The Kodak Distiller Assistant features solve problems that Acrobat Distiller may encounter when distilling PostScript and EPS files to PDF.
The names of the features appear in the Acrobat Distiller startup messages box.
Control Flatness v1.5
This feature enables or disables flatness size changes present in the input file, and helps avoid problems where legacy PostScript files set the flatness to a very high value. Many older Adobe RIP products were unable to render complex paths (often generating limitcheck errors). The workaround had been to set the graphics state flatness to larger and larger values. Unfortunately, this would often force the RIP to render paths as a smaller number of line segments, resulting in curves which appeared flat (for example, circles that appear like stop signs).
Many legacy files still contain high flatness values, but newer RIPs (and the Distiller) can cope without raising the flatness value. This feature assists these legacy files by pretending to increase the flatness value, but letting the RIP render paths as smoothly as it can.
Note: The maximum resolution that still requires flatness control is 600 dpi. It is not necessary to control flatness if the device resolution is greater than this value. This check is not done in Distiller.
CreoScitex ArtPro Separations v1.0
This feature rewrites some ArtPro procsets more efficiently to ensure better performance.
Adobe OPI Helper v1.5
The Prinergy normalize function uses an Adobe OPI merging engine. This feature corrects several bugs in that engine. Recent additions to this feature support Adobe PageMaker colorized images correctly. The PageMaker bug would cause tinted images to be output at 100% intensity, rather than as set in the document for composite workflows.
Minimum Line Width v1.4
Many legacy applications generate PostScript that draws very thin lines (hairlines), expecting that the output will be appropriate for 300 or 600 dpi devices. When device resolutions increase to 2400 dpi, these thin lines seem to disappear, especially on a printing press. This is because the PostScript requests the smallest possible line (for example, a single device pixel). At 300 dpi, one device pixel is equal to 0.24 pt. At 2400 dpi, one device pixel is equal to 0.03 pt.
This feature monitors and modifies PostScript requests for line thickness, and ensures that the smallest thickness request is 0.216 pt or larger so the lines will appear even on high resolution devices. This check and enforcement works even when the input PostScript is scaled.
Control Smoothness v1.0
This feature enables or disables smoothness settings in files and resets the initial smoothness value to 0.002, which seems to be a good value for all RIPs.
Creo Rampage v1.1
This feature allows DCS sets created by Rampage to process to PDF without losing elements.
CreoScitex Vignettes v1.2
This feature contains logic to convert gradients created by the Scitex Blends XT into PS Level 3 smooth shades.
Detect RGB Images v1.1
This feature detects RGB images "masquerading" as /DeviceGray images in separated PostScript and forces them back to /DeviceRGB. Images in /DeviceRGB color space that appear in separated PDF files are properly rejected by the refiner's resource checking.
This module detects and converts back to RGB for:
- Photoshop RGB (tested with QuarkXPress 4.04 separated PostScript)
- RGB EPS using the colorimage operator embedded in QuarkXPress separated PostScript
Eliminate OPI Clip v1.1
Some EPS and DCS files (for example, copydot scans) have a bounding box equal to the trim only (does not include bleed). When Adobe OPI merges an EPS or DCS image, it generates PostScript to set up a clip equal to the bounding box that is specified in the image file.
This feature detects the use of clips by Adobe OPI when it merges EPS graphics and eliminates the clip.
InDesign Extra Color Fix v1.3
Under some circumstances, InDesign v1.1 emits extra named colors for process colors such as _Cyan_,_Magenta_,_Yellow_ and _Black_ (the erroneous part is the underscores) when printing composite PostScript.
This feature stops InDesign PostScript from generating erroneous separations.
Prevent FrameMaker CropBox v1.0
FrameMaker sets the CropBox to be the trim box. This is not desirable for printers because it causes the trim marks (crop marks), which are painted outside of this box, to be clipped out so they do not appear on printed output.
ScriptWorks Compatibility v1.0
In the past, some of the files with Harlequin-specific commands have generated a rangecheck error in Distiller. This feature allows these commands to work in Distiller.
Separate Level 2 Images v1.1
When Photoshop JPEG EPS files are included in a preseparated PostScript file, the images do not separate correctly; instead, the images appear only on the black plate. This feature intercepts these compressed images and allows them to separate correctly into their CMYK channels.
Note: This separation process requires extra processing time in Distiller.
This feature enables support, in separated PostScript, for composite (CMYK) images that use the dictionary form of the image operator. This kind of image cannot be separated properly with a Level 1 Separator.
Creo Shfill Overprint Fix v1.1
This feature forces shaded fills to overprint.
Creo Zap Printer Controls v1.4
The HP LaserJet driver for Windows often includes PJL commands in the PostScript file. Sending the PostScript to a non-HP printer often causes PostScript errors. Since Distiller is not an HP printer, these files will also fail during conversion to PDF. This feature adds support to avoid unnecessary PostScript errors, even when the incoming PostScript file is generated with an HP LaserJet printer driver.
Automatic Geometry Recognition v2.3
This feature installs several idioms to capture and automatically set the trim size from PostScript files. The supported software is:
- QuarkXPress 3.32 and later, including XPress Passport and XPress Japanese.
This feature installs idioms to replace crop mark painting procedures from QuarkXPress to detect, and potentially set geometry values, from crop marks and registration marks as specified by the user.
- QuarkXPress 3.32 and later, including XPress Passport and XPress Japanese.
- Adobe PageMaker 6.0/6.5, including the Japanese version.
This feature installs idioms to replace the crop mark painting procedure from Adobe PageMaker 6.0/6.5 to capture the four edges of the trim box, and to set the page trim based on these marks.
- Adobe PageMaker 6.0/6.5, including the Japanese version.
- Adobe InDesign 1.0 and later.
These idioms work by intercepting and recording the location of crop marks when the PostScript draws them. This requires enabling the crop marks when printing to a PostScript file from these applications.
For best results for viewing and modifying the trim box after the PDF is created, use the Kodak Prinergy Geometry Editor software.
Copydot Enhancements v1.2
This feature is an idiom to improve the PDF workflow for legacy copydot files created by Creo Renaissance scanners or the Kodak Copydot Toolkit software. This feature assists with tiling issues; use this component when converting copydot EPS files to PDF pages.
For more information about CopyDot Toolkit, go to http://graphics.kodak.com/
Enhance Quark Color Separator v1.0
The PostScript-based color separation code in QuarkXPress does not correctly print Photoshop DCS-2 images with clipping paths. This feature provides a PostScript Level 3 idiom to correct this behavior. It supports QuarkXPress 3.32 and later, including XPress Passport.
Prevent FrameMaker RGB v1.0
PostScript generated by Adobe FrameMaker will automatically detect that it is executing within Distiller, and when it does, it converts all colors from CMYK to RGB. This feature was added to FrameMaker with the expectation that the PDF would only be viewed on the computer monitor and not printed.
To overcome this limitation of FrameMaker, this feature adds an idiom to intercept and fool the check for Distiller, returning a better result (for example, that no CMYK-to-RGB color conversion is necessary).
Adobe Illustrator Patches v1.11
Under some circumstances, Adobe Illustrator converts spot color gradients to process color smooth shades. This feature adds idioms to replace the Illustrator logic. It preserves spot colors by using DeviceN color space, and converts gradients to smooth shades. It does not affect the Illustrator blend tool. It applies only to objects created with the gradient tool.
Additionally, this feature prevents Illustrator from substituting Courier for missing fonts. Missing fonts are properly reported in the Distiller log file. It supports Adobe Illustrator versions 7 and 8. It does not modify the behavior of versions 9 or 10. It also supplements Distiller's built-in support for older versions of Illustrator.
Quark Custom Blends v1.4
This feature is a set of idioms that replaces the custom color (spot color) blend code from Quark XPress 3 and 4, and uses the Smooth Shades patterns and DeviceN color space from PostScript 3 to represent these graphical constructs in a way that both produces smoother blends and still retains the custom colors. Blends with a mixture of spot and process colors are also supported.
This feature supports QuarkXPress 3.32 and later, including XPress Passport. It does not replace the Distiller built-in support for process-to-process blends.
Note: This feature has the following limitations:
- These smooth shading blends looks "banded" in Acrobat, but that is only a visual effect of the CMYK to RGB transformation and a visual effect related to rendering slightly different colors butted together.
- Quark converts "multi-ink" colorants to process colors when a "multi-ink" colorant is used as an endpoint in a blend. If such a blend is constructed with one endpoint as a "multi-ink" colorant and the other endpoint as a spot color, Quark will represent this as a blend from a process color to a spot color (that is, the "multi-ink" colorant is lost).
FreeHand Blends v1.6
This feature is a set of idioms that reproduces the blends from the MacroMedia FreeHand software (version 7 and later) using Smooth Shades and DeviceN color spaces. It avoids the "convert to process" behavior as well as increases the quality of blends.
This feature replaces Distiller's built-in support, and allows Distiller to create composite PDF files with spot color gradients from FreeHand. Note that this is contrary to the FreeHand documentation, which states that gradients with spot colors will be converted to process color. This feature ensures that spot colors are retained properly.
Note: This feature has the following limitations:
- Viewing these smooth shading blends in Acrobat looks "banded" but that is only a visual effect of the CMYK to RGB transformation and a visual effect related to rendering slightly different colors butted together.
- These idioms currently target FreeHand 7 and 8. They have also been tested successfully with FreeHand 9. Earlier or later versions are not directly supported, although some may work.
HelpShiraCeps2Ps
This feature optimizes Distiller for more efficient processing of Shira files.