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Can anyone recommend an acrobat pro alternative?


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29 minutes ago, Lagarto said:

rasterizing without a necessity

Alright, PDF/X-4 export can handle it without rasterizing:
transpdfexp19.afdesign.x4.pdf
Now I hope that my print guy can handle X4, too. So far they've always been happy with PDF/X-3.

Oh well.

MacBookAir 15": MacOS Ventura > Affinity v1, v2, v2 beta // MacBookPro 15" mid-2012: MacOS El Capitan > Affinity v1 / MacOS Catalina > Affinity v1, v2, v2 beta // iPad 8th: iPadOS 16 > Affinity v2

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Hi all,

I'm the developer of PDF Checkpoint. A user pointed me to this discussion and it's good to see PDF Checkpoint mentioned on your forum.

As someone correctly mentioned earlier, PDF Checkpoint is indeed no match to hi-end tools of Adobe and Callas, nor it attempts to be such a tool (not yet at least). PDF Checkpoint targets users who need affordable basic PDF preflight and conversion.

There are many plans for further development of PDF Checkpoint, with separations preview and ink coverage being considered as well. However, there's no specific timeframe for this yet as the current major upgrades of InDesign plug-ins take priority.

If you have any questions or specific requests for PDF Checkpoint I'll do my best to address them.

Also, while myself researching the separations preview options I recently came across a tool that hasn't been mentioned here. I think many users will find it helpful. Check out the free viewer here:

https://www.packz.com/downloads-info/

The download link is on the registration page.

I'm not associated with this company in any way. But I thought it'd be good to share this info especially that their tool isn't a competitor to PDF Checkpoint anyway (not for the foreseeable future at least).


Thanks,
Leo 

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8 hours ago, loukash said:

Alright, PDF/X-4 export can handle it without rasterizing:
transpdfexp19.afdesign.x4.pdf
Now I hope that my print guy can handle X4, too. So far they've always been happy with PDF/X-3.

Oh well.

PDF/X-3 must not contain transparencies per ISO norm. Therefore all *special effects* have to be rasterized to tiff. The unwanted lines, you are seeing in those PDF are mathematically "unlimited thin".

PDF/X-4 and above can contain and transport all the "modern" design effects.

Johannes

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Here, I do not know, what to reply: As to my knowledge, in the specifications of PDF/X-4 are transparency also allowed as layers, and they are transported up to the raster image processor. If I use transparency in connection with (pixel-) pictures, they can't be "flattened to vector objects", or?
    What do you mean with: Transpacies are not allowed, but needn't rasterized" ??? This seems to me contradictory.

But, I think that discussion ist not neccessary at that point.

Thanks, Lagarto, for your input to that theme!
Johannes

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9 minutes ago, jweitzel said:

    What do you mean with: Transpacies are not allowed, but needn't rasterized" ??? This seems to me contradictory.

Means, transparency effects can be rendered to rasterized pixel image below vector objects (like shadows) or rendered within vector shapes (like see through objects).

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11 hours ago, leob said:

There are many plans for further development of PDF Checkpoint, with separations preview and ink coverage being considered as well.

Great news Leob

Thanks for the pointer to PACKZVIEW I'm awaiting a download link 👍

Daz1.png

Mac Pro Cheese-grater (Early 2009) 2.93 GHz 6-Core Intel Xeon 48 GB 1333 MHz DDR3 ECC Ram, Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 580 8GB GDDR5, Ugee 19" Graphics Tablet Monitor Triple boot via OCLP 1.2.1 - Mac OS Monterey 12.7.1, Sonoma 14.1.1 and Mojave 10.14.6

Affinity Publisher, Designer and Photo 1.10.5 - 2.2.1

www.bingercreative.co.uk

 

 

 

 

 

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13 hours ago, loukash said:

I just realized a much bigger issue: Affinity will rasterize any vector objects with transparencies on PDF/X-3 output.
Unlike e.g. AICS5 with exactly the same vector content.

Is this related to the behaviour I've observed previously that everything(!) on the Publisher page gets rasterized in the PDF when an object with transparency (e.g. a drop shadows) happens to be somewhere(!) (on) the topmost layer? (meaning that this object doesn't necessarily have to overlap vector objects, especially type, on lower layers which got rasterized no less...)

In InDesign flattening/rasterization always seemed to happen limited to the area where it was needed but with my first Publisher PDFs I was absolutely surprised that this happened actually pagewide to all objects on layers below an object with transparency no matter where the latter was positioned on the page or how much space it actually took.

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4 hours ago, jweitzel said:

PDF/X-3 must not contain transparencies per ISO norm.

I know that, and that's not the point.

1 hour ago, Fixx said:

rendered within vector shapes (like see through objects)

Or in other words:
Trasparencies being flattened to solid colors on vector objects whenever possible.

This appears to be the app's job to do before it sends the page to the X-3 filter.
Heck, Freehand 9 could do that with its fake "transparency" effect more than two decades ago. (Note to self: install Freehand 9 in Sheep Shaver!)

As a side note, inspecting the MacOS El Capitan (for now) built-in PDF/X-3 filter Applications/Utilities/ColorSync Utility > Filters that can be used for Print To PDF, it can only rasterize. And it's pretty bad at it, which is likely why hardly anyone would use it for serious work.

6 minutes ago, Lorox said:

everything(!) on the Publisher page gets rasterized in the PDF when an object with transparency (e.g. a drop shadows) happens to be somewhere(!) (on) the topmost layer? (meaning that this object doesn't necessarily have to overlap vector objects, especially type, on lower layers which got rasterized no less...)

A while ago, I've noticed that too, and it's a Bad Thing™.
Luckily I'm not really much into these gimmicks, prefering "flat" design, so I might be able to work around that.

1 hour ago, Lagarto said:

It is wrong thread

Yes, we're getting off topic. My apologies.

MacBookAir 15": MacOS Ventura > Affinity v1, v2, v2 beta // MacBookPro 15" mid-2012: MacOS El Capitan > Affinity v1 / MacOS Catalina > Affinity v1, v2, v2 beta // iPad 8th: iPadOS 16 > Affinity v2

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15 hours ago, Lagarto said:

The separations from RGB color space and requiring color profiles are surprisingly good but not accurate so the emdedded profile or color intent are not applied

Getting back on topic...

Have you seen the ICC documentation for GS? > https://www.ghostscript.com/doc/current/GS9_Color_Management.pdf

A quick look shows it has the flag:

-dUsePDFX3Profile = 1

"If this option is included in the command line, source device color values (e.g DeviceCMYK, DeviceRGB, or DeviceGray) that match the color model of the output intent will be interpreted to be in the output intent color space. In addition, if the output devicecolor model matches the output intent color model, then the destination ICC profile will be the output intent ICC profile."

(no idea why it's referencing only x/3 as I'm sure all the x/ variants specify the output intent.

There is also an additional flag to separately set an output profile:

-sPostRenderProfile = my_postrender_profile.icc

In theory I think it should be possible to get fully accurate output.

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4 hours ago, loukash said:

(Note to self: install Freehand 9 in Sheep Shaver!)

I have Freehand 8 (1998) working in sheep shaver - thought I'd have a go at using it for vector distortions / perspective warping - sadly its not very stable running in Mac os9 - still great for the odd throwback to the 90's

Daz1.png

Mac Pro Cheese-grater (Early 2009) 2.93 GHz 6-Core Intel Xeon 48 GB 1333 MHz DDR3 ECC Ram, Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 580 8GB GDDR5, Ugee 19" Graphics Tablet Monitor Triple boot via OCLP 1.2.1 - Mac OS Monterey 12.7.1, Sonoma 14.1.1 and Mojave 10.14.6

Affinity Publisher, Designer and Photo 1.10.5 - 2.2.1

www.bingercreative.co.uk

 

 

 

 

 

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13 hours ago, Lagarto said:

Version 1.0.0.6

What's the requirements? Can it run in Crossover = Wine emulation? My Crossover license is outdated, but it can definitely run an XP emulation which I'm using from time to time for a few obsolte Win-only audio converters. I think Crossover can also make use of .NET, at least I vaguely recall having installed it (or tried to?) in the past on my old Mountain Lion hard drive, but it was somehow quite a p.i.t.a.

MacBookAir 15": MacOS Ventura > Affinity v1, v2, v2 beta // MacBookPro 15" mid-2012: MacOS El Capitan > Affinity v1 / MacOS Catalina > Affinity v1, v2, v2 beta // iPad 8th: iPadOS 16 > Affinity v2

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21 minutes ago, Lagarto said:

I am not sure if it is truly a free tool

Well, for the fun of it, I have requested a "product key", and this is what I've got:

Quote

Dear [loukash],
Thank you for requesting PACKZVIEW. However, we cannot approve this request.
This is an invalid website. The website URL and e-mail address should be from an existing labels/packaging company.
For more information, please contact the Hybrid Support Team

Not being "an existing labels/packaging company", obviously I don't apply.

That said, I haven't tested the app yet.

MacBookAir 15": MacOS Ventura > Affinity v1, v2, v2 beta // MacBookPro 15" mid-2012: MacOS El Capitan > Affinity v1 / MacOS Catalina > Affinity v1, v2, v2 beta // iPad 8th: iPadOS 16 > Affinity v2

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Also, this version doesn't run on El Capitan or Sierra, as it's apparently dependant on system frameworks that came with High Sierra. Which would be a non-issue for me as I have Acrobat X. I'll try to install on Catalina then, as that's my primary target for this whole "exercise" anyway.

MacBookAir 15": MacOS Ventura > Affinity v1, v2, v2 beta // MacBookPro 15" mid-2012: MacOS El Capitan > Affinity v1 / MacOS Catalina > Affinity v1, v2, v2 beta // iPad 8th: iPadOS 16 > Affinity v2

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1 hour ago, loukash said:

Not being "an existing labels/packaging company", obviously I don't apply.

That said, I haven't tested the app yet.

Thats odd I registered and got the download link and product key, although it took a while to get the go-ahead email, they prob checked my website first, although I only have a handful of packaging jobs on my site portfolio ---- the app loads up and looks really promising and all goes well until you actually try to open a pdf (tried seven including a couple of downloaded product brochures that appeared to have been created in InDesign cc) all bomb the app even tried a couple of old .ai files which it supports - all bomb - sent them crash logs - I'll let you know how it goes

Daz1.png

Mac Pro Cheese-grater (Early 2009) 2.93 GHz 6-Core Intel Xeon 48 GB 1333 MHz DDR3 ECC Ram, Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 580 8GB GDDR5, Ugee 19" Graphics Tablet Monitor Triple boot via OCLP 1.2.1 - Mac OS Monterey 12.7.1, Sonoma 14.1.1 and Mojave 10.14.6

Affinity Publisher, Designer and Photo 1.10.5 - 2.2.1

www.bingercreative.co.uk

 

 

 

 

 

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