Re: Distiller PDF/X1A

"Steve/Aus" <adlab@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Not having had much to do the X-1a standard, I was lead to believe it was a
set of settings that conformed to standards normally or commonly used by the
printing and publishing industry. In other words, by selecting X-1a, it took
the guess work out of what acceptable type of PDF (as normally defined by
various user input settings) is suitable for our industry. Especially useful
if the PDF creator/ person has little knowledge of pre-press. Please advise
me if I am wrong here.

There are various PDF/X standards, each designed for different
purposes. They are designed to remove particular kinds of uncertainty,
NOT to be a substitute for proper settings. Take resolution, for
instance. A newspaper might demand 150 dpi, while a book 300 dpi, or
350 dpi. A single standard couldn't cover that.

PDF/X-1a is designed to remove the uncertainty found in some workflows
if RGB is used, though as more people move to colour management,
PDF/X-3 may become more popular, which allows properly tagged RGB.
This has been widely adoped in Europe.

For that reason, I am quite surprised that the X-1a standard is highly
technical ( and, I assume a long complicated document) and that it is not
free.

There has to be a document which describes the exact technical details
of PDF/X standards, and it is no surprise that this involves some
technical things, like the exact names to use in the internals of PDF.
This could hardly be left vague. The disappointment is that there
isn't really any substitute or simple introduction which is both
accurate and comprehensive while being accessible to a general
audience.

It is not free of charge because this is one of the rules of ISO (and
ANSI) standards. A pity, but that's the business model of
international standards.

How many people do not use X-1a and input all their own settings throughout
the whole PDF process, right from producing a postscript file through to the
final PDF?

A great many, and many publications will define rules that are
PDF/X(some flavour) PLUS some other rules.
----------------------------------------
Aandi Inston
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