37
Of course, you can still perform this two-part process with Acrobat 6 (which is
generally referred to as manually distilling the PDF file), and, in fact, the rest of
this chapter is devoted to giving you the information you need to create PDF
files using this good old-fashioned way. You need to know how to do manual
PDF distilling primarily because it gives you the most freedom over the settings
that produce exactly the type of PDF file you need. Also, in understanding how
to customize the settings in the Acrobat Distiller, you almost always under-
stand how to customize the distilling settings available in your native applica-
tion software in order to produce precisely the PDF file you require.
Put away that PDFWriter!
Up through version 4 of Acrobat, Adobe distributed a utility called PDFWriter
(no longer automatically installed in Acrobat 6) that enabled you to create
PDF files from popular application software such as Word, Excel, and
PowerPoint in Office 97. Be aware that the PDF files created with the
PDFWriter are PDF 1.2 files, meaning that they lack all the current quality and
security features offered in the PDF 1.4 (generated by Acrobat 5) and 1.5 files
(generated by Acrobat 6).
The PDFWriter is suitable only for the creation of the simplest, text-only PDF
documents, completely lacking in interactivity, and please don’t use it to pro-
duce prepress PDF documents because its 1.2 file format provides no support
for embedded EPS graphics (which can really mess up your workflow).
Instead, use either the Acrobat Distiller described in this chapter or, if you’re
converting Microsoft Office documents, the PDFMaker utility that’s automati-
cally installed with Acrobat 6 (described in Chapter 5).
Using Create PDF in Acrobat 6
Acrobat 6 includes a File menu command, Create PDF, that you can use to open
files saved in the HTML file format (that is, as Web pages) and simple text files,
as well as a number of common graphics file formats including bitmap (*.bmp
or *.rle), CompuServe GIF (*.gif), JPEG (*.jpg, *.jpeg, or *.jpe), PCX
(*.pcx), PNG (*.png), and TIFF files (*.tif). Note that Acrobat 6 can now
open Microsoft Office, AutoCAD, MS Visio, and MS Project files using the Create
PDF command as well.
To open one of these file types as a PDF file, follow these steps:
1. Launch Acrobat 6 and then choose File➪Create PDF➪From File.
The Open dialog box appears.
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Part II: The Wealth of Ways for Creating PDF Files
41
2. Browse to the folder that contains the text, HTML, or graphics file or
files that you want to open as PDF files in Acrobat 6, and then click
their file icons.
To restrict the file listing in a folder to just files of the type you want to
open in Acrobat, click the file type in the Files of Type drop-down list.
To select multiple files in the folder you open in the Open dialog box,
Ctrl+click each one or, if they’re listed sequentially in the list, click the
first one and then Shift+click the last one.
3. Click the Open button in the Open dialog box.
As soon as you click the Open button, Acrobat opens the selected files as PDF
files (indicated by the appearance of the .pdf extension after the original file-
name in the Acrobat title bar). To save a file opened as a PDF in its new format,
choose File➪Save to open the Save As dialog box, and then click the Save
button. To change the folder where the file is saved, select the new folder on
the Save In drop-down list. To save the file with a new filename, select the File
Name text box and edit the original filename (leaving the .pdf file extension)
before you click the Save button.
In Windows, you can convert any of the file types listed at the beginning of this
section to PDF from the desktop, a folder window, or Explorer by simply right-
clicking the file and choosing Convert to Adobe PDF on the context menu.
Options for converting the file and e-mailing it to someone or combining a
group of selected files in Acrobat are also provided on the context menu.
Acrobat 6 enables you to open and convert multiple files to PDF using the
Create PDF commands on the File menu. To do so, follow these steps:
1. Choose File➪Create PDF➪From Multiple Files to open the Create PDF
from Multiple Documents dialog box.
2. Click the Browse button in the Add Files area, choose the file(s) you
want to combine in a new PDF document in the Open dialog box that
appears, and then click the Add button.
Files can be selected individually or grouped in the Open dialog box.
When you click the Add button, selected files appear in the Files to
Combine list box on the right side of the Create PDF from Multiple
Documents dialog box.
3. Select a file(s) in the Files to Combine list box and use the Remove,
Move Up, or Move Down buttons in the Arrange Files area to specify the
order in which selected files appear in the converted PDF document.
4. To append all open PDF documents to your multiple files selection in
a new PDF document, select the Include All Open PDF Documents
check box.
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Chapter 4: Distilling PDF Files
39
5. To append the recent PDF files listed on the File menu to your multi-
ple files selection in a new PDF document, select the Include Most
Recent List of Files to Combine check box.
6. Click OK to create a new multiple document PDF file.
Converting graphics files to PDFs by choosing File➪Create PDF➪From File
does not produce the same quality PDF graphics files as distilling them from
their native application or manually distilling them with the Acrobat Distiller.
Reserve this method for Windows graphics that you can’t convert into
PostScript files or that you intend to use only in online PDF documents or
files that will be printed only on in-house printers. Never use this quick-and-
dirty method to produce PDF files that you intend to send out for profes-
sional printing; they lack the encoded PostScript necessary to produce the
quality that prepress demands.
Using the Acrobat 6 Distiller
You use the PDF file Distiller that launches from within Acrobat 6 to convert
only two kinds of files: Those saved as PostScript files (usually printed to
PostScript using the application’s Print command) or those saved in the EPS
(Encapsulated PostScript) file format. This means that before you can use the
Acrobat Distiller, you must have the files you want to convert saved in one of
these two file formats.
Assuming that you have your files readied in these formats, you perform the
following general steps to turn them into PDFs:
1. Launch the Acrobat 6 program.
2. Choose Advanced➪Acrobat Distiller to launch the Acrobat Distiller.
The Acrobat Distiller program window appears, as shown in Figure 4-1.
3. In the Adobe PDF Settings section, select the name of the job option
that uses the desired distilling settings from the Default Settings drop-
down list.
(See the following sections, “To every PDF there is a purpose . . .” for
details on the default Adobe PDF settings, and “Making Adobe PDF set-
tings of your very own” for details on creating customized Adobe PDF
settings.)
4. Choose File➪Open from the Acrobat Distiller menus or press Ctrl+O
(
ÔÔ
+O on the Mac).
The Acrobat Distiller - Open PostScript File dialog box opens.
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Part II: The Wealth of Ways for Creating PDF Files
36
5. In the Acrobat Distiller - Open PostScript File dialog box, browse to
the folder that contains the PostScript or EPS file that you want to con-
vert to PDF, click the file icon, and then click the Open button.
If you’re distilling an EPS (Encapsulated PostScript) file rather than a
plain old PostScript file, don’t forget to select EPS files rather than the
default PostScript files in the Files of Type (Show on the Mac) drop-
down list.
As soon as you click the Open button in the Open PostScript File dialog box,
the Acrobat Distiller begins distilling the selected PostScript file. The pro-
gram displays the progress of the file distillation in the Progress bar in the
middle of the Acrobat Distiller window. If you discover that you’re distilling
the wrong file, click the Cancel Job button. If, for any reason, you need to
pause the distilling job, click the Pause button in the Acrobat Distiller. When
you’re ready to complete the job, click the Resume button (which replaces
Pause as soon as you pause the job).
After the Acrobat Distiller finishes the job, it displays the destination of the
resulting PDF file, the name of the source PostScript file, and the time it took
to do this distillation job in a list box at the bottom of the Acrobat Distiller
window (see Figure 4-2). Distiller automatically saves the new PDF file using
the same name and location as the PostScript source file.
If you want Distiller to prompt you for a new name and destination folder for
your newly converted PDF file, you can specify that in the Acrobat Distiller
Preferences dialog box. Choose File➪Preferences on the Acrobat Distiller
menus or press Ctrl+K (Ô+K on the Mac). In the Acrobat Distiller Preferences
dialog box, select the Ask for PDF File Destination check box, and then click
Figure 4-1:
The Acrobat
Distiller
program
window as it
appears
when you
launch it in
Acrobat 6.
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Chapter 4: Distilling PDF Files
38
OK. After selecting this check box, upon the completion of each PDF distilla-
tion you perform with the Acrobat Distiller, Acrobat will automatically open
the Specify PDF File Name dialog box so that you can edit the filename in the
File Name text box and navigate to a new destination folder if so desired.
Upon completion of a distilling job, the Acrobat Distiller window remains open
so that you can repeat this process and distill more PostScript files if you wish.
When you’re finished distilling files, close the Acrobat Distiller by clicking its
Close button or by choosing the File➪Exit (Quit on the Mac) command from its
menus. After closing the Acrobat Distiller, you can open the distilled PDF file
and check out the results in Acrobat 6 by choosing File➪Open.
If you don’t already have an authoring program that creates EPS or PostScript
files, such as Adobe Illustrator, installed on your computer, you can simply
double-click an EPS or PostScript file to open Acrobat Distiller and automati-
cally convert a file to PDF. The conversion occurs in a single instance so the
default settings in Acrobat Distiller are automatically applied. If you have a
bunch of PostScript files to convert, you can easily batch process them by
selecting all the files you want to distill in a folder and double-clicking them.
Note that if you do have Illustrator or similar program installed, you just
open all the selected files in that program.
To every PDF there is a purpose . . .
The six preset Adobe PDF settings in the Acrobat Distiller represent what
Adobe considers to be the optimal distilling settings for creating the basic
types of PDF files:
Figure 4-2:
Statistics
on the
completed
distilling job
appear in
the list box
at the
bottom of
the Acrobat
Distiller
program
window.
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Part II: The Wealth of Ways for Creating PDF Files
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