Creating PDFs - Your guide to creating and checking artwork for printing

Creating PDFs

Creating PDFs with the Acrobat Distiller

Every software package will have different ways of creating PDFs. How you create them will vastly change the outcome.

The main points to cover are:

Make sure your colours are set up correctly (Spot or Process)
All images are in the correct colour mode (CMYK, Greyscale, Duotone and NOT RGB) and are the correct resolution for printing.
All fonts are embedded or converted to paths.

ACROBAT DISTILLER

At worldwide our current distiller settings are:

The settings for this are: ...

Creating PDFs with the Acrobat Distiller WATCHED FOLDERS

Distiller has a nice feature for creating PDFs that simply involves either printing or placing an EPS, PS or

PRN file into a hot folder, or as Adobe calls them WATCHED FOLDERS.

Each WATCHED FOLDER can be assigned a separate Distiller Setting so that it is possible to create

multiple PDFs from one EPS or PS file that have different resolutions or security settings.

For more information please read the WATCHED FOLDER section in the Acrobat Help guide.

WATCHED FOLDER Set Up Guide:

Create a Folder were you want to drop or print EPS or PS files to.
Open Distiller.
Select the WATCHED FOLDERS menu in Acrobat.
Click on the ADD FOLDER button Now select the folder you have just created.
Now click the SETTING button Select the PDF settings you require.
Once done you can configure the Watched Folder be checked by Distiller at time intervals that best suite your workload.
You can also add Security Settings for each folder you configure.
Check the contents of the folder you've created and you' ll find an 'IN' and "OUT' folder. The postscript files are dropped into the "IN' folder and the new PDF are created into the 'OUT folder. It is possible to retain the original postscript files so that PDFs with different PDF settings are automatically made. To do this simply create a new WATCHED FOLDER and select the "OUT" folder as a new "WATCHED IN FOLDER'.
Lastly to make things easier we recommend that 'Short cuts or Alias' are made of the various IN and OUT folders and they are named in a manner that you best understand.

Our current distiller settings are: Worldwide 2.0. These settings can be imported directly into the Adobe CS2 Suite and PDFs with our settings can be exported directly from InDesign, Illustrator and Photoshop. With our Celebra Level 3 RIP it is recommended that PDFs are generated directly from these packages using the Worldwide 2.0 PDF settings. (see below)

Creating PDFs with the Adobe CS Suite

With our Celebra Level 3 RIP it is recommended that PDFs are generated directly from these packages using the Worldwide 2.0 PDF settings.

This keeps PDF files sizes to a minimum because the flattening of any transparency takes place in the RIP rather than at the distilling process. It also enables the Pre-Press a greater level of interaction with PDFs when alterations are required prior to printing.

Download the Worldwide Distiller Options below to use in Acrobat Distiller and Adobe InDesign when creating PDF files for printing at Worldwide.

For use with Adobe CS2 and CS3 applications, PDF v1.5 onwards:
Worldwide PDF Job Options v3.0(Zip - 2 Kb)

For InDesign 3 or better:
Worldwide PDF Settings v2.0(Zip - 2 Kb)

For older Acrobat software:
Worldwide Distiller PDF Settings v1.1(Zip - 1 Kb

Creating PDFs with QuarkXpress

Older versions of Quark don't have the facility to output directly to PDF. Quark did provide a free plug-in that enabled PDFs to be created directly from Quark if you could link to a licensed copy of Adobe Distiller on your network.

Alternatively you can distil PS or EPS files that have been created from Quark. CAUTION older versions of Quark do not support font embedding in EPS files. If you distil an EPS after the fonts have been turned off or taken from your system they will default to courier or Distiller will come up with an error message depending on your preferences.

Creating PDFs with QuarkXpress

The latest versions of Quark have a third party PDF creator called JAWs built into the package. This works in a very similar way to Distiller but our standard Worldwide PDF settings cannot be imported.

Below we have screen grabs of a typical Quark 6.5 PDF setup.

Alternatively you can distil PS or EPS files that have been created from Quark 6.5. CAUTION we have noticed during trials that some overprint settings are over ridden when creating the PDFs in this way.

Creating PDFs with Macromedia Freehand

The latest and final version of this program is Macromedia Freehand MX. PDFs can be generated directly from this program though getting the correct PDF setting may be an issue. Alternatively you can distil PS or EPS files that have been created from Freehand. CAUTION older versions of Freehand do not support font embedding in EPS files. Like early Quark files if you distil an EPS after the fonts have been taken from your system they will default to the 'Courier font' or Distiller will come up with an error message depending on your preferences.

Options: Print to PS file and distil with the Worldwide 2.0 settings. Make sure you've added bleed and all the normal print criteria have been met.

Export as EPS or PS file

Export as PDF

Creating PDFs with Microsoft Office

Most modern PCs running on XP or Windows 2000 will now have the facility to print to PDF built into the operating system. This is not a true PDF but the operating system creates a high-res image file that is PDF compatible.

An important point to remember is that apart from Publisher these software programs are not designed as specialised desktop publishing programs.

You'll need to carefully check any PDFs you create, making sure that the files split into the correct colours. You'll need to make sure the document size is created with bleed as there are no bleed options available when printing to file in these programs. Be careful with RGB scans when converting to CMYK, the default conversion can turn many scans very dark and grey looking.

Creating PDFs with Mac OSX (Acrobat 7)

You can create Adobe PDF files in Mac OS X using any of these options: Use Acrobat 7.0 in Mac OS X Native mode to create PDF 1.6 and earlier files Use the PDF creation feature of Mac OS X to create PDF 1.3 files from native Mac OS X applications Note: In PDF 1.3 files, layers and preview transparency are not preserved.

Using Acrobat in Mac OS X

You can create PDF 1.6 and earlier files by using Acrobat 7.0 in Mac OS X

To create a PDF file from a single file:

Choose File > Create PDF > From File.
Select the file you want to convert, and then choose the appropriate file
type from the Show pop-up menu.
Click Settings if you want to change the conversion settings.
(This option isn't available if the file type you selected doesn't support it.)
Click OK.

To create a PDF file from multiple files:

Choose File > Create PDF > From Multiple Files.
Click Browse, select a file to convert, and then click Add.
Repeat step 2 for each file you want to add to the PDF file.
Arrange the document order by selecting a file and clicking Move
Up or Move Down, and then click OK.
Choose File > Save As, name the PDF file, and then click OK.

To create a PDF from other applications:

Choose File > Print.
Choose the Adobe PDF printer.
Click Print.
Name and save the PDF document.

For more instruction about creating PDF files, see the Complete Acrobat Help files.

Using the PDF creation feature of Mac OS X

You can use the PDF creation feature of Mac OS X to create PDF 1.3 files from native Mac OS X applications.

Disclaimer: This information is provided as a courtesy. Worldwide Pre-Press Support doesn't support the Mac OS X PDF creation feature.

Note: If you use a native Mac OS X Adobe application, use the PDF creation feature built into that application instead of this method. For example, in Adobe Illustrator, choose File > Save As, and choose Adobe PDF from the Format pop-up menu. For more information about creating PDF files from Adobe applications, see the Help included with the application.

To create a PDF file by using the PDF creation feature in Mac OS X:

Open the document you want to convert to PDF in the native Mac OS X application.
Choose File > Print.
Click Save as PDF.
Name the file and then click Save.