[gs-devel] Producing a document in pdf x/1a:2001 format.

[John Culleton]

POD printer LSI recommends the above version and for some
books demands it.

Many self and small publishers print through LSI to gain access to
Ingram and/or Amazon. As a result many are forced to buy Adobe
Acrobat Distiller just to get this format.

Is there a way to produce a pdf file via Ghostscript in the pdf
x/1a:2001 format? It is similar but not identical to pdf 1.3. But LSI
insists on the x/1a format.

If not could this feature be added?

LSI is the dominant POD printer in the USA.

[Ken Sharp]

Post by John Culleton
Is there a way to produce a pdf file via Ghostscript in the pdf
x/1a:2001 format? It is similar but not identical to pdf 1.3. But LSI
insists on the x/1a format.

Please see the documentation:

/gs/doc/ps2pdf.htm "Section 8 Producing a PDF/A document"

This will produce a PDF/A1-b file as defined by the ISO standard. It is not
really possible to produce a PDF/A1-a file, as this encompasses 'tagged
PDF' (See ISO 19005-1:2005 Section 6.8). Tagged PDF embeds additional
metadata in the PDf file which describes the structure of the document
(headers, footers, body text, headlines etc).

PostScript files do not supply this information (nor do PDF files which are
not already tagged), and the specification quite specifically states
(Section 6.8.1) that writers should not add information merely to meet
conformance criteria:

"PDF/A-1 writers should not add structural or semantic information that is
not explicitly or implicitly present in the source material solely for the
purpose of achieving conformance. Examples of such information are
structure hierarchy, natural language specification, alternative
descriptions, non-textual annotations, replacement text and expansions of
abbreviations and acronyms."

That said I am aware that this is the 2005 version of the specification,
and that Adobe Acrobat Distiller can write the lesser 2001 format. Since
the first edition of the ISO standard is 2005, I assume the 2001 version
was an earlier non-ISO approved specification. Are you sure you mean the
2001 standard ?

There seems no real reason to insist on tagged PDF for a Print On Demand
application, since text extraction, editing and reflow would seem unlikely
requirements. However you could try simply editing the XML metadata and
declaring the file as a PDF/A1-a file, it might even work.

We currently have no plans to extend support to PDF/A1-a, for the stated
reasons.

Ken

[Martin Schröder]

Post by Ken Sharp

Post by John Culleton
Is there a way to produce a pdf file via Ghostscript in the pdf
x/1a:2001 format? It is similar but not identical to pdf 1.3. But LSI
insists on the x/1a format.

/gs/doc/ps2pdf.htm "Section 8 Producing a PDF/A document"

PDF/X-1a != PDF/A-1. John wants PDF/X-1a.

Best
Martin

[Ralph Giles]

Post by Martin Schröder
PDF/X-1a != PDF/A-1. John wants PDF/X-1a.

Right, according to wikipedia, PDF/X-1a:2001 is ISO 15930-1:2001, and
is like PDF/X-3 but non CMYK colours aren't included even when
calibration. I assume gray is also permitted.

Ghostscript does support PDF/X-3, as described in the section
immediately before the one Ken referenced. So it sounds like some
development would be required to flatten non-CMYK elements for
PDF/X-1; however, if you give ghostscript a source file where
everything is already CMYK+spot it will probably generate an
X-1a-compatible file.

-r

[Ken Sharp]

Post by Martin Schröder

Post by Ken Sharp
/gs/doc/ps2pdf.htm "Section 8 Producing a PDF/A document"

PDF/X-1a != PDF/A-1. John wants PDF/X-1a.

Yes, I corrected that in a private reply and suggested starting off by
looking at the documentation for PDF/X-3 production. I should learn not to
reply while still jet lagged...