Creating PDFs
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Creating PDFs from Microsoft Word
If you have an option for Adobe PDF at the top of your screen after "File," "Edit," "View," "Insert," etc., click on it, then "Change Conversion Settings."
From there, click on "Advanced Settings" and tab to the "Images" tab. If down sampling is selected for any of the items, choose "OFF" from the drop down list. Then tab to the "Fonts" tab. Make sure the "Embed all fonts" box is selected and that "warn and continue" is selected where it says, "When embedding fails."
Creating PDFs from Microsoft Publisher
Within Publisher under the Tool menu:
Commercial Printing Tools > Fonts
A window should come up with the option to check:
Embed TrueType Fonts when saving publication.
(Make sure this option is checked).
Also within this window there is a space that shows whether or not the font has any license restrictions attached to it. (Publisher is VERY particular when it comes to licensed fonts.) If any of the fonts that appear in this window show that the font "May not embed," it would be extremely beneficial not to use that particular font. This is an indication that when the .pdf file is produced, the font will not be embedded. This creates issues for the printer (i.e. - no quotes, apostrophe's, etc.) because the fonts had to be substituted. Sometimes the printer catches these errors, other times, they might not. In any case, it slows down the process and costs us money to go back and try to make corrections.
Creating a PDF From InDesign
Under "File" in the pull down menu, highlight "Export" and select a name and location for the exported file and make sure under "save as type" that Adobe PDF is selected. Hit "Save"
On the "Export to .pdf" screen, select "High Quality Print" as Preset in the General tab. If you have bookmarks or links, make sure to check those options as well.
Under "Compression," check "Compress Text and Line Art." Make sure that all image dpi settings read 300dpi. Notice the boxes to the left of the dpi settings for each image type. All of them should read "Bicubic Downsampling To 300"
Under each image type, check "Automatic Compression". Typically a ZIP/JPEGMed setting will work fine. Under the title "Monochrome BMP images" there is only a "Manual Compression" setting. This should read CCITGroup4. Click the "Ok" button to return to the "Export to .pdf" screen.
That should be the only adjustments you need to make to the export options.
Creating PDFs Using PDF995
(use only if the software you’re using does not have it’s own PDF utility)
Go to and download both the printer driver and the free converter.
Save the files in a location you will remember (desktop, downloaded files, c:\)
Double-click on pdf995s.exe to extract the printer driver
Double-click on ps2pdf995.exe to extract the converter
Once both of these are installed, go to whatever software program you’ve used to create the newsletter. Somewhere in the print dialog box, there should be an option to change the name of the printer you wish to send it to. There change the printer to the PDF995 utility.
Once you click PRINT, a bunch of advertising windows will pop up (unless you pay to have it registered), along with a dialog box asking you where you want to save the PDF of the newsletter. Select a location and wait for the magic to happen.
Open Acrobat Reader and check the PDF of your newsletter to make sure it looks the way you intended it to.
Send it to me via e-mail or using our upload feature
Questions? Call or e-mail me at 312-280-2516 or dmueller@ala.org
Creating PDFs with Scribus
Go to the File menu, then select Export > Save as PDF.
A "Preflight Verifier" will run. It detects potential problems with your document, such as text that is hidden because it overflows its frame or images that are below the recommended DPI. Read through the reported errors, make any necessary corrections, and if errors remain that you want to leave unfixed select Ignore Errors.
A Save as PDF menu will open. At the top, you can select the destination and filename for the PDF. Below are several tabbed menus with advanced options, most of which are self-explanatory and do not require alterations. Make any necessary modifications and then select Save.
