Which ImageOptions to use for PDF/A, PDF/X-1 or PDF/X-3?

[lp]

Regarding the usage of SetImageOptions, should the IO_OUTPUTPDFA8, IO_OUTPUTPDFX1 (0x80) and IO_OUTPUTPDFX3 (0x100) be used at the same time to create a PDF/X-3? Are they mutually exclusive or not?

Let me put this into a table, for sake of clarity:

Code: Select all

PDF/A   => IO_XmpMetadata + IO_OUTPUTPDFA8
PDF/X-1 => IO_XmpMetadata + IO_OUTPUTPDFA8 + IO_OUTPUTPDFX1 
PDF/X-3 => IO_XmpMetadata + IO_OUTPUTPDFA8 + IO_OUTPUTPDFX1 + IO_OUTPUTPDFX3 

are these settings the right ones to call SetImageOptions with, in order to generate those formats?

Besides that I know that I'll have to enable (at least partial) font embedding and multilanguage support for those formats to work and that I'll be able to create such formats only starting from the v2.51 (PDF/A) or v3.01 (PDF/X) version of the drivers.

Are the "NoPreCompressed" and "ConvertToCmyk" ImageOptions mandatory in order to create valid PDF/A or PDF/X files?
And..last but not least: how can I tell whether a PDF I created is a PDF/A, PDF/X-1 or PDF/X-3?
Are there any tools able to verify they comply with such standards?

Thank you so much!

[Devteam]

IO_OUTPUTPDFA8, IO_OUTPUTPDFX1 and IO_OUTPUTPDFX3 are mutually exclusive and should not be combined. You should use only one of these options depending on the format you wish to generate.

Note that early versions of PDF/A implementations were very hectic and each tool had its own interpretation of a valid PDF/A. E.g. Acrobat 7, 8 and 9 behave in a completely different way, so do many third party tools. In PDF Converter 3.03 we adjusted our settings to make the latest versions of Acrobat (8 and 9) and other tools flag our files as 100% PDF/A compatible.

NoPrecompressed is independent of any of these formats. CMYK is optional for PDF/A but mandatory for PDF/X. Note that when using CMYK you "have to" attach a CMYK color profile to the printer as described on the forum. We get many support calls from developers who set CMYK without a color profile.

[lp]

IO_OUTPUTPDFA8, IO_OUTPUTPDFX1 and IO_OUTPUTPDFX3 are mutually exclusive and should not be combined. You should use only one of these options depending on the format you wish to generate.

Thank you, that's exactly what I wanted to know!

As far as I can see, IO_OUTPUTPDFA8 creates a PDF/A-1b format: I just tried validating it through Acrobat 9 pro and it looks ok..
Well, it works using the 3.0.3 version of the driver; the 3.0.2 one still had something to fix in this area and did not validate against the PDF/A-1b test..

Ok, so I'll check how to attach a CMYK color profile...
Thank you for the clear reply and for the support!

Have a nice day,
Luke

[lp]

Hello,

I've found the function which should associate the color profile, "SetColorProfile", accepting a "ProfileName" as an input.
[BTW - in the documentation of the 3.0.3 driver, under the "DLL interface", the examples are exactly the same as the activex interface.. guess they should be written in C/C++ like the others in that section.. but it's not a problem ]

My questions are:

• Am I supposed to associate a CMYK color profile each time I want to generate a PDF/X file? Or is it possible (and suggested) to associate it only once, when I create the printer?
• Which privileges should I have to call that function? Does it require to be run elevated?

Thank you!

[Devteam]

Please note that the posts have been edited to fix a typing mistake...

It is recommended to add the color profile only once when installing the printer and yes this requires elevated priveledges. If you need to give the end-user the ability to select between RGB and CMYK then you can create two Amyuni printers, one with a CMYK color profile attached and one with no profile.

[lp]

Thank you, your hints were precious
I would like to confirm that I'm able to generate PDF/X-1a files (with the 3.0.3 pdf converter driver).

They look ok: using the Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro "preflight validation" they're correctly validated for the "PDF/X-1a:2001" standard.
(I see there's also a "PDF/X-1a:2003" standard, but the ones I create have the ":2001" version)

Have a nice day!