Module Manuals Can Be Difficult To Print

[melchionda]

I am attempting to sprint the F/A18C Flight Manual. The printing service that I use is Lulu.com. If you are not aware of Lulu they will print one of these manuals full color, with a spiral binding and front and back covers for about $20 USD.  I have printed several other DCS manuals and Chucks guides using their service.

 

Unfortunately Lulu.com is telling me that they cannot print the manual due to the following problems.

1.) The fonts are not embedded.
2.) Some images use transparencies which may not show up as intended
3.) The trim size is not supported.

I have had similar problems with the manual for the A10CII as well as the F14 but was able to modify the pdfs (using Ave PDF) so that they could get past the Lulu quality check.  However I have been unable to fix the F18 manual, ever after several attempts including flattening the pdf and converting it to PDF/a.

Has anyone been able to get the latest version of the F18 manual printed at Lulu.com?  If so what did you do to overcome the issues related to the embedded fonts and cut size?

 

Thanks

 

Sean

Edited April 2, 2021 by melchionda

[unlikely_spider]

Weird - I thought a professional printing service would be able to overcome the issues, but maybe you get what you pay for. I haven't tried it myself, but if you have a copy of Acrobat Pro or equivalent, then I would save the PDF as image files (jpegs) then wrap the files back up into a new PDF. That will flatten all of the images and fonts at least.

[melchionda]

11 minutes ago, unlikely_spider said:

Weird - I thought a professional printing service would be able to overcome the issues, but maybe you get what you pay for. I haven't tried it myself, but if you have a copy of Acrobat Pro or equivalent, then I would save the PDF as image files (jpegs) then wrap the files back up into a new PDF. That will flatten all of the images and fonts at least.

Yes, a professional printing service can deal with these issues, however it costs much much more.  For example Fedex office wanted $279 to print the F14 guide.  I think Lulu is highly automated/no touch service which is why it only costs $20 to print something that FedEx office wants to charge $279.  

 

Regarding using Adobe Acrobat.  I don't have Acrobat as I don't ever work with pdfs.  (Which is ironic considering I used to work for Adobe)  I use a Mac for work stuff so if I have to make a pdf "save as PDF" is a feature of the operating system.  In this case the DCS file is a pre-made PDF which suggests "print ready". However it's not print ready.  I'm guessing that who ever is creating the pdfs at DCS isn't pre-flighting the file before they post it.  Its a simple step... literally just checking a box when you make the pdf. However most people are not aware of what it takes to make a file print ready.

Edited April 2, 2021 by melchionda