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bbender4-Participant
4-Participant
November 17, 2011
Question

usedistiller switch

  • November 17, 2011
  • 20 replies
  • 3505 views

Hi folks,


I'm using Arbortext PE 5.4 with a FOSI. I have a publish job that needs to use DirectPDF to add custom PDF metadata including document properties and bookmarks, which is not possible using Adobe Distiller. Can I dynamically switch the usedistiller=off from usedistiller=on without a Tomcat/services restart to register the change? Is there a way to support Distiller and DirectPDF configuration on the same PE server? If not, the obvious choice is to move away from Distiller. But are there any benefits to using Distiller instead of DirectPDF? The reasons we use Distiller is unknown to me.


Thanks in advance,


Bryan

    20 replies

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    A
    AndyEsslinger1-Visitor
    1-Visitor
    November 18, 2011
    Interesting. Thanks for the info. If we ever update to Arbortext Editor 5.4, then I may revisit direct PDF. Switching to styler was just too much work for not enough capability.

    -Andy

    \/ AndyEsslinger LM Aero-TechOrderData
    _____-/\-_____ (817) 279-0442 1 Lockheed Blvd,MZ4285
    \_\/_/ (817) 777 3047 FortWorth,TX 76108-3916

    P
    ptc-9539261-Visitor
    1-Visitor
    November 18, 2011
    We actually have a Styler license, but don't use it for PDF generation -- still using FOSIs there. Our use of Styler is strictly for the editor display. I just can't imagine using it for page layout (especially since our FOSIs do a perfectly fine job).

    Dave
    A
    AndyEsslinger1-Visitor
    1-Visitor
    November 18, 2011
    Still using FOSI here also. Management wants to shoot me if I try to make minor FOSI changes. I can't imagine what kind of torture they would devise if I requested budget to change to Styler.

    Have you noticed that the newer version (9 and 10) Adobe Distiller output is a lot more fragile than it used to be? Any little tweak to a completed PDF caused the PDF to change to a different version.

    -Andy

    \/ AndyEsslinger LM Aero-TechOrderData
    _____-/\-_____ (817) 279-0442 1 Lockheed Blvd,MZ4285
    \_\/_/ (817) 777 3047 FortWorth,TX 76108-3916


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    ptc-9539261-Visitor
    1-Visitor
    November 18, 2011
    Not sure the last question was for me. I'll let others respond as we abandoned Distiller PDFs several years ago. This was maily due to only Direct PDF being able to reliably output CJK for us. I don't remember the issues, but Direct PDF eliminated them all (also, it's MUCH better for PDF bookmark stuff).
    C
    ClayHelberg18-Opal
    18-Opal
    November 18, 2011
    Just for the record, it *is* possible to use distiller to generate document metadata and bookmarks. I did it several years ago, using the stylesheet generate an EPS file that contained the PDFMark commands to generate the desired metadata and/or bookmarks, and then link it in as if it were a graphic. Distiller then processes those commands when it distills the PS to produce PDF. You could also do this using a texmac processing instruction in generated text to embed the PDFMark commands directly into the flow.

    If you're interested, google PDFMark, and you should be able to find reference material for how to write the commands you need to set the items you want.

    --Clay

    Clay Helberg
    Senior Consultant
    TerraXML
    P
    ptc-9539261-Visitor
    1-Visitor
    November 18, 2011
    Oh, yes, we also added bookmark stuff to the Distiller PDFs. But, we used an OmniMark script to manipulate the PS file directly before converting it to PDF. I would recommend doing that, of course.
    B
    bibach1-Visitor
    1-Visitor
    November 18, 2011
    Ah, Clay, you're such a never-say-never techy romantic. 😉

    -Brandon 🙂


    P
    ptc-9539261-Visitor
    1-Visitor
    November 18, 2011
    I meant "would NOT recommend".
    A
    AndyEsslinger1-Visitor
    1-Visitor
    November 18, 2011
    This sort of post makes me wonder what kind of wonderful marvelous things people are doing with bookmarks (and what is driving the requirement).

    The bookmarks that I generate with a FOSI cover everything I ever saw a need for. Editor with print composer and distiller is all of the software with no ACL, omni mark, java or other scripting language. Actually, I do use and eps file used as a graphic that fills in the metadata I want. Otherwise, plain FOSI.

    -Andy

    \/ AndyEsslinger LM Aero-TechOrderData
    _____-/\-_____ (817) 279-0442 1 Lockheed Blvd,MZ4285
    \_\/_/ (817) 777 3047 FortWorth,TX 76108-3916


    C
    ClayHelberg18-Opal
    18-Opal
    November 18, 2011
    Aw, come on, where's your sense of adventure? 🙂

    BTW, I wouldn't recommend these approaches either--it would be much easier (and more maintainable) to sort out any loose ends and make the switch to direct PDF, if you can. At the time I developed that solution, we were using XSL-FO for publishing, and it didn't support PDF bookmarks at all. (It does now.)

    --C

    Clay Helberg
    Senior Consultant
    TerraXML

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