Printing to a PostScript printer
PostScript is a page-description language that sends printing instructions to a PostScript device. All the elements in a print job (for example, curves and text) are represented by lines of PostScript code that the printing device uses to produce the document. For improved compatibility you can choose a device independent PostScript device. You can also select a PostScript Printer Description (PPD) file. A PostScript Printer Description file describes the capabilities and features of your PostScript printer and is available from your printer’s manufacturer.
You can print to a PostScript printing device. To ensure that a print job prints properly on a PostScript Level 1 device, you can test for potential issues such as complex graphics and banding in fountain fills.
You can automatically increase the fountain steps in a fountain fill to decrease banding. To ensure that your print jobs print properly, you can reduce curve complexity by increasing flatness. Curve flatness determines how smooth a curve appears when printed.
A print job that contains too many fonts may not print properly, and a print job that contains too many spot colors increases file size. You can set the PostScript options to warn you when a print job contains more than a set number of fonts or spot colors.
By default, the printing device driver downloads Type 1 fonts to the printing device. You can disable the Download Type 1 Fonts option, so that fonts are printed as graphics (either curves or bitmaps). This may be useful when the file contains many fonts that would take an unacceptably long time to download or would fail to download because of their file size. Bitmap versions of TrueType fonts look better in small print and print faster than regular fonts. You can choose the maximum number of bitmap fonts that a print job can contain.
To select a PostScript Printer Description file |  |
Print.To print to a PostScript device | |
|
5.
|
|
From the list box in the Compatibility area, choose the PostScript level that corresponds to the printer.
|
|
If you want to compress bitmaps when printing, enable the Use JPEG compression check box in the Bitmaps area, and move the JPEG quality slider.
|
|
•
|
|
Bitmap compression settings can be saved in PostScript Interpreted (PS or PRN) files when you print to a file using a PostScript driver. For information about printing to a file, see “To print to a file.”
|
To test for complex graphics | |
To test fountain fills for banding | |
|
If you want to optimize fountain fills to reduce complexity, enable the Optimize fountain fills check box under the PostScript tab.
|
|
•
|
|
Testing fountain fills for banding applies only to linear fountain fills.
|
To automatically increase fountain steps | |
|
•
|
|
Enabling the Auto increase fountain steps check box increases the number of steps used to render fountain fills, which may increase printing time.
|
To reduce curve complexity | |
|
•
|
|
Reducing curve complexity can help alleviate printing problems caused by curves that have too many points on each curve, but it results in increased printing time.
|
To set color separations and font warning options | |
|
5.
|
|
Choose Many fonts (preflight) from the Option list, and choose a number from the Setting list box that appears.
|
To disable the downloading of Type 1 fonts | |
To choose the maximum number of bitmap fonts | |
|
If you want to set a maximum bitmap font size, choose a font size from the Bitmap font size threshold (PS) list box.
|