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Vista, XPS & Postscript part 2
September 18, 2007
In the last two blogs I began to discuss reports of PostScript printing problems from the new Windows Vista Operating system and Office 2007 products. I sent these stories to both Adobe and Microsoft. Even though I talked to representatives from each company I was surprised to learn that it was hard to get straight answers. But, I am starting to hear more from users and consultants.
As I hear from more people I am learning that this is a complex issue filled with controversial interpretations. My goal is not to point fingers but simply to create work around solutions that allow us to print to high resolution PostScript devices, which are the main devices and workflows used by service providers. Here are some of the latest, unconfirmed reports I am hearing.
It appears that the new Office 2007 printing system does not take advantage of the new printing structure in Vista and still prints using GDI protocols. As a result, as in previous versions of Microsoft Office, transparencies (non-opaque objects), and gradients and are not printing well.
As discussed last blog, Adobe has created a new PostScript driver which is available from their OEMs. This new driver gets around these issues but should be only used when printing from Microsoft Office or similar GDI applications that support transparency.
When printing from other applications such as all Adobe, Corel, and Quark layout and graphic arts applications you should use the original PostScript driver that ships with Vista. (Note that if you use EPS files within Microsoft Office, you should also use the original PostScript driver in lieu of the new driver). Note that Windows does permit more than one driver to reference the same physical print device!
Last blog I reported that Microsoft made a plug-ins available to export Office 2007 to PDF files. Since then I have started to hear that the Windows PDF plug-in may not be the best way to create PDF or XPS files. These reports discuss how Type 1 fonts become low resolution bitmapped fonts when the save to XPS or Save to PDF options are used.
When I mentioned this to Adrian Ford the Senior Program Manager for the Documents and Printing Team from Microsoft he said that the Type 1 fonts should get converted to Open Type fonts and become embedded. He said if that is not occurring then there is a bug and they will fix it. He referred me to his blog for more information (http://blogs.msdn.com/adrianford/default.aspx) about all things XPS.
According to Shafath Syed, Adobe product manager for electronic publishing one of the best options to get XPS files into a PDF workflow may be import it into Acrobat 8 and export a PDF. Then preflight and repair the PDF file using popular preflight software such as with Acrobat 8, Quite a Box of Tricks, Enforces Pit Stop or the newly released Enforces Neo. After passing your preflight check or completing your repairs, the PDF should print out correctly using the original PostScript driver in Vista.
That's the latest. Ok gotta get back to a plant layout project. FYI the weather near the Virginia Tech campus is beautiful this time of year. When I hear more - so will you.
Posted by Howie Fenton on September 18, 2007 | Comments (0)
