PDF file conversion fun

[Zine Editor]

I use a very old DTP program, CompuWorks Publisher 3.  I use Express PDF Printer to convert the page files to PDFs.

 

What I don't get is that the results are never consistent.  For instance, one book cover I did has a lot of images added to it.  When I view it in its original DTP form, it looks fine.  Converted to PDF, you can see all sorts of white lines where the art was added.  But the odd thing is that that is not consistent: I can convert the same file again, and the lines are either much less, or in different areas.

 

Added to that, when printed out, the lines do not show up.

 

Finally,today I had a perfect looking PDF file: no lines.  I converted it to a JPG: lines all over the place.

 

This all makes no sense whatsoever.  Has anyone else had this sort of problem?

 

The file: a jpeg of the original PDF.  Notice the lines, which were not in the PDF

[Andy (Footprint Workers Co-op)]

Can you send me the PDF?

If it is big maybe use mailbigfile.com and send it to [e-mail]

We sometimes (but very rarely) get some lines when viewing on the screen but nothing like as bad as your version (and they go and appear when at different zooms). We don't really worry about it as we (obviously) work in print so it doesn't really matter if it looks a bit funny on the screen.

If you send me the PDF I'll see if I can find anything wrong with it and maybe re-make it using a new version of Adobe Acrobat which may fix it (if it looks fine in print then re making it should help)

Andy

[Stephanos]

perhaps try using primo pdf, theres different quality settings so you may be able to avoid it that way. Alsosometimes lines show on screen but don't appear in print

[Zine Editor]

I'd like to thank the both of you for your responses. When I print out the PDFs on my inkjet, the lines don't show up. My main worry is that they would show up when printed on an offset press. Is this something I should worry about, or is it a general rule that the way something prints on an inkjet is the way it will print on an offset press?

Maybe I'm a fussbudget, but I would like my originals to look as good as opssible.

[Andy (Footprint Workers Co-op)]

Sorry for not getting back earlier, I don't check that often and thought it would e-mail me if anyone replied to this thread.

I don't know if it is too late but I'm pretty sure it will look fine on an offset press. Before it goes to the offset it will either be printed out onto paper or a laser film (which costs next to nothing and they'll spot if anything is wrong at that stage) or onto imageset film or straight to a printing plate (which costs loads but they'll be able to tell if there is something wrong before they output it from the computer.

Good luck.

A..

[Zine Editor]

Here is the true hair-pulling part: I had to revise the cover yet again. The PDF looked perfect; no extraneous lines. But when I converted it into a jpeg, then the lines showed up.
I'm beginning to think that there are PDF gremlins that mess up files. Some of the gremlins take a lot of effort to mess things up, and others do slapdash job. :)