distorted graphics

[ketter]

Currently running PDF-XChange Printer Standard 10.5.2 Build 395. We have a Word template created by our marketing department that has an image in the footer. If we save as PDF from Word, the image looks correct. If we print to PDF, it gets distorted. I'm assuming there is a setting that I need to change, but I haven't figure out which one yet. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Save As Example

saveas.png

Print Example

print.png

[Daniel - PDF-XChange]

Hello, ketter

When you are printing, we are heavily influenced by the methods Word uses internally, so I would first check any options relating to page size and the like that exist in Ms Word. Our printer does not offer any options to directly influence the generation of "shape" (aka vector based) objects.

If You cannot find any settings in MS Word that help here, could I ask you to send us a copy of a word document this happens with (and the output pdf)? We can take a closer look and run some tests in that area. If the files contain sensitive data, please email them to Support@PDF-XChange.com, with a link to this forum thread, so we know the context.

Kind regards,

[ketter]

Daniel,
Thanks. I haven't found anything yet, so I sent in sample files to the support email address.

Ken

[Daniel - PDF-XChange]

Hello, ketter

Thank you for passing that along, I mentioned this in my email reply, but am including the information here for any others who see a similar issue.

Build 396 has made some strides in this area, the output is much better quality, but does still have some level of imperfection. From what I can find, it seems this is caused by oddities in the font data word is sending us when printing such files, but the Dev team will be looking into it and working to resolve this.

In the meantime, Beyond updating to 396 for an overall improvement, the best solution I can offer is to drag/drop the files directly into the Editor, to bypass the printing process that causes this. In that case, the Editor is able to generate files with the expected appearance promptly.

Kind regards,

[Daniel - PDF-XChange]

Hello,

I have just heard back. The issue here is directly related to the original file. This "text" is rendered as a set of vectors, and as it is pretty fine, high DPI should be set to get a good result. The higher the better.
In 396 we changed the printers default DPI value from 300, up to 600, which is what resulted in the improvement I mentioned previously. Unfortunately it is impossible for printing to get a "perfect" output, becuase of the layout of the vector coordinates, even at an extremely high DPI (though it does look good enough at 2400dpi that I would say its impossible to spot unless you are looking for it).

In practice, the best result will always come from processes that bypass any printing actions, this includes the inbuilt word Save as pdf, and drag/drop into our editor. Sadly, even the office toolbar addin makes use of and is influenced by some printing processes, so it does fall off a bit here, in the same way bluebeam did from your previous examples.

Kind regards,