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Creating PDFs

Mith

The Eccentric Englishman
SUPER Site Supporter
How do I make PDFs that can be viewed on adobe? Do I need another program?

Hmm, that seemed a little blunt, not sure what else to add :eek:
Thanks
 

Melensdad

Jerk in a Hawaiian Shirt & SNOWCAT Moderator
Staff member
GOLD Site Supporter
I'm not sure what system you run, but on a Macintosh you can simply click on the File tab in the upper menu bar, then click on Print. The print window will open and give you a series of options, one of which is "Save as PDF" I'm not sure if Windows OS allows for this.

There are also 2 other programs I know of that specifically allow for creation of PDF files. Adobe Acrobat is the main program for creation of PDF and it also allows for them to be edited. Adobe Photoshop/Photoshop Elements allows you to create PDF files from many types of files as well.

I use all 3 methods.
 

Melensdad

Jerk in a Hawaiian Shirt & SNOWCAT Moderator
Staff member
GOLD Site Supporter
PBinWA said:
It is easier to do on the Mac



:yum: That is why I switched to a Mac. :thumb: Most everything is easier on a MAC! And they are generally less expensive over the total lifespan of the computer too (but the initial cost is usually higher).
 

XeVfTEUtaAqJHTqq

Master of Distraction
Staff member
SUPER Site Supporter
I didn't switch, I just add to my OS menagerie. I like complexity it keeps me interested and employed.
 

Melensdad

Jerk in a Hawaiian Shirt & SNOWCAT Moderator
Staff member
GOLD Site Supporter
PBinWA said:
I like complexity it keeps me interested and employed.

Nothing like mucking things up really good to gain job security! :eek:
 

XeVfTEUtaAqJHTqq

Master of Distraction
Staff member
SUPER Site Supporter
I've got some great Mac "tricks" to pass along to your IT guys. Please send me their contact info.:D
 

OregonAlex

New member
B_Skurka said:
I'm not sure what system you run, but on a Macintosh you can simply click on the File tab in the upper menu bar, then click on Print. The print window will open and give you a series of options, one of which is "Save as PDF" I'm not sure if Windows OS allows for this.

of course the reason this works is because the Mac video screen rendering engine uses PDF. What you see is what you get. WYSIWYG.

this came over from NeXSTEP OS, the OS which is the basis for Mac OS X. That OS used Display Postscript. Display PDF on Mac OS X was the next logical transistion; as PDF is a superset of Postscript.

So not only can you print from any program to PDF, since your screen/monitor is also a PDF device, you can rest assured that PDF file that you create will look exactly like what you see on the screen and on any other PDF/Postscript capable devices (printers).

Another reason why a Mac is better and to further support the advantage of the Display PDF rendering engine in Mac OS X. Go take Microsoft Powerpoint and run the same presentation on a Windows machine and on a Mac. Using the same PowerPoint file you will see that the one rendered to the Mac's video will be far superior then what is rendered on a Windows machine. Do the same with MS Word, or any of the other apps in Office.

So while you can print to PDF from Windows using the programs/plugin mentioned above, you can expect that the PDF document generated will not look exactly like what you see on screen.
 
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OregonAlex

New member
PBinWA said:
I've got some great Mac "tricks" to pass along to your IT guys. Please send me their contact info.:D
Hey PB,
I have a Mac "trick" for you.

Have you ever looked at something on your browser that you wanted to print but could not because it was a pop up or you got a document with a watermark in it?

In Mac OS X you can get those documents into PDF using the "Print to PDF" feature of the OS or you can "Grab" a snapshot of what is on your screen with the Mac OS X "Grab" Utility. If you can see it on your screen then you can write it into a PDF file no mater what. because your display is already displaying it as PDF since it is a PDF device.

Anyhow, once you get it into PDF, you can easily remove those watermarks because the PDF which is generated by the Mac OS X graphics engine always tries to write everything as independant vector based elemenets and those elements which are embedded bitmaps are seperated from the other vector based elements.

In other worlds, Simply open up the PDF file you saved to disk and select out the text you want and the water mark will be left behiind.
ba bing.. nice loophole for watermarks and other things like popup which they don't want you saving, altering, or printing.

hope you liked that "trick".
 

XeVfTEUtaAqJHTqq

Master of Distraction
Staff member
SUPER Site Supporter
OregonAlex said:
Hey PB,
I have a Mac "trick" for you.

Have you ever looked at something on your browser that you wanted to print but could not because it was a pop up or you got a document with a watermark in it?

Thanks Alex,

Of course, the arrogant computer geek in me would have to answer the above question: "no". There are so many ways around these weak pseudo DRM attempts on any platform. If I can see it on my screen and want it bad enough then I can usually get it.:D

Of course, hidden watermarking (i.e. Digimarc) is much harder to address but since it is hidden there is less incentive to remove it unless you are planning to pirate the image.

A properly applied visible watermark will be rendered into the actual bitmap image and not applied as a transparent layer over the original. That's the way I've done it for any of my customers. It makes it harder (but not impossible) to remove the watermark.

At the end of the day things like watermarking are all about presenting a level of inconvenience to discourage the end user from misusing the content. The level of image distortion the watermark presents will affect the "permanence" of the watermark and subsequently it's deterence factor.

The Mac OS X rendering engine is very slick. Of course, if the next version of Windoze ever ships it should have something even slicker. And the cycle of feature set leapfrogging will continue.

It's a great business to be in.

PB
 

kensfarm

Charter Member
SUPER Site Supporter
Mith.. there is a module called "Acrobate PDFWriter".. when installed it sets up a additional printer listing. So when you print.. you just switch the printer selection to the "Acrobate PDFWriter" printer.. the document is then saved in PDF format.

I write client/server systems.. we use the PDF format for all documents emailed to customers because the PDF format is so widely used.. and the reader is free.
 

OregonAlex

New member
kensfarm said:
Mith.. there is a module called "Acrobate PDFWriter".. when installed it sets up a additional printer listing. So when you print.. you just switch the printer selection to the "Acrobate PDFWriter" printer.. the document is then saved in PDF format.

I believe that "Acrobat PDFWriter" is essentially what Bob talked about above. This is part of Adobe Acrobat.. not to be confused with Adobe Acrobat Reader. The Reader is free, Acrobat (not the reader) certainly is not free and a bit expensive. I believe it retails for around $300 for the Standard "cheapo" version and $450 for the "Pro". This goes back to what Bob was saying about the Total Cost of Ownership of a PC vs a Mac.

You don't think Adobe would give out Acrobat Reader for free without a way to make money on it did ya? This would be through the sale of Adobe Acrobat (Non reader).
 

XeVfTEUtaAqJHTqq

Master of Distraction
Staff member
SUPER Site Supporter
Alex - is correct on this.

The PDF file format Specification is "public" however it is owned and controlled by Adobe.
There are some non-adobe products that use non-adobe code to generate PDF files that are in general compatible with most versions of the Adobe PDF File format specification. You can find many of these apps via the google search link I posted previously.

Typically, Adobe stays ahead of the other guys buy producing new PDF File format specifications that have features that will be supported in upcoming releases of their products. This of course provides a degree of incompatibility between other company's products that do not have that inside edge (or the development resources to capitalize) on the new feature set. It's a good racket.

In general though, if you are only trying to make "basic" PDF files most of the freely available tools should work fine.

PB
 
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