Common PDF Settings¶

This chapter describes the Adobe PDF settings that belong to the Common namespace. (See Namespaces.) These settings have historically been documented in Acrobat Distiller Parameters . They are supported by Distiller and may be supported by one or more of the applications in the Creative Suite, version 2.0 and later. The settings in other namespaces are described in Other Namespaces.

The settings are grouped into the same categories that appear in the Distiller user interface (UI). The Creative Suite applications have similar interfaces for PDF creation settings, although they may differ in some respects. More information on the use of Adobe PDF settings can be found in Help for Distiller and the Creative Suite applications.

Settings descriptions¶

The possible values for the settings are enumerated, with their meanings.

Supported by

Indicates which of the applications (Distiller, Illustrator, InDesign, and Photoshop) support this setting.

Type

The type of data. The types are consistent with PostScript syntax and can include Boolean, number, string, array, and dictionary.

UI name

The name (if any) of the user interface control that corresponds to this setting. (There can be slight variations based on application)

Default value

Each setting has a default value, which is the value that is used when a setting is not specified in the settings file.

Note

The default values are the same as those in the Standard.joboptions file, with the following exceptions:

NeverEmbed defaults to [true] (no list of fonts)
Description is not provided
TransferFunctionInfo defaults to Preserve
CompressObjects defaults to Off
CalGrayProfile defaults to ()
PassThroughJPEGImages defaults to false

General settings¶

These settings are available in the General panel of the Distiller settings dialog box. Those settings that are supported by Creative Suite applications are indicated.

AutoRotatePages¶

Allows Distiller to automatically orient (rotate) pages based on the predominant text orientation. Auto-rotation is not done if the file contains the %%ViewingOrientation DSC comment and ParseDSCComments is true. If AutoRotatePages is set to None , pages are not automatically oriented and the %%ViewingOrientation DSC comment is ignored.

Value	UI equivalent	Description
None	Off	No automatic page rotation.
All	Collectively by File	All pages are rotated to match the predominant text orientation.
PageByPage	Individually	Pages are rotated on a page-by-page basis. This value is useful for mixed portrait and landscape documents.

Supported by

Distiller

Type

name

UI name

Auto-Rotate Pages

Default value

All

Binding¶

Controls the value of the PageDirection entry in the ViewerPreferences dictionary of the PDF file. PageDirection determines how the printed pages would be bound.

Value	UI equivalent	Description
Left	Left	For left binding
Right	Right	For right binding

Note

InDesign does not use this setting but sets the binding through other UI controls.

Supported by

Distiller

Type

name

UI name

Binding

Default value

Left

CompatibilityLevel¶

The PDF version number: 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, 1.5, 1.6, or 1.7.

Note

Applications other than Distiller do not support saving files as PDF 1.2.

Note

If you create files with Acrobat 7.0 compatibility, the resulting PDF files may not be compatible with earlier Acrobat versions.

Supported by

all applications

Type

real

UI name

Compatibility

Default value

1.4

CompressObjects¶

Controls object-level compression, introduced in PDF 1.5. PDF objects that are not individually compressible can be combined into object streams that can be efficiently compressed. Only PDF consumers that support PDF 1.5 can process object streams.

Value	UI equivalent	Description
Off	Off	PDF 1.5 object compression is not used.
Tags	Tags Only	PDF 1.5 object compression is applied to the logical structure tree in a document. Versions 5 and earlier of Acrobat and Adobe Reader can open and use these documents, but cannot use the logical structure (tag) information. Versions 6 and later have full access to the tag information.
All	Maximum	Maximum compression of objects is performed. The compressed file is readable by Acrobat and Adobe Reader version 6 and later. Available only if `CompatibilityLevel` is 1.5 or higher.

Note

Creative Suite applications do not provide a user interface for this setting. For InDesign, if GenerateStructure (in the CreativeSuite namespace) is true , Tagged PDF is generated and this setting is set to Tags (if CompatibilityLevel is 1.5 or higher). A value of All will be treated as Tags by Creative Suite applications.

Supported by

all applications

Type

name

UI name

Object-Level Compression Distiller

Default value

Off

CoreDistVersion¶

(Read only) Version number of the Distiller implementation. This is neither the version number of the PostScript interpreter used in Distiller nor the version number displayed in the UI.

Supported by

Distiller

Type

integer

Default value

7000

Description¶

Provides a description of the Adobe PDF settings file that can be displayed in the UI. Each key in the dictionary is a standard 3-letter language code; for example, ENU for English (see the Acrobat and PDF Library API Reference for a listing of these codes). The value associated with each language key is a string that contains the description of the settings file in that language. It is assumed that the string will be reflowed to fit the width of the display field.

Supported by

all applications

Type

dictionary

UI name

Description

DoThumbnails¶

If true , thumbnails are created for the pages of the resulting PDF file.

Supported by

all applications

Type

Boolean

UI name

Distiller: Embed Thumbnails

Creative Suite: Embed Page Thumbnails

Default value

false

EndPage¶

The last page of the document to be produced.

StartPage and EndPage together determine the range of pages in the PostScript file that are converted to PDF. If StartPage is greater than 1 (the default), no PDF output is produced for the first (StartPage -1 ) pages of PostScript. StartPage becomes page 1 of the PDF file. If EndPage is greater than -1 , distilling stops after the EndPage of PostScript. Distiller checks these two settings at the time that the first PostScript marking operator is executed in a job.

Note

StartPage and EndPage are useful when debugging PostScript. They are not recommended for general purpose use, as Distiller does not retain page number references in document links.

Supported by

Distiller

Type

integer

UI name

All Pages, Pages From: To:

Default value

-1

ExportLayers¶

Controls the layer output of exported spreads, based on their visibility & printability layer attributes.

Supported by

InDesign

Type

Name

UI name

Export Layers

Default value

ExportVisiblePrintableLayers

HWResolution¶

Provides the resolution for the PDF file if this value has not already been supplied by the PostScript file itself.

Note

This setting appears as part of the setpagedevice dictionary in a settings file, as described in Organization of settings files. See PostScript Language Reference for more information.

Supported by

Distiller

Type

array

UI name

Resolution

Default value

[600 600]

ImageMemory¶

The number of bytes in the buffer used in the sample processing of color, grayscale, and monochrome images. When the buffer is full, Distiller writes its contents to disk.

The value of this setting should be between 0 and 1048576. If it is set to a negative integer, zero is used.

Supported by

Distiller

Type

integer

Namespace¶

This setting identifies the namespace to which all other settings in the same settings dictionary belong. This setting may appear in any namespace. For the Common namespace, it is optional. For all other namespaces, it is required. See Namespaces for more information.

Supported by

all applications

Type

array

Default value

[ (Adobe) (Common) (1.0) ]

Optimize¶

If true , the PDF file is optimized for fast web viewing. This process is also referred to as linearization (see the PDF Reference for detailed information.

Supported by

all applications

Type

Boolean

UI name

Optimize For Fast Web View

Default value

true

OtherNamespaces¶

This setting is an array containing additional settings dictionaries in namespaces other than the current namespace. See Namespaces for more information.

Supported by

all applications

Type

array

PageSize¶

Provides the page size for the PDF file if this value has not already been supplied by the PostScript file itself.

Note

This setting appears as part of the setpagedevice dictionary in a settings file, as described in Organization of settings files. See PostScript Language Reference for more information.

Supported by

Distiller

Type

array

UI name

Default Page Size

Default value

[612.000 729.000]

StartPage¶

See the description of the EndPage setting.

Supported by

Distiller

Type

integer

UI name

All Pages, Pages From: To:

Default value

Image settings¶

This section lists the Adobe PDF settings that apply to each image type. In Distiller, these options appear in the “Images” panel of the user interface. For the Creative Suite applications, these settings appear in the “Compression” panel. (Photoshop does not present different options for the different image types but uses the settings that apply to the active image.)

For more information on how these settings are used together, see Using the image settings.

Color image settings¶

This section lists the compression and downsampling settings for color images (images that have more than one color component).

AntiAliasColorImages¶

If true , Distiller permits anti-aliasing on color images.

Anti-aliasing increases the number of bits per component in downsampled images to preserve some of the information that is otherwise lost by downsampling. Anti-aliasing is only performed if the image is actually downsampled and ColorImageDepth has a value greater than the number of bits per color component in the input image.

For more information on anti-aliasing see Controlling bit depth.

Supported by

Distiller

Type

Boolean

Default value

false

AutoFilterColorImages¶

If true , the compression filter for color images is chosen based on the properties of each image, in conjunction with the ColorImageAutoFilterStrategy setting. See Automatic compression for more information.

If false , all color sampled images are compressed using the filter specified by ColorImageFilter.

This setting is relevant only if EncodeColorImages is true.

Supported by

all applications

Type

Boolean

UI name

Compression: Automatic (JPEG) & Automatic (JPEG2000)

Default value

true

ColorACSImageDict¶

Dictionary of parameters for JPEG compression when JPEG is chosen from the Automatic filter selection (see AutoFilterColorImages). ColorACSImageDict is based on the DCTEncode parameter dictionary described in Section 3.13.3 in the PostScript Language Reference .

See Monochrome (black and white) images for details on the use of this dictionary.

Supported by

all applications

Type

dictionary

UI name

Compression, Image Quality

Default value

<</Qfactor 0.76 /Hsamples [2 1 1 2] /Vsamples [2 1 1 2]>>

ColorImageAutoFilterStrategy¶

Specifies the automatic compression strategy that is used when AutoFilterColorImages is set to true. Must be one of the following values:

Value	UI equivalent	Description
JPEG	Automatic (JPEG)	Lossy JPEG compression is used for low-frequency images and lossless Flate compression for high-frequency images.
JPEG2000	Automatic (JPEG2000)	Applies only when `CompatibilityLevel` is set to 1.5 or higher. Lossy JPEG2000 compression is used for low-frequency images (images with smooth color changes) and lossless JPEG2000 compression for high-frequency images.

See Automatic compression for more information.

Supported by

Distiller, Illustrator, InDesign

Type

name.

UI name

Compression

Default value

JPEG

ColorImageDepth¶

Specifies the number of bits per color component in the output image. See Controlling bit depth for more information.

Allowed values are:

The number of bits per sample: 1 , 2 , 4 , or 8.
-1 , which forces the downsampled image to have the same number of bits per color component as the original image

Note

Photoshop uses the Downsample16BitImages setting to decrease the bit depth of 16-bit images to 8 bits per sample so that JPEG compression can be used.

Supported by

Distiller

Type

integer

Default value

-1

ColorImageDict¶

Dictionary of parameters for JPEG compression. ColorImageDict is based on the DCTEncode parameter dictionary described in Section 3.13.3 in the PostScript Language Reference .

See Monochrome (black and white) images for details on how this dictionary is used.

Supported by

all applications

Type

dictionary

UI name

Compression, Image Quality

Default value

<</Qfactor 0.76 /Hsamples [2 1 1 2] /Vsamples [2 1 1 2]>>

ColorImageDownsampleThreshold¶

Sets the downsample threshold for color images. This is the ratio of image resolution to output resolution above which downsampling may be performed. Must be between 1.0 through 10.0, inclusive. If you set the threshold out of range, it reverts to a default of 1.5.

See Downsampling and subsampling images for details on using this setting.

Supported by

all applications

Type

number

UI name

pixels per inch; for images above: value pixels per inch

Default value

1.5 (UI shows 225 pixels-per-inch)

ColorImageDownsampleType¶

Must be one of the following values:

Value	UI equivalent	Description
Average	Average Downsampling to	Groups of samples are averaged to get the new downsampled value.
Bicubic	Bicubic Downsampling to	Bicubic interpolation is used on a group of samples to get a new downsampled value.
Subsample	Subsampling to	The center sample from a group of samples is used as the new downsampled value.
None	Distiller: Off CS: Do Not Downsample	No sampling

Supported by

all applications

Type

name

UI name

Sampling

Default value

Bicubic

ColorImageFilter¶

Specifies the compression filter to be used for color images. Ignored if AutoFilterColorImages is true or EncodeColorImages is false.

Must be one of the following values:

Value	UI equivalent	Description
DCTEncode	JPEG	Selects JPEG compression.
FlateEncode	ZIP	Selects Flate (ZIP) compression.
JPXEncode	JPEG2000	Selects JPEG2000 compression.

Note

JPEG2000 options only appear in UI if CompatibilityLevel is set to 1.5 or higher.

DCTEncode is used only if the output image has 8 bits per color component; otherwise FlateEncode is used.

For compatibility with Distiller 3.0 Adobe PDF settings files, Distiller 6.0 and later (as well as Creative Suite applications) revert to Flate compression if this setting is set to LZWEncode. Other values cause Distiller to stop with a range error.

Supported by

all applications

Type

name

UI name

Compression

Default value

DCTEncode

ColorImageMinDownsampleDepth¶

If DownsampleColorImages is true , controls the range of bit depths for which color image downsampling occurs. Valid values are 1, 2, 4 or 8.

For more information, see Controlling the range of bit depths for which downsampling occurs.

Supported by

Distiller

Type

integer

Default value

ColorImageMinResolution¶

Imposes a lower limit to the resolution of sampled images. Valid values are from 9 to 64000, inclusive.

How this value is used is determined by ColorImageMinResolutionPolicy. For more information, see Specifying a minimum resolution of sampled images.

Supported by

Distiller

Type

integer

UI name

Policy->Color Image Policy

Default value

ColorImageMinResolutionPolicy¶

Sets the policy for imposition of a lower limit to the resolution of sampled color images as specified by the ColorImageMinResolution setting. The following table shows the valid names.

Value	UI equivalent	Description
OK	Ignore	Distiller’s default behavior does not change—i.e., Distiller does not enforce any lower limit on image resolution, ignoring any value specified by `ColorImageMinResolution`.
Warning	Warn and continue	A warning is issued every time a sampled color image with resolution smaller than the value specified by `ColorImageMinResolution` is placed in the PDF file. The job continues after issuing the warning.
Error	Cancel job	An error occurs when a sampled color image with resolution smaller than the value specified by `ColorImageMinResolution` is placed in the PDF file. The job fails with a limit check error.

For more information, see Specifying a minimum resolution of sampled images.

Supported by

Distiller

Type

name

UI name

Policy->Color Image Policy

Default value

OK

ColorImageResolution¶

Specifies the resolution to which downsampled color images are reduced; valid values are 9 to 2400 pixels per inch. A color image is downsampled if DownsampleColorImages is true and the resolution of the input image meets the criteria described in Downsampling and subsampling images.

Supported by

all applications

Type

integer

UI name

Sampling: pixels per inch

Default value

ConvertImagesToIndexed¶

If true , Distiller converts images that use fewer than 257 colors to an indexed color space for compactness. This conversion, when enabled, produces smaller PDF files but may make distillation slower.

Note

Creative Suite applications behave as if this setting is always true.

Supported by

Distiller

Type

Boolean

Default value

true

CropColorImages¶

If CropColorImages is false , color images are never cropped, whether or not the current clip would remove any image samples.

For more information, see Disabling of image cropping.

Supported by

Distiller

Type

Boolean

Default value

true

DownsampleColorImages¶

If true , color images are downsampled using the resolution specified by ColorImageResolution , assuming the threshold specified by ColorImageDownsampleThreshold is met. If false , downsampling is not done and the resolution of color images in the PDF file is the same as the source images.

See Downsampling and subsampling images for more information.

Supported by

all applications

Type

Boolean

UI name

Sampling

Default value

true

EncodeColorImages¶

If true , color images are encoded using the compression filter specified by the value of ColorImageFilter. If false , compression filters are not applied to color images.

Supported by

all applications

Type

Boolean

UI name

Compression

Default value

true

JPEG2000ColorACSImageDict¶

Dictionary of parameters for automatic JPEG2000 compression of color images. See JPEG2000 for details.

Supported by

all applications

Type

dictionary

UI name

Compression, Image Quality, Tile Size

Default value

<</TileWidth 256/TileHeight 256/Quality 15 >>

JPEG2000ColorImageDict¶

Dictionary of parameters for JPEG2000 compression of color images. See JPEG2000 for details.

Supported by

all applications

Type

dictionary

UI name

Compression, Image Quality, Tile Size

Default value

<</TileWidth 256/TileHeight 256/Quality 15 >>

Grayscale image settings¶

This section lists compression and downsampling settings for grayscale images (images with only one color component and more than one bit per sample).

AntiAliasGrayImages¶

If true , Distiller permits anti-aliasing on grayscale images. Anti-aliasing increases the number of bits per component in downsampled images to preserve some of the information that is otherwise lost by downsampling. Anti-aliasing is only performed if the image is actually downsampled and GrayImageDepth has a value greater than the number of bits per sample in the input image. For more information, see Controlling bit depth.

Supported by

Distiller

Type

Boolean

Default value

false

AutoFilterGrayImages¶

If true , the compression filter for gray images is chosen based on the properties of each image, in conjunction with the GrayImageAutoFilterStrategy setting. See Automatic compression for more information. If false , all color sampled images are compressed using the filter specified by GrayImageFilter. This setting is relevant only if EncodeGrayImages is true.

Supported by

all applications

Type

Boolean

UI name

Compression

Default value

true

CropGrayImages¶

If false , gray images are never cropped, whether or not the current clip would remove any image samples. See Disabling of image cropping for more information.

Supported by

Distiller

Type

Boolean

Default value

true

DownsampleGrayImages¶

If true , grayscale images are downsampled using the resolution specified by GrayImageResolution. If false , downsampling does not occur, and the resolution of grayscale images in the PDF file is the same as the source images.

Supported by

all applications

Type

Boolean

UI name

Sampling

Default value

true

EncodeGrayImages¶

If true , grayscale images are encoded using the compression filter specified by the value of GrayImageFilter. If false , compression filters are not applied to grayscale sampled images.

Supported by

all applications

Type

Boolean

UI name

Compression

GrayACSImageDict¶

Dictionary of parameters for JPEG compression when JPEG is chosen from the Automatic filter selection (see AutoFilterGrayImages).

GrayACSImageDict is based on the DCTEncode parameter dictionary described in Section 3.13.3 in the PostScript Language Reference .

See Monochrome (black and white) images for details on how this dictionary is used.

Supported by

all applications

Type

dictionary

UI name

Compression, Image Quality

Default value

<</Qfactor 0.76 /Hsamples [2 1 1 2] /Vsamples [2 1 1 2]>>

GrayImageAutoFilterStrategy¶

Specifies the automatic compression strategy that is used when AutoFilterGrayImages is set to true. The following table shows the valid values.

Value	UI equivalent	Description
JPEG	Automatic (JPEG)	Lossy JPEG compression is used for low-frequency images and lossless Flate compression for high-frequency images.
JPEG2000	Automatic (JPEG2000)	Applies only if `CompatibilityLevel` is set to 1.5 or higher. Lossy JPEG2000 compression is used for low-frequency images (images with smooth color changes) and lossless JPEG2000 compression for high-frequency images.

See Automatic compression for more information.

Supported by

all applications

Type

name

UI name

Compression

Default value

JPEG

GrayImageDepth¶

Specifies the number of bits per sample in the image. The following values are valid:

The number of bits per sample: 1 , 2 , 4 , or 8.
-1 , which forces the downsampled image to have the same number of bits per sample as the original image

See Controlling bit depth for more information.

Supported by

Distiller

Type

integer

Default value

-1

GrayImageDict¶

Dictionary of parameters for JPEG compression. GrayImageDict is based on the DCTEncode parameter dictionary described in Section 3.13.3 in the PostScript Language Reference .

See Monochrome (black and white) images for details on how this dictionary is used.

Supported by

all applications

Type

dictionary

UI name

Compression, Image Quality

Default value

<</Qfactor 0.76 /Hsamples [2 1 1 2] /Vsamples [2 1 1 2]>>

GrayImageDownsampleThreshold¶

Sets the image downsample threshold for grayscale images. This is the ratio of image resolution to output resolution above which downsampling may be performed.

See Downsampling and subsampling images for details on using this setting.

Supported by

all applications

Type

number

UI name

pixels per inch, for images above: value pixels per inch

Default value

1.50000

GrayImageDownsampleType¶

Must be one of the following values.

Value	UI equivalent	Description
Average	Average Downsampling to	Groups of samples are averaged to get the new downsampled value.
Bicubic	Bicubic Downsampling to	Bicubic interpolation is used on a group of samples to get a new downsampled value.
Subsample	Subsampling to	The center sample from a group of samples is used as the new downsampled value.
None	Distiller: Off CS: Do Not Downsample	No sampling

Supported by

all applications

Type

name

UI name

Sampling

Default value

Bicubic

GrayImageFilter¶

Specifies the compression filter to be used for grayscale images. Ignored if AutoFilterGrayImages is true or EncodeGrayImages is false. The following values are valid.

Value	UI equivalent	Description
DCTEncode	JPEG	Selects JPEG compression.
FlateEncode	ZIP	Selects Flate (ZIP) compression.
JPXEncode	JPEG2000	Selects JPEG2000 compression.

Note

JPEG2000 options only appear in UI if CompatibilityLevel is set to 1.5 or higher.

DCTEncode is used only if the output image has 8 bits per sample; otherwise FlateEncode is used. For compatibility with Distiller 3.0 Adobe PDF settings files, Distiller 6.0 and later (as well as Creative Suite applications) revert to Flate compression if this setting is set to LZWEncode.

Supported by

all applications

Type

name

UI name

Compression

Default value

DCTEncode

GrayImageMinDownsampleDepth¶

If DownsampleGrayImages is true , controls the range of bit depths for which gray image downsampling occurs. Valid values are 2, 4 or 8.

For more information, see Controlling the range of bit depths for which downsampling occurs.

Supported by

Distiller

Type

integer

Default value

GrayImageMinResolution¶

Imposes a lower limit to the resolution of sampled grayscale images. The legal values are from 9 to 64000, inclusive. How this value is used by Distiller is determined by GrayImageMinResolutionPolicy. For more information, see Specifying a minimum resolution of sampled images.

Supported by

Distiller

Type

integer

UI name

Policy->Grayscale Image Policy

Default value

GrayImageMinResolutionPolicy¶

Sets the policy for imposition of a lower limit to the resolution of sampled images as specified by the GrayImageMinResolution setting. The following values are valid.

Value	UI equivalent	Description
OK	Ignore	Distiller’s default behavior does not change—i.e., Distiller does not enforce any lower limit on image resolution, ignoring any value specified by `GrayImageMinResolution`.
Warning	Warn and continue	A warning is issued every time a sampled grayscale image with resolution smaller than the value specified by `GrayImageMinResolution` is placed in the PDF file. The job continues after issuing the warning.
Error	Cancel job	An error occurs when a sampled grayscale image with resolution smaller than the value specified by `GrayImageMinResolution` is placed in the PDF file. The job fails with a limit check error.

For more information, see Specifying a minimum resolution of sampled images.

Supported by

Distiller

Type

name

UI name

Policy->Grayscale Image Policy

Default value

OK

GrayImageResolution¶

Specifies the resolution to which downsampled gray images are reduced. Valid values are 9 to 2400 pixels per inch. A gray image is downsampled if DownsampleGrayImages is true and the resolution of the input image meets the criteria described in Downsampling and subsampling images.

Supported by

all applications

Type

integer

UI name

pixels per inch

Default value

JPEG2000GrayACSImageDict¶

Dictionary of parameters for automatic JPEG2000 compression of grayscale. See JPEG2000 for details.

Supported by

all applications

Type

dictionary

UI name

Compression, Image Quality, Tile Size

Default value

<</TileWidth 256 /TileHeight 256 /Quality 15>>

JPEG2000GrayImageDict¶

Dictionary of parameters for JPEG2000 compression of grayscale images. See JPEG2000 for details.

Supported by

all applications

Type

dictionary

UI name

Compression, Image Quality, Tile Size

Default value

<</TileWidth 256 /TileHeight 256 /Quality 15 >>

Monochrome image settings¶

This section lists the compression and downsampling settings for monochrome images (images with only one color component and one bit per sample). See Monochrome (black and white) images for more information.

Note

With the exception of the AntiAliasMonoImages and MonoImageDepth settings, the compression settings also can be applied to stencil masks created by the imagemask operator. Settings behavior is the same in both cases. For details on imagemask , see the PostScript Language Reference .

AntiAliasMonoImages¶

If true , anti-aliasing is permitted on monochrome images.

Anti-aliasing increases the number of bits per sample in downsampled images to preserve some of the information that is otherwise lost by downsampling. Anti-aliasing is only performed if the image is actually downsampled and MonoImageDepth has a value greater than 1. For more information on anti-aliasing see Controlling bit depth.

Note

Distiller does not do anti-aliasing for image masks, regardless of the value of AntiAliasMonoImages.

Supported by

Distiller

Type

Boolean

UI name

Anti-Alias to gray

Default value

false

CropMonoImages¶

If false , monochrome images are never cropped, whether or not the current clip would remove any image samples.

For more information, see Disabling of image cropping.

Supported by

Distiller

Type

Boolean

Default value

true

DownsampleMonoImages¶

If true , monochrome images are downsampled using the resolution specified by MonoImageResolution. If false , downsampling is not done and the resolution of monochrome images in the PDF file is the same as the source images.

Supported by

all applications

Type

Boolean

UI name

Sampling

Default value

true

EncodeMonoImages¶

If true , monochrome images are encoded using the compression filter specified by the value of MonoImageFilter. If false , no compression filters are applied to monochrome images.

Supported by

all applications

Type

Boolean

UI name

Compression

Default value

true

MonoImageDepth¶

Specifies the number of bits per sample in a downsampled image. Allowed values are:

The number of bits per sample: 1 , 2 , 4 , or 8. When the value is greater than 1 , monochrome images are converted to grayscale images.
-1 , which forces the downsampled image to have the same number of bits per sample as the original image. (For monochrome images, this is the same as a value of 1.)

MonoImageDepth is not used unless DownsampleMonoImages and AntiAliasMonoImages are true. See Controlling bit depth for more information.

Note

Distiller ignores MonoImageDepth for image masks.

Supported by

Distiller

Type

integer

UI name

Anti-Alias to gray

Default value

-1

MonoImageDict¶

Dictionary of parameters for CCITT compression. MonoImageDict is based on the CCITTFaxEncode parameter dictionary. A value of -1 for K corresponds to CCITT Group 4; 0 corresponds to CCITT group 3. See Monochrome (black and white) images for more information.

Supported by

all applications

Type

dictionary

UI name

Compression, Quality

Default value

<< /K -1 >>

MonoImageDownsampleThreshold¶

Sets the image downsample threshold for monochrome images. This is the ratio of image resolution to output resolution above which downsampling may be performed. See Downsampling and subsampling images for more information.

Supported by

all applications

Type

number

UI name

pixels-per-inch for images above: value pixels-per-inch

Default value

1.50000 (UI shows 450 pixels-per-inch)

MonoImageDownsampleType¶

Must be one of the following values.

Value	UI equivalent	Description
Average	Average Downsampling to	Groups of samples are averaged to get the new downsampled value.
Bicubic	Bicubic Downsampling to	Bicubic interpolation is used on a group of samples to get a new downsampled value.
Subsample	Subsampling to	The center sample from a group of samples is used as the new downsampled value.
None	Distiller: Off; CS: Do Not Downsample	No sampling

Supported by

all applications

Type

name

UI name

Sampling

Default value

Bicubic

MonoImageFilter¶

Specifies the compression filter to be used for monochrome images. Must be one of the following values:

Value

UI equivalent

Description

CCITTFaxEncode

CCITT Group 3/

CCITT Group 4

Selects CCITT Group 3 or 4 facsimile encoding

FlateEncode

ZIP

Selects Flate (ZIP) compression

RunLengthEncode

Run Length

Selects run length encoding

For compatibility with Distiller 3.0 Adobe PDF settings files, Distiller 6.0 and later (as well as Creative Suite applications) revert to Flate compression if this setting is set to LZWEncode. Other values cause Distiller to stop with a range error.

Supported by

all applications

Type

name

UI name

Compression

Default value

CCITTFaxEncode

MonoImageMinResolution¶

Imposes a lower limit to the resolution of sampled monochrome images. The legal values are from 9 to 64000, inclusive. How this value is used by Distiller is determined by MonoImageMinResolutionPolicy. For more information, see Specifying a minimum resolution of sampled images.

Supported by

Distiller

Type

integer

UI name

Policy->Monochrome Image Policy

Default value

MonoImageMinResolutionPolicy¶

Sets the policy for imposition of a lower limit to the resolution of sampled images as specified by the MonoImageMinResolution setting. The following values are valid.

Value	UI equivalent	Description
OK	Ignore	Distiller’s default behavior does not change—i.e., Distiller does not enforce any lower limit on image resolution, ignoring any value specified by `MonoImageMinResolution`.
Warning	Warn and continue	A warning is issued every time a sampled monochrome image with resolution smaller than the value specified by `MonoImageMinResolution` is placed in the PDF file. The job continues after issuing the warning.
Error	Cancel job	An error occurs when a sampled monochrome image with resolution smaller than the value specified by `MonoImageMinResolution` is placed in the PDF file. The job fails with a limit check error.

For more information, see Specifying a minimum resolution of sampled images.

Supported by

Distiller

Type

name

UI name

Policy->Monochrome Image Policy

Default value

OK

MonoImageResolution¶

Specifies the resolution to which downsampled monochrome images are reduced; valid values are 9 to 2400 pixels per inch. A monochrome image is downsampled if DownsampleMonoImages is true and the resolution of the input image meets the criteria described in Downsampling and subsampling images.

Supported by

all applications

Type

integer

UI name

pixels per inch

Default value

Page Compression Setting¶

This section describes the page compression setting.

CompressPages¶

If true , Flate compression is used to compress page content streams as well as form, pattern, and Type 3 font content streams.

InDesign also compresses ICC profiles, OutputIntentProfile and shading streams.

Supported by

all applications

Type

Boolean

UI name

Distiller: none

InDesign: Compress Text and Line Art

Default value

true

Font settings¶

This section lists the settings available for controlling font embedding and subsetting. For more information on font embedding, see Using the font settings.

Note

Embedding is subject to license; specific fonts can indicate that embedding is not permitted.

AlwaysEmbed¶

An array consisting either entirely of font names, or of a Boolean value followed by font names. Each name is the PostScript language name of the font (the name given to definefont ).

If the array consists entirely of names, Distiller sets its internal list of fonts that must be embedded to be exactly the list of names in the array.
If the first array value is the Boolean true , Distiller adds the font names in the rest of the AlwaysEmbed array to its internal list of fonts that must be embedded.
If the first array value is the Boolean false , Distiller removes the font names in the rest of the AlwaysEmbed array from its internal list of fonts to be embedded.

If a font name appears in both AlwaysEmbed and NeverEmbed , NeverEmbed takes precedence.

Supported by

Distiller

Type

array

UI name

Always Embed Font

Default value

[true]

CannotEmbedFontPolicy¶

The policy Distiller uses if it cannot find, or cannot embed, the font. The following values are valid.

Value	UI equivalent	Description
OK	Ignore	Distiller ignores and continues.
Warning	Warn and continue	Distiller displays a warning and continues.
Error	Cancel job	Distiller quits distilling the current job.

Supported by

Distiller

Type

name

UI name

When embedding fails

Default value

Warning

EmbedAllFonts¶

If true , all fonts that have correct permissions are embedded in the PDF file; if false , they are not embedded:

Creative Suite applications automatically embed fonts.
Distiller never embeds fonts in its NeverEmbed list even if this setting is true.

Supported by

Distiller

Name: Boolean

UI name

Embed all fonts

Default value

true

EmbedOpenType¶

If true , OpenType fonts are embedded only if all of the following are true:

The OpenType font is to be embedded within a Type 1 font descriptor
EmbedOpenType is true
CompatibilityLevel is 1.6 or higher
SubsetFonts is false , or SubsetFonts is true and the percentage of characters used is greater than MaxSubsetPct.

Supported by

Distiller

Type

Boolean

UI name

Embed OpenType fonts

Note

Embed OpenType fonts can only be set from the UI if CompatibilityLevel is set to 1.6 or higher.

Default value

false

MaxSubsetPct¶

The maximum percentage of glyphs in a font that can be used before the entire font is embedded instead of a subset. The allowable range is 1 through 100.

Distiller only uses this value if SubsetFonts is true. For example, a value of 30 means that a font will be embedded in full (not subset) if more than 30% of glyphs are used; a value of 100 means all fonts will be subset no matter how many glyphs are used (because you cannot use more than 100% of glyphs).

Supported by

all applications

Type

integer

UI name

Subset embedded fonts when percent of characters used is less than: value %

Default value

NeverEmbed¶

An array consisting either entirely of font names, or of a Boolean value followed by font names. Each font name must be the PostScript language name of the font (that is, the name given to definefont ).

If the array consists entirely of names, Distiller sets its internal list of fonts that must never be embedded to be exactly the list of names in the array.
If the first array value is the Boolean true , Distiller adds the font names in the rest of the NeverEmbed array to its internal list of fonts that must never be embedded.
If the first array value is the Boolean false , Distiller removes the font names in the rest of the NeverEmbed array from its internal list of fonts to never be embedded.

If a font name appears in both AlwaysEmbed and NeverEmbed , NeverEmbed takes precedence.

Supported by

Distiller

Type

array

UI name

Never Embed Font

Default value

[true]

SubsetFonts¶

If true , font subsetting is enabled. If false , subsetting is not enabled. Font subsetting embeds only those glyphs that are used in a document, instead of the entire font. This reduces the size of a PDF file that contains embedded fonts. If font subsetting is enabled, the application determines whether to embed the entire font or a subset by the number of glyphs in the font that are used (including component glyphs referenced by ‘seac’ [Type 1] glyphs), and the value of MaxSubsetPct.

Subsetted fonts in the PDF file appear with a 6-letter prefix and a plus (+) sign. For example, Palatino subsetted may appear as:

NPBOME+Palatino-Roman

Note

Embedded instances of multiple master fonts and of Type 3, TrueType, and CID fonts are always subsetted, regardless of the value of SubsetFonts.

Supported by

all applications

Type

Boolean

UI name

Subset embedded fonts when percent of characters used is less than:

Color conversion settings¶

This section lists the color conversion settings supported by Distiller. Some are indicated as supported by Creative Suite applications and can approximate the settings defined in the CreativeSuite namespace, which provide greater control over color conversions. Creative Suite applications can use these settings if present and write them to settings files for compatibility. See Using the color conversion settings for details.

CalCMYKProfile¶

The name of the ICC profile that is used for tagging or converting CMYK images, text, and/or graphics.

Note

Creative Suite applications give precedence to their own color management settings and may use this setting for compatibility with Distiller; see Using the color conversion settings for details.

Supported by

all applications

Type

string

UI name

Working Spaces: CMYK

Default value

(U.S. Web Coated SWOP v2)

CalGrayProfile¶

The name of the ICC profile that is used for tagging or converting Gray images, text, and/or graphics.

Note

Creative Suite applications give precedence to their own color management settings and may use this setting for compatibility with Distiller; see Using the color conversion settings for details.

Supported by

all applications

Type

string

UI name

Working Spaces: Gray

CalRGBProfile¶

The name of the ICC profile that is used for tagging or converting RGB images, text, and/or graphics.

Note

Creative Suite applications give precedence to their own color management settings and may use this setting for compatibility with Distiller; see Using the color conversion settings for details.

Supported by

all applications

Type

string

UI name

Working Spaces: RGB

Default value

(sRGB IEC61966-2.1)

ColorConversionStrategy¶

Sets the color conversion strategy, which includes the output color family and color space and the inclusion of ICC profiles.

See Using the color conversion settings for details on how to use this setting.

The section Color settings interchange describes how the values of this setting map to those in the CreativeSuite namespace.

The following values are valid.

Value	UI equivalent
LeaveColorUnchanged	Leave Color Unchanged
UseDeviceIndependentColor	Tag Everything for Color Management (no conversion)
UseDeviceIndependendColor-ForImages	Tag Only Images for Color Management (no conversion)
sRGB	Convert All Colors to sRGB
CMYK	Convert All Colors to CMYK

Supported by

all applications

Type

name

UI name

Distiller: Color Management Policies

Creative Suite: no single setting (see below)

Default value

sRGB

ColorSettingsFile¶

Specifies the name of a color settings file to be used for color conversions. When this file is specified as a non-empty value, all other color conversion settings are ignored and not selectable in the UI.

If the name is (None) or () , the other settings are used.

The Creative Suite applications use color settings files but do not use this setting. See Using the color conversion settings for more information.

Supported by

Distiller

Type

string

UI name

Settings File

Default value

()

DefaultRenderingIntent¶

Specifies the rendering intent for objects to be written to the PDF document, when not otherwise specified in the PostScript job by means of the findcolorrendering and setcolorrendering operators (see Section 7.1.3 in the PostScript Language Reference for details).

If the value of this setting is Default , no rendering intent is written to the PDF document. The following values are valid.

Value	UI equivalent
Default	Preserve
Perceptual	Perceptual
Saturation	Saturation
AbsoluteColorimetric	Absolute Colorimetric
RelativeColorimetric	Relative Colorimetric

Supported by

Distiller

Type

name

UI name

Document Rendering Intent

Default value

Default

ParseICCProfilesInComments¶

If true , Distiller honors EPS embedded ICC profiles when distilling. ICC profiles are honored only if they are enclosed in two DSC pairs: ICCProfile and SetColorSpace. See the ICC specification (available at http://www.color.org ), section B.2, for details on the syntax of these comment pairs.

This setting is ignored if CompatibilityLevel is set to 1.2.

Supported by

Distiller

Type

Boolean

UI name

none

Default value

true

PreserveDICMYKValues¶

Describes what to do with color values for device-independent CMYK color spaces. This setting is used only if ColorConversionStrategy is CMYK.

If true , CIEBasedDEFG CMYK color values are treated as DeviceCMYK values; CIEBasedDEFG color spaces will be ignored and discarded. If false , a conversion from CIEBasedDEFG color space to CMYK working space is performed.

Supported by

Distiller

Type

Boolean

UI name

Preserve CMYK values for calibrated CMYK color spaces

Default value

true

PreserveHalftoneInfo¶

If true , Distiller passes halftone screen information (frequency, angle, and spot function) into the PDF file. If false , halftone information is not passed in.

Supported by

Distiller

Type

Boolean

UI name

Preserve Halftone Information

Default value

false

sRGBProfile¶

(Read Only) The name of the ICC profile that is used for converting device-dependent or device-independent color spaces to CalRGB (PDF 1.2) or ICCBased (PDF 1.3 and above).

Supported by

all applications

Type

string

Default value

(sRGB IEC61966-2.1)

TransferFunctionInfo¶

Determines how Distiller handles transfer functions, which are traditionally used to compensate for dot gain or dot loss that may occur when an image is transferred to film. For example, a file that is intended for output on a particular imagesetter may contain transfer functions that compensate for the dot gain inherent with that printer. The following values are valid.

Value	UI equivalent	Description
Preserve	Preserve	Distiller preserves (passes into the PDF file) transfer functions.
Remove	Remove	Distiller ignores transfer functions. They are neither applied to the color values by Distiller nor passed into the PDF file.
Apply	Apply	Distiller uses the transfer function to modify the data it writes to the PDF file, instead of writing the transfer function itself to the file. This value is ignored by Distiller 4.0 but supported by Distiller 5.0 and later. It is sometimes used to achieve artistic effects (although the PostScript Language Reference discourages such usage).

If you are generating PDF/X-compliant files, do not set this to Preserve.

Supported by

Distiller

Type

name

UI name

When transfer functions are found:

Default value

Preserve

UCRandBGInfo¶

Tells Distiller whether to pass the arguments to setundercolorremoval and setblackgeneration into the PDF file.

Must be one of the following values.

Value	UI equivalent	Description
Preserve	checked	Distiller preserves (passes into the PDF file) the arguments.
Remove	unchecked	Distiller ignores the arguments.

See Section 7.2.3 in the PostScript Language Reference for details on the setundercolorremoval and setblackgeneration operators and descriptions of undercolor removal (UCR) and black generation (BG)

Supported by

Distiller

Type

name

UI name

Preserve Under Color Removal and Black Generation

Default value

Remove

Advanced Adobe PDF settings¶

This section lists the settings in the Advanced panel of the Distiller settings dialog box. Some of these settings are also supported by Creative Suite applications, as indicated.

AllowPSXObjects¶

If true , allow PostScript XObjects. For a description of PostScript XObjects, see the PDF Reference.

Supported by

Distiller

Type

Boolean

UI name

Allow PostScript XObjects

Default value

true

AllowTransparency¶

The SetTransparency pdfmark is a pdfmark extension used to produce transparency in PDF 1.4 and later. For more details, see the PDFMark Reference. If this setting is true, [... /SetTransparency pdfmark is allowed in PS jobs if CompatibilityLevel is 1.4 or higher. If false , this pdfmark is treated as error.

Note

Creative Suite applications always include transparency in the exported PDF if CompatibilityLevel is 1.4 or higher.

Supported by

Distiller

Type

Boolean

Default value

false

ASCII85EncodePages¶

If true , Distiller ASCII85-encodes binary streams such as page content streams, sampled images, and embedded fonts, resulting in a PDF file that is pure ASCII. If false , Distiller does not encode the binary streams, resulting in a PDF file that may contain substantial amounts of binary data. Distiller checks the value of this setting only once per document. Any change to it must be made before any marks are placed on the first page of the document.

Supported by

Distiller

Type

Boolean

Default value

false

AutoPositionEPSFiles¶

If true , Distiller resizes the created page to the size of the EPS file using the %%BoundingBox comment in the header of the file, and centers the EPS file on the page when the EPS file is distilled. Distiller ignores this setting if ParseDSCComments is false.

Supported by

Distiller

Type

Boolean

UI name

Resize page and center artwork for EPS files

Default value

true

CreateJDFFile¶

If true , Distiller produces a Job Definition Format (JDF) file that reflects the parameters used for distillation. If false , a JDF file is not produced.

The Job Definition Format (JDF) Specification is owned and maintained by the International Cooperation for the Integration of Processes in Prepress, Press and PostPress (CIP4) (www.cip4.org). Distiller 7.0 complies with JDF Specification Version 1.1 Revision A, published on September 5, 2002. It is available on the web at:

http://www.cip4.org/documents/jdf_specifications/index.html

Note

The Acrobat 7 Professional product now supports creation of both JDF 1.1- and JDF 1.2-compliant JDF files. For more information, see the Acrobat Guide in Distiller online Help.

The Adobe Normalizer product (see Using Adobe Normalizer Server, Version 6.0.4 ) is also capable of producing JDF files, but it can consume them as well. Conversions Related to JDF,” describes how Normalizer interprets and converts Distiller parameters; use this information to understand the JDF file created by Distiller.

The JDF file is output to the current directory with the .jdf extension. The filename is the same as the .log file and the file that is being distilled. (The “current directory” is the directory where the new PDF file is output.)

Note

The JDF pdfmark allows the PostScript file/stream being distilled to specify certain elements and attributes to be added to a JDF file. For details, see Using Adobe Normalizer Server, Version 6.0.4 and the PDFMark Reference.

Supported by

Distiller

Type

Boolean

UI name

Create Job Definition Format (JDF) file

Default value

false

CreateJobTicket¶

If true , Distiller creates a Job Ticket object in the PDF file that contains specific information about this file—such as trapping information—that can be passed along to another application or print device.

This setting pertains to Portable Job Ticket Format 1.1, as described in Portable Job Ticket Format, version 1.1 (Technical Note #5620).

Supported by

Distiller

Type

Boolean

UI name

Save Portable Job Ticket inside PDF file

Default value

false

DetectBlends¶

If true , Distiller enables the conversion of PostScript gradients to smooth shades. If false , Distiller disables conversion.

Note

If CompatibilityLevel is less than 1.3, Distiller disables conversion regardless of the value of DetectBlends. In addition, Distiller always disables conversion if idiom recognition is turned off in the prologue file or in the PostScript file itself.

Distiller uses two methods to perform the conversion of gradients to smooth shades:

The PostScript Language Level 3 feature called idiom recognition replaces certain procedures (idioms) with others having equivalent behavior but producing better quality results. (See “Idiom Recognition” on page 119 of the PostScript Language Reference for details.) DetectBlends enables the subset of idioms that detect gradients (or blends) for the following applications: Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Freehand, CorelDraw, and QuarkXPress.
Distiller also converts gradients to smooth shades independently of idiom recognition. This method is application-independent, but it is less reliable than the first.

In Distiller 4.0, the blend detecting idioms (first method) was controlled by the IdiomRecognition PostScript feature, while the second method was controlled by DetectBlends. You had to turn off IdiomRecognition to use DetectBlends.

In Distiller 5.0 and above, DetectBlends controls the blend detecting idioms. By default IdiomRecognition is turned on in Distiller 5.0 and above, and the blend detecting idioms are controlled using DetectBlends. You can still use the PostScript feature IdiomRecognition with the setuserparams operator, if needed.

Supported by

Distiller

Type

Boolean

UI name

Convert gradients to smooth shades

Default value

true

DetectCurves¶

The value of this setting must be in the range from 0.0000 to 10.0000. If the value is 0.0000, the feature is disabled. If positive, Distiller investigates graphics for curves that are not described efficiently and thus result in unacceptably large file sizes. Distiller converts these curves into bezier curves that take up much less file space.

This setting represents a value in user space (72 dpi) that controls Distiller’s curve-fitting algorithm: the curve-fitting results should not part from the original line segments by more than this number. Visual inspection of the results suggests that the 0.1000 value yields the closest approximation to the original curve.

Supported by

Distiller

Type

number

UI name

Convert smooth lines to curves

Default value

0.1

DSCReportingLevel¶

Level can be either 0 , 1 , or 2. 0 means no additional reporting. Level 1 shows all input as it is parsed and shows a tree crawl when getting into bad states. Level 2 shows transitions in addition to the information in Level 1.

Supported by

Distiller

Type

integer

Default value

EmbedJobOptions¶

If true , the settings file used to create the PDF is embedded in the PDF file and is accessible through the Acrobat UI (the Attachments tab in Acrobat 7). In the PDF file, the Adobe PDF creation settings file becomes an item in the Names->EmbeddedFiles tree (see the PDF Reference ).

Note

Applications other than Distiller do not embed the settings file, regardless of the value of this setting.

Supported by

Distiller

Type

Boolean

UI name

Distiller: Save Adobe PDF settings inside PDF file

Default value

false

EmitDSCWarnings¶

If true , Distiller displays warning messages about questionable or incorrect DSC comments during the distillation of the PostScript file. Distiller ignores this setting if ParseDSCComments is false.

Supported by

Distiller

Type

Boolean

UI name

Log DSC warnings

Default value

false

LockDistillerParams¶

If true , Distiller ignores any settings specified by setdistillerparams operators in the incoming PostScript file and uses only those settings present in the Adobe PDF settings file (or their default values if not present).

If false , any settings specified in the PostScript file override the initial settings. These settings are in effect for the duration of the current save level.

Note

There are a number of settings whose values cannot be changed by setdistillerparams in a PostScript file. See Modifying settings during the job for a complete list.

Supported by

Distiller

Type

Boolean

UI name

Allow PostScript file to override Adobe PDF settings

Default value

false

OPM¶

Controls the overprint mode strategy in the job. Set to 0 for full overprint or 1 for non-zero overprint. For more information, refer to Technical Note #5044, Color Separation Conventions for PostScript Language Programs , and the PDF Reference.

Note

Distiller ignores this setting if PreserveOverprintSettings is false.

Supported by

Distiller

Type

integer

UI name

Overprinting default is nonzero overprinting

Default value

ParseDSCComments¶

If true , Distiller parses the DSC comments for any information that might be helpful for distilling the file or for information that is passed into the PDF file. If false , Distiller treats the DSC comments as pure PostScript comments and ignores them.

Supported by

Distiller

Type

Boolean

UI name

Process DSC Comments

Default value

true

ParseDSCCommentsForDocInfo¶

If true , Distiller attempts to preserve the Document Information from the PostScript DSC comments as properties of the PDF document. The following table lists this information.

Document Information	Source
Author	from DSC keyword: `%%For:`
Creator	from DSC keyword: `%%Creator:`
Title	from DSC keyword: `%%Title:`
Producer	from Distiller product name (“Acrobat Distiller 7.0”)
CreationDate	from Distiller time stamp (creation time of PDF file)
ModDate	from Distiller time stamp (creation time of PDF file)

Note

Distiller ignores this setting if ParseDSCComments is false.

Distiller 4.0 and higher places the Document Information in the Info dictionary of the PDF file; you can view the information in Acrobat by clicking File > Document Properties. Starting with version 5, Distiller also embeds the Document Information as XML in the PDF file. To embed the information, Distiller adds a Metadata key in the Catalog dictionary whose value is an indirect reference to a metadata stream object. The metadata object contains the metadata (the Document Information) for the PDF document. The metadata is represented as RDF, in conformance with Adobe’s Extensible Metadata Platform (XMP).

Note

If true , document properties of Microsoft Office files are carried into the PDF. A setting of false prevents this transfer of information.

Supported by

Distiller

Type

Boolean

UI name

Preserve document information from DSC

Default value

true

PassThroughJPEGImages¶

If true , JPEG images (images that are already compressed with the DCTEncode filter) are “passed through” Distiller without re-compressing them. (Distiller does perform a decompression to ensure that images are not corrupt, but then passes the original compressed image to the PDF file.) Images that are not compressed will still be compressed according to the image settings in effect for the type of image (for example, ColorImageFilter , etc.).

If false , all JPEG encoded images are decompressed and recompressed according the compression settings in effect.

Note, however, that JPEG images that meet the following criteria are not passed through even if the value of PassThroughJPEGImages is true :

The image will be downsampled.
ColorConversionStrategy is sRGB and the current PostScript color space (for the image) is not DeviceRGB or DeviceGray.
The image will be cropped—i.e., the clip path is such that more than 10% of the image pixels will be removed.

Creative Suite applications do not use this setting. However, Illustrator and InDesign normally behave as if it were true with regard to placed PDF files containing compressed images. That is, they do not normally uncompress and recompress them, unless color conversion or downsampling takes place.

Passing through JPEG images has these advantages:

Performance : Only decompression and not recompression occurs.

No loss of image data : DCT encoding inherently causes some loss of data; thus, with this option, since no recompression occurs, no data is lost.

No loss of metadata : When Distiller decompresses an image, all metadata is discarded; thus, with this option, no metadata is lost since no recompression on the decompressed image occurs.

Note

Distiller’s hard-coded default value of PassThroughJPEGImages is false to conform to older settings files where this setting did not exist. Most predefined Adobe PDF settings files set it to true. The Smallest File Size settings file sets it to false since that generally results in smaller file sizes. However, in some cases this setting could actually increase file size, for example, if the original JPEG in the PostScript file was compressed with a Quality setting lower than the Quality setting in the settings file.

Supported by

Distiller

Type

Boolean

UI name

Save original JPEG images in PDF if possible

Default value

false

PreserveCopyPage¶

Default value

true

If true , Distiller maintains PostScript Language Level 2 compatibility for the copypage operator. If false , Distiller uses the PostScript Language Level 3 definition of the copypage operator. See the PostScript Language Reference for more information.

Supported by

Distiller

Type

Boolean

UI name

Preserve Level 2 copypage semantics

PreserveEPSInfo¶

If true , and ParseDSCComments is true , Distiller attempts to preserve the encapsulated PostScript (EPS) information in the PostScript file as properties of the resulting PDF file. The distilled EPS content is identified as marked content using the EmbeddedDocument key.

The following table lists this information.

Document Information	Source
Author	from DSC keyword: `%%For:`
Creator	from DSC keyword: `%%Creator:`
Title	from DSC keyword: `%%Title:`

Starting with version 5, Distiller also embeds the information for embedded EPS files as XML in the PDF file. To do this, Distiller performs the following tasks:

Adds a Metadata key in the property list of the marked content container for the EPS.
Stores the property list as an indirect reference in the page resources object.

The value of the Metadata key is an indirect reference to the metadata stream object, which contains the metadata (the EPS information). The metadata is represented as RDF, in conformance with Adobe’s XMP.

Supported by

Distiller

Type

Boolean

UI name

Preserve EPS information from DSC

Default value

false

PreserveFlatness¶

If true , the PostScript flatness set by the setflat operator is preserved. If false , flatness is discarded. Preserving flatness can increase rendering and printing speeds, since less time is spent determining how to precisely render curves and circles.

Supported by

Distiller

Type

Boolean

Default value

true

PreserveOPIComments¶

If true , Distiller places the page contents within a set of Open Prepress Interface (OPI) comments in a Form XObject dictionary and preserves the OPI comment information in an OPI dictionary attached to the Form. Page contents data within a set of OPI comments may include proxy images, high-resolution images, or nothing.

If PreserveOPIComments is false , Distiller ignores OPI comments and their page contents. Setting PreserveOPIComments to false results in slightly simpler and smaller PDF files. Doing so is acceptable when use of an OPI server is not anticipated.

Distiller ignores PreserveOPIComments if ParseDSCComments is false.

Distiller recognizes both OPI 1.3 and OPI 2.0. See the specifications for OPI 1.3 and 2.0 (TN #5660).

Note

Creative Suite applications (Illustrator and InDesign) always behave as though this setting were true.

Supported by

Distiller, InDesign

Type

Boolean

UI name

Preserve OPI comments

Default value

false

PreserveOverprintSettings¶

If true , Distiller passes the value of the setoverprint operator through to the PDF file. If false , overprint is ignored (the information is not passed.

For Illustrator, this setting is relevant only when saving to PDF 1.3 (no transparency support) and the document contains overprint. If this setting is true , any overprint in the artwork is passed through to the PDF file unchanged. If false , any overprint in the artwork is stripped out and the resulting PDF file will not contain any.

Note

InDesign uses the SimulateOverprint setting that has additional options.

Supported by

Distiller, Illustrator

Type

Boolean

UI name

Distiller: Preserve overprint settings

Illustrator: Overprints: Preserve (Advanced panel)

Default value

true

UsePrologue¶

If true , Distiller uses the prologue.ps file in the Data subdirectory and distills it prior to any PostScript job that is sent through. Distiller also distills the epilogue.ps file in the same directory after the same PostScript job is run. You can add any legal PostScript code and comments to these two files.

Supported by

Distiller

Type

Boolean

UI name

Use Prologue.ps and Epilogue.ps

Default value

false

Standards settings¶

This section lists the settings related to PDF/X and PDF/A compliance. See Using the standards settings for more information.

CheckCompliance¶

Specifies the name of a standard to which the PDF file should comply. The value is an array of names; however, at the present time, only one name may be specified. The following table shows the valid values.

Value	UI equivalent (Distiller)
None	None
PDF/A-1b:2005 (CMYK)	PDF/A (Acrobat 5.0 Compatible)
PDFX1a:2001	PDF/X-1a (Acrobat 4.0 Compatible)
PDFX1a:2003	PDF/X-1a (Acrobat 5.0 Compatible)
PDFX3:2002	PDF/X-3 (Acrobat 4.0 Compatible)
PDFX3:2003	PDF/X-3 (Acrobat 5.0 Compatible)

Note

The Creative Suite UI uses the standards names in the first column. Creative Suite applications do not support PDF/A.

In Distiller 7 and the Creative Suite, this setting takes precedence over PDFX1aCheck and PDFX3Check. For more information, see Using the compliance checking settings.

For Creative Suite applications, CheckCompliance also takes precedence over values of other settings (such as ColorConversionStrategy or CompatibilityLevel ) that could potentially result in a file that is not compliant, and the values of the other settings are adjusted accordingly.

Supported by

Distiller, Illustrator, InDesign, Photoshop

Type

array

UI name

Distiller: Compliance Standard

Creative Suite: Standard

Default value

[/None]

PDFX1aCheck¶

If true , checks compliance with the PDF/X-1a standard (ISO 15930-1:2001) and a PDF/X compliance report is written to the message log.

A value of /PDFX1aCheck true is equivalent in Distiller 7 to a value of /CheckCompliance [ /PDFX1a:2001 ].

Note

This setting is retained for compatibility with Distiller 6. For more information on how this setting works, see Using the standards settings.

Supported by

Distiller, Illustrator, InDesign, Photoshop

Type

Boolean

UI name

none

Default value

false

PDFX3Check¶

If true , checks compliance with the PDF/X-3 standard (ISO 15930-3:2002) and a PDF/X compliance report is written to the message log. A value of /PDFX3Check true is equivalent in to a value of /CheckCompliance [ /PDFX3:2002 ].

Note

This setting is retained for compatibility with Distiller 6. For more information on how this setting works, see Using the standards settings.

Supported by

Distiller, Illustrator, InDesign, Photoshop

Type

Boolean

UI name

none

Default value

false

PDFXBleedBoxToTrimBoxOffset¶

If the BleedBox entry is not specified in the page object, BleedBox is set to TrimBox with offsets. Offsets are specified as [ left right top bottom ]. All numbers must be greater than or equal to 0.0. BleedBox offsets place the BleedBox entirely outside the TrimBox.

Note

This setting is ignored if PDFXSetBleedBoxToMediaBox is true.

Supported by

Distiller

Type

array

UI name

Set BleedBox to TrimBox with offsets (Points)

Default value

[0.00000 0.00000 0.00000 0.00000]

PDFXCompliantPDFOnly¶

Determines what to do when PDF/X compliance tests are not passed. The following table shows the valid values.

Value	UI equivalent	Description
true	Cancel job	A PDF document is produced only if PDF/X compliance tests are passed.
false	Continue	A PDF document is produced regardless of whether PDF/X compliance tests are passed. Distiller does not insert PDF/X additional key/value pairs into the created PDF file.

Note

InDesign uses its ErrorControl setting to determine what to do in this situation.

Supported by

Distiller

Type

Boolean

UI name

When not compliant

Default value

false

PDFXNoTrimBoxError¶

If true and both the TrimBox and ArtBox entries are not specified in the page object, the condition is reported as an error.

Supported by

Distiller

Type

Boolean

UI name

Report as error

Default value

true

PDFXOutputCondition¶

This setting provides an optional comment which, if present, is added to the PDF file and describes the intended printing condition in a form that should be meaningful to a human operator at the site receiving the PDF document.

Supported by

Distiller, Illustrator, InDesign, Photoshop

Type

string

UI name

Distiller: Output Condition

Creative Suite: Output Condition Name

Default value

()

PDFXOutputConditionIdentifier¶

This setting is a reference name that is specified by the output intent profile name registry. The entry is automatically entered for known output intent profile names.

For Distiller only, if the value of PDFXOutputIntentProfile is (Use Output Condition Identifier) , this setting must be provided for PDF/X validation to succeed.

For a description of how this setting is used to fill out entries in the PDF/X output intent dictionary, see Using the PDF/X output intent settings.

Supported by

Distiller, Illustrator, InDesign, Photoshop

Type

string

UI name

Output Condition Identifier

Default value

()

PDFXOutputIntentProfile¶

This setting indicates the characterized printing condition for which the document has been prepared and is required for PDF/X compliance. The value may be one of the following:

The name of a specific profile. The UI lists a number of available profiles. This is the only value supported by Creative Suite applications.
(Use Output Condition Identifier) The profile is specified by PDFXOutputConditionIdentifier. This value is used by Distiller only.
(None) This value should be used for workflows that require the output intent dictionary to be specified in the PostScript document and that require compliance checking to fail if it is not specified. In the UI, it corresponds to “No Default Profile”. This value is used by Distiller only.

For a description of how these values are used to fill out entries in the PDF/X output intent dictionary, see Using the PDF/X output intent settings.

Supported by

Distiller, Illustrator, InDesign, Photoshop

Type

string

UI name

Output Intent Profile Name

Default value

()

PDFXRegistryName¶

This setting specifies a URL where more information regarding the output intent profile can be obtained. This entry is automatically populated for recognized ICC profile names. If the value of PDFXOutputIntentProfile is (Use Output Condition Identifier) , this setting must be provided for PDF/X validation to succeed.

Supported by

Distiller, Illustrator, InDesign, Photoshop

Type

string

UI name

Registry Name (URL)

Default value

()

PDFXSetBleedBoxToMediaBox¶

If true and the BleedBox entry is not specified in the page object, BleedBox is set to MediaBox.

Supported by

Distiller

Type

Boolean

UI name

Set BleedBox to MediaBox

Default value

true

PDFXTrapped¶

Indicates the state of trapping within the file. Can be one of the following values:

Value	UI equivalent	Description
Unknown	Leave Undefined	The trapped state indicated in the PostScript file is used if present; otherwise the state is undefined.
False	Insert False	The document is not trapped.
True	Insert True	The document is trapped.

Note

True and False are name objects, not the Boolean values true and false.

A value of True or False is required for PDF/X compliance. If the PostScript file does not specify that the document is trapped, then the value provided here is used. Unknown should be used for workflows that require that the document specify a trapped state and for which compliance checking should fail if it is not present in the document.

Note

Illustrator can set this value to True or False via “Mark as Trapped.” InDesign always specifies False for PDF/X compliant files.

Supported by

Distiller, Illustrator

Type

name

UI name

Distiller: Trapped

Illustrator: Marked as Trapped

Default value

False

PDFXTrimBoxtoMediaBoxOffset¶

If both the TrimBox and ArtBox entries are not specified in the page object, TrimBox is set to MediaBox with offsets. Offsets are specified as [left right top bottom]. All numbers must be greater than or equal to 0.0. TrimBox offsets place TrimBox entirely inside MediaBox.

Note

This setting is ignored if PDFXNoTrimBoxError is true.

Supported by

Distiller

Type

array

UI name

Set TrimBox to MediaBox with offsets (units )

Default value

[0.00000 0.00000 0.00000 0.00000]