pdf printing

pdf printing

[Idris S Hamid]

Dear gang,

Ok; this is a post-context problem but I desperately need your help.

I created a book cover using ConTeXt/Gamma/eomega in three parts; front,
back, and spine. ps2pdf got the colors wrong so I had to use distiller
to convert each part to pdf. Per my instructions, in Acrobat, a
colleague overlaid the three components and created a final single cover
pdf. She sent it to the printer and everything came out fine except the
fonts "came out all pixilated and blurry". The fonts are all Type1 and
dvips is definitely getting the Type1's I think The printer suggested
that Distiller was screen-optimized, not print-optimized. I'll check
that when I get home but before I get there I need your advice and
wisdom:

What things in ConTeXt/dvips/distiller should I optimize to make sure
the printer is able to print this thing properly? Are there any
questions I can ask the printer?

As I get more info I'll try to make things more precise.

Aside: Maybe there is way to make a single cover in ConTeXt instead of
combining three pdfs in Acrobat (which is a pain). I'd be happy to
learn:-)

Best wishes
Idris

Re: pdf printing

[Bill McClain]

On Thu, 10 Apr 2003 09:21:42 -0600
Idris S Hamid <ishamid@lamar.colostate.edu> wrote:

> Aside: Maybe there is way to make a single cover in ConTeXt instead of
> combining three pdfs in Acrobat (which is a pain). I'd be happy to
> learn:-)

I can't help with distiller, but I create my covers in ConTeXt by making
three pdf documents and combining them like so:

\useexternalfigure[back][cover-back][type=pdf]
\useexternalfigure[spine][cover-spine][type=pdf]
\useexternalfigure[front][cover-front][type=pdf]

\definepapersize[Cover][height=7.75in, width=10.625in]
\setuppapersize[Cover][Cover]
\setuplayout[topspace=0in, header=0in, footer=0in]
\setuplayout[backspace=0in]

\starttext
\hbox to 10.625in{%
{\externalfigure[back]}% 
{\externalfigure[spine]}%
{\externalfigure[front]}% 
}
\stoptext


The dimensions depend on the book, of course.

You could do the same thing with layers and direct x-y positioning, as
shown on my help page. I'm sure this could all be done in one document,
but I find it convenient to treat each of the back-spine-front as
separate panels.

-Bill
-- 
Sattre Press                                The King in Yellow
http://sattre-press.com/                 by Robert W. Chambers
info@sattre-press.com             http://kiy.sattre-press.com/ 

Re: pdf printing

[Idris S Hamid]

Bill McClain wrote:

> On Thu, 10 Apr 2003 09:21:42 -0600
> Idris S Hamid <ishamid@lamar.colostate.edu> wrote:
>
> > Aside: Maybe there is way to make a single cover in ConTeXt instead of
> > combining three pdfs in Acrobat (which is a pain). I'd be happy to
> > learn:-)
>
> I can't help with distiller, but I create my covers in ConTeXt by making
> three pdf documents and combining them like so:

Actually, I was thinking about creating all 3 covers from the beginning as a
.tex file, but using ConTeXt as a post processor instead of Acrobat is a
great idea and I will definitely try it. Since my Arabic will already be
compiled into the individual covers I can use pdfetex for the final full
cover. Thnx!!! One thing I'd like to be able to control is making the front
and back covers overlap the spine slightly. That is, I make the spine
slightly wider than needed. Then I need to be able to make the two covers
overlap more or less of the spine as demanded by the final printing. It
would be neat to develop a generic means of doing this so that I only have
to adjust a single parameter to fine-tune things.

One hard part about compiling  the covers as one file from the beginning is
that the spine contains vertical material (like the title) and horizontal
material (like a logo). What I do is compile the spine as one
horizontal-text file, the logo as one horizontal-text file, convert them to
pdf, rotate the spine to make it vertical, then copy and past the horizontal
logo onto the vertical spine.

Thnx again. If anybody can help with distiller and the rest of the things I
mentioned, please let me know!

Best
Idris

Re: pdf printing

[Hans Hagen]

At 10:00 10/04/2003 -0600, Idris S Hamid wrote:
>Bill McClain wrote:
>
> > On Thu, 10 Apr 2003 09:21:42 -0600
> > Idris S Hamid <ishamid@lamar.colostate.edu> wrote:
> >
> > > Aside: Maybe there is way to make a single cover in ConTeXt instead of
> > > combining three pdfs in Acrobat (which is a pain). I'd be happy to
> > > learn:-)
> >
> > I can't help with distiller, but I create my covers in ConTeXt by making
> > three pdf documents and combining them like so:
>
>Actually, I was thinking about creating all 3 covers from the beginning as a
>.tex file, but using ConTeXt as a post processor instead of Acrobat is a
>great idea and I will definitely try it. Since my Arabic will already be
>compiled into the individual covers I can use pdfetex for the final full
>cover. Thnx!!! One thing I'd like to be able to control is making the front
>and back covers overlap the spine slightly. That is, I make the spine
>slightly wider than needed. Then I need to be able to make the two covers
>overlap more or less of the spine as demanded by the final printing. It
>would be neat to develop a generic means of doing this so that I only have
>to adjust a single parameter to fine-tune things.

\setupbackgrounds[page][background=cover,backgroundoffset=3mm]

\defineoverlay
   [cover]
   [{\externalfigure[whatever.pdf][width=\overlaywidth,height=\overlayheight]}] 



Hans
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                   Hans Hagen | PRAGMA ADE | pragma@wxs.nl
                       Ridderstraat 27 | 8061 GH Hasselt | The Netherlands
  tel: +31 (0)38 477 53 69 | fax: +31 (0)38 477 53 74 | www.pragma-ade.com
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
                        information: http://www.pragma-ade.com/roadmap.pdf
                     documentation: http://www.pragma-ade.com/showcase.pdf
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Re: pdf printing

[Hans Hagen]

At 10:34 10/04/2003 -0500, Bill McClain wrote:
>On Thu, 10 Apr 2003 09:21:42 -0600
>Idris S Hamid <ishamid@lamar.colostate.edu> wrote:
>
> > Aside: Maybe there is way to make a single cover in ConTeXt instead of
> > combining three pdfs in Acrobat (which is a pain). I'd be happy to
> > learn:-)
>
>I can't help with distiller, but I create my covers in ConTeXt by making
>three pdf documents and combining them like so:
>
>\useexternalfigure[back][cover-back][type=pdf]
>\useexternalfigure[spine][cover-spine][type=pdf]
>\useexternalfigure[front][cover-front][type=pdf]
>
>\definepapersize[Cover][height=7.75in, width=10.625in]
>\setuppapersize[Cover][Cover]
>\setuplayout[topspace=0in, header=0in, footer=0in]
>\setuplayout[backspace=0in]
>
>\starttext
>\hbox to 10.625in{%
>{\externalfigure[back]}%
>{\externalfigure[spine]}%
>{\externalfigure[front]}%
>}
>\stoptext
>
>
>The dimensions depend on the book, of course.

fyi:

   \setuplayout[page]

will give you the full page, as will:

\startTEXpage

\stopTEXpage

saves some keying

Hans


-------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                   Hans Hagen | PRAGMA ADE | pragma@wxs.nl
                       Ridderstraat 27 | 8061 GH Hasselt | The Netherlands
  tel: +31 (0)38 477 53 69 | fax: +31 (0)38 477 53 74 | www.pragma-ade.com
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
                        information: http://www.pragma-ade.com/roadmap.pdf
                     documentation: http://www.pragma-ade.com/showcase.pdf
-------------------------------------------------------------------------