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AC10 Out-Source PDF printing issues

Anonymous
Not applicable
We are a Mac office and using AC10 (966 US).

It seems that the printing company we use is having issues printing our PDFs. They use Oce printers and have to convert PDFs to TIFFs to print them........ I don't understand why they can't print PDFs directly.... Anyway, they have to "process" the PDFs into TIFFs and it seems they are having issues all of the sudden. I don't know if it is a AC10 thing or some OSX update that is causing it. To add more confusion, it's not every set I send over....

Has anyone else experienced anything similar?

Thanks
10 REPLIES 10
Anonymous
Not applicable
Most Océ printers can print PDFs directly - just drop them in the cue and they print. It sounds like your service bureau needs to study the manual. An inability to print PDF seems like a business plan for failure.
Anonymous
Not applicable
Yes...... I've spoken to them about this..... They say that the postscript add-on for there printer still needs to "process" the PDF.... Whatever that means..
I suspect the issue is on their end, but thought I'd ask the forum..
Thomas Holm
Booster
Anyy PDF file needs to be rasterized to be printed on a dot-printing printer. This happens invisibly in office printers, but a print shop can have more control over the process. I'd guess that's what they're referring to.

I've had issues with pdfs from Archicad previously, especially when the Archisketchy add-on is used, but sometimes also with certain fill or line types. These were when I used the MacOSX system pdf utility (Preview-> Save, or Save As PDF).

All these issues went away when I started using the Adobe Print to PDF utility, included when buying the full Acrobat package. Recommended.
AC4.1-AC26SWE; MacOS13.5.1; MP5,1+MBP16,1
Anonymous
Not applicable
Thomas wrote:
All these issues went away when I started using the Adobe Print to PDF utility, included when buying the full Acrobat package. Recommended.
Do you think there is any way that GS can get us a "group" discount on the full Acrobat package? I am only half joking?
Pete
Newcomer
I also send PDF's to a service bureau and just had my first problem in years. A couple of sheets in the set were chopped off (partially printed) and there was a strange fill printed on one drawing that did not appear on screen.

I suspected shadow fills on elevations and sections since I had to change them from solid grey (AC9) to 25% screen in AC10 so I could "see through" the shadows.

Anyway, I turned off shadows on all sections and elevations, created a new PDF (Amyuni driver) and it printed fine.
Pete Read
ArchiCAD 12; Artlantis Studio 2
MacBook Pro 2.4 Core2Duo, 2GB, OSX(10.5) and XPpro(SP3)
Anonymous
Not applicable
I have had problems in the past on a PC that were only corrected by switching to the pdf writer in Acrobat. I have had issue on the Mac side as well when using the amyuni driver to produce PDF's. If I opened the files in preview and re-saved a PDF out of preview is resolved the issue for the printing service. Since 10 I have stopped my post processing of PDF's and have not had issues as of yet.
Anonymous
Not applicable
Thomas wrote:


All these issues went away when I started using the Adobe Print to PDF utility, included when buying the full Acrobat package. Recommended.


Thomas-

Does this mean you use the "print" setting in publishing properties instead of the "save" setting..... Sorry I know this has been talked about before.

I don't know how else to use the Adobe print utility than to choose it as the printer.....

I don't like the "print" setting, because it doesn't make a multi-page PDF..... I don't think...

Oh.... as an update to my original post...... I sent the print shop a new PDF last night and it crashed there system...... The PDF has a fair amount of text in it and some imported PDFs..... It's 11 sheets (2x3) and about 7mb......
Thomas Holm
Booster
Well, yes I use Adobe Print to make pdfs with the Print command. Sav AsPDF still uses Apple's bult-in PDF engine.

Note that the Archicad problems I had were when creating PDFs from individual Archicad views. I have not had that kind of problems when Publishing layouts. And I usually Publish to multi-page PDFs just like you. Archicad's publish to pdf uses Apple's OSX-included PDFengine, AFAIK, and there is no way that I know of to make it use Adobe other than to Print. (Of course you can combine the pages in Acrobat afterwards, but that is a tedious procedure that I'd reserve for when I've got real trouble. See below.).

However, sometimes I include PDFs on my layouts - for example perspective details of a construction. I usually create these by Printing to PDF directly from the 3D window. (If I save a 3D view instead, archicad insists on updating it every time, and since I want good line quality I use the Internal Engine. That would make for a very long update process every time something is changed.) Here I use Adobe.

This means that I can make sure the pdfs I place on my layouts are of good quality and don't mess up with printing. Still, sometimes it happens anyway.

I also use Indesign sometimes, for better graphical control than Archicad allows, and print PDFs to include in these presentations. But I agree that Indesign is expensive overkill mostly. I haven't tried Apple's Pages, but I'm interested in doing so. MSWord is a pain in the ass every time figures and pictures have to be included.

This doesn't answer your problem though. You can use Acrobat to check on PDFs published from Archicad. There is a Reduce File Size option in Acrobat that works through a pdf from any source. It might catch your issue. Otherwise, I guess you'll have to test your print shop by creating separate pages with Adobe print. That should at least tell if the problem is yours (or Archicad's) or if it's entirely the print shop. Also, test some other Postscript printer option if you can find one.

In hindsight, the most fool-proof way to create pdfs has always been to print to a Postscript file and then run it through Distiller. If you can't do it any other way, make page by page this way and let your print shop tell you which page gives the issue.

Also, avoid large raster images, and avoid Archisketchy!
AC4.1-AC26SWE; MacOS13.5.1; MP5,1+MBP16,1
Anonymous
Not applicable
Thanks for the in depth reply Thomas...... It is helpful..
I still need to look into it some more, but I do now think it might be totally on the print shop...... I sent it to another print shop and a third party, both of whom said they had no issues with it....... I say I need to look into it more because I like the first print shop because they are across the street... I may have to help them solve there problem.....


Thanks everyone...