Quoting: [...] "PostScript is the grandaddy of PDF, and if you're reading about > printing you've already heard of it. It can represent text, vector graphics > and images, so if your PDF contains a vector shape it's going to be > reproduced almost exactly in PostScript. Other graphics operations (like > transparency) can't be done in PostScript, and the Java print layer handles > this by rasterizing the page to a bitmap and including that bitmap in the > spool file." - © 2012 Jonathan Cookson, bfo.com
Unfortunately this rasterization has some quality (and performance) impacts on users, in some case very noticeable, but are often out of their control, identified in part here: - *PDF will only print rasterized* https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/PDFBOX-4123 - *PDF will only print rasterized on Windows* https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/PDFBOX-4380 These above issues plague users because they often have to go down a "rabbit hole" to find out how to escalate the quality or performance issues related to this behavior. 1. The emails start with them reaching out to the software provider 2. The software provider asks them to reach out to the PDF supplier 3. They reach out to their IT department to escalate with the PDF supplier 4. The PDF supplier quotes something about quality in Adobe being just fine 5. We link them to one of the above bug reports and they eventually fix this on the PDF end. Understanding that we can't necessarily change the "granddaddy of PDF", please understand that in a twist of irony, these users are *nearly all using low-dpi, black and white printers* (e.g. labels, receipts), printing content that would *never benefit from transparency*. That said, is there a possibility PDFBOX would be willing to add a togglable feature to ignore the transparency? I can see two options (not knowing how this would impact the contents of the document of course): 1. Option 1: Remove transparent objects entirely Useful for commonly invisible components that weren't meant to be there, or would otherwise cover content. -- OR -- 2. Option 2: Change transparent objects to opaque Useful for components which were intended to be transparent, but would otherwise remove information from the document if removed. If this could be altered programmatically, the users could be given a workaround while they await feedback from their PDF provider. -Tres - tres.finocchi...@gmail.com
