Members of the Digital Ad Lab (DAL) raised the question of whether PDF was a reliable enough format for digital advertising delivery at its meeting last week.


"Let's kill this blind belief that PDF is perfect," said John Charnock, chairman of the meeting and St Ives group technical manager.


Problems with the way users set their Distiller settings were highlighted as among the issues, along with a lack of attention to detail when preparing digital files compared to film and a reluctance to pre-flight files early in production.


Several repro houses pointed out that even if PDF creation could be standardised there were still big problems getting the final job right.


"The fundamental problem is RIP differences," said TFG systems director Marcus Kirby. "We've seen big problems with PDF. We need to accept there are problems and look into them. There may not be a solution to some."


"The question is not whether we are making PDF's the right way, but is PDF the right format?" said FE Burman managing director Michael Burman. "It's fundamental. The PPA is promoting the idea that if you save as PDF it will be okay, but it may not."


Burman advocated the use of post-ripped files such as CT/LW and TIFF-IT - a view backed up by Mitch Collis of Cradley Print, who said: "I'm a great advocate of PDF, but I agree with the need for post-ripped files."


The use of ripped files in a "PDF wrapper" - a solution advocated by ArtQuest, CreoScitex and Workflow Solutions - was dismissed by Andrew Psarianos of FE Burman as unworkable at present.


Story by Barney Cox