine that creates PDF files from PostScript.
What
graphics applications does NCI provide support for PDF submission? NCI provides PDF support for QuarkXPress™.
If you are using another application other than the one’s supported by NCI, contact the vendor of the application for assistance with creating PDF files. What
does QuarkXPress™
do? QuarkXPress™
is a page layout application. It is used to assemble graphical elements
such as photos and logos along with blocks of text to create pages in
a printed publication. It also has the ability to create web pages, but
this is not a feature used or supported by NCI. QuarkXPress™
is also the application used to take these completed pages and export
them into a file format known as PostScript.
PostScript is a page description language
that is used to “explain” to a printing device how to output a graphical
file. To put it simply, PostScript “translates” a human-created file into
a format better understood by a particular machine. Adobe®
Acrobat® Distiller only deals with files that have
been “translated” into PostScript.
How
do I create a Postscript File? A step by step explanation of how to
create a PostScript file from a document in QuarkXPress™
is available here.
If your computer requires a PostScript driver, download for MAC or PC. In order to make this translation in QuarkXPress™, you will need to install the Prinergy PPD (PostScript Printer Description) on your computer. Step by step instructions on how to do this can be found here. What
is a printer description? A printer description is a file that
contains all the required information your computer needs to interact
with a particular printing device. When creating a PostScript file from
a document in QuarkXPress™,
select the Prinergy® PPD as your printer description.
Step by step instructions on how to download and install the Prinergy® PPD for MAC or PC. What
does Adobe® Acrobat® Distiller
do? Adobe® Acrobat®
Distiller is the application that actually creates the PDF file out of
the PostScript file. Distiller functions much like a software version
of a printing device, but instead of outputting a printed page, rather
outputs an electronic file in the form of a PDF.
Once the CREO® Distiller Assistant Job Options has been installed in Distiller, a PostScript file may simply be dragged to the Distiller window and the application will begin generating the PDF. What
are Job Options? Job Options are the settings available
in Adobe® Acrobat® Distiller
such as color space (RGB, CMYK, etc.), document dimensions, resolution,
compression, security, etc. There are many different possible combinations
and reasons for changing these settings.
NCI has a file available for download that you can install on your computer that sets all of these options automatically, so you will not accidentally get one wrong. Step by step instructions on how to download and install the CREO® Distiller Assistant Job Options for MAC or PC. The CREO® Distiller Assistant files are located just below the instructions files. What
is the difference between RGB and CMYK? RGB and CMYK are abbreviations that
represent two different kinds of “color space”.
RGB stands for Red Green Blue, and represents colors of light. This is the color space used by computer monitors; different amounts of various combinations of these three colors are used to generate all the colors available in this “color gamut”. White is created by applying 100% of all three colors; black is a complete lack of all three colors (0%). Never use RGB elements in a file that will be printed in a four-color process (NCI production operates in a four-color process). CMYK stands for Cyan Magenta Yellow Black, and represents colors of ink. This is the color space used by printers in off-set press production; different amounts of various combinations of these four colors are used to generate all the colors available in this “color gamut”. White is a complete lack of all four colors (assuming the paper being used is white); black can be 100% black ink, but there are other combinations used as well. Because four-color off-set printing requires a separation into four “plates”, each consisting of one color of ink (C, M, Y, or K), documents or elements of documents that are not created in the CMYK colorspace cannot be used. Incorrect colorspace is a very common error found in PDF submission and often results in an ad printing with different color values than expected. Always submit CMYK PDFs to NCI and make sure that any embedded elements are CMYK. What
is “resolution”? Simply put, resolution is the amount
of information describing a graphical element. Ultimately, all graphical
elements are described by a printing device as a series of dots. The more
dots describing the graphical element, the greater (or better) the “resolution”.
Imagine you are drawing a picture of an object, but instead of using crayons or markers you reproduce the image by arranging small colored stones on a flat surface. The more stones you use, the more detail you can add to make the image more realistic. Adding more stones increases the size of the image, but also increases its “resolution”. A digital photograph is very much like a mosaic created from colored stones, only instead of stones it is composed of electronic squares known as “pixels”. It is the amount of pixels used in rendering a digital photograph that determines the amount of visible detail, and thus the “resolution” and file size. Resolution for photos and graphic elements should be 300 dots per inch (dpi) at a minimum. Print-ready PDF files should be rendered at 2400 dpi. What
is “compression”? Compression is a mathematical process
by which an electronic file can be reduced in file size. This is done
in a number of ways, but generally involves recognition of patterns within
the file. The “compression algorithm” (a kind of mathematical formula)
then rewrites the file as a series of remembered patterns instead of raw
data. The result is usually a smaller file size that can be “uncompressed”
when needed.
Compression is useful when files need to be sent over the internet or saved onto media with limited storage capacity. Jpeg (.jpg) files are, by their nature, automatically compressed. Some jpegs will benefit from additional compression, others will receive little benefit from it. Other compression formats include Zip (.zip), StuffIt (.sit), and Stuffit Self-Extracting (.sea). Should
I turn on security or “lock” my PDF files? Never lock files to be submitted to
a printer. Security must be off, or the file may not allow certain devices
to utilize it. This is a setting in Job Options in Adobe®
Acrobat® Distiller.
Step by step instructions on how to download and install the NCI Adobe® Acrobat® Distiller Job Options for both Mac OSX in QuarkXPress™ 6 or Mac/XP/2000 QuarkXPress™ 5 or QuarkXPress™ 4. |
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