PDF Takes Center Stage

Another key benefit of PDF, says McIlroy, is PostScript file "sanitization." When Adobe Acrobat's Distiller module converts a PostScript file to PDF, it in effect rewrites a file into a more formal structure that tends to output more dependably.

Such sanitization, he says, "regularizes PS, but it doesn't necessarily mean that the regularized PS will now be RIPable," says McIlroy. So PDF is hardly a complete panacea for production problems. "If you have what we affectionately refer to as a 'file from hell' in the PS world, whether that's a particularly difficult QuarkXPress file or perhaps one that you've converted to PS," says McIlroy, "simply putting it in PDF does not guarantee that it will be smooth and happy and well-behaved."

Though use of PDF does not guarantee that a file will run, it can eliminate many surprises. "It's my impression, although it is based on limited data, that if you had a hundred RIP-crashing files out of QuarkXPress, maybe two-thirds of them would function smoothly in PDF, but a third would still be RIP-crashers."

That's partly because it is still possible for inexperienced users to create and send PDF files that contain missing fonts and bad PS, notes McIlroy.

"The problem of missing graphics is addressed 100 percent as far as I can see. (For) the fonts, you do need to have the correct settings. You need to embed the fonts and avoid subsetting them," he notes. It is possible to send files without fonts embedded, and there are different versions of them, which complicates successful output. McIlroy predicts that solutions to font-management issues will be part of subsequent releases of Adobe Acrobat software.

In fact, most problems with PDF will most likely be addressed by the industry soon, says McIlroy. "The list is not so much long as it contains some really key items."