Poor quality AutoCAD output

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djgw
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Poor quality AutoCAD output

Post by djgw »

I'm printing from AutoCAD 2008 and find PDF output to be very poor. In particular, true type fonts are distorted with jagged edges making them look fatter than they should - compared to output from Acrobat or Ghostscript. I had hoped Ver 4 would resolve issues I noticed with Ver 3.x however I have not been able to discover settings or workarounds to improve output. I notice the poor quality output occurs when printing from paperspace in AutoCAD. When printing the same data from model space, the quality of output is good and comparable with Acrobat.

I've attached a couple of PDF files showing the difference in output quality. Noticeably, the lower quality PDF-XChange file is much larger than the .eps / Ghostscript version.
Attachments
PDF-XChange issues.zip
(894.92 KiB) Downloaded 164 times
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Ivan - Tracker Software
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Re: Poor quality AutoCAD output

Post by Ivan - Tracker Software »

I don't know why AutoCAD prints text as curves.
And on Ghostscript it prints curves as bezier, but on PDF-XChange - as lines, despite the fact that we support bezier curves for sure.
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djgw
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Re: Poor quality AutoCAD output

Post by djgw »

don't know why AutoCAD prints text as curves.

Isn't this a problem with PDF-XChange? It seems other printing processes render the fonts correctly - even creating a .png file from AutoCAD... And PDF-XChange prints them correctly if they are not in a paperspace viewport. Refer to the text in the borders of the file I uploaded.

How can it be fixed - are there any workarounds?
rmcmanamy
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Re: Poor quality AutoCAD output

Post by rmcmanamy »

I think it's the difference between the Windows Printing and the Postscript printing in AutoCAD. Going through the Windows GDI printing they seam to output as lines even if a printer supports curves. Even circles are outputted as lines. But through Postscript they print it as curves. But in Postscript you don't have lines merge support either. So there is no good way really. I'll double check on this again with Autodesk but that seams to be the case. Can you post up the DWG also or send it directly over to me at rmcmanamy@cadzation.com
Rodney McManamy
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John - Tracker Supp
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Re: Poor quality AutoCAD output

Post by John - Tracker Supp »

Thanks for the explanation/clarification Rodney - as always very much appreciated !!!! :)
If posting files to this forum - you must archive the files to a ZIP, RAR or 7z file or they will not be uploaded - thank you.

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djgw
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Re: Poor quality AutoCAD output

Post by djgw »

Rodney, thanks for your input, I'll post the drawing when I get back to the office on Monday.

After checking the quality of different drivers it does seem that fonts are rendered by PDF-XChange as lines - albeit very crude approximations of the original. It appears Acrobat Distiller's output is a combination of lines and curves (which is good at most resolutions) while Ghostscript most accurately represents the original font. I've attached screenshots of each package's output from AutoCAD using the same drawing and setup and enlarged a sample word to 6400% to show the differences more graphically.

It would appear a reasonable job can be output through the Windows GDI as Acrobat distiller demonstrates - I hope this quality (or better) might be possible from PDF-XChange 4.0...?
Attachments
AutoCAD PDF output comparisons.zip
(29.52 KiB) Downloaded 168 times
rmcmanamy
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Re: Poor quality AutoCAD output

Post by rmcmanamy »

I'm not 100% sure but I believe Acrobat Distiller is a postscript based printer driver and that is the difference.
Rodney McManamy
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djgw
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Re: Poor quality AutoCAD output

Post by djgw »

Thanks for the explanation/clarification Rodney - as always very much appreciated !!!!
Ivan - it seems there is some agreement about what might be happenning however this doesn't solve the problem :roll:

Is there likely to be any attempt to fix these print quality issues - or is it just too hard :?:
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John - Tracker Supp
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Re: Poor quality AutoCAD output

Post by John - Tracker Supp »

Rodney is correct and Distiller is a Postscript device - whilst PDF-XChange is not, in this particular case this appears to be an issue whereas usually it is not.

As Rodney stated in his first reply - the postscript output offers benefits - but also does not support some items (e.g. : "But in Postscript you don't have lines merge support").

There are therefore benefits and compronises to both approaches and I am afraid in this very particular instance - there is nothing that can be done in the short term.
If posting files to this forum - you must archive the files to a ZIP, RAR or 7z file or they will not be uploaded - thank you.

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