What is PDF?
PDF stands for Portable Document Format, and is easily the most widely
supported, cross-platform document structure currently available. PDF
is based on Adobe PostScript, but is compressed and allows for a great
deal of flexibility in printing, viewing, and editing. Follow the guidelines
for Publication Construction and Design. A
PDF can only be as good as what is given to it through Distiller.
There are basically two steps for creating a PDF file. 1) Creating
the PostScript file, and 2) distilling that file to a PDF.
Your computer may have Acrobat® Distiller Printer installed, or
PDFWriter, or a plug-in to automatically generate a PDF from the application
(such as from Microsoft Word, Adobe® PageMaker, etc.). We recommend
creating a PostScript file and distilling it with the Distiller application
that comes with Adobe® Acrobat® for greatest amount of control.
Using the plug-ins and export functions are convenient but may not offer
the features you need to control the elements of the resulting PDF.
Drivers
In order to create a PostScript file, you need to have a PostScript
driver installed on your computer. This appears in Windows as some PostScript-enabled
printer installed on your computer (even if it just prints to a file),
or in MacOS as AdobePS. The drivers are available free from Adobe's
web site at www.adobe.com.
If you have a PostScript laser printer installed on your computer you
already have the PostScript drivers installed that came with your printer.
It is, however, always a good idea to check with Adobe for the latest
version.
The Adobe PostScript driver you should download is "Adobe Universal
PostScript Windows Driver Installer 1.0.6 - English".
The Adobe PostScript driver can install a PostScript printer based
on a PPD (PostScript Printer Description) file. These files describe
what capabilities (such as duplexing, input trays, paper size, etc.)
that a printer has. If you need to generate a PostScript file but do
not have a PostScript printer, you can still install the drivers and
use a basic PPD such as the one for Adobe Acrobat Distiller. We recommend
obtaining this directly from Adobe® at www.adobe.com. You will find them in Adobe's Support
section, in Downloads. Click on PostScript Printer Drivers, then look for
PPDs. Alternatively, you may download the PPD here:
Right-click and select "save link as"
Download Adobe Acrobat Distiller PPD
Printing to a File
Creating a PostScript file varies from program to program, but basically
follows the same guidelines. When printing your document, there may
be an option in the print dialog for "print to file" or "save
to disk." If this option is selected, the computer will write the
PostScript data to a file instead of sending it to a physical printer.
For example, in Microsoft Word, the first print dialog box has a check-box
for "print to file." In Corel WordPerfect, the Details tab
of the print dialog box has an option for "print to file".
Making the Best PostScript File
PostScript is a programming language for printers, and contains all
the commands to 'draw' the publication on paper. It may include every
pixel of every image, and every font and letter used in your document.
The layout program can either send portions of your document, or the
entire thing, depending on settings in the print dialog box. For example,
Adobe® InDesign CS has a graphics option to send all image data,
optimized subsampling, proxy (low resolution), or omit images entirely
Sending All Image Data sends the placed image files as they are on disk,
without altering them. Optimized Subsampling uses the resolution
choices for your printer to determine how much of the image to send. Think
of it as on-the-fly image resampling. For the best quality, use all image
data. This results in a larger file, but gives Distiller the most
quality to work from. If you are making PDF files for internet/web use,
the settings in Distiller can downsample the high resolution data to the
appropriate size.
Please note that the PostScript file will be larger in file size than
the final PDF and possibly many times the size of your original document.
