Unlock the secret powers of Distiller and Ghostscript.

Acrobat Distiller creates PDF based on its current profile setting. On Windows, choose a profile when you print by changing the Print >Properties >Adobe PDF Settings tab >Default Settings drop-down box. On a Macintosh, choose PDF Options from the drop-down box that starts out saying Copies & Pages instead of selecting the Adobe PDF Settings tab. When using Ghostscript, you can reference a joboptions file in pdf_printer.cfg.

Whenever you print to an Acrobat PDF printer, you can select a profile that creates the best PDF for your purpose. You can view and edit these profiles using the graphical Distiller application. The surprise is that these profiles, or joboptions files, are plain-text PostScript snippets that give you more control over Distiller than the GUI does. They are also compatible with Ghostscript, although Ghostscript does not implement all the possible settings. Indeed, the joboptions file (and its specification) is a good place to get the straight dope on what Distiller and Ghostscript can really do.

Acrobat Distiller Parameters Tell the Full Story
To fully understand Distiller and Ghostscript features, you must read the Acrobat Distiller Parameters document from Adobe. It is also the definitive guide to joboptions file parameters.

If you have Acrobat on your computer, open Distiller and select Help Distiller Parameters Guide, or search your disk for distparm.pdf. On the Macintosh, this file is in the Extras folder on the installer CD. The Acrobat 6 version of distparm.pdf is not available online except to paying Adobe ASN Developer Program members. The next best thing is the Acrobat 5 version, which is bundled with the freely downloadable Acrobat 5 SDK:

http://partners.adobe.com/asn/acrobat/download.jsp
Ghostscript users should also read C:\gs\gs8.14\doc\Ps2pdf.htm or, online:

http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/doc/cvs/Ps2pdf.htm
If you plan to deliver PDF to a service bureau, find out if they have a joboptions file you should use when creating your PDF.

Distiller joboptions Profiles
Acrobat Distiller's joboptions files are easy to view and modify using the Distiller GUI. Launch the Distiller application, and set Default Settings (Acrobat 6) or Job Options (Acrobat 5) to the profile you want to view or edit. Then, select Settings Edit Adobe PDF Settings (Acrobat 6) or Settings Job Options (Acrobat 5).

As noted earlier, this graphical interface does not give you access to all the settings documented in Acrobat Distiller Parameters. Because joboptions files are plain text, you can also view or edit them using a text editor.

Ghostscript joboptions Profiles
joboptions files are written in PostScript, so you can pass them to Ghostscript just before your input file using the -f option. Add a joboptions file to your GS Pdf Printer by appending it to the end of the pdf_printer.cfg file you created, like so:

-dSAFER

-dBATCH

-dNOPAUSE

-Ic:\gs\gs8.14\Resource

-Ic:\gs\fonts

-Ic:\gs\gs8.14\lib

-sFONTPATH=c:\WINDOWS\FONTS

-sDEVICE=pdfwrite

-r1200

-c save pop

-f c:\gs\pdfhacks.gs.joboptions


The file pdfhacks.gs.joboptions comes with our Virtual Printer Kit . It is organized and commented to make parameters easy to read and understand. Open it in your text editor and take a look. Edit it to suit your needs. Parameters not supported by Ghostscript are commented out.

If you need to manage a collection of these profiles, consider creating one GS Pdf Printer for each profile. Each printer would have its own Redirected Port, each port using its own cfg file, each cfg file referencing its own joboptions file.

How to Create PDFs quickly and easily from any Macintosh OS X program?

Apple built a "Save As PDF" capability right into the Macintosh OS X Print dialog box. Any time you go to print a document, you can choose Save As PDF . . . from the bottom of the Print dialog box. Unfortunately, this approach provides no options and tends to produce large files, but at least it is a quick solution to producing PDFs. This option is available at the bottom left of any Print dialog box.

If you click the Save As PDF . . . button, a file dialog box will ask you where to put the resulting PDF file. Select a location, click OK, and the Mac will print to a PDF file.

There aren't any obvious configuration options for Save as PDF . . . , but if you have Mac OS X 10.3 or later, you can choose settings through the Filters tab of the ColorSync utility's Preferences window. (The ColorSync utility is in MacintoshHD:Applications:Utilities.) If you check PDF Workflow in the Domains tab, you'll be able to change your PDF options from the Print dialog box as well.

How to Create a Printable, On-Screen Edition from Word?

Most documents are configured to print letter-size pages with a vertical, portrait orientation. Yet computer screens have a horizontal, landscape orientation. Accommodate on-screen reading and paper printing by setting your document's layout to two-column, landscape-oriented pages. Sadly, Acrobat's PDFMaker can't create accurate bookmarks and hyperlinks in this kind of document.

Microsoft Word 2002
Select File Page Setup Margins. Set Apply To: to Whole Document. Set the Multiple Pages field to 2 Pages per Sheet. Set the Orientation to Landscape. Set the page margins to:

Top: 0.75 inch
Bottom: 0.75 inch

Outside: 0.50 inch
Inside: 0.50 inch

Click the Paper tab and set the Paper Size: to Letter. Click the Layout tab and set both Header and Footer to 0.40 inch. Click OK to accept these new Page Setup settings.

When you use the print preview, it will show you only one side of your "2-up" page. Print to PDF and review the results.

Microsoft Word 2000
Select File Page Setup Margins. Set Apply To: to Whole Document. Check the 2 Pages per Sheet checkbox. Set both Header and Footer to 0.40 inch. Set the page margins to:

Top: 0.75 inch
Bottom: 0.75 inch

Outside: 0.50 inch
Inside: 0.50 inch

Click the Paper Size tab. Set the Paper Size: to Letter and the Orientation to Landscape. Click OK to accept these new Page Setup settings.

When you use the print preview, it will show you only one side of your "2-up" page. Print to PDF and review the results.

Microsoft Word:Mac v.X (or any Mac application)
On the Macintosh, you don't need to make changes to the document in Word, because the operating system offers a range of pages per sheet on the Layout area of the Print dialog box. Format the document as you normally would, and when you go to print to PDF, select the Layout option. You can pick from 1 to 16 pages on a sheet, though 2 is probably best if you want people to read it on-screen. Again, you won't have all the features that PDFMaker provides.

How to convert to PDF in Wordperfect?

Newer versions of Corel WordPerfect have a File>Publish To>PDF feature that gives you options for adding PDF features. Or, you can use the PDF Tweaker macro for WordPerfect, which also adds links and bookmarks to your PDF. In addition to PDF Tweaker, you must also have Acrobat Distiller or Ghostscript. PDF Tweaker does not actually create the PDF; it just adds pdfmarks to the print job.

Visit http://www.wpuniverse.com/vb/showthread.php?threadid=6136 to learn more about PDF Tweaker.

How to create interactive PDF with OpenOffice?

Newer versions of OpenOffice can create PDFs directly from your document with the File > Export as PDF feature. However, the resulting PDF lacks interactive features.To create a PDF with bookmarks, metadata, and hyperlinks, you must use the extendedPDF macro in combination with Ghostscript or Distiller.
Visit http://www.jdisoftware.co.uk/pages/epdf-home.php to learn more about extendedPDF.

How to create PDF with Microsoft Word and Gs4Word on Windows?

Gs4Word is a Word macro that interfaces with Ghostscript. It adds a menu to Word called PDF and a shortcut button to Word's Standard toolbar. It can add bookmarks, metadata, and display setting to your PDF. Its configuration dialog enables you to manage a set of Ghostscript profiles. Set your desired profile with the PDF>Configure...>PDF File>Output Medium drop-down box.

The Gs4Word home page (http://www.schmitz-huebsch.net/gs4word/) is in German, but you can configure the program's interface to use English.

How to create PDF with Word and Ghostword?

GhostWord is an interface software that integrates Ghostscript with Word. It adds a button in toolbar that launches the GhostWord. Use the GUI to convert the Word document to active full-featured PDF. You can also run the GUI outside Word. GhostWord even has a command line interface.

GhostWord can add bookmarks, links, metadata, and the parameters of your PDF. It also manages the parameters of your Ghostscript. Select a Ghostscript profile of Document>Optimize PDF for: drop-down list box, or adjust the settings individually Ghostscript in Converter Settings tab. Save these settings in a configuration file for later retrieval.

GhostWord is distributed free at http://www.et.dtu.dk/software/ghostword/

How to create interactive PDF with Microsoft Word?

During its installation setup, Adobe Acrobat gives you the option to install the PDFMaker Macros for Microsoft Word. PDFMaker will add a menu in Word called Adobe PDF. It also adds a toolbar with buttons that will activate elements of this menu. Select Adobe PDF>Convert to Adobe PDF or click on the button with PDF document icon to create your PDF. On Macintosh, you need only to install Acrobat toolbar while it's offering very little control over its operation.

Under Windows, configure PDFMaker by selecting Adobe PDF>Change Conversion Settings. . . in Microsoft Word. The Change Conversion Settings drop-down list allows you to select a profile of Distiller, just as you would if you want to print a PDF file. The other tabs allow you to add encryption, links, metadata, bookmarks, and other nice features of your PDF. One feature I was specifically disable Enable Accessibility and Reflow with Tagged PDF. This feature allows PDF to behave a bit like HTML, but it can double (or more!) the size of your PDF file.