Re: Anyone have experience with PDF/A-1b?

[James]

On 15/10/14 12:52, Henning Hraban Ramm wrote:
> Am 2014-10-15 um 08:26 schrieb Vaughan McAlley <address@hidden>:
>
> > I want to try to produce PDF/A-1b files from Lilypond to submit to the 
> > Australian Music Centre (australianmusiccentre.com.au). It looks like it would 
> > be possible to do this by exporting to Postscript and using Ghostscript:
> >
> > http://www.ghostscript.com/doc/9.14/Ps2pdf.htm#PDFA
> >
> > Has anyone done this and have any tips or pitfalls before I start on this 
> > journey myself?
> The only thing missing in LilyPond’s PDF files is the XMP metadata mark of 
> PDF/A-1(b). Every other requirement is fulfilled, as soon as you disable links.
> #(ly:set-option (quote no-point-and-click))
>
> The reasons they give against „regular“ PDFs are not valid, at least for 
> LilyPond’s PDFs - I guess they experienced some really bad data (maybe scanned 
> scores in PDFs, but even that wouldn’t require printing and re-scanning). 
> Probably they just don’t know what they’re talking about - I had similar 
> nonsensical requirements from several printshops.
Some printshop's pre-press setting equipment/software can be very 
specific when having to deal with PostScript files (including PDFs) and 
outputting them to plate or film. That's not the fault of the print 
shops (they are not 'computer' literate as such usually, but know what a 
PDF file is).

That's not to say it will be an issue, but it won't hurt to ask why they 
ask for such specific requirements and glean if it is because they are 
told to or that is what they always require (which usually indicates the 
pre-process software they use will check (for whatever it checks for) 
when processing the files) or if there is a technical issue they can 
tell you.

I cannot speak for all print shops but have had experience with 
malformed PS files in the past when I used to work at a 'printshop'. It 
can cost a lot of money if a file is processed and the material that 
comes out at the other end is garbage - aluminium plates or film costs a 
lot of money for them and their margins are small enough as it is, 
assuming they are litho printing than just 'laser printing' (even so the 
ink still costs them money).

James