Illustrator Bezier Waggle

A buddy and I noticed what we think is a bug in Illustrator a long time ago. It seems to make its way into each new version of Illustrator

If you make a path with the pen tool, then go back and select the bezier handle with cmd (white arrow tool), then add space bar (to move the anchor point) the other, unselected bezier handle seems to waggle as you move the anchor point, and it gets longer and longer as it goes…

Here is a video… Bug or Feature? you decide!

Acrobat Pro: Form Validation

I’m not an expert on form validations in Acrobat, but I CAN copy and paste from somewhere else.

When creating Acrobat Form Fields, you can insert validation scripts to make sure the values that are being returned are the ones you want. One popular option is to have the form field highlight a certain color based on that values are returned. I use this often in Excel, but never really in Acrobat. But it’s no surprise that validation scrpts in acrobat can be used to highlight fields as well. While I’m not an expert on validation scripts, I can copy-and-paste from a more knowledgeable source.

For a Form Field, Right Click and choose [Properties]. In the “Validate” tab, you can insert a custom validation script to change the appearance of the form field. Something like this:

// Set this field's background color based on the selected item
switch (event.value) {
case "High"   : event.target.fillColor = color.red;    break;
case "Medium" : event.target.fillColor = color.yellow; break;
case "Low"    : event.target.fillColor = color.green;  break;
default       : event.target.fillColor = color.white;  break;
}

And you can create form fields that change color. I did one as a test here.  Form Test.

If you are a glutton for punishment, Acrobat has pretty good support for Javascript, so you can read all about it here.  http://partners.adobe.com/public/developer/en/acrobat/sdk/AcroJSGuide.pdf

Original source of information is here in this Adobe Forums thread: http://forums.adobe.com/thread/892866

Adobe InDesign: Print Booklet function no longer recommended

Posted by Dov Isaacs in the Adobe User forms, Dov Isaacs says it’s no longer recommended to use the Print Booklet function at all…..

At Adobe, we would most strongly recommend that you don’t use the internal Print Booklet facility at all. Why? Creating PDF in that manner (including the suggestion of “Was DYP”) results in a very poor quality PDF file with no color management and flattened transparency.

The correct way to deal with making booklets or imposition in general is to directly export PDF from InDesign in logical page number order, preferably using the PDF/X-4 settings with any necessary bleed areas specified.

For commercial printing, it is the responsibility of the print service provider to do the imposition of the PDF file in a manner appropriate for the printed piece and for the equipment being used. (For example, often it is much more economical to print multiple pages and spreads per single sheet, requiring more complex imposition that would ever be possible with InDesign’s Print Booklet facility!) That is part of the service that you should expect from your print service provider!!

For your own personal printing on a less sophisticated laser or inkjet printer, for example, you have other choices. For simple booklet printing, let’s say two 8.5″x11″ pages on an 11″x17″ sheet or even two 5.5″x8.5″ pages on an 8.5″x11″ sheet, you can accomplish this via the booklet printing capability in the Adobe Reader or Acrobat print dialogue. Works perfectly and costs you nothing extra. If you need more complex imposition, there are a number of third party Acrobat plug-ins that do a very professional job of imposition while maintaining color management, live transparency, and even the PDF file’s PDF/X status. One such set of Acrobat plug-in products are Quite Imposing and Quite Imposting Plus (available for both MacOS and Windows) from Quite Software http://www.quite.com. Another similar product is PDF Snake (Windows only) available from http://www.pdfsnake.com.

link here http://forums.adobe.com/thread/1281878.

But Acrobat’s booklet printing doesn’t work perfectly at all. For instance, if each of my pages has bleed and crop marks displayed, Acrobat doesn’t get rid of that on the inside parts. that’s lame. Printing to PS and distilling it again sometimes cause other problems too… so.. i don’t know…

Adobe PDF Printer No longer installed

I’m late to the game as usual… but Adobe PDF is no longer selectable as a printer in Acrobat installations… what a bummer

Security features in Snow Leopard and later editions that disable the Adobe PDF Printer. Adobe Acrobat 9.1 Pro and later editions up to Acrobat 11.0.x Pro remove the Adobe PDF Printer. Add, they add a Save As Adobe PDF command. Customers using earlier versions of Adobe Acrobat in Snow Leopard cannot use the Adobe PDF Printer.

Acrobat XI: The New and The Improved

Acrobat seems to be one of those tools that are so essential yet so mundane it risks putting you to sleep just talking about it. Seriously, the presenters in the videos that adobe put out don’t even seem to be interested. But anyway, here is a quick rundown of the new and improved features in Acrobat XI Pro.

Here’s aquick list of what’s new (or newish)

• Redesigned Content editing tool
• Redesigned Combined Files dialog
• Redesigned Action tools
• New Acrobat.com Integration
• Customize tools and panels (make your own tool bar)
• new office 365 integration
• support for touch gestures
• Convert PDFs to powerpoint
• Echosign integration
• webmail integration
• accessibility tool enhancements (new guided action)
• ehnanced standard support (pdf ua)
• commentary enhancements (undockable comments pane)
• New multilangual installers
• Form enhancements
• Print production ehnahcements
• improved word/excel/html export
• ehnancements in Reader

Here is a list that has a bit more detail…

• Export/Convert to PDF files to word, excel, or powerpoint
  • Pro version needed for powerpoint conversion
  • Tools > Export file to >
  • Right Click > Export selection as
• Edit Text & Images in the PDF file
  • Tools > Content Editing > Edit Text & Images
  • Blue Boxes highlight to show editable regions
  • Text Reflows automatically
  • Swap in new images in place of old ones
• Create PDF & Web Forms
  • Forms Central now a desktop app
  • New blank form or choose a template
  • Form options and layout defined in app
• Combine Files into a Single PDF
  • Now there is a thumbnail and drag-and-drop feature for sorting files before generating new pdf.
  • Or place multiple files into a PDF Portfolio
  • Allows multiple file formats
  • Create > PDF Portfolio
• Sign documents electronically
  • With Echo Sign (Subscription serice)
  • Sign panel
  • “I Need to sign” & Type or place signature
  • send signed document to echosign service
• Password Protect PDFs
  • Set from Office Tool Bar
    • Acrobat > Create PDF > Protect PDF
  • In PDF FIle (using Acrobat)
    • File > Properties > password security
• Create Guided Action to automate PDFs
  • Tools > Action wizard
  • Actions can include instructional callouts
• Rearrange Pages
  • Improved Page thumbnails panel
  • Tools are available in Tool bar, option menu, or page tools
• Improved Action Wizard (Guided Action)
  • Tools > Action Wizard
  • Custom Actions
    • Group steps into panels, add divider lines and include instructions
    • Tools > Action Wizard > Manage Actions
      • Rename, or edit actions, or copy and delete or export or import
    • Can be set to automatically enter digital ID for passwords
• Create and Distribute Forms
  • Tools > Forms > Create
    • Opens Adobe Forms Central Desktop Application
  • With Forms Central Subscription service, can post forms on the web that users can complete online, monitor responses, share and publish reports
  • Echosign aware ready forms – drag echosign form fields (signature or initials field)
• Create and Combine PDFs
  • New thumbnail view int he combine files dialog box
  • drag & drop to rearrange
  • Create > combine Files into a single PDF
• Sign and Distribute
  • Sign > Place Signature
  • send and track signatures with EchoSign service
  • Long term validation and ECC based credentials (security and encryption)
• Customize your tools and workspace
  • Customize > Create new Tool set / Manage Toolset
    • Can share with others, and download from acrobatusers.com
    • add tools from different tool bars into custom set
    • add panels, lines and instructions
  • Undock comments list
    • Comment > Comments list, “Unlock comments List” from options menu
  • Touch Mode for mobile devices and tablets
    • Automatically detects device and activates
    • Buttons further apart, gestures recognized, bigger font size
    • View > show/hide > Toolbar items > touch Mode
    • Can set up in general preferences
    • Eg, citrix receiver app (acrobat files are hosted remotely and opened on device)
• Protect PDFs
  • Permanently delete information with redaction tools
    • Tools > Protection > mark for redaction
    • Search and remove text
    • Apply redactions
    • Acrobat will prompt to delete hidden information in metadata as well
• PDF Accessiblity
  • Make accessibility guided actions walk you through the steps to make PDF accessible
  • PDF is validated against PDF/UA and WCAG 2.0 standards
  • Accessibility cheker Panel
  • Make Accessible Action
    • Add document description: Title, subject, author, keywords
    • Detect fillable form fields and OCR (If scanned)
    • Assign Lanugage
    • Enter alt Text for images
    • Then accessibility check erill auto run
• Export Formats
  • Export to word, excel and powerpoint
  • PDF to HTML pages (file > save as > HTML)
  • Export selection

PDF/X Clarified

Found this old article on Adobe Design Center. Good explaination of the different PDF/X variants.

Here’s what must be included in a PDF/X file:

• Fonts and images embedded.
• Page geometry (the trim box and bleed box) defined.
• Intended printing condition (output intent).
• Trapping key (Yes = True, No = False) defined.
• Title, creator, producer, creation, and modification dates.

Here’s what’s prohibited in PDF/X files:

• Live transparency, except in PDF/X-4 files.
• Layers, except in PDF/X-4 files.
• Encryption (security).
• Form fields.
• Interactive elements including movies, sounds, buttons, and hyperlinks.
• Annotations within the bleed box.
• Preseparated PDFs.
• Transfer functions.
• Actions and JavaScripts.
• Embedded PostScript®.

PDF/X files do not set a minimum image resolution nor limit the plates used.

About the PDF/X standard and transparency

Originally released in 2000, PDF/X standards continue to evolve, mainly with the wide adoption of newer versions of the PDF specification. Here is the evolution of these standards and how they handle transparency in files:

• The PDF/X-1a:2001 and PDF/X-3:2002 standards are based on PDF 1.3 (Acrobat 4.0). Creating a PDF 1.3 file—such as from InDesign CS3, Illustrator CS3, or Photoshop CS3—flattens transparency.
• The 2003 versions of the PDF/X standard (PDF/X-1a:2003 and PDF/X-3:2003) are based on PDF 1.4 (Acrobat 5.0), but can also accommodate PDF 1.3 files. This standard does not support transparency. You can still use transparency in your design, but you must flatten the transparency before creating a PDF/X-1a or PDF/X-3 file.
• The PDF/X-4:2007 format saves PDF 1.6 or later files. This format preserves transparency (does not flatten it) and layers.

Reset an Acrobat Form

Radio Buttons in PDF Forms are kind of a pain sometimes. Once you click on it, it becomes selected and you can’t deselect it. This can be a problem for both the user and the form creator (during testing). A good easy fix is to attach add a button to reset the form. This is good practice in general anyhow.

1. In Acrobat Pro go to Form > Add or Edit Fields…
2. Create a form field. Button, Check box, or Radio Button will probably work best.
3. Under Properties, in the Actions tab, choose “Reset a form” from the Add an Action portion.
4. Once you add it to the actions, edit it to customize.

Exporting Interactive Elements out of InDesign into PDFs (CS4 and CS5)

InDesign CS4 had one export to PDF dialog box. CS5 has two. So it makes PERFECT sense to split up the export options into two dialog boxes so they are both sorta broken. Nicely done.

InDesign CS5 Export to PDF Fight! Export to PDF (Print) vs. Export to PDF (Interactive)

InDesign CS5 introduced the option to export to PDF (Interactive) and PDF (Print) and presents you with 2 sets of dialog boxes. There are some equivalents, but not really.

The solid red box shows some settings that can be set up in Acrobat Pro.

InDesign Export to Interactive PDF: Always exports spreads?

I noticed that there is no checkbox for “Spreads”in the Export to Interactive PDF dialog box out of InDesign CS5. The export is always in spreads and you can’t turn it off. Personally, I wish this dialog box had a few more options (some permissions settings perhaps?)

This seems kind of lame. A quick fix is to change your document setup so it doesn’t have facing pages, and then to turn it back on again after.