[KLUG Members] Re: Those grainy postscript files...

[Bryan J. Smith]

On Tue, 2002-03-19 at 20:41, Tony Gettig wrote:
> In Linux, I've tried Star Office and KWord. In W2K, it's Word or
> Publisher printing through Adobe Acrobat.

And Linux is your print server I take it?

> Hey, that's cool! They *seem* to look better in ggv. Not as choppy and
> grainy, but still not crisp (like the Acrobat created PDF's).

Of course not!  Again, ps2pdf is a _hack_ compared to native PDF
creation.

I'm using LyX/TeX to write all my documentation, and I get
"picture-perfect" PDFs w/"all-the-goodies" (booksmarks, hyperreferences,
etc..>) thanks to pdfTeX, hyperref and other TeX utilities.  100% open
source software creation.

An example of this can be seen in my resume:
http://www.thebs.org/Resume/resume.pdf

[ Use Adobe Acrobat Reader to see "all-the-goodies" ]

More and more Open Source Software (OSS) is starting to generate native
PDFs instead of using the ps2pdf "hack."

> Nope. Not sure how, but I'll start looking for how to right now. :)

Yes, if you are using Ghostscript the default of 720dpi, that can cause
slight deformations on 600dpi printers.

> I've only used gif and jpg for graphics thus far. I wish I would have
> saved the original version of the PDF for a flyer I did in Star Office
> and converted to PDF. 

Ahhh, yeah, I'm sure the gif/jpgs look "shitty" after ps2pdf or other
Ghostscript filters get done with them.  Especially if you are, what I
like to call, "converting down" to HP PCL.  ;-PPP

> Here are two examples...one pdf and one ps. I think the ps looks better.
> http://www.penguindude.com/pdf/pics.pdf
> http://www.penguindude.com/pdf/pics.ps

You've got a colordepth issue.  See the "ps2pdf.html" file in your
Ghostscript documentation.

> I have to say, the PDF's I create with Acrobat in W2k are crisp
> and clear. But I'd much rather use Linux to do this.

Of course!  That's because you're using Adobe's PDF creator!  Linux
actually has a better, built-in Postscript subsystem than Windows (thanx
to Ghostscript), but installing Adobe's products on Windows fixes that. 
But there are still some exceptions.  E.g., I don't know how many times
I've had to take a PDF and print it under Linux's Adobe Acrobat Reader
because the Windows Adobe Acrobat Reader "craps out" after so many pages
-- especially on native Postscript printers.

As far as "Acrobat/Distiller" is concerned, *LOBBY*ADOBE* to release a
port of Adobe Acrobat/Distiller for Linux!  Trust me, a _lot_ of people
continue to ask for aFrameMaker and Photoshop ports as well.  Adobe is
still "behind" on shipping a few MacOS X ports yet, so I'm sure their
priorities are a little off right now.  But sooner or later, they'll
"wake up"

> Thanks for the great info. I super appreciate it!

-- Bryan

-- 
Don't confuse the US Constition with its Bill Of Rights.
One was written by legislators, the other by its people.
--------------------------------------------------------
Bryan J. Smith, Engineer       mailto:b.j.smith@ieee.org
SmithConcepts, Inc.         http://www.SmithConcepts.com
       Consulting Engineers and IT Professionals