Chapter 14. Creating and Using PDF Files

Adobe PDF (Portable Document Format) files are everywhere! Widely posted on the web for downloading, distributed on countless CDs (as electronic manuals for most of the software we buy, for example) even used as the official format for downloading U.S. tax forms from the Internal Revenue Service PDF files are now the standard electronic method for submitting drug approvals to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and for filing cases in U.S. federal courts. More than 500 million people to date have received the free Adobe Reader software from Adobe for viewing PDF files.

PDF was developed by Adobe Systems as a way to view files on any computer platform, regardless of the software that created them hence the word "portable" in the name. You can create a PDF file on the Windows platform, for example, and view it equally well on a Macintosh computer or even a handheld device even if you don't have the original application or the fonts that were used to create the file.

Because PDF files preserve the look and integrity of the original document, it's usually the format of choice for creative professionals who want to send proofs to clients. Increasingly, commercial printers are accepting, and even encouraging their clients to submit, jobs in PDF for printing.

In this chapter, we'll show you how PDF files can be created for many purposes, and how they can solve many graphic-production problems. The Adobe Creative Suite 2 applications are especially designed to customize creation of PDF files the way you need them, and also to import them the way you need them. Acrobat 7.0 Professional included in the Premium Edition of Creative Suite gives you powerful features for editing and working with PDF files.

We'll show you how you can master creating and using PDF files, including the following:

• Using the new common interface in the Adobe Creative Suite 2 applications to create PDF files.

• Creating PDF files from non-Adobe applications using the Acrobat Distiller utility, included with Acrobat 7.0.

• Making use of Acrobat 7.0 to view, navigate, search, create, and repurpose PDF files.

• Editing raster images, graphics, text, and pages within a PDF file.

• Collaborating with your colleagues via PDF files, including creating review cycles.

• Developing enhanced features in PDF files in the CS2 applications, such as bookmarks, hyperlinks, and embedded movies or sounds.

• Using PDF files in CS2 applications, and exporting other formats from PDF files.

We'll also suggest best practices for creating PDF files for particular purposes and alert you to how PDF files can get created incorrectly.