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You know Adobe's portable document format: PDF. It's everywhere, from downloadable documentation for a motherboard you need to tweak to press releases from the assemblyman from Lower Someplace, PDFs rule. Why? It's not hard to understand:
Add up these reasons, and it's easy to see why PDF make sense if you need to distribute a document that can be read everywhere.
Although Adobe sets the standards for PDF files with its Acrobat PDF creation and Reader PDF display software, Adobe isn't the only game in town when it comes to PDF creation. In this article, you'll discover if your system is already ready to spit out a PDF on demand, how to add PDF output to your system, and how to track down free tools that enable you to perform some PDF editing.
Depending upon the software included on your system, you might already have a PDF creation program installed. To find out, open the File menu. If you see an option such as Publish to PDF or Export to PDF, your application includes a built-in PDF creation feature.
Core WordPerfect Suite X4 and Open Office 3.1 are two current office suites that include PDF output in the File menu. To add PDF output to Microsoft Office 2007, download the free Microsoft Save As PDF plugin.
If you don't use applications that include PDF output, you can add PDF output by installing a PDF creation program that runs as a virtual printer driver. These programs install an option in the Print menu, so you can use File, Print to create a PDF file.
Depending upon the PDF creation solution you use, you have varying amounts of control over the size, quality, and features in the completed PDF file. Some PDF creators provide a selection of PDF styles that optimize output for online, print, or other uses.
Some creators also provide additional options through a tabbed interface that appears during the creation process, or might add PDF settings to the Advanced Options portion of the PDF virtual printer's properties sheet. Some of these options include:
Various versions of the PDF standard have been created over time, each adding additional capabilities. Although Adobe now supports PDF versions up to 1.7 (used in Acrobat/Reader 9.x), most freeware PDF creators output PDF version 1.5 (compatible with Acrobat 6.0 and above) and might offer compatibility with older versions.
While you can individually adjust settings for resolution, font embedding, graphics quality, and other options that can influence file size, a PDF style option provides a quick way to select from optimizations for commercial printing, online viewing only, printing and viewing, and options designed for archiving (PDF/A).
By default, text in a PDF file remains editable if you create the PDF file from a word-processing or other text-based document. However, if you used non-standard fonts in the original document and cannot embed the fonts in the PDF, you might need to select the option to export all text as curves. Doing so enables the document to look just like the original even if the fonts are not available on the target system, but essentially converts the PDF file into an image file.
By adjusting the level of bitmap compression or by selecting different styles (which also affects bitmap compression), you can greatly affect the size of the final document. However, there's no free lunch. Note the huge difference in image quality between the default (view/print) and the eBook versions of the file.
The default color model is RGB, which matches the way that displays work with color. However, if you are creating a PDF file for printing, you should choose CMYK if your PDF creator allows this option.
Some PDF creators provide options for password-protection of the PDF file, or can restrict the user's ability to print or edit the file.
Most PDF creators are designed primarily to create PDF files suitable for viewing or printing. However, PDF files can also include hyperlinks, transitions, and control over the user interface. PDF creators that support these features, such as the Export to PDF option in OpenOffice 3.1, will also prompt you for settings that control how the document will first look when opened, whether users can interact with the PDF file or just view it, whether hyperlinks in the document will function, and others.
Comments are closed on this article
Shalbatana
January 28, 2010 at 9:57pm
I've been quite happy with "PDF creator" (there's a few with this name, I'm talking the sourceforge one) for my PDF creation Printer driver. Though It's a little slow in merging multiple docs into one PDF, and doesn't seem to support the security options, and may not have all the color options you mention the others have. Can't compare file size though, but I can say having another program optimize after creation does shrink the files, so it's probably not the best in the world.
For editing, I've used pdfedit995. It has an insane amount of options. The downside is that it only (supposedly) works with PDFs printed using PDF995 printer driver. That's ok though, simply create with whatever you use, then print the pdf again, using pdf995 for the few times you need advanced pdf editing.
Foxit I believe also has a pdf editor cousin, but it's laden with limitations unless you pay a rather large (IMO) sum.
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"There's no time like the future."
rabbit01
January 29, 2010 at 5:58pm
I'm using version 0.9.5 and it does have security option such as password protect the file, which I've used. Other options which I haven't used include: disable others from editing the document & comments, printing document, and copying text & image.
arch-chancellor
January 28, 2010 at 6:52pm
You needed a $1000 to make and edit. The files are huge. Page 1 is the cover sheet, not the numbered page one of the actual document.
Many years ago I had to scan a bunch of docs and the were coming out as PDFs and 10s of MB per page. I switched to PNG and got the same effect at 10s of kbs. A text/html editor gets you all the same functionality at next to nothing cost.
What about PDF readers? I use Foxit for all those rare occasions I need a look at a PDF.
