I have to get to a point were we can use PDF version 1.6. My current software is PlanetPress 3, it doesn't work with PDF 1.6 (Acrobat 7) or even 1.5, so I was thinking about going wth XMPie's UDirect plugin for InDesign. Has anyone ever used this? If you have what are some of the problems you've had?

I guess the first question is why do you need to get to PDF 1.6?

I've used Udirect from a demo standpoint but not in production so I can't answer a lot of questions on it.

Probably need to change because your incoming files are in a PDF 1.6 version and Planetpress 3 can't use them? Any way to downconvert those PDF's to 1.5 or get Planepress to upgrade their PDF support?

I can't imagine its on the output side but stranger things have happened...

Wish I could help...

I have used the version for Indesign CS, not for CS2 (if they even released a new version). I remember not being impressed with its output. The postscript was poorly optimized if at all. The VIPP did not function, unless the application was so simple which would preclude the need for such a tool.

The PDF output was okay; however, it was terribly in efficient. I remember the PDFs being well built, but they took forever to generate.

Are you looking for PDF 1.6 support for the input or output documents?

Looking for a way to use 1.6 version PDFs as the static portion (input), most of the time our DTP dept. designs the static portion then I take their resultant PDF, export out of Acrobat as .eps then import into PlanetPress. But PP does not like eps files from Acro 6 or 7.

While searching for a solution, it occured to me that the files would probably be smaller if I could use a plug-in for InDesign or Quark to generate PDFs, then transfer these to the printer.

I used the time-restricted fully funtinal demo of Udirect a couple of days ago, it did take awhile to generate the PS file, but converting that to PDF was extremely fast in Acro 7.

I have 24 more days of time left, so I will continue to play with it.


Thanks for your input.

What digital press are you outputting to? I use uDirect and DL-100 to a Xreox Docucolor 6060, Nexpress 9150i and 2100.

Which digital press are you outputting to? I use uDirect and DL-100 printing to Xerox Docucolor 6060 and Nexpress 9150i and 2100.

Udirect overall is fine. you need to run the Windows version on a computer with a lot of RAM. Especially if you are doing very large variable jobs. Watch out for dropping leading zeros. There are instructions on how to write the string to avoid this problem on the website. Xmpie also has a problem creating UPCA barcodes. We moved from planet press to xmpie to speed up our postscript writting. We output in VPS format to our Creo server. The MAC version is very unstable when trying to write VPS. We moved to the Windows version on a high powered PC and have had great success. It will take some trial and error on your part but your planet press background will help you learn Xmpie.