RE: wee problem printing from PDF... or is that TO PDF?

Subject: RE: wee problem printing from PDF... or is that TO PDF?
From: "McLauchlan, Kevin" <Kevin -dot- McLauchlan -at- safenet-inc -dot- com>
To: Margaret Cekis <margaret -dot- cekis -at- comcast -dot- net>
Date: Mon, 5 Dec 2011 13:38:44 -0500

Thanks, but...
I was doing OK for a while, using the File > Export as PDF function.
Some weeks ago I began having a problem with a graphic element - the company logo on the very first page of the document - when exporting to PDF, which exploded into partially-overlaid multiples of itself in the PDF. (If you remember the old days of CRT displays, when you went too far into overscan and had your image wrap around and partially overwrite itself?)

Every other element of the document was fine - text, screencaps, diagrams, etc., no problem.
Re-importing the logo from our graphic arteestes did not help, nor did switching from .PNG to .JPG.
It was probably something to do with LibreOffice. (Had the same problem a few years ago in OpenOffice, but it eventually went away.)

But that problem was fixed when I scrapped "Export as PDF" and went back to my three-step process:

- print to Acrobat (as my printer instance), creating a postscript file
- run the resulting PostScript file through distiller to create the PDF
- open and print the PDF from Acrobat.

Doing it that way, I seem to have an array of options and settings in all sorts of places. I'm not aware of any previously-available settings being unavailable. Seems to be the usual suspects on each dialog page... but then it's easy to forget what's not there.

Anyway, I was seeing my pages looking correct and proportionate in Acrobat, and then printing improperly as previously described, from Acrobat.

I need PDF as my distribution medium, AND because Acrobat has the built-in intelligence to do the imposition of a straight first-to-last book document into a duplex-printed booklet arrangement such that the pages all fall into place when the printout is stacked and folded for saddle-stitch (stapling) binding. No cutting. No origami.
Doing the same pre-print pagination/imposition in LibreOffice or Word would be agonizing.

And, as I say, it worked for years.
Maybe somebody helpfully adjusted a default setting in the current version of LibreOffice, or maybe somebody helpfully adjusted a default setting in the current version of Acrobat Pro, and I haven't identified the culprit yet.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Margaret Cekis [mailto:margaret -dot- cekis -at- comcast -dot- net]
> Sent: December-05-11 12:00 PM
> To: McLauchlan, Kevin
> Cc: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
> Subject: Re: wee problem printing from PDF... or is that TO PDF?
>
> Kevin McLauchlan complained about a problem printing from PDF... or is
> that TO PDF?
>
> I have a 40-page document, created in LibreOffice 3.4.3 on Windows 7.
> The page size is 5.5 wide by 8.5-inches tall, which fits perfectly on
> 8.5x11 sheets when printed as a booklet.
> I know this, because I've done it for years....the latest release of my
> Quick Start Guide was printing the wrong size. I tried. They were
> right.....the document now prints as a booklet, but with each page
> reduced to half size. That is, when I print from Acrobat with the
> Booklet option selected (Page Handling > Page Scaling > Booklet
> Printing, Acrobat places the pages in the right booklet-binding order,
> two-up on landscape 8.5x11 sheets, with everything fine except the
> 5.5x8.5 contents are shrunk (in their 5.5x8.5 space) to half height and
> half width, making each page rather lost in the middle of its already-
> small portion of the paper.
> ______________________________________________
> Kevin:
> I've found that the newer versions of Acrobat hide (and take away your
> control) of the formerly 2-step print postscript and then distll-to-PDF
> process. It sounds like what's happening is that the automated process
> is re-reducing your 2-up landscape layout when you already have it
> formatted to the correct size for the layout. I'd do a test by blowing
> up your orininals to 8-1/2 x 11 pages, and then run the process. It
> should (might) format the booklet correctly to the original setup.
>
> I know that the vast majority of users who are just making pdfs to send
> something interesting to someone else with an e-mail may be delighted
> with one-step PDF-ing, but when some of us who do want take advantage
> of the advanced features of Acrobat try to use them, we find that the
> key option selections we relied on using have been hidden and automated
> to make one-step PDF-ing more efficient. A pox on Adobe for ignoring
> its professional users!
> Margaret Cekis, Johns Creek Ga

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References:
wee problem printing from PDF... or is that TO PDF?: From: McLauchlan, Kevin
Re: wee problem printing from PDF... or is that TO PDF?: From: Margaret Cekis

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