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ireid's picture
1283 pencils

Acrobat Proffesional and Distiller

Hi

Are these two separate Mac applications or one complete app? Reason I ask is because we are going to purchase Acrobat Professional 8 and we need distiller to be able to compress and email PDF's to the press. Am I going to buy one or both?

Sigh I WISH Adobe made things easy to answer these kind of questions! So any help would be appreciated! :)

"Try not, Do! or do not, there is no try."
-Yoda

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sidesey's picture
280 pencils

certainly in cs2 for mac anyhow.

ireid's picture
1283 pencils

We bought CS2 Standard which doesnt come with Acrobat Professional, so we have to buy it separately, but I always thought that Distiller was a separate App.

lol its all so confusing. . .:P

"Try not, Do! or do not, there is no try."
-Yoda

JLathrop's picture
66 pencils

I'm pretty sure it includes Distiller, but why don't you download the free Acrobat Professional trial to find out for sure? It's available on Adobe's site.

When I purchased CS2 Professional I received both Acrobat and Distiller.

ireid's picture
1283 pencils

Now why didn't I think of that!?

I'll do that today.

You know I wouldnt have to ASK this question in the first place if my IT people knew what they were doing. I requested CS2 and SPECIFICALLY asked for professional. . . lol One must open one's ears and sometime close one's mouth in order to get the job done! :)

"Try not, Do! or do not, there is no try."
-Yoda

ireid's picture
1283 pencils

That's so lame. . .:P

Oh well was a good idea at the time. . .

see this for a funny chat with Adobe customer support on this issue. :P

http://www.adobeforums.com/cgi-bin/webx/.3bc3165e

"Try not, Do! or do not, there is no try."
-Yoda

JLathrop's picture
66 pencils

How odd. I didn't realize that.

sidesey's picture
280 pencils

http://www.adobe.com/uk/products/acrobatpro/ and if you buy acrobat professional you must get distiler with it...

Here is an extract from the website:

Create
Easily create Adobe PDF documents from Microsoft Office, Outlook, Internet Explorer, Project, Visio, Access, Publisher, AutoCAD®, Lotus Notes, or any application that prints.

There is also a tour here
http://www.adobe.com/uk/products/acrobatpro/productinfo/features/

Hope that helps

ireid's picture
1283 pencils

Its hard to understand WHY distiller and Acrobat are separate programs! I'll probably never understand. But at least they come in the same package! As soon as our IT dept and finance dept agree we'll purchase it and cross our fingers and home we get what we need and not what Adobe insists we get!

"Try not, Do! or do not, there is no try."
-Yoda

natobasso's picture
3953 pencils

I haven't used distiller since I moved to InDesign which exports almost any pdf format you want natively and without error. ;) Just get Acrobat Pro; no distiller unless you're using Quark.

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Natobasso

ireid's picture
1283 pencils

We hardly use inDesign. We do ALL our artwork in illustrator. Bad habit since Quark was so. . . well you know. So Would I STILL need to distill my PDF's after saving them in Illustrator for Press?

"Try not, Do! or do not, there is no try."
-Yoda

natobasso's picture
3953 pencils

Are you doing multipage layouts in Illustrator?! I hope not. ;)

You can save as PDF from Illustrator pretty well, but you don't get PDF/X-1a as an option so I'd recommend importing your illustrator files to ID and exporting that format from ID. Do one test because I do know there's usually an issue with 'double placed files' not printing (place an image and then place that doc with the placed image in another document).

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Natobasso

ireid's picture
1283 pencils

I have used PDF/X-1a after you suggested it in another post and the file size is MUCH more manageable. So i'll use that for a while and see how it goes.

You have no idea: I have seen ENTIRE annual reports layed out in Illustrator. We had one last year done by a free-lancer. He sent in his pages paginated in InDesign but ALL the artwork was done in illustrator! This is because no one knows HOW to USE inDesign and llustrator's learning curve is a little gentler. ;) This is changing though, as Quark disappears and inDesign becomes more prevalent.

I tell my artists OVER and OVER again that if it has MORE than 4 pages. . . do it in inDesign. . . do they take me on? . . .lol

"Try not, Do! or do not, there is no try."
-Yoda

natobasso's picture
3953 pencils

(slapping hand to forehead) OH MY GOD! ;) Your designers are in the dark ages. ;)

If it's more than ONE page I recommend going to InDesign. It's funny because InDesign is so easy to learn and use, it's like a multipage Illustrator without all the Illustrator features.

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Natobasso

ireid's picture
1283 pencils

You can bring a Horse to water. . .

"Try not, Do! or do not, there is no try."
-Yoda

JimD's picture
2617 pencils

I'm not sure why all the confusion about Acrobat, but to set you at ease:

Both Acrobat Pro and Acrobat Standard come with Distiller (a separate app, but part of the package). The difference between the two packages is in the capabilities of the "Acrobat" application itself (ability to have the web meetings, 3D content, etc...)

Adobe's site doesn't really say it specifically, but Distiller is included in both.

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Visit The Graphic Mac for graphics and Mac OS tips, reviews, tutorials and discussion.

natobasso's picture
3953 pencils

'Adobe's site doesn't really say it specifically...'

Hence the confusion. ;)

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Natobasso

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