General PDF Options

These are the various areas in the General category for exporting as a PDF.

To specify which pages to export:

1.	In the Pages area, select All to export all the pages in the document . The Pages area in the General category of the Export PDF dialog box. or Select Range to enter specific pages. Tip Use the hyphen to select a range of pages such as 4 9, or use commas to enter individual pages such as 3, 8.
2.	Check Spreads to keep pages that are within spreads together in the Acrobat file.

To set the PDF version and standard:

1.

Use the Compatibility menu to choose one of the following : Acrobat 4 (PDF 1.3) creates files that can be opened by a majority of readers. Acrobat 5 (PDF 1.4) preserves transparency, text, and spot colors if the PDF is placed into another page-layout program. Acrobat 6 (PDF 1.5) and Acrobat 7 (PDF 1.6) support the newer PDF features including layers and embedded multimedia. The Compatibility menu lets you choose which PDF version you export.

2.

Use the Standard menu to choose one of these four recognized ISO (International Organization for Standardization) standards for PDF files : PDF/X-1a:2001 and PDF/X-1a:2003 are used for CMYK workflows that do not contain color profiles for images. PDF/X-3:2002 and PDF/X-3:2003 are used for color-managed workflows that do use color profiles for images. The Standard menu lets you apply an ISO printing standard for PDF documents.

To set the general options:

• Choose one of the following from the Options area in the General category :
  
  

  • Embed Page Thumbnails adds a thumbnail image for each page in the PDF. This option is not necessary for PDFs that will be viewed in Acrobat 5 and higher.

  • Optimize for Fast Web View restructures the file to prepare for downloading from Web servers.

  • Create Tagged PDF adds tags to the final PDF. These tags allow the PDF to be read by screen readers or reflowed onto handheld devices.

  • View PDF after Exporting opens the finished Adobe PDF file in Acrobat.

  • Create Acrobat Layers is available for PDF 1.5 and PDF 1.6. It converts the layers in InDesign into layers that can be viewed in Acrobat.

  The Options controls in the General category of the Export PDF dialog box.

  

To control what to include in the PDF:

• Choose one of the following from the Include area in the General category :
  
  

  • Bookmarks creates bookmarks for table of contents entries, preserving the TOC levels.

  • Hyperlinks creates Acrobat hyperlinks from InDesign hyperlinks, table of contents entries, and index entries.

  • Visible Guides and Grids exports the guides and grids currently visible in the document.

  • Non-Printing Objects exports objects that have the nonprinting option applied.

  • Interactive Elements exports InDesign's buttons as interactive PDF elements.

  The Include settings in the General category of the Export PDF dialog box.

  

Talk to Your Service Bureau

If you create PDF files for onscreen viewing or to be downloaded from the Web, you can use the compression settings to reduce the file size.

However, if you create PDF files to be output by a service bureau for print work, you should not apply too much downsampling or compression.

Ask your service bureau for the correct settings. Better yet, ask them to create a PDF preset that you can load onto your machine (see page 506).

If you have movie or sound clips in the document, you can choose whether those files should be linked or embedded in the PDF document.

To set the multimedia embedding options:

1.

Check the option for Interactive Elements. This activates the Multimedia menu.

2.

Choose one of the following from the Multimedia menu in the General category : Use Object Settings embeds or links the movie or sound clip according to the settings applied to each media clip. Link All overrides any object setting and links all media clips to the PDF. Both the PDF and the media files must be kept together for the media to play properly. Embed All overrides any object setting and embeds all media clips in the PDF. This option creates the largest file size. The Multimedia menu in the General category of the Export PDF dialog box.