Hello!


I am looking for a Tool to check PDF files against the PDF/X-3:2002
standard that some printing vendors seem to request in case of providing
vector sources.

The tool needs to

1) be free software as defined by the FSF [1], and

2) work on Linux.


Has anyone seen such a thing?

Thanks in advance,



Sebastian


[1] http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html

On 2011-05-04 18:28, Sebastian Pipping wrote:
> Hello!
>
>
> I am looking for a Tool to check PDF files against the PDF/X-3:2002
> standard that some printing vendors seem to request in case of providing
> vector sources.
>
> The tool needs to
>
> 1) be free software as defined by the FSF [1], and
>
> 2) work on Linux.
>
>
> Has anyone seen such a thing?

Sorry, haven't seen such a thing but can't they (the printing vendors)
accept postscript as well? I know some (academic) publishers requires
you to use specially formatted TeX templates which, of course, is not
the same thing but I would be surprised if the printshop wouldn't accept
postscript since the resulting dvi files (from the *TeX output) are
usually translated to postscript (or maybe I'm behind the times...).
Postscript is a vector format (all text, figures and pictures [if the
picture source is in vector format] are made up of lines and bezier curves).

HTH

Best regards

Peter K

Am 04.05.2011 18:28, schrieb Sebastian Pipping:
> Hello!
>
>
> I am looking for a Tool to check PDF files against the PDF/X-3:2002
> standard that some printing vendors seem to request in case of providing
> vector sources.
>
> The tool needs to
>
> 1) be free software as defined by the FSF [1], and
>
> 2) work on Linux.
>
>
> Has anyone seen such a thing?
>
> Thanks in advance,
>
>
>
> Sebastian
>
>
> [1] http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html
>

I'm not aware of any real verification tool. I guess you could easily
build one using one of the free pdf libraries for introspecting the file
and matching all requirements.

A quick and dirty check would be to look for the identification string.
Every PDF/X has to specify its conformance using a plaintext string. I
can't provide you with an PDF/X example but this is how it looks for
PDF/A1 created by OOo:
`strings <pdf> | grep PDFA
<</Type/OutputIntent/S/GTS_PDFA1/OutputConditionIdentifier(sRGB
IEC61966-2.1)/DestOutputProfile 76 0 R>>

Hope this helps,
Florian Philipp

On Wed, May 4, 2011 at 11:28 AM, Sebastian Pipping <sping@gentoo.org> wrote:
> Hello!
>
>
> I am looking for a Tool to check PDF files against the PDF/X-3:2002
> standard that some printing vendors seem to request in case of providing
> vector sources.

Not a validator, but maybe this info will help in generating such a file:

http://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/doc/cvs/Ps2pdf.htm#PDFX

Unfortunately I think all of the compliance-checking tools are
commercial software, and mostly not available for Linux (other than
Adobe Acrobat Distiller -- if they even make a Linux version of that
anymore).

On 05/05/2011 11:01 PM, Florian Philipp wrote:
> I'm not aware of any real verification tool. I guess you could easily
> build one using one of the free pdf libraries for introspecting the file
> and matching all requirements.

If you ever find yourself making such a tool please make it free
software and send me a link.


> A quick and dirty check would be to look for the identification string.
> Every PDF/X has to specify its conformance using a plaintext string. I
> can't provide you with an PDF/X example but this is how it looks for
> PDF/A1 created by OOo:
> `strings <pdf> | grep PDFA
> <</Type/OutputIntent/S/GTS_PDFA1/OutputConditionIdentifier(sRGB
> IEC61966-2.1)/DestOutputProfile 76 0 R>>

Thanks.

Best,



Sebastian