Idea Delivered Partially

The ability to apply image compression was added with XPP 9.6 which should alleviate the request to use GS for compression purposes. Direct to PDF already has the ability to set the PDF version.

Direct PDF - add GhostScript post processing step

The new Direct PDF option is great.
It allows you to create UA pdfs, create bookmarks in a much simpler way, bypasses the sometimes gigantic PS files and it is quick.
However is does have a downside as well. 
You have no control over the created PDF.
You can not set the PDF level (it creates PDF 1.7 files) and you can not set the compression level (it can create gigantic files as it simply copies the graphics as found in your library).

Now to overcome this problem I have integrated a GhostScript post processing step in which I can define both the PDF level and the compression level (screen, print, prepress, default) of the final PDF.

It would be nice if XPP could integrate that postprocessing step as an option to the Direct PDF print command.
This could be done by some extra fields in the PDF tab (level: 1.3. 1.4 ... 1.7 - compression: screen, print, prepress, default) 
The GhostScript postprocessing step only needs to be run when the user selects 1 of these extra fields.

Since GhostScirpt is already part of the standard delivery, no extra software is needed.
And like this the user gets a lot more control over what kind of PDF is produced (without having to revert back to distiller or ghostscript)

It could also be an easy solution to another outstanding idea 
see : https://community.sdl.com/ideas/contenta-ideas/i/ideas-xpp/direct-to-pdf-to-meet-final-output-requirement-we-need-to-be-able-to-select-what-type-of-pdf-will-be-created-pdfa-pdfx
As apparently you can use Ghostscript to convert a PDF into a PDF/A or a PDF/X 

  • Did you know that you can set the pdfversion in 'divpdf' with the '-pdfversion' option?  From "xyhelp divpdf"
    -pdfversion Set the PDF version compatibility level (default=1.7)
    Possible values: 1.4, 1.5, 1.6, 1.7, 1.7ext3, 1.7ext8, 2.0
    NOTE: Setting an illegal value will produce an error.