Site Settings—Distillation Settings Tab

Overview of Distillation Settings

This tab is where you can configure the settings of the PrintMessenger print driver through which buyers can submit files to your site directly from the File | Print menu in an application such as MS Word or Adobe PhotoShop. Buyers can download the PrintMessenger driver from your site’s storefront home page.

 

 

 

 

Warning: After you save any changes you make to the PrintMessenger settings, the system will automatically generate a new version of the PrintMessenger driver accessible from the Storefront home page. To alert existing users that a new version of the PrintMessenger driver is available for download, you might want to send an email notification to all your existing users.

Note: This may take up to 15 minutes if the site is configured to support many languages. We recommend that you disable any languages that you do not need. For example, if you do not sell in China, disable Chinese. For more information, see Managing Language on Your Site.  

Note: For information on branding the PrintMessenger driver, see Customizing the PrintMessenger driver.

What are distillation settings for?

When should you change them?

Distillation settings affect how PrintMessenger converts a native application file (e.g., MS Word or Adobe PhotoShop) into a PDF file.  

For example, to adjust the Imageable Area settings to allow for bleed edge printing if your output device supports full bleeds. Another example would be setting MAX_JOBS to specify the number of PDF files that can be added to PrintMessenger before uploading the files to MarketDirect StoreFront server.

To configure the PrintMessenger driver

1.        Configure the driver settings using the guidelines below as a reference.

Keyword

Value Range

Description

DEFFONT

(Default Font )

Valid PostScript Font Name

This is the name of the default font PrintMessenger will use when it needs to do a font substitution. Font substitution occurs when a font is requested that is either not built-in to PrintMessenger nor in the job itself.

MAX_JOBS

(Maximum Jobs)

Number in range of 0 to 4,294,967,295

When running in server mode, this is the maximum number of jobs that can be run (0 means no maximum).

PCOLORS

(Color Setting for Printing )

1, 3 or 4

This controls the process color setting for printing. If set to 1, the file will always print as a gray file (for RIPs that read the embedded Adobe Job Ticket). If set to 3, the file will print as RGB output on such devices. If set to 4, the file will print as CMYK output on such RIPs. In all cases, Acrobat will display color if there is color in the file.

RAMSIZE

(Ram Size)

Total size of program heap space

This number must be at least 16,000,000 bytes larger than VMSIZE. It represents all the heapsize available for PrintMessenger. In includes the PostScript managed VM plus PrintMessenger's internal allocations of memory. If VMSIZE is increased, it is generally a good idea to increase RAMSIZE. On virtual memory operating systems with low RAM, this may slow PrintMessenger down if the OS is forced to use disk swap space.

RESOLUTION

(Resolution)

600 or 720

This variable controls the “nominal” resolution of the job. Most of PDF is resolution-independent, but this variable affects certain actions (e.g., halftoning and curve flattening). If a lower number is used, curves may look less smooth, although PrintMessenger may run faster and produce smaller output files.

VMSIZE

(Virtual Memory Size )

Size of PostScript Virtual Memory, in bytes

VM is an area of memory reserved for allocating space for the running the job. The job itself relies on having available memory (and can do limited management of that memory). Generally speaking, if PrintMessenger has a VMERROR while running a job, increasing VMSIZE may enable the job to complete.

COMPLEVEL

(Compression Level)

See Compression Settings below for more information.

A number representing bitfields

Each bit in the value of this keyword enable different compression in PrintMessenger. See the section on PrintMessenger Compression Settings for more information. If set to 0, no additional data compression will be added by PrintMessenger.

TDOFONTPATH

(Distiller Built in Font Path)

fonts;pgfonts;fsupp;pgfsupp

The path to font folders.

Imageable Area ...

A value in points

Dimension in points (1/72”) for the imageable area of various sizes in the format “lower-left-x lower-left-y upper-right-x upper-right-y”.

2.        Click Save Changes when you are finished (to rebuild the PrintMessenger installers), or click Reset Changes to discard your changes.

Compression Settings

The COMPLEVEL setting specifies the compression level in PrintMessenger. This section describes the types of compression available within PrintMessenger. If COMPLEVEL is set to 0, PrintMessenger does no additional compression. That does not mean, however, that no compressed data will be in the file. Depending on the input file, PrintMessenger will produce images whose data is compressed. PrintMessenger will generally pass compressed data directly from the input PostScript file to the output file with minimal intervention.

  Compression-bit values and descriptions

CompBit

Description

1

The PDF page content object will be compressed, using Flate compression.

2

Color space data will be compressed, using Flate compression.

4

Image data will be compressed. In some cases, images may be decompressed and re-compressed using more efficient compression algorithms that significantly reduce the size of the PDF file.

8

Font data is compressed

16

Form data is compressed

31

Default compression setting

32

Reserved for future use

64

The output file is encrypted using RC4 encryption.

See Also

         Customizing the PrintMessenger Print Driver