Newsletter 9: Creating PDF/X-1 or PDF/X-3 with PDF Converter

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Dany
Amyuni Team
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Joined: Wed Sep 11 2002
Location: Montreal.
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Newsletter 9: Creating PDF/X-1 or PDF/X-3 with PDF Converter

Post by Dany »

Starting with version 3.0.1, Amyuni PDF Converter allows developers to generate PDF files that are compatible with the PDF/X specifications.

Step 1: Configuring PDF Converter for CMYK Output

It is important to note that these formats require all colors be converted to CMYK. To generate CMYK, a color profile should be attached to the printer, this can be done either manually from the printers panel, or through the CDIntf::SetColorProfile helper function.

The ICC profile is usually supplied by the printer manufacturer. Microsoft provides a standard CMYK ICC profile that can be used, the Microsoft profile is located under:
http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/device/di ... ofile.mspx

Amyuni also provides a standard CMYK profile under:
http://www.amyuni.com/downloads/AmyuniCMYK.icc

The best color profile remains the one supplied by the printer manufacturer of the destination printer.

To attach a color profile to the PDF Converter, call:
Set cdi = New CDIntfEx.CDIntfEx
cdi.DriverInit PrinterName
cdi.SetColorProfile ProfileName

ProfileName can be either the name of the profile with the extension (e.g. AmyuniCMYK.icc) if the color profile is already installed on the system, or the full path to where the profile is located.

In addition to attaching a color profile, the PDF printer should be configured for CMYK conversion by calling:
cdi.ImageOptions = cdi.ImageOptions Or IO_CONVERTTOCMYK ' 4

Step 2: Other Printer Settings

- For PDF/A and PDF/X, Multi-language support with partial font embedding is required.
- Encryption should not be used when PDF/X compatibility is needed. The printer driver will not force the removal of encryption if it has been set by the developer.

Step 3: Activating PDF/A or PDF/X

Activating PDF/X is done through the ImageOptions attribute:
cdi.ImageOptions = cdi.ImageOptions Or IO_OUTPUTPDFA ' &H8
cdi.ImageOptions = cdi.ImageOptions Or IO_OUTPUTPDFA8 ' &H20
cdi.ImageOptions = cdi.ImageOptions Or IO_OUTPUTPDFX1 ' &H80
cdi.ImageOptions = cdi.ImageOptions Or IO_OUTPUTPDFX3 ' &H100
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