Adobe PostScript 3 supports PDF 1.7, ExtensionLevel 3.
The default PostScript 3 settings are used each time a PDF job is printed. These settings can be overruled by a ticket.
The defaults for PDF documents are defined in the Settings Editor. For example: mediasize, 1-sided or 2-sided, et cetera.
Because PDF is integrated with PostScript 3, the PRISMAsync configuration report will only show that the PostScript 3 is configured.
The emulation type of the print jobs (PostScript 3 or PDF job) is preferably defined within the ticket. Emulation sensing is guaranteed only if the emulation setting defined in the ticket is used. If emulation is not defined in the ticket (or if no ticket are sent with the data), then the first byte of data must be "%PDF", otherwise the file will be considered as PostScript.
The fonts available in PostScript are also available for PDF. Additional fonts are available for PDF only. Asian fonts licenses also apply to PDF.
A font substitution mechanism is available when converting PDF jobs to PostScript. This mechanism is kept synchronised with the PS font substitution mechanism. When changing font substitution settings in the Settings Editor, both the PS mechanism and PDF mechanism are changed.
When PDF font substitution is enabled, any missing font in the PDF jobs is replaced using an alternate font available in the PDL. An alternate font is either built or found among the available fonts.
Missing Roman fonts are replaced with one of the two ‘Multiple Master’ fonts. ‘Multiple Master’ fonts are programmable fonts that can be adjusted based on the characteristics of the initial font (character width, spacing, italic, etc). The two 'Multiple Master' fonts are: 'AdobeSansMM' and 'AdobeSerifMM'.
Missing Asian fonts characters are replaced with characters from the available Asian fonts. Font substitution depends on the font sets that are installed. When no Asian fonts are available, missing Asian characters are taken from the 'KozGoPro-medium' and 'KozMinProVI-Regular' fonts if available.
When PDF font substitution is disabled, any missing font in the PDF jobs leads to a PDF error: unable to find font. In this error the name of the missing font appears in the error message.