Adobe Acrobat Distiller Online Guide

Adobe Acrobat Distiller Online Guide This online guide contains all the information you need to set up and use Acrobat Distiller. For installation instructions, system requirements, and registration information, see the Getting Started booklet accompanying your software. For information on modifying PostScript language files, see the Adobe Developer Support Technical Notes Acrobat Distiller Parameters and pdfmark Reference Manual. To open this online guide within Acrobat Distiller, select Acrobat Distiller Help from the Windows Help menu, or Acrobat Distiller Help from the Apple Balloon Help menu. Click one of the following topics to jump to an explanation of that topic: How to use this online guide About Adobe Acrobat How to use Acrobat Distiller Compressing data Creating a PDF file from a PostScript file Giving Acrobat Distiller access to fonts

How to use this online guide Use these procedures to navigate through this guide: Topic Distiller setu How long Compres About Click underlined text to go to the topic indicated. Underlined text indicates text that is linked to another part of this guide. Click the Go Back button in the toolbar to return to your previous location. Click the Next Page button in the toolbar to go to the next page of the guide. Click the First Page button in the toolbar to return to the opening screen of this guide. Click the bookmark name to go to the topic marked by that bookmark. Click the triangle to the left of a bookmark to show and hide subordinate bookmarks. The bookmarks for this guide provide a complete list of topics. Click the arrow button to go to the next screen of any continued topic.

About Adobe Acrobat The Adobe Acrobat product family consists of three products designed to bring electronic document solutions to a wide range of users: The Acrobat Exchange software package includes all the software a business user requires for creating electronic documents from common desktop applications such as WordPerfect and Microsoft Excel. The Acrobat Exchange package includes Acrobat PDF Writer, for creating electronic documents in the Acrobat Portable Document Format (PDF), Acrobat Exchange, for exchanging and modifying Acrobat PDF documents, and Acrobat Search, which enables full-text searches of indexed PDF documents. The Acrobat Exchange package also includes Acrobat Reader for Macintosh, Windows, DOS, and UNIX. The Macintosh and Windows Readers can be freely distributed to reviewers of your electronic documents. The DOS and UNIX Readers are free to use within your organization, but they may not be redistributed.

The Acrobat Pro software package includes all of the components of Acrobat Exchange plus Acrobat Distiller. Acrobat Distiller gives you the unique capability to convert any PostScript language file into PDF. You can set up Acrobat Distiller to convert PostScript files on a local Macintosh or Windows computer or to monitor directories on a network file server, which provides Distiller conversion services to any number of network users. The Acrobat for Workgroups software package includes everything a workgroup of 10 requires: 10 licenses of the Acrobat Exchange viewer for Macintosh and Windows, Acrobat Distiller, and Acrobat Catalog for creating indexes for full-text cross-document searches. To find out more about using Adobe Acrobat, click any of the following topics: Acrobat Reader is a tool for corporate and commercial publishers who distribute finished documents to large audiences, as well as for all other information consumers who view, navigate, and print PDF files. Acrobat Reader is included in all Acrobat products, and the Macintosh and Windows Readers may be distributed free of charge.

Acrobat Exchange enables you to create, search, and annotate electronic documents. You can view, assemble, print, password protect, and add bookmarks and cross-document links to PDF files. Acrobat Search, included in Acrobat Exchange, provides cross-document search capability for indexes created by using Acrobat Catalog. The Acrobat PDF Writer printer driver, included in Acrobat Exchange, creates a PDF document from within an application by using the Print command to print a document as a PDF file. Acrobat Distiller, included in Acrobat Pro and Acrobat for Workgroups, converts PostScript files to PDF files. Acrobat Distiller is appropriate for users of desktop publishing applications, for technical writers using equation and other specialty fonts, and for converting files with Encapsulated PostScript (EPS) artwork. Acrobat Catalog, available in Acrobat for Workgroups and available separately, enables you to manage large volumes of information by building online indexes for PDF documents. Acrobat Search enables you to perform cross-document searches of indexed PDF documents.

Acrobat Exchange The Acrobat Exchange program gives you the ability to exchange documents with other Acrobat users. You can create, view, collate, navigate, and print PDF documents. You can now add QuickTime movies to your PDF files and create links from PDF documents to documents on the World-Wide Web. You can also define a view-by-view path for reading a PDF document (articles), and you can add links (hypertext connections), thumbnails (miniature views), bookmarks (pageholders), and notes (comments) to PDF documents.

Acrobat Reader Acrobat Reader enables corporate and commercial publishers to distribute electronically finished documents to large audiences. Users who consume information provided by others can view and print any document and take advantage of existing links (hypertext connections), bookmarks (electronic tables of contents and pagefinders), thumbnails (miniature views), and full-screen mode in PDF documents. Acrobat Reader is included in all Acrobat products. The Macintosh and Windows Readers can be freely distributed to reviewers of your electronic documents. The DOS and UNIX Readers are free to use within your organization, but they may not be redistributed. To create, review, comment, reuse, secure, collate, or perform full-text searches on PDF documents requires Acrobat Exchange, the general-purpose electronic document solution.

The Acrobat PDF Writer printer driver You can use Acrobat PDF Writer to create PDF files for virtually any document. This printer driver creates PDF files by printing documents to a PDF file when you choose the Print command from any Macintosh or Windows application. Acrobat PDF Writer may not always successfully process documents that contain Encapsulated PostScript (EPS) artwork or images, or documents that use features available only with PostScript printers. For documents with EPS, PDF Writer uses the bitmap preview image that accompanies the EPS file instead of the EPS graphic itself. If you are not getting satisfactory results with Acrobat PDF Writer, you may need to use Acrobat Distiller instead. Acrobat PDF Writer is available only for Macintosh and Windows. To create a PDF document on UNIX or DOS platforms, you must use Acrobat Distiller.

Acrobat Distiller Acrobat Distiller creates PDF documents from virtually any document that has first been saved as a PostScript language file. The resulting PDF documents can be viewed and printed by anyone with the Acrobat Exchange or Reader program. Although PDF files can also be created by using the PDF Writer, Acrobat Distiller is recommended for high-quality reproduction of EPS artwork, 24-bit images, and documents that take advantage of features available only on PostScript printers (such as blends). PDF documents created by Acrobat Distiller maintain all the formatting, graphics, and photographic images that formed the original documents. See When to use Acrobat Distiller for information on whether to use Acrobat Distiller or PDF Writer. To use Acrobat Distiller, you first create a PostScript language file. You then open the file by using Acrobat Distiller, which converts the PostScript file to PDF. You can also set up Acrobat Distiller to automate this conversion process. For more detailed information, see How to use Acrobat Distiller. Acrobat Distiller can be installed and run on a Macintosh or PC and can be set up to provide services to other users on the network.

When to use Acrobat Distiller A component of Acrobat is a special-purpose printer driver called PDF Writer. You can create PDF files for many kinds of documents by choosing PDF Writer as your current printer and selecting the Print option. Instead of printing your document s pages on a printer, PDF Writer creates a PDF file. Because the PDF Writer does not require that you first create a PostScript file from your document, and because it is used from within your document s application, in most cases, PDF Writer is the fastest and easiest way to make a PDF file. There are types of documents, however, for which you cannot use PDF Writer or for which Acrobat Distiller produces better results. Use Acrobat Distiller to create PDF files when Your document contains placed Encapsulated PostScript (EPS) artwork or images. (For these documents, PDF Writer uses the bitmap preview image that accompanies the EPS file instead of the EPS graphic itself.) You are using an application that generates its own PostScript language files when printing or that produces the highest-quality output on a PostScript printer.

Your document contains high-resolution images that you want to downsample. PDF Writer produces unsatisfactory results, such as poor quality or a large file size. This is often the case if your document contains complex blends, gradient fills, or EPS images. You are using an application in a computing environment that allows you to generate PostScript language files but for which Acrobat PDF Writer is not available, such as UNIX or DOS. You need to convert existing PostScript language files into PDF. You need to use Acrobat Distiller as a network application. When Acrobat Distiller is used as a network application, multiple users can distill files, and users can stack up (batch) multiple PostScript files for automatic distillation. Note: To embed actual TrueType fonts, use PDF Writer instead of Acrobat Distiller for creating PDF files. PostScript files of documents created by using TrueType fonts contain a Type 1 version of the TrueType in the PostScript file. See Embedding fonts for more information.

What Acrobat Distiller needs to create PDF files To create error-free PDF files, Acrobat Distiller needs two things: Valid PostScript files. Make sure that your documents print to a PostScript printer before PostScript files are created for them. Documents that do not print correctly do not distill correctly. See Creating high-quality PostScript files. Access to the PostScript Type 1 fonts used in your documents. Usually, the Type 1 fonts you use in your documents are included in the PostScript files you create or are otherwise available to Acrobat Distiller. When a Type 1 font is not included in the PostScript file, Acrobat Distiller must be able to find the Type 1 font in another location to process the PostScript file correctly. If you have problems, see How to find a font s PostScript font name, or your system administrator can set up Acrobat Distiller to find the fonts you use in your documents. See Giving Acrobat Distiller access to fonts for more information.

How to use Acrobat Distiller Acrobat Distiller can be used as a personal application and as a network application. Using Distiller as a personal application, you can create PDF files on your computer in three ways: By creating a PostScript language file and then opening the file by using Acrobat Distiller s Open command. The file is copied and converted to PDF. By dragging a PostScript language file onto the Acrobat Distiller icon. The PDF file is placed into the same folder as the original file (or the specified folder). See Drag-and-drop distilling for a discussion of save options. By setting up watched folders on your system, which automatically creates In and Out folders. You can then save PostScript files directly into the In folder or drag PostScript files to the In folder. Acrobat Distiller runs in the background while you continue working. When the file is distilled, you will retrieve it from the Out folder.

Acrobat Distiller Assistant for Windows enables you to print directly to the Acrobat Distiller printer so you can create PDF documents in one easy step. It also launches Acrobat Distiller if a file appears in an In folder and accepts drag-and-drop files for distilling. When you drag a PostScript file onto the Distiller Assistant icon, the Distiller Assistant automatically converts it to a PDF file and opens the file in your Acrobat viewer. Acrobat Distiller can be installed on a Macintosh or PC to service any number of users with access to the network. In this case, the system administrator sets up a watched folder location for Acrobat Distiller s In and Out folders. Acrobat Distiller services network users by continuously checking the In folders for new PostScript files and converting these to PDF, which it then places in the corresponding Out folder. Acrobat Distiller can monitor multiple In and Out folders. To distill files using watched folders, copy the PostScript file to be distilled to an In folder that is monitored by Acrobat Distiller. (Ask your system administrator for the location of this folder.) You can bypass this step by saving the PostScript file directly to the In folder. After Acrobat Distiller converts the PostScript file to a PDF file, it places the PDF file into the Out folder.

The advantages of using Acrobat Distiller over the network are The ability to continue working on your computer while Acrobat Distiller creates your PDF documents. A single Distiller can support hundreds of users. Users with system memory limitations can create PDFs. (Acrobat Distiller runs on another system.) See Distilling PostScript files on the network for more information.

How Acrobat Distiller prioritizes its work Given two or more PostScript files to distill, Acrobat Distiller processes the files in the following order: Files opened with the Open command or dragged to the Acrobat Distiller icon are processed before files placed in watched folders. If a PostScript file is opened while Acrobat Distiller is working on a file placed in an In folder, Acrobat Distiller processes the opened file as soon as it completes the current file. You can open two or more files while Acrobat Distiller is processing another file. Files placed in In folders are processed in a round-robin fashion: First a file from one folder is distilled, then a file from the next folder, and so on. Within a folder, the order in which files are processed depends on the operating system. For Windows, files are processed in the order they are listed by the DIR command in DOS, which usually means that older files are processed first. For Macintosh, files are processed in alphabetical order.

Creating PostScript files from your documents Acrobat Distiller translates PostScript files you create from your documents into PDF documents that can be viewed and printed by anyone with Acrobat Exchange or Acrobat Reader. The first step in using Acrobat Distiller to create a PDF document is to create a PostScript file. Also see Creating high-quality PostScript files. Using Windows With many applications for Windows, you can create a PostScript file by choosing Print from the File menu, selecting the Print to File option in the Print dialog box, and clicking OK. Your application asks you to name the PostScript file, and then it creates the PostScript file. See Using the Print to File option for more information. With an application that does not include the Print to File option, you must add a new printer entry that you can use to print to a file. After you finish making PostScript files, you must restore your original printer setup to use your normal printer again.

For information on creating PostScript files from applications that do not include a Print to File option, see Adding a new printer entry for creating PostScript files and Creating PostScript files with the new printer entry for Windows. Using the Macintosh To create a PostScript file, choose a PostScript printer driver, such as a PSPrinter driver, and select File as the destination in the Print dialog box. The printer driver asks you to name the PostScript file and then creates it.

Using the Print to File option (Windows) If your application s Print dialog box contains a Print to File option, follow these steps to create PostScript files for your documents. If it doesn t, go to Adding a new printer entry for creating PostScript files (Windows). Note: Before you make a PostScript file from a document, make sure the document prints correctly on a PostScript printer. Documents that do not print correctly do not distill correctly. Windows only: If you are using TrueType fonts, the PSPrinter driver s Advanced Options dialog box should be set so that True- Type fonts are sent to the printer as Adobe Type 1 fonts. See Setting up the Windows PostScript printer driver for TrueType fonts for instructions. To create a PostScript file with a Print to File option: 1 Start your application, and open the document. 2 Make sure that a PostScript printer is selected as the default printer. Use the Print Setup command in the File menu if you need to select a PostScript printer as the default printer.

3 Choose File > Print. The Print dialog box appears. 4 Select Print to File, and then click OK. The Print to File dialog box appears. 5 Enter a pathname and a filename for the PostScript file. By convention, PostScript filenames are given the filename extension.ps. For example, the PostScript file created for a document named Q1report.wri would be Q1report.ps. Following this convention makes it easier to keep track of application, PostScript, and PDF versions of your documents. Tip: Save a step by saving the PostScript file directly to a Distiller In folder. 6 Click OK. The PostScript file is created, and you are returned to your application. Note: Some applications save the Print to File setting between print jobs. Make sure the Print to File option is not selected when you want to print to a printer.

Adding a new printer entry (Windows) If your application Print dialog box does not contain a Print to File option, you must add a new printer entry that you can use to create PostScript files. To add a new printer entry: 1 From the Program Manager, open the Control Panel. (The Control Panel icon is usually in the Main program group.) 2 Open the Printers control panel (either by double-clicking the Printers icon or by choosing Printers from the Settings menu). The Printers dialog box appears. 3 Click Add. The list of printers is displayed beneath the list of Installed Printers. 4 From the list of printers, select the PostScript printer you usually use, and click Install. The printer you selected appears on the list of installed printers and is shown as connected to an unused port such as LPT2 or COM3.

Note: Because you may need to have the Windows disks available to install the drivers for many PostScript printers, we recommend that you select the generic PostScript printer from the list of printers. 5 With the new PostScript printer entry selected, click Connect. The Connect dialog box appears. 6 Select FILE from the Ports list, and click OK. In the Printers dialog box, the entry for the PostScript printer in the installed printers list shows that the printer is connected to FILE. 7 Click Close to close the Printers dialog box; then choose Exit from the Printer control panel s Settings menu to return to the Program Manager. The new PostScript printer entry is set up to create a PostScript file every time you select it to print a document. Note: PostScript files created for documents containing TrueType fonts do not distill correctly unless the PostScript printer driver s Advanced Options dialog box is set so that TrueType fonts are sent to the printer as Adobe Type 1 fonts. See Setting up the Windows PostScript driver for TrueType fonts for instructions.

To print a file using the new printer entry: 1 Start your application, and open the document. 2 Choose File > Print. The Print dialog box appears. 3 Click Setup. The Print Setup dialog box appears. 4 From the list of Specific Printers, select the PostScript printer connected to FILE. The Specific Printer option is automatically selected. 5 Click OK. The Print Setup dialog box closes, and the Print dialog box reappears. 6 Click OK. The Print to File dialog box appears. 7 Enter a pathname and a filename for the PostScript file. By convention, PostScript filenames contain the extension.ps. For example, the PostScript file created for a document named Q1report.wri would be Q1report.ps. Following this convention makes it easier to keep track of application, PostScript, and PDF versions of your documents.

Tip: If you are using Acrobat Distiller on a network, save the PostScript file directly to an In folder that is monitored by Acrobat Distiller. 8 Click OK. The PostScript file is created, and you are returned to your application.

Creating a PostScript file for Macintosh 1 If you haven t already chosen a PostScript printer driver, select Chooser (from the Apple menu), which displays the Chooser dialog box. 2 Click the LaserWriter icon. Click the close box to close the Chooser. 3 Open the document. 4 Choose File > Print. The Print dialog box appears. 5 Select File as the destination. If the document is a color document or contains grayscale images, select the Color/Grayscale print option. (If you are using PSPrinter, click Options to set the Color/Grayscale Print option.) 6 Click OK; the Save As dialog box appears. 7 Select a destination, and enter a name for the PostScript file. By convention, PostScript filenames end with the extension.ps. Following this convention makes it easier to keep track of application, PostScript, and PDF versions of your documents. Tip: Save a step by saving the PostScript file directly to a Distiller In folder.

8 For the PSPrinter or LaserWriter 8 (the Apple version of the PSPrinter) printer drivers, select All But Standard 13 from the Font Inclusion menu. The LaserWriter 7 printer driver automatically includes all fonts in the PostScript file. 9 Click Save. The PostScript file is created, and you are returned to your application.

Starting Acrobat Distiller Start Acrobat Distiller as you would any other application program. For Macintosh, double-click the Acrobat Distiller 2.1 icon to start the program. Using Windows, double-click the icon in the Adobe Acrobat 2.1 Program Group window or the program name in a File Manager file list. You can also start Acrobat Distiller and specify PostScript files for distilling by using the Windows Run command; see Starting Acrobat Distiller with the Windows Run command for more information. You can also start Acrobat Distiller by dragging one or more PostScript files onto the Acrobat Distiller icon. In this case, Acrobat Distiller starts and converts the PostScript files. See Drag-and-drop distilling for more information about starting Acrobat Distiller by dragging PostScript files onto the Acrobat Distiller icon.

Drag-and-drop distilling You can drag one or more PostScript files onto the Acrobat Distiller icon (or an alias of Acrobat Distiller), which Acrobat Distiller then converts to a PDF file. By default, Acrobat Distiller does not display the Save As dialog box when you use the drag-and-drop method. Instead, it places PDF files into the same folder as the source PostScript files and adds the extension.pdf or.pdf to the original filename. You can make Acrobat Distiller display the Save As dialog box, however, by pressing a modifier key while you drag and drop PostScript files. To display the Save As dialog box with the source folder set up as the default folder: Macintosh users should press the Command key while dragging the PostScript files. Windows users should press the Shift key while dragging the PostScript files.

Starting Acrobat Distiller with the Windows Run command You can start the Windows version of Acrobat Distiller by choosing the Run command from the Program menu or File Manager s File menu and entering c: \acrodist\acrodist.exe in the Run dialog box. (\acrodist is the default Distiller folder. If you changed the installation default, use the folder name you specified when installing Acrobat Distiller.) When you start Acrobat Distiller with the Windows Run command, you can specify one or more PostScript files for Acrobat Distiller to process. For example, the following Run command string specifies two PostScript files: c:\acrodist\acrodist.exe c:\q1\chart.ps, c:\q1\report.ps The files are processed in the order they are listed. Note: The PostScript filenames specified with the Windows Run command are separated by commas.

Creating a PDF file from a PostScript file You can use Acrobat Distiller to create a PDF file from a PostScript file. To create a PDF file from a PostScript file: 1 Create a PostScript language file for your document. You create the PostScript file by opening the document within an application, choosing a PostScript printer, and printing to a file. See Creating PostScript files from your documents for more information. 2 You can either drag and drop the PostScript file onto the Acrobat Distiller icon, open the PostScript file from within Acrobat Distiller, or copy the PostScript file to the In folder that is being monitored by Acrobat Distiller on the network. You can combine this step with the first step by saving the PostScript file directly to the In folder. 3 For individual users, Acrobat Distiller converts the PostScript document into a PDF document and places it into the specified folder. When Acrobat Distiller is used on the network, it reads the PostScript file in the In folder, creates a PDF document, and places the PDF document into the Out folder. After Acrobat Distiller is finished, it retrieves your PDF document from the Out folder.

Opening PostScript files for conversion Use the Open dialog box to specify PostScript files for Acrobat Distiller to process. By default, when you open a PostScript file, Acrobat Distiller displays the Save As dialog box, which you use to name and place the resulting PDF file. You can change the default behavior, however, by using keyboard shortcuts. To save the PDF file in the same folder as the source PostScript file: Without displaying the Save As dialog box: Hold down the Shift key (for Windows) or the Option key (for Macintosh) as you click Open in the Open dialog box. The PDF file is given the same name as the source PostScript file, and.pdf or.pdf is added to the end of the name. With a different name: Hold down the Control key (for Windows) or the Command key (for Macintosh) as you click OK in the Open dialog box. Note: If you plan to distribute your PDF files over a network or via an electronic mail system, see How Acrobat Distiller names PDF files.

To display the Save As dialog box with the last folder used set up as the default folder: Macintosh users should press the Option key while dragging the PostScript files. Windows users should press the Control key while dragging the PostScript files. Note: If you are distributing PDF files over a network or electronic mail system, it s important to understand how these systems handle filenames. See How Acrobat Distiller names PDF files for more information.

How Acrobat Distiller names PDF files Acrobat Distiller uses the names of the PostScript files it processes to name the PDF files it creates. To name a PDF file, Acrobat Distiller adds.pdf or.pdf to the PostScript filename. When the PostScript filename ends with a different filename extension, such as.ps,.eps, or.txt, Acrobat Distiller replaces the filename extension with.pdf. If a PostScript file has an uppercase extension, such as.ps or.eps, Acrobat Distiller produces a file with an uppercase.pdf extension. By convention, PostScript filenames end with.ps. Following the PostScript filenaming convention makes it much easier to keep track of the application, PostScript, and PDF versions of your documents. When two PostScript files with the same name are placed into an In folder, the second PDF file created by Acrobat Distiller automatically replaces the first. This means that if you share an In folder with many people, you should give your PostScript files unique names.

PDF filenames created by the Windows version of Acrobat Distiller are limited to eight characters. This can produce unexpected results for Macintosh users. For example, if you place a PostScript file named 3rd Quarter Report.ps into an In folder processed by the Windows version of Acrobat Distiller, the PDF file might be named 3RD_QUART.PDF. The exact form of the PDF filename depends on the network software connecting Macintosh and Windows computers; the filename shown above is for a Novell server. Important: The PDF file created by Windows is a DOS file. Macintosh users must open the file by using Acrobat Exchange or Acrobat Reader s File > Open command or by dragging it onto the Acrobat Exchange or Reader icon. Naming PDF files for distribution If you are creating PDF files for distribution over a network or via an electronic mail (e-mail) system, it s important to understand the following two facts about filenaming: Many network and e-mail programs truncate long filenames. For example, the PDF filename Q1 Profit and Loss.pdf might become Q1_PROFI.LOS or Q1PROFIT.LOS.

The three-character.pdf filename extension must be preserved for a PDF file to be recognized by Windows versions of Acrobat programs. (This is not true for UNIX, although files without the.pdf extension may not display in the Open dialog box if your filter pattern is <folder>/*.pdf.) In addition, many e-mail and network programs can be set up to recognize any file with the.pdf extension as an Acrobat document, which means that Macintosh users can open files with the proper extension by double-clicking. The safest way to name the PDF files you plan to distribute is to use the DOS filenaming convention. This convention requires an eightcharacter filename followed by a three-character extension. For example, the PDF filename Q1 Profit and Loss.pdf could be named Q1PNL.PDF. Using the DOS filenaming convention ensures that PDF files retain the.pdf extensions as they are transferred between computers. For CD-ROM publishing, observe the ISO 9660 Interchange Level 1 convention, which is a subset of the DOS filenaming convention. To be ISO 9660 legal, use only letters A through Z, digits 0 through 9, underscore, and period when naming files.

If the filename of the PostScript file to be distilled is ISO compliant, Acrobat Distiller generates an ISO-compliant filename for the PDF file. If a PostScript file has an uppercase extension, such as.ps or.eps, Acrobat Distiller produces a file with an uppercase.pdf extension. Otherwise, the file s extension is lowercase.

How to interrupt Acrobat Distiller When Acrobat Distiller is set up to watch network folders, it begins processing available PostScript files soon after it starts. (When Acrobat Distiller starts, it takes a few seconds to initialize itself.) If you want to change Acrobat Distiller s setup before it begins processing PostScript files, click the Pause button immediately after starting the program. Acrobat Distiller then pauses until you click the Resume button. If you click Pause while Acrobat Distiller is processing a PostScript file, Acrobat Distiller finishes processing the file before it pauses. Then, when you click Resume, Acrobat Distiller begins processing the next available PostScript file. If you want Acrobat Distiller to stop processing the current PostScript file immediately, click Cancel Job. When you click Cancel Job, Acrobat Distiller stops processing the current file and begins processing the next available PostScript file. A file that is partially processed is deleted, and a log file is created (named filename.pdf.log), indicating that the job was terminated per user request.

Acrobat Distiller Assistant (Windows only) The Distiller Assistant program Facilitates printing directly to the Acrobat Distiller printer so that you can create PDF files in one easy step Monitors Acrobat Distiller s watched folders, and launches Acrobat Distiller if a file appears in any In folder Accepts a PostScript file that is dragged-and-dropped onto its program icon, converts the file to a PDF file, and displays the PDF file in an Acrobat viewer Acrobat Distiller Assistant is installed in the Acrobat Distiller folder (normally c:\acrodist) as distasst.exe. A Distiller Assistant item is also added to the Adobe Acrobat 2.1 program group. Important: The Distiller Assistant program must be running to perform any of its tasks. To ensure that the Distiller Assistant is always running, copy the Distiller Assistant program item to the Windows Startup group. This way the Distiller Assistant program initializes each time you start Windows.

The Distiller Assistant has no user interface. When running, it appears as an icon near the bottom of the screen. To control its three options, the Distiller Assistant s system menu has three additional items, which default to selected when the Distiller Assistant is started: View PDF File. For files printed to the Acrobat Distiller printer, Distiller Assistant launches Acrobat Exchange and displays the new PDF document. Exit Distiller When Idle. Distiller Assistant launches Acrobat Distiller using the /q option, so it self-terminates when idle (that is, when all queued files and all watched folders are empty). If Acrobat Distiller is already running when Distiller Assistant tries to launch it, it continues to run. Ask for PDF File Destination. If selected, this item displays a Save As dialog box for files printed to the Acrobat Distiller printer. If not selected, the resulting PDF file is saved in Acrobat Distiller s folder. The Distiller s installer adds an Acrobat Distiller item to your list of installed printers in the Print Setup dialog box.

To print to PDF using Acrobat Distiller, select this Acrobat Distiller printer. Distiller Assistant uses the Microsoft Windows PostScript printer driver (pscript) and routes the PostScript file to a file named c:\acrodist\distasst.ps. The Distiller Assistant then attempts to extract the filename from the %%Title comment in the PostScript file, launch Acrobat Distiller, and request that it distill the file to the desired output name. When receiving a reply from Acrobat Distiller that distillation is complete, Distiller Assistant deletes the source PostScript file, and if the View PDF file option is selected, it opens the PDF document in Acrobat Exchange.

Status messages The Status field in the Acrobat Distiller window can display any of the following messages: Starting Distiller means Acrobat Distiller is initializing itself. Purging Out folders means Acrobat Distiller is deleting files that have been left in Out folders longer than the number of days specified with the Watched Folders dialog box. Ready means Acrobat Distiller is idle, waiting for a PostScript file to be submitted for processing. Paused means you clicked Pause. Acrobat Distiller remains paused until you choose Resume or click Cancel Job. Distilling filename.ps means Acrobat Distiller is processing the named file. Relocating files means Acrobat Distiller is creating a PDF file or is moving a PostScript file from an In folder to an Out folder.

Building Font Table means Acrobat Distiller is building a list of PostScript Font Metrics (PFM) filenames for PostScript Type 1 fonts. This message is displayed when the Windows version of Acrobat Distiller starts, and after a font folder has been added with the Font Locations dialog box.

Giving Acrobat Distiller access to fonts Acrobat Distiller must have access to all the fonts used in a document before it can successfully create a PDF file for that document. Either the font must be included in the PostScript file or the location of the font must be accessible to Acrobat Distiller. Some PostScript printer drivers, such as the PSPrinter Driver for the Macintosh, have an option that lets you include fonts in a PostScript file, which is not the same as embedding them in a PDF file. Only Acrobat Distiller and PDF Writer can embed fonts in PDF files. See Creating a PostScript file for Macintosh. If the font is included in the PostScript language file, the font will be available to Acrobat Distiller when it distills the file. Including a font in a PostScript file ensures that the file can be printed from a system that does not have the font installed. It does not guarantee that the font will be available on any system in which it is displayed; you have to embed the font to ensure this.

If a font is referred to in the PostScript file but is not included in it, Acrobat Distiller looks for the font on the system running Acrobat Distiller and in any folders you ve selected by using the Font Locations dialog box. If Acrobat Distiller cannot find a font, it checks to see if the font is listed in its font database of metrics. If the font is listed, Acrobat Distiller extracts the metrics for inclusion in the PDF file. If it is not listed, Courier is used. When Acrobat Distiller embeds a font in a PDF file, it places into the PDF file all of the information about the font that is installed on your system, including the font outlines. Acrobat Distiller automatically embeds some Type 1 fonts that do not use the standard roman character set, such as symbol or expert typefaces, because Acrobat viewers cannot create substitute fonts for them.

You have the option of embedding only the characters of a font that are used in your document, which greatly reduces the file size. The minimum size for an embedded font subset is 12K (when only one character of the font is used in the document so only one is embedded). If you embed the entire font (including characters not in your document), the size of a PDF file is increased by about 30K to 40K for most Type 1 fonts. For example, embedding the entire Minion font increases the PDF file by 40K, as opposed to about 24K when embedding is restricted to only those characters used in the document, typically uppercase and lowercase letters and numbers (font subsets). To create smaller PDF files, we recommend that you embed font subsets. See Embedding fonts for instructions. Tip: For optimal PDF files, include the fonts when you generate a PostScript file for Acrobat Distiller. When you use Acrobat Distiller to create a PDF file, check the Embed All Fonts option in the Font Embedding dialog box and the Make Font Subsets option in the Job Options dialog box.

For more information on managing fonts, see the following topics: About fonts Using the Font Locations dialog box How font information is included in PostScript files Where Acrobat Distiller looks for fonts (Windows) Where Acrobat Distiller looks for fonts (Macintosh) Embedding fonts

About fonts Documents can contain four kinds of fonts: Type 1 fonts are referred to as outline fonts because the contour of each character is described mathematically. Downloadable Type 1 fonts are Type 1 font outlines that are downloaded (copied) to a PostScript printer at print time. Bitmap fonts contain characters described as a pattern of dots (a bitmap). Since character bitmaps cannot be scaled to different sizes in an acceptable manner, there must be a separate font for each point size. TrueType fonts are outline fonts that are shipped with Macintosh and Windows. Type 3 fonts are PostScript fonts commonly used for company logo fonts and for creating nonscalable bitmap fonts that print on a PostScript printer. For definitions of each type of font and descriptions of how the fonts are handled on Macintosh and Windows systems, click the font types above. For information on how Acrobat Distiller locates fonts, see Giving Acrobat Distiller access to fonts.

Type 1 fonts Type 1 fonts, which are a specialized form of a PostScript language program, were the first scalable outline fonts. These fonts are called outline fonts because each character is described mathematically as a collection of lines and curves that form the character s outline. When a PostScript printer prints a character in a Type 1 font, it scales the character outline to the specified size and then uses the scaled outline to create the bitmap that is printed on the page. Creating a bitmap from a scaled outline is called rasterizing a font, because the bitmap is printed by a raster device, a device that creates a pattern of dots to produce an image. The PostScript interpreter in PostScript printers rasterizes Type 1 font outlines to print characters on the page. The Adobe Type Manager (ATM) program rasterizes Type 1 font outlines to display characters on the screen, or to non-postscript printers. A PostScript printer comes with a number of built-in Type 1 fonts. All PostScript printers come with the base 13 fonts: The Helvetica family (regular, bold, oblique, and bold-oblique) The Times family (regular, bold, italic, and bold-italic)

The Courier family (regular, bold, oblique, and bold-oblique) Symbol (a font with Greek letters and mathematical symbols) In addition to the base 13 Type 1 fonts, many PostScript printers come with these additional built-in fonts: The Avant Garde family The ITC Bookman family The Helvetica Narrow family The New Century Schoolbook family The Palatino family The ITC Zapf Chancery font (a cursive font) The ITC Zapf Dingbats font (a symbol font) Adobe sells a font package called Adobe Type Basics, for both Windows and Macintosh, which contains these fonts.

Windows and Macintosh users can increase the variety of Type 1 fonts available for their documents by purchasing collections of Type 1 fonts from font vendors. See Downloadable Type 1 fonts for more information on this type of font.

Downloadable Type 1 fonts Downloadable Type 1 fonts are Type 1 font outlines that are downloaded (copied) to a PostScript printer at print time. Because downloadable fonts are installed on a user s system and not built into the printer s hardware, these fonts are also called soft fonts. Users install the downloadable Type 1 font outlines on their hard disks. When a document containing a downloadable font prints, the printer driver sends the font outlines to the printer, where the PostScript interpreter uses the outlines to rasterize characters for the printed page. For Windows and Macintosh users, ATM uses the Type 1 outlines installed on a user s system to rasterize characters for the screen. If a Windows user does not have ATM, Windows substitutes an available TrueType font for screen characters. If a Macintosh user does not have ATM, the Macintosh system uses the bitmap versions of the Type 1 outlines for screen characters.

Bitmap fonts Bitmap fonts contain characters consisting of a pattern of dots. They differ from outline fonts in that they are at a fixed resolution and cannot be scaled accurately (they can appear jagged), so there must be a separate font for each point size and resolution. For example, the bitmap version of Times 10 and Times 12 are separate fonts. This method of using a separate font for each size results in larger file sizes, and hence greater storage needs. In contrast, Type 1 fonts can be viewed and printed at any size (magnification) and resolution (such as screen, printer, or imagesetter) and return their full quality. Type 1 fonts are stored as outlines; each character is described mathematically as a collection of lines and curves. ATM rasterizes character outlines to create characters at various point sizes for screen display, or for printing to non-postscript printers. The interpreter in a PostScript printer rasterizes Type 1 font outlines to print characters on the page.

TrueType fonts Similar to Type 1 fonts, TrueType fonts are outline fonts; the outline of each TrueType character is described mathematically as a collection of lines and curves. Both Windows 3.1 and Macintosh System 7 come with a basic set of TrueType fonts included as part of the system. And both Windows 3.1 and Macintosh System 7 include TrueType software, which (like ATM) rasterizes character outlines to create characters for the display. Note: Acrobat 2.1 viewers (Acrobat Exchange and Acrobat Reader) can display TrueType fonts. Although Acrobat 1.0 viewers do not recognize TrueType fonts, the PDF file contains metric information that substitutes for the font. Windows only: PostScript files created for documents containing TrueType fonts do not distill correctly unless the PostScript printer driver s Advanced Options dialog box is set to send TrueType fonts to the printer as Adobe Type 1 fonts. For more information on Windows and TrueType fonts, see Setting up the Windows PostScript driver for TrueType fonts and How the Windows PostScript driver handles TrueType fonts.

Type 3 fonts Type 3 fonts can use the full range of the PostScript language to describe characters, as opposed to the optimized, special-purpose language of the Type 1 font format. Because it is necessary to have a full PostScript interpreter to interpret a Type 3 font, Type 3 fonts cannot be displayed by ATM software. Type 3 fonts are used mainly for two purposes: Company logo fonts. Type 3 fonts can be used for complex logos or extremely decorative fonts. Bitmap fonts. Normally, PostScript printers print scalable Type 1 fonts. Type 3 fonts, however, can be used to create bitmap fonts that print on PostScript printers. When a Type 3 font is used for a bitmap font, however, the font is not scalable. A separate Type 3 font is required for every size of the bitmap font.

Setting up the Windows PostScript driver for TrueType fonts If your document uses TrueType fonts, these fonts need to be included in the PostScript file for Acrobat Distiller as Adobe Type 1 versions of the TrueType fonts. Note: To embed the actual TrueType fonts, use Acrobat PDF Writer instead of Acrobat Distiller for creating PDF files. To direct the PostScript driver to convert TrueType fonts to Type 1: 1 Choose Edit > Print Setup, and click Options. 2 Click Advanced in the Options dialog box, which displays the Advanced Options dialog box. 3 Select Adobe Type 1 as the TrueType Fonts/Send to Printer as: option, and click OK.

Using the Font Locations dialog box You can give Acrobat Distiller a list of folders containing Type 1 fonts that Acrobat Distiller can use when creating PDF documents. To add a font folder: 1 Choose Distiller > Font Locations. The Font Locations dialog box displays a list of folders in which Acrobat Distiller looks for fonts. These folders can be on your hard drive or on the network. Note: Acrobat Distiller indicates that a font folder is available by displaying a symbol to the left of the folder name ( >> for Windows; for Macintosh). If no symbol appears to the left of the folder name, the network connection to the folder has probably been lost. Reestablish the connection. 2 Click Add Folder. 3 Select the folder you want. 4 Use the same procedure to add other font locations, and click OK (for Windows) or Save (for Macintosh).

To remove a font location: 1 Choose Distiller > Font Locations. The Font Locations dialog box appears. 2 Select the font folder you want to remove, and click Remove. Note: For Macintosh, you cannot remove the System folder or the Fonts or Extensions folder within the System folder from the list of font locations. 3 Click OK (for Windows) or Save (for Macintosh).

How font information is included in PostScript files PostScript printer drivers create the PostScript files, which Acrobat Distiller then processes to create PDF files. PostScript printer drivers use the following strategy for including font information in PostScript files: The names of all Type 1 fonts used in the document are referred to in the PostScript file (by PostScript font name, not by the font menu name). Bitmap fonts are included in PostScript files as individual bitmaps. On Windows systems, font bitmaps usually include a 96-dpi screen version and a 300-dpi printer version; the high-resolution version is printed when available. For Macintosh, font bitmaps are 72-dpi images. When a Type 1 font is removed from the system after a document is created but before the PostScript file is created, the PostScript driver places only the font name, not the font outlines, into the PostScript file. If a font is not included in the PostScript file, Acrobat Distiller looks for the font on its local system and in the locations specified with the Font Locations dialog box.

Windows Depending on how the printer driver is set up, TrueType fonts may be converted to Type 1 or Type 3 bitmap fonts, or Type 1 fonts may be substituted for TrueType fonts. You must set the driver so that TrueType fonts will be converted to Type 1 fonts when creating PostScript files for Acrobat Distiller. See How the Windows PostScript driver handles TrueType fonts and Setting up the Windows PostScript driver for TrueType fonts for more information. The Windows PostScript driver does not include Type 1 font outlines for fonts that are marked as printer-resident in the printer s WIN.INI file entry. Usually, this includes built-in fonts and fonts that have been manually downloaded to the printer. Macintosh TrueType fonts are usually converted to Type 1 fonts. It is these Type 1 fonts that are included in the PostScript files. Acrobat Distiller needs access to Type 1 font outlines when the font outlines are not included in the PostScript file.

For more information, see How the Macintosh printer driver handles TrueType fonts How the Windows PostScript driver handles TrueType fonts Where Acrobat Distiller looks for fonts (Windows) Where Acrobat Distiller looks for fonts (Macintosh) Using the Font Locations dialog box