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
