On Friday 30 October 2009 12:03:33 luigi scarso wrote:
> On Fri, Oct 30, 2009 at 4:48 PM, John Culleton <john@wexfordpress.com> wrote:
> > At least two commercial printers that I use prefer or insist on the
> > format PDF X/1-a:2001 output. The only way I have found to
> > produce such in TeX without a pass through Adobe Acrobat
> > Distiller or the shareware program Pstill is via the package
> > pdfx.sty
> > authored by  CV Radhakrishnan  and  Han The Thanh. This in turn
> > uses some other files such as xmpincl.sty.
> >
> > I wonder if this setup could be incorporated into some flavor of
> > Context?  Or even pdftex? I prefer not to live within the strictures
> > of pdflatex.
>
> is not Ghostscript OK ?
> (I have seen
> http://www.ghostscript.com/pipermail/gs-devel/2009-September/008566.html)
Yes, I started that thread also. It seems that the spec can be met via Ghostscript. What is also needed is the internal labeling of the file as pdf X/1-a:2001, and some xml add-ins.

The prepress staff will look at the file and if it is not labeled correctly run it through Distiller, which can degrade text and barcodes by converting them to bitmaps. LSI handles hundreds of pdf cover files each week, many of which are out of spec. If it does not look like X/1-a:2001 they will bitmap it, and in the process mess it up to a degree, or so I am told. So getting the file within spec is necessary but it also has to look like it is in spec. Their Customer Service Rep specifically mentioned Ghostscript as producing non-acceptable pdf files.

This is not the only hoop to be leapt through in dealing with LSI.
they have a limit on total ink coverage that is more restrictive than the usual formulation for CMYK rich black. They want only %240 total coverage so I cobbled up CMYK 60,40,40,100 which adds up to 240%. In brief, they are a royal pain. But they have a near-monopoly on POD printing for bookstores in the US and their pricing for Amazon beats anyone including Amazon's own subsidy Createspace.

Hans:
The needed files and the documentation for pdfx.sty are located
here:
http://www.ctan.org/tex-archive/macros/latex/contrib/pdfx/

The files in the package include:

README
glyphtounicode-cmr.tex
manifest.txt
pdfa-1b.xmp
pdfx-1a.xmp
pdfx.pdf
pdfx.sty
small2e.pdf
small2e.tex
small2e.xmpdata

--
John Culleton
"Create Book Covers with Scribus"
http://www.booklocker.com/books/4055.html