Issues with quality of built-in PDF plotter

[Anonymous]

How do I get the built-in PDF plotter quality up to my adobe pdf plotter.  I want to do use publisher and make mulitple page pdf's and as I understand it I have to use the built-in plotter to do it. As of right now I have to sperate pages with adobe and then combie them to make a single pdf.

(how the built-in PDF plotter looks)

(How I want to have the built-in plotter look.) Without changing settings in my pdf viewer, I need to be able to send these out to customers.

I'm useing AutoCAD LT 2010

[pendean]

You can use PUBLISH command with any driver you have installed that AutoCAD can use. Same as PLOT command.

Does Adobe have a combine feature in the PDF driver? many PDF drivers do, it's a setting inside the driver (not AutoCAD).

Whjy not post PDFs? your lossy screenshots simply show you've used linewights in one and nothing in the other. Or is your problem one of Display only, inside the PDF Viewer?

[Charles_Shade]

Welcome to the Autodesk Forums!

This looks like two different Plot Style are being used.

Are the lighter elements in the DWG to PDF on a Different Layer than the darker elements?

If so you need to change the Page Setup of the Layout that you are using the DWG to PDF print option for.

PAGESETUP (From Modelspace or a Layout), Modify, in the upper right corner (Hit the big arrow at the bottom if you do not see this) look for Plot Style Table.

Make sure these match for you DWG to PDF setup and Adobe Printer setup.

And I am assuming this happens in Layouts.

[Anonymous]

when I use the publish command with my adobe pdf plotter only will do single sheet pdfs, would be nice not to have to combie them afterwards.  And I did screen shots because you can somewhat fix the problem with settings in PDF veiwers, not the fix I want to do. 

 EDIT: Added the pdf's

[Anonymous]

Same setting where used for both, just the plotters are different

[dgorsman · Accepted solution]

This is something that the DWG to PDF.PC3 does, the resulting PDFs are OK when printed, etc. its just how they look in the Reader when zoomed out sufficiently.  There is no solution that I know of.

If a pair of simple PDFs produced via identical means *except* for the PC3 is provided, somebody more familiar with the ISO technical specs for the PDF format may be able to compare the file contents and spot the differences.  I suspect the way the AutoCAD driver is creating the PDF content differs ever so slightly from the Adobe process, resulting in the difference in appearance.  That would go a long way to helping the AutoDesk folks look into changing this but even so, the program requirements may prohibit the necessary changes.

[pendean]

OK, so it is a display-in-the-pdf-viewer issue you are having: AFAIK unless you want to 'fix' the viewer settings (or use a viewer other than Adobe's) as you noted, the built-in PDF driver always does what you observe.

Sounds like you might be a candidate for the DWF route/method.

[Charles_Shade]

You can up the DPI for the DWG to PDF thru the Plotter Manager, DWG to PDF, Device and Docs tab, Custom Properties, Custom Properties...

Both PDF Screenshots look identical here thru Foxit PDF Reader.

[pendean]

FOXIT Reader is not only free, but it lets you markup PDFs too: it's my absolute favorite. But the OP is not looking to change since I suspect they need to share PDFs with others that have complained about faint-ness.

[Charles_Shade]

Thought I would let the OP know what my viewer was since I did not see any difference in the posted PDF's.

An extention of dgorsman post as it were.

[Anonymous]

I guess I'll be trying the DWF route/method. Thanks everyone for your help.

[BrianMcKinley]

I am experiencing the same issues with the built in PDf driver.

Long story short:

I make a PDF using the DWG to PDF.pc3 driver. I share that PDF with others (that I have no control over their viewer or settings). The PDF file looks very poor and unprofessional. When the reciever of a PDF views the drawing (converted to PDF) the first impression is poor. This makes the use of of the built in PDF driver unacceptable.

A couple of questions:

If it is believed to be the viewer, why do different drivers give different results with the same viewer?

This was marked as solved. What was the resolution? To not use the driver??

[Charles_Shade]

How does the attached look to you?

[BrianMcKinley]

Using Adobe Reader 9, zoomed in at 75%. the text is in poor condition. It looks as if a single line of text has two styles/or fonts. It shows dark bold letters with faded grey letters.

[Charles_Shade]

Foxit 6.03

Two screenshots attached so this will keep degrading the copy of the copy of the copy but I do not see faded and inconsistant lettering here.

I'm not sure anyone expects a PDF to look clean and crisp st 75% on an off the shelf monitor.

I did see a Sony TV the other day for $5k that would probably look pretty darn good but did not have the cash in my pocket.

And what I have the Properties set to for DWG to PDF.

[BrianMcKinley]

Both of the screen shots looked very acceptable. If I normally got that quality, I would never have found this discussion.

My DPI settings were almost the same. I changed the Gradient resolution from 400 to 600 and I made no obvious improvement/difference. I had also, in another experiment, I set so that all text is captured as geometry as my issue is prominently noticed in text (but not exclusive too).

I don't believe it is a monitor problem, as both of the attached jpg files look great. Other files that are PDF's look fine in the standard viewer (standard within my organization). The issue is PDF's from Autocrat and how they are percieved on first appearance by customers and others I interact with.

 I am beginning to believe that the issues is not one or the other, but a combination of the AutoCAd driver and the viewer. However, I have no power to get the other 7 billion people to change there reader.  Im searching for a solution so that I can produce a PDF from AutoCAD that another user can view that does not appear to be unprofessional.