I don't. I haven't done much print work at all in the past year or so, and those printers I have dealt with haven't complained about the InDesign-created PDFs I sent them.

*shrug*

In the past, if I've encountered a squiffy PDF from a client, we've opened it with Illustrator and fixed it there. A couple of iterations back, Adobe made Illo's default file format PDF anyway.

'cept that illy doesn't recognize embedded fonts (say from some Chinese client?) and then re-save with them re-embedded. Seriously, whether I like it or not, I have to use Acrobat Pro, it is a monopoly which I am very, very miffed about. Particularly after their demolishment of Freehand, spot the grumpy old man with an agenda...
AND, InDesign's pdf generation is seriously BAD unless you take the trouble to create a proper transparency flattening preset - and even then it fails sometimes. You really would have thought that this would have been sorted by now as a default, but NO, usual ADOBE utter incompetence, the only way to generate a cast iron printable pdf for any printer in the world (I'm talking 'bout HK/Malaysia/China here) from INDD is via Distiller - and Distiller 8 doesn't even specify embed all fonts as a default, you have to alter their preset, I'm a very grumpy bunny indeed but life is far too short to get irate about these things any more - grrrrrr.

And there's me thinking that PDF was a nice, portable document file type that should work anywhere

I'd be interested to know what OoO's PDF output was like. Not that it's any help to you, but it's nice to think it would work universally and not just certain printers in certain fonts in certain countries.

If you can give me a link I'd be happy to check out whether any of the alternatives come up to scratch, print standards are somewhat pedantic and archaic – think unions!

It's not an alternative to the above programs, just an Office suite that can save as PDF:

http://download.OpenOffice.Org/all_rc.html

Available in many languages on most current platforms. It's pretty popular around here, because it's free. I've never had trouble with the PDF output, but then I've never really tested it. The "Microsoft Word .doc" output on the other hand...

Weeeell, there's pdfs and there's print ready pdfs - a whole different ball game...

Without going too far into gubbinspeak, your basic screen readable pdf is either 72 or 96 dpi and RGB, whereas a print pdf is a min 300dpi and CMYK, further there are a number of issues with the various effects beloved of ADOBE that don't work too well when translated from screen appearance to printable masters, hence the mega kerfuffle with their pisspoor software...

grump, grump, grump

Guess what I was asking for was an open source alternative to Distiller, which must translate a postscript file generated by any software into an internationally recognized pdf standard acceptable and printable by anyone anywhere in the world - 'taint a lot to ask in this day'n'age surely?

Oh and btw, it has to embed any fonts used as an absolute given! (think Korean, Chinese, Japanese - you name it)

I had no idea!

I was just thinking "my PDF copy of my CV usually prints OK"

Well yes, it would, since most (but not ADOBE!) pdf software embeds the fonts (which are vector based so resolution independent), but any pics would look absolute cr@p (pixel based ie dpi dependent), so on your bogstandard inkjet it'll look brill; and even the fonts would look fine in a magazine, but the pics would make you cry, and most likely get the sack for the artworker who thought it would be ok 'cos it looked great on screen...



ps: quite a lot of people have absolutely no idea whatsoever about resolution, let alone the concept of vector graphics which basically don't give 2 hoots wtf it is 'cos it don't matter to them 'cos it's just mathematically defined relative positioning of interconnected points described in a virtual space, if you see what I mean... I really think I should stop posting now, I seem to be talking utter bollards, goodnight all...

Yeah, I know what you mean.

There are people, like your good self, who have to rely on the Adobe monopoly to get on with their jobs. I don't, and I've never had any major issues with the PDFs output by InDesign. That's probably because I've only worked with a small subset of printers, who are either too lazy to care or so good at their jobs they simply fix the problems without bothering me about them. Where I've had to deal with serious printers - the kind where they feed a file in one end and they get a completed magazine at the other in about a nanosecond - they've usually provided me with their custom output settings.

In my little bubble, I'm very happy to live without the bloated meandering mess that is Acrobat. Should the requirement for me to use it arise again, then I'll bite the bullet and retrieve it from the Time Machine archive. Until then, Preview does everything I need.