PDF Options

This page appears as part of the Advanced Print Wizard and the Output Preset Creation Wizard.

The PDF Options page is shown only when a PDF Print output type is selected in the Print Options dialog. It is used to select PDF specific options.

Ideally, PDF should not be used for generating Mixplex output. You should instead use a print format that supports Duplex/Simplex switching. PDF is not suitable for this as it has no device control.

  • PDF Creation Group
    • Type: Use the drop-down list to specify what PDF format will be generated. The options are:
      • Standard PDF (PDF)
      • Archive format PDF (PDF/A-1b)
      • E-invoice format PDF (PDF/A-3b)
      • Graphics format PDF (PDF/X-4 )
      • Variable data printing format PDF (PDF/VT).
    • Font Creation selection: The choices are:
      • Simple fonts when possible (smallest size). This is the default option.
        This option uses Simple fonts in cases where the fonts do not use too many characters. It automatically switches to using composite fonts when the number of characters becomes too large to fit a Simple font. This allows omitting fonts that are considered "standard fonts" in the PDF reference, which helps reduce file size.
        The drawback to this option is that some PDF viewers do not support it properly, which can cause viewing issues with jobs using non-Latin1 encoded characters.
        A Simple font can be a Type1 font, a TrueType font or a Type3 font.
        One of the main characteristics of a Simple font is that its glyphs are selected using a single byte character code, limiting the number of glyphs to a maximum of 256.

        For more information on Simple fonts, see Abode's documentation regarding Portable Document Format files.

      • Always create CID fonts (best compatibility). This option always uses composite fonts (CID fonts), regardless of the number of glyphs in the font.
        CID fonts use 2 byte ids to select glyphs, so this option always leads to larger file sizes.
        The benefit of this option is that all the fonts get embedded in the output, making for the most portable of PDF outputs.
        Customers using Asian fonts should generally use the CID font option.
      Any pre Connect 2018.2 Output Presets will use the Simple Fonts default, unless updated in Connect 2018.2.
    • Embed standard fonts: Click to embed the 14 standard system fonts within the PDF output. This increases the output filesize but makes the PDF output truly portable. Such PDFs print as displayed on screen, regardless of whether the 14 standard fonts are present on the target printing system or not.
      This box is automatically selected for all but standard PDF outputs, as fonts are always embedded in such output types.
    • Pass-through PDF resources: Click to have PDF resources used as-is, without any additional processing. This guarantees the fidelity of any PDF graphics used within the template will be retained in the output.

      This option is only available for standard PDF output.
      Connect tries to write content in the best way possible, depending on the chosen output format and optimization settings. Selecting PDF pass-through means the output will be less optimized, which typically produces somewhat larger files.
      Encrypted PDF files are not supported in PDF pass-through mode.
  • Meta data Group: Add optional Metadata to the PDF output. The fields that can be configured are the Title, Author, Description and Keywords. These metadata entries are those that are displayed in the Adobe Reader Document Properties dialog.
    The values for all the fields can be either static or dynamic (such as values obtained from datamapping) or a combination of both.
    • Title: Add the document name(s). This defaults to the existing document name.
    • Author: Add the document author, if desired. This can be either a static or a dynamic value, or a combination thereof.
    • Description: Add an optional description about the document. A static value is most likely for this field, but it can contain dynamic value(s) as well.
    • Keywords: Optionally add any Keywords that might be beneficial to include. These can be either a static or dynamic values, or a combination thereof.
  • Digital signatures Group: Check the box to enable the integration of a digital signature within the PDF.

    A digital signature identifies the person signing a document, similarly to a conventional handwritten signature.
    A digital signature is more difficult to forge than a handwritten signature as it contains encrypted information which is unique to
    the signer and which can be password protected and verifiable.

    PlanetPress Connect currently supports only a single Digital Signature per PDF output file.

    The Digital signatures table contains all the available Digital signature Keystores and associated Signatures. It has the following columns:

    • Name: The user-defined name of the Keystore\Signature.
    • Alias: The user-defined alias for the signature.

    The Digital signatures table has the following options:

    • Add: To add either a Keystore or a Signature to the Digital signatures table.
      • Selecting Add Keystore opens the Key Store dialog for adding a new Keystore to the list.
      • Selecting Add Signature opens the PDF Signature dialog for add a new signature to the Keystore.
      Digital signatures require a Keystore, so only the Add Keystore option will be available if no Keystores are present.
    • Edit: Click to edit the currently selected item. Either Key Store or PDF Signature.
    • Delete: Click to delete the currently selected item(s).
    • Duplicate: Click to make a duplicate copy of the currently selected item.
    • / Move Up/Move Down: Click to move the currently selected item(s) up or down within the table.
Advanced Print Wizard navigation options

  • Preview button: Click to launch a Proof Preview window, which displays how the printed output would look based upon the currently chosen selections.

  • Back and Next buttons: Used to navigate back and forth through all the selected options within the Wizard. Up until the Print button is pressed, one can reverse all the way through the wizard to return to the main selection page (the Print Options page) and add or remove printing options from the print run.

  • Print button: Click to produce print output according to the current settings. This can be done at any point within the Wizard, whether or not all the options selected in the Print Options page have been completed or not.

  • Cancel button: Cancels the Print Wizard, without creating any printout.