Section 80. Print to a PDF File

80. Print to a PDF File

BEFORE YOU BEGIN

78 Add a New Printer

79 Configure Printer Options from Any Application

SEE ALSO

56 Send a Message

Adobe's Portable Document Format (PDF) has become one of the most widely used document formats on the Internet, allowing printer-ready documents to be transmitted and distributed easily over the Web or through email. Mac OS X uses the built-in PDF technology to create its characteristic graphic effects, such as the transparency on menus and the smooth scaling when you magnify the Dock. One of the other nice things about PDF being integrated so tightly into Mac OS X is that it's a trivial matter for the operating system to create PDF files out of anything being sent to the screen or the printing subsystem. The upshot of this is that even if you don't have a printer connected to your computer, you can print your document to a PDF file, which is an exact copy of the document as it is sent into the printing queue. It's like freezing a print job for future repeated use; you can email the PDF file to a colleague, for instance, so that she can print it out for you.

80. Print to a PDF File

KEY TERM

Portable Document Format (PDF) A popular printer-ready document format developed by Adobe. PDF documents are totally self-contained and do not depend on any particular application or operating system. Mac OS X uses PDF technology as a key part of its graphics engine.

1.	Prepare to Print the Document From the File menu of an application such as TextEdit or Word, select the Print option to bring up the Print dialog box.
2.	Specify the Printing Options Specify the output options for your print job, using a saved preset or by going to each of the individual configuration screens (using the selector menu) and adjusting the controls to match your needs. For instance, you might want to specify a "four-up" page layout in the Layout screen, or define a cover page in the Cover Page screen. NOTE Remember that many of the options in the Print dialog box are printer-specific. Not only do some of these options not apply to saving to a PDF file, they might be incompatible with the printer of someone else who tries to print your PDF file. It's best to use the default settings for your printer if you're going to save the print job as a PDF file.
3.	Save As a PDF Click the PDF button at the bottom of the Print dialog box to reveal a menu of PDF options; choose Save as PDF . In the Save to File dialog box that appears next , specify a name for the PDF file and a location where it should be saved. Click Save to create the PDF file.

TIP

You can also choose to print to a PostScript file, using the options in the menu under the PDF button (which contains extra printing methods not shown as full buttons ). PostScript files are similar to PDFs, and compatible with many older printers and cross-platform viewing applications.