Creating a quality PDF

[mallarddc7]

When I plot to a PDF from AutoCAD 2013 for mac, the PDF is of very poor quality. I have tried every angle, print quality settings etc., I even tried to save the drawings to an earlier version of CAD and create the PDF directly from Acrobat but AutoCAD 2013 for mac would not let me. Any advice on achieving a good quality PDF would be greatly appreciated. I am on a Mac Book Pro with Lion 10.7.3 and I am using Acrobat X Pro.

[info]

Do you use the PDF-option in the printer-dialog from OSX? That works fine for us.

[mallarddc7]

Yes, I have tried jsut about every way that I know of to create a PDF, and they all have jagged lines.

[maxim_k]

Hi,

- Have you checked print scale? If you are trying to fit the whole city to A4 paper, the results could be unpredictable.
- Also don't use "Scale lineweights" option in print dialog, this could lead to bad quality plots.
- Try to use Gutenprint printer drivers instead of Adobe Acrobat X

Maxim

[David_Stacey]

Hello. I am using Adobe Acrobat X to create my PDFs and it works fine. Have you tried opening up the Adobe Distiller app and change the settings? It could be you are using a low resolution or high compression.

[info]

And are you able to print correctly? I have never seen the built-in OSX-PDF-engine to fail. Can you post the PDF?

[mallarddc7]

When I print the PDF, the print is fair, it does not print with as much distortion as it shows in the preview. The problem is that many times I am sending the PDF, not a hard copy to clients. I am plotting mostly to a HP Design Jet 500. Attached is an example of what I am getting when creating a PDF. 

[David_Stacey]

Like I said above, try editing your PDF settings in Adobe Distiller first. Make sure the compression and resolution is ok.

[maxim_k]

Hi mallarddc7,

I reproduced your drawing (not all, but the main part of it) and saved to PDF from AC 2013 for Mac (Gutenprint driver for DesignJet 450) - Iron_gate-Max.pdf. You can compare it with PDF created in AutoCAD 2012 for Windows - Iron_gate-ACWin.pdf. Them are almost completely identical!

I also attached Iron_gate-DraftSight.pdf - the result of saving PDF from DraftSight. Looks more smooth, but pay attention to the file size - it is 10 times bigger.

BTW, what do you use for curved objects in your drawing? Splines? or Ploylines (Arcs)?

Maxim

[dgorsman]

Out of curiosity, what size are you printing this PDF at?

[maxim_k]

I think:

one-quarter-inch-to-the-foot (1/4"=1'-0") (1:48)

Maxim