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Another PDF Post


GJ

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OK, OSX is great, and overall I've had no problem moving to VW 9.5, but I've given up on getting any quality pdf files from the built in OSX printer, even with a hp1055 ppd loaded. I used to use PrintToPDF and I guess I was spoiled by the ease of use and the great quality (not to mention the price.) The quality just isn't their anymore...and the file sizes are huge.

Has anyone used Adobe Acrobat with Vectorworks?How does it work? Do I save as a pdf or will I still have to print to pdf?

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I am surprised that you are having so much trouble generating acceptable pdfs. If you write the file to postscript (under output options tab in print dialog) you have a few options for ripping the file into pdf. Adobe Acrobat Distiller is not carbonized yet, but works in Classic mode. PStill is another option. It can be found on versiontracker.com. I haven't really used it.

The best alternative may be MacGhostView, which is a front end to ghostscript and will view the raw .ps file as well as rip it into pdf. Of course since OSX is BSD Unix you can compile ghostscript yourself and run it via command line. look at fink.sourceforge.net for a debian package manager which will happily install ghostscript as well as x windows and such for you.

PStill and MacGhostView are shareware and commercial. Acrobat is of course commercial. Ghostscript isn't.

Adobe Acrobat itself (not the reader) works pretty well under OS X. Often it will "render" the file better than Preview. You can of course edit the pdf file as well as check font embeddment, etc. Remember though that Acrobat Distiller is needed to convert ps to pdf.

The other option is to open VW 9.5 in classic mode when you need to output final pdfs and use printtopdf under classic mode (assuming it works under classic mode). Get info on VW 9.5 and toggle the open in classic button.

HTH

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thanks Austin,

In the OSX save to pdf solution, I get much larger file sizes than I used to, much lower image quality and I cannot control the paper size (beyond what the hp1055 ppd gives me) and my page prints rotated as if it were coming out of the printer (I've tried deselecting the "rotate page" button, but to no avail).

Printing to post-script and then converting to pdf with an external app seams unduly complicated.

I hope a better solution comes along. I was hoping it might be having Adobe Acrobat for OSX, but maybe not.

This used to be a great solution for trying to print construction documents from a mac in .plt file world. frown.gif" border="0

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"Printing to post-script and then converting to pdf with an external app seams unduly complicated."

If you do enough of this, it's very easy to automate the whole thing with distiller. You set up a "watched folder" and distiller will write pdf for anything dropped there, save it to a destination folder and delete the pscript if desired.

You set up a desktop translator which writes the pscript and saves the file to the watched folder. So all you do is command-p and select the desktop translator as the printer.

Distiller provides a very handy job-option feature that allows you to save as many preference sets as you want for various types of PDF output.E.G. one for print and one for screen display.

I've never used OSX.

[ 03-03-2002: Message edited by: ccroft ]

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GJ

You might want to try out another PPD file other than the HP1055cm one. I wouldn't call the current release of the PPD entirely complete as well. There seem to be a few bugs.

Apple's printer driver (and associated PDF and .ps renderer) uses the PPD to give you page sizes, rotation, and resolution. It always has. PrinttoPDF and PDFWriter were good in that under OS9 they bypassed Apple's postscript printer driver. I have never used either. Under OS9 we used Distiller on .ps files generated by Apple's Laserwriter (postscript) driver.

If you are having resolution problems, try sifting through the options in the PPD. Rotation problems I could see-- the 1055 PPD has a confusing array of layout options. You will have to select the option under the printer specific options-- ie rotate: true or false. Try both-- I know that one of them works. As far as file size is concerned-- it may be that your fonts are being embedded and weren't or if you have raster graphics they are being handled differently-- like the preview image is different. Adobe Acrobat (full version) will "optimize" your PDF file for you and should take out anything extraneous. That may cut down on the file sizes. My guess is that Ghostscript will do the same.

The MacGhostView program has a precompiled "macps2pdf_osx" application which is drag and drop. It is hard to get any quicker and easier than that.

Good luck. If you have any success with alternate PPDs you might want to post that information here (or actually in the printing/plotting forum).

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Just want to say that for me, printing to .pdf files using the hp driver works great.

My custom fonts come out great. The files are smaller than the "print to pdf" program I was using before.

Most of all, the plots are right on in scale!

Just wanted to send a positive post.

Got all the information from this bulletin board. Thanks again.

Dave Harper SE

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I had a slew of problems myself with osx and vectorworks but have ironed most of them out by installiing an hp design jet series 800 driver/. Then you have to select it under the appropriate connection type from print center. Something about Lp or Lh. The long and short of it is it shows up as a "local host" on your printer list. It is form this local host that you can make large format pdfs. But man what a pain it was. I feel your pain and I symapathize with with any sense of shame that those who are not having the problem threw your way. I still have what appears to be a bug in relation to the order in which a multi-page document gets printed out in pdf. You don't seem to be able to change this on my machine even after you've pressed the buttons that appear to change it.

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OK, I loaded the Designjet 800ps, and it idoes seem to be better quality.

But, I'm trying to print a 24x36 and I cannot get it to come out in landscape mode. The print driver still wants to rotate it as if it were coming out of the actual printer. Is there a way to remedy this? I've tried all of the rotate buttons and format buttons.

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