At 02:43 PM 3/1/2004, Bill Ensley wrote:
I'm
afraid you are not understanding what a Halftone is.
No, I
don't believe I am...
You
can set a default Halftone in a PDF,
we do it all the time from every program that creates PDFs that we
use.
No, you
can't. You may think you can based on what your author application
(Quark) lets you do, but internally to the PDF, there is NO SUCH
THING!
It IS
possible to set a halftone that will be used for all objects that follow,
and then never change that setting - but that is NOT a default. It's just
setting and forgetting - like Ron Popiel ;).
This
is not about a Spot Function on objects, i'm not even sure what that
means
It's the
function used by a PDF consumer to pick the dot size/pattern for use
during the halftoning process.
When
you print a PDF on a halftone device, be it a Laser-Printer or an
Image-Setter that creates film for Press
you need a Line-Screen.
True, but
it does NOT have to be in the PDF - in fact, most RIPs have their own
internal defaults that they use all the time when one is not provided (or
when overridden, as you point out).
P.S.
As for the most folks that don't need/care about it, that's just
naive
Not
at all. I've read the internals of 10's of THOUSANDS of PDFs,
and the only ones that I've ever seen with halftone information come from
Quark through older versions of Distiller where the default job settings
for Print/Press weren't 100% correct.
And since
the halftoning is really only valid on a halftone device, as you say, -
which is NOT your standard printer/output for composite documents, it's
not an issue.
Leonard
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