PDF and Non-Adobe Applications

In addition to working in Adobe Creative Suite, we often work with other applications Microsoft Office applications like Word, Excel, or PowerPoint; other layout applications like QuarkXPress or PageMaker; and so on and PDF files generated from them. You can create PDF files from these applications, using Acrobat Distiller or the Adobe PDF 7.0 printer driver, and you can receive them from colleagues who are using these applications.

Here's how you can easily use Creative Suite to create and handle PDF files from these applications:

• Use the Adobe PDF 7.0 printer driver on your computer to print to PDF files in one step from any application on your computer. The printer driver is installed when Acrobat (either the Professional or Standard version) is installed. On either Macintosh or Windows, this printer shows up in the list of printers in the Print dialog box of any application. Figure 14-3 shows the Adobe PDF printer and its choices on the Macintosh. Figure 14-4 shows the options for the Adobe PDF printer in Windows. When printing, the Adobe PDF printer uses Distiller in the background. About the only reason we've found for using Distiller by itself is that you can use it to create watched folders (see the following section, "Acrobat Distiller Tips").

  Figure 14-3. Exporting to PDF from Microsoft Word on the Macintosh using the Adobe PDF 7.0 printer includes PDF Options (left); the PDF Options allow you to select PDF settings (right).

  

  Figure 14-4. In the Windows Print dialog box, Adobe PDF appears as a printer (left). Click Properties to choose from the Default Settings preset files (right).

  

• Use Acrobat Distiller to convert a PostScript file from any application into a PDF file. Acrobat Distiller is automatically installed by Acrobat 7.0 Professional (included in the Premium Edition of Adobe Creative Suite 2). You can use the very same PDF presets (here called settings files) described in "Using PDF Presets for Specific Output." We'll give you some Distiller tips later in this section.

• If you have received PDF files that weren't created correctly for your intended output, use Acrobat 7.0 Professional as needed to preflight and correct them. (For more information, see "Preflighting, Correcting, and Printing PDF Files" in Chapter 16, "Preflighting and Printing.")

Working with PostScript and PDF Files

You may understandably be confused about the difference between PostScript and PDF files. Both of these file formats contain a description of the page elements raster images, vector graphics, and type in a document created in a particular application. So how do they differ?

PostScript Files

An older file format, PostScript is a page-description and programming language designed to control printers. PostScript code can be sent to different kinds of printers, and each will render it with the resolution, colors, and other features that are available on that device. The size of a PostScript file is usually larger than the original document it describes, because the graphics and fonts are embedded.

PostScript is sent in a stream to the raster image processor, or RIP, of a PostScript printer. The RIP interprets the code (parsing each instruction and carrying it out), rasterizes the code at the resolution of the printer, and finally images it. PostScript code is sequential, like the tape on a tape recorder; to get to a particular page, you have to "wind through" all the pages of PostScript code.

PDF Files

A PDF file contains the same images, graphics, and text as would a PostScript file, but stores them as an indexed database. It has references at the beginning of the file as to where each page begins. It's got random access, like your computer's hard drive (which is why you can jump to a particular page in a large PDF file very quickly).

PDF is usually more compact than PostScript because images can be compressed. Fonts can either be embedded or subsetted (described in the "Best Practices for Creating PDF Files" section below). PDF is more reliably constructed than PostScript (hence, with PDF you usually don't get a message like a PostScript error). PDF also includes a navigation object layer bookmarks, thumbnails, and links are stored separately from the page they reference. PDF files also support "new-fangled" stuff like layers, transparency, structured PDF, security, and so on, which PostScript can't describe.

Creating PostScript Files

It's beyond the scope of this book to tell you how to create PostScript files in your non-Adobe applications. In general, both Mac OS X and Windows 2000 and XP (the operating systems under which the CS2 applications run) can reliably create PostScript files that match how they would print to a PostScript printer.

Tip: Take Care with PDF Files Created Using Mac OS X

Mac OS X comes with the ability to create PDF files of its own. You can see this feature in the PDF menu at the bottom of Figure 14-3. (If you're running version 10.3, you won't see this menu, but just a PDF button.) Be aware that this method may work well for creating PDF files from simple applications such as a web browser or email software, but it's not a good choice when working with graphics applications.

Acrobat Distiller Tips

Of all the applications that are part of Adobe Creative Suite, Acrobat Distiller is probably the plainest and the most simply functional (Figure 14-5). All it does is convert PostScript files to PDF files. No fancy palettes here. Just the facts, ma'am!

Figure 14-5. The no-nonsense Acrobat Distiller window. Drag PostScript files into the window to convert them to PDF files.

Perhaps the most sophisticated function of Distiller is its ability to batch-process and "watch" folders, moving processed PDF files to an Out folder. This feature is available only with Acrobat 7.0 Professional (included in the CS2 Premium Edition).

Here are a few basic Distiller functions:

• To process a PostScript file, choose File > Open in Distiller, or simply drag the file anywhere onto the Distiller window. Distiller can batch-process multiple files, and it will display progress and a queue of the files it's processing.

• To add a new settings (PDF preset) file, choose Settings > Add Adobe PDF Settings. You can also drag a settings file to the Distiller window, or just double-click the settings file to add it.

• To remove a settings file, choose Settings > Remove Adobe PDF Settings.

• (Acrobat 7.0 Professional only) To create drop folders onto which you can drop PostScript files for Distiller to process, choose Settings > Watched Folders. Each folder can have its own associated settings file; for example, one folder could be to create press-ready files and another to create web-ready files. Distiller watches the folders, begins processing a PostScript file when it's dragged in, and, when processing is complete, moves the PDF file to an Out folder.