PDF is nothing new. We’ve all been using it for years. So you might be asking yourself what the big deal is and wondering if you should care. Here’s what is new:

Like all shops, we used to flatten PDF artwork and distill it into PostScript or another proprietary format for imposition, trapping, screening, and the rest of the file prep process.

Entrance diagram of a fully APPE2-compliant RIP

We are now able to step all the way through prepress to final  proof or plate rasters without flattening and without moving the artwork out of the PDF format. We have been testing and refining our PDF workflow for more than a year and are now processing 100% of our work this way.

So, do you care? Should you care?

In all honesty you are unlikely to see a direct impact. In fact, one of the goals of our testing was to achieve output parity between our PDF workflow and our traditional, tried-and-true raster workflow.

The fringe benefit is speed, accuracy, and the ability to be more responsive to last-minute changes — not that you would ever be making any late revisions!

This update to the latest Adobe PDF Print Engine also means we continue to support new transparency blend modes and other complex effects as they are made available in Adobe Creative Suite products.

Also, any late-stage changes made by us on your behalf can now be pushed back upstream for pickup work in the future.

We hope that you will appreciate, but continue to not really notice, some of these new changes we’ve made behind the scenes.