Comparison of testlibpdfcmd to makodistillercmd

Usage

The usage is the same for both applications, although the options that may be added to an arg file are different, as described below.

testpdflibcmd <arg_file#1> [arg_file#2] ... [arg_file#N]

or

makodistillercmd <arg_file#1> [arg_file#2] ... [arg_file#N]

where <arg_file> contains the inputs to a process instance. There can be a maximum of N=16 such instances.

All instances run in parallel.

Each <arg_file> can contain zero or more options given below, followed by a list of folders and/or files to be run. The folders are recursively scanned for input files.

The options in <arg_file> can be zero or more of the following arguments. If you need to specify a lot of arguments, you can give one argument per line with no leading whitespace. Lines that begin with a space are treated as comments and are ignored. Ensure that the files to run are given after a set of arguments to be applied to those files.

Option comparison

The list of the options offered by the two programs are almost identical, but there are some differences which are described in detail in the following tables, providing a comparison between the two. Some options missing from makodistillercmd can still be accessed by adding an appropriate entry to a PostScript prolog. Where this is the case, the entry is listed in the Prolog Entry column.

Key: n/a = Not Available.

	Testpdflibcmd.exe	Makodistillercmd.exe	Description	Comments	Prolog entry
Mode switches
	-d	-d	Distiller mode, convert PS files to PDF (default)
	-x	n/a	Xlat mode, convert PDF files to PostScript	makodistillercmd offers only PS to PDF conversion. Use makoconverter to convert PDF to any other PDL, including PostScript.
	-I<filetype>	n/a	Convert mode, input file is of type <filetype> (default Auto)	For convert mode, valid filetypes are: Auto - auto-detect file type (for input only) PS - PostScript EPS - Encapsulated PostScript (input with WMF/TIFF preview supported) PDF - PDF file
	-O<filetype>	n/a	Convert mode, output file is of type <filetype>
	-U<path>	n/a	Specifies the directory where output files are written to.	Note that <path> should be terminated by a path separator (forward slash or backslash)
Distill (PDF output) mode options
	-da	-da	ASCII encode
	-dbn	-dbn	Thumbnail options, where: n = none (default) c = color m = monochrome
	-dbc	-dbc
	-dbm	-dbm
	-dB(C\|N\|P)	-dB(C\|N\|P)	Use the DSC BoundingBox for: C=Crop box N=Nothing (default) P=Page size
	-dc...	-dc…	Color image options (see below)
	-dC	-dC	Convert device independent colors to device-dependent colors
	-dd<dpi>	-dd<dpi>	Resolution of the whole file (default 72)
	-dfb	-dfb	Embed the base 14 fonts
	-dfc	-dfc	Embed disk-based (external) CIDFonts
	-dfe	-dfe	Embed fonts
	-dfs	-dfs	Subset fonts
	-dft	n/a	Substitute original TrueType fonts
	-dh	-dh	Preserve halftones
	-dI	-dI	Disable Illustrator overprint mode (requires -dv)
	-dj0	-dj0	Disable generation of a job ticket (default)
	-dj1	-dj1	Enable generation of a job ticket in the PDF file
	-dL<logfile>	n/a	Specify an explicit log file to use
	-do	-do	Preserve OPI
	-dO	-dO	Optimize (aka linearize) the PDF file
	-dP<format>	-dP<format>	PDF file format	For example, dP1.3 or -dP1.4
	-dr	-dr	Auto-rotate pages according to the prevalent text direction
	-ds...	-ds...	Security options (see below)
	-dta	-dta	Apply transfer functions
	-dtp	-dtp	Preserve transfer functions
	-dtr	-dtr	Remove transfer functions
	-du	n/a	Preserve Under Color Removal and Black Generation info	`MakoDistillerCmd` preserves UCR and black generation settings by default. To override, use the prolog entry.	`<< /UCRandBGInfo /Remove >> setdistillerparams`
	-dv	-dv	Preserve overprint
	-dz	-dz	Flate/Zip compress text
	-dZ<option>	-dZ<option>	PDF1.5 (and above) object compression. option can be None, Tags ,or All The default is All If this setting is omitted, this is the same as -dZNone	-dZ<option> maps to the IDistiller setting, `CompressObjects`. -dZ and -dZAll sets `CompressObjects` to `true` -dZTags and -dZNone sets `CompressObjects` to `false`
	n/a	-dT<Title>	Sets the text of Title field in the PDF description
	n/a	-dA<Author>	Sets the text of Author field in the PDF description
	n/a	-dS<Subject>	Sets the text of Subject field in the PDF description
	n/a	-dR<Creator>	Sets the text of Creator field in the PDF description
	-d1	n/a	Use `StartDistill()` rather than `StartDistill2()`	Not applicable to `MakoDistillerCmd`
	-d#<qty>	n/a	Number of chars to pass to `PostScriptInput()` per iteration; implies -d1; also writes the PostScript to `stdout`; useful for diagnosing PostScript errors	Not applicable to `MakoDistillerCmd`

Distill (PDF output) mode security options
	-dsd	n/a	Disable security on PDF file output (default)	`MakoDistillerCmd` automatically enables security when password(s) are set.
	-dse	n/a	Enable security on PDF file output
	-dso <password>	-dso <password>	Owner password (default empty)
	-dsu <password>	-dsu <password>	User password (default empty)	The Owner password is set to the User password if just the latter is specified.
	-dsp <permissions>	-dsp <permissions>	Permission flags (default value is 0xFFFFFFFC or -4 decimal, see the IDistiller documentation for details of bit meanings). The permissions integer must be specified in decimal.

Distill (PDF output) mode image options
	-dc*	-dc*	color image options
	-dg*	-dg*	grayscale image options
	-dm*	-dm*	monochrome image options
where * is one or more of the following:
	a	a	Average downsample	`MakoDistillerCmd` defaults to bicubic (most accurate downsampling algorithm) for color and grayscale, average for monochrome
	b	b	Bicubic downsample (not monochrome)
	s	s	Subsample downsample
	A	A	Auto compression (Note: for color/grayscale only, set JPEG options with l/m/h/q switches)
	f	f	Flate/Zip compression
	p	p	Flate/Zip with Predictor compression
	l	l	JPEG low compression (QFactor 0.1)	JPEG is for color/grayscale only. Qfactor = quality factor
	m	m	JPEG medium compression (QFactor 0.5)
	h	h	JPEG high compression (QFactor 1.3)
	q<QFactor>	q<QFactor>	JPEG compression using specified QFactor
	c	c	CCITT compression (monochrome only)
	y	y	Convert CMYK images to RGB
	r <dpi>	r<dpi>	Image downsampling resolution

Distill (PDF output) font options
	-fp<fontPath>	-fp<fontpath>	Specifies the font directory	Must occur BEFORE -fa or -fr if they're used.
	-fa<filename>	-fa<filename>	Adds the font filename so that `PDFLib` / `MakoDistillerCmd` can use it; the filename can contain wildcards
	-ff<filename>	-ff<filename>	Lists the names of the fonts that are available in the specified font file
	-fr<fontname>	-fr<fontname>	Removes the named font from `PDFLib` / `MakoDistillerCmd`	This switch may be repeated as necessary.
	-fl	n/a	Lists the names of the fonts known to `PDFlib`	Fonts are listed when the switch is processed, thus -fa or -fr switches that occur after this switch won't have taken effect. Probably best to specify -fl as the LAST -f* switch you specify.
	-fe<fontname>	n/a	Add the font name to the list of fonts to always embed	Prolog entry for `MakoDistillerCmd`: `<< /AlwaysEmbed[` `/fontname` `/fontname` `] >> setdistillerparams`
	-fn<fontname>	n/a	Add the font name to the list of fonts to never embed	Prolog entry for `MakoDistillerCmd`: `<< /NeverEmbed[` `/fontname` `/fontname` `] >> setdistillerparams`
	-fd	n/a	Display the always and never font embed lists

Usage

Option comparison

Mode switches

Distill (PDF output) mode options

Distill (PDF output) mode security options

Distill (PDF output) mode image options

Distill (PDF output) font options