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Distiller Question
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Distiller Question


  • Subject: Distiller Question
  • From: Jay <email@hidden>
  • Date: Wed, 13 Jul 2005 18:29:17 -0500

Hi,

I'm using Distiller 6.0.2 in OS X 10.3.7. I've tried 2 different methods, which each work, but run into problems. I'm hoping someone might know of a better way to do this...

Version 1:

QuarkXPress 6.5 prints a postscript file to a hard drive partition called 'Scratch'. Next I run this code to have Distiller distill the ps file:

-------
doDistiller(batPS)

on doDistiller(batPS)
    with timeout of 90000 seconds
        tell application "Acrobat Distiller 6.0.2"
            activate

Distill sourcePath (batPS's POSIX path) -- If this works successfully then it returns 'true'
end tell
end timeout
end doDistiller
-------


This code will usually always create the pdf successfully, but sometimes it takes forever for the file to be distilled. For example, I manually ran a ps file through Distiller today and it took about 1 minute to make the pdf file. I then ran the code above on the same ps file and it took about 15 minutes. Another file took 3 hours before I force quit the script and Distiller!!!

Version 2:

QuarkXPress 6.5 prints a postscript file to a folder titled 'In' on a hard drive partition called 'Scratch'. Distiller is setup to watch this 'In' folder. The script sits in a repeat loop for up to 5 minutes waiting for a pdf to be created before it continues it's process:

-------
    tell application "Acrobat Distiller 6.0.2" to activate

repeat with x from 1 to 60
if itemExists(gOutFolder & batName) then -- Make sure a pdf was created
exit repeat
else if x is 60 then
error "PDF not created"
end if


        delay 5 -- This will give us approximately 5 minutes
    end repeat

    -- Continue with process

     on itemExists(theItem)
        try
            alias theItem

            return true
        on error
            return false
        end try
     end itemExists
-------

I like this second method better, but there's quite a few times that Distiller doesn't create a pdf file!! Version 1 above seems to be better at making a pdf every time. The other problem with version 2 is that sometimes the ps file might be pretty large in size taking over 5 minutes. I know I could have the script wait longer, but if a pdf is never created, why should I let the script run for 30 minutes or so when the pdf is never going to be there?

If anyone has any thoughts or ideas, please let me know. Thanks very much for looking at my questions.

Jay
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