How To Create Adobe PDF Format
How To Create Adobe PDF Format
Welcome to How to Create Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) eBooks. This is a step-bystep guide that covers the basics on creating PDF files so they can be viewed as an eBook using the free Adobe Acrobat eBook Reader.
colors, and graphics, regardless of the application and platform used to create it. Adobe PDF files can be opened reliably across a broad range of hardware and software with the free Adobe Reader software. You can convert any electronic document or Web page to Adobe PDF using Adobe Acrobat software, and any scanned page to searchable Adobe PDF using Adobe Acrobat Capture 3.0 software. Adobe PDF is a standard on the World Wide Web and is also used to distribute electronic documents over corporate networks, via e-mail, and on CD-ROM. Many corporations, educational institutions, and government agencies use Adobe PDF to distribute documents to the public or to groups within their organizations. Adobe PDF is also gaining tremendous popularity as the basis for new e-business and e-government processes. Its support for electronic forms, digital
dobe PDF stands for Adobe Portable Document Format and is standard for electronic document distribution worldwide. Adobe PDF is a universal file format that preserves the exact look and feel of any source document, including all of the fonts, formatting,
signatures, password security, and electronic mark-ups make it the ideal platform for converting yesterday's paper-based business processes to fully inter-active digital processes.
When creating an Adobe PDF eBook, you can start with an existing document or create an entirely new document. Many publishers have archived content from which to produce eBooks, including source, PostScript, and PDF documents. If youre starting with an existing source document or from scratch, you should design a document template that makes it easy to view your eBook in Acrobat eBook Reader. The guide that youre reading now is a good example of a document designed specifically to be viewed online. When designing a document template in your authoring application, follow the guidelines in this chapter to determine page size, page margins, text format, and use of color.
Formatting Text
When formatting text for an eBook, choose fonts that look good on screen and are especially easy to read. Fonts with delicate serifs or thin strokes that look good on the printed page can lose their definition on screen, making them appear fuzzy and difficult to read. In general, you should use larger font sizes and higher leading values than you would use for printed books. For maximum readability at 100% magnification in Acrobat eBook Reader, you should use a font size of at least 12 points and a leading of 2 points for body text. If you have an issue with letter spacing, try to address it by setting tracking values instead of kerning multiple pairs of individual characters. Kerning many letter combinations to perfection often adds little value and increases the file size. After youve created your Adobe PDF eBook, its a good idea to check the readability of its text under a variety of conditions, including both a CRT and LCD display, as well as a variety of both magnification and CoolType settings in Acrobat eBook Reader.
Using Color
Although printing books in color can be expensive, theres no additional cost to displaying color in Acrobat eBook Reader. Therefore, you should consider using colorful images and adding color to text elements such as headings, captions, and callouts. Printing usually uses the CMYK color model, while computer displays use the RGB color model. These models have different gamuts, or ranges of colors that they can accommodate. In addition, devices do not display the same colors in the same way. These differences can result in differences between print and screen colors, and between the same colors displayed on different screens. When you generate your Adobe PDF eBook, its recommended that you set options in Acrobat Distiller or your authoring application to convert all colors to the device-independent sRGB model. These settings calibrate colors in a device-independent way, so that they appear accurately on a variety of computer displays.
Although Acrobat can be used to standardize colors across devices, the appearance of colors in your eBook still depends on each computer devices color palette. If your eBook contains colors that arent in the palette, the device approximates the colors using colors in its palette. After creating an Adobe PDF eBook, its a good idea to preview its colors on a variety of platforms featuring palettes with 256 colors and true colors.
After setting recommended job options for eBooks, you may want to customize these options to change the quality or size of your Adobe PDF files.
Note: When converting to Adobe PDF using Windows NT or Windows XP operating systems, the resulting PDF document will retain the 8 1/2 by 11 inch page size instead of the custom page size. In this case, you can use Acrobat to crop the document to the proper size. To crop multiple documents, see Batch Processing in Adobe Acrobat Online Help.
4. Select the Fonts tab, and then make sure that the Base 14 Fonts folder is chosen from the menu under Embedding. To embed the base 14 fonts in the Adobe PDF document, select each of the fonts in the list on the left. (Shift-click to select more than one font at a time.) Then click the arrow button next to the Always Embed list to add the selected fonts to that list.
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Fonts that have license restrictions are preceded by a locksymbol, and the nature of the restriction is described in the explanation area of the dialog box. Also note that to edit text in files, you must have a licensed copy of the font resident on your local system.
5. Select the Fonts tab, and then make sure that the Base 14 Fonts folder is chosen from the menu under Embedding. To embed the base 14 fonts in the Adobe PDF document, Select the Advanced tab, and then deselect the following options: Allow PostScript File to Override Job Options, Preserve Level 2 Copypage Semantics, Illustrator Overprint Mode, and Resize Page and Center Artwork for EPS Files.
6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 6. To save the job options that youve created in a new file, click Save As. (You cant overwrite the predefined sets of options.) Then enter a filename with the .joboptions extension (we used eBookPro.joboptions), and click Save. By default, the file is saved to the Distillr/Settings folder (Windows) or Distiller/Settings folder (Mac OS) inside the Acrobat folder. Its important that you save the file to this location, so that its recognized by Acrobat Distiller. The filename you chose appears in the Job Options menu in the Acrobat Distiller dialog box and is chosen automatically.
Create a GIF image of the books cover. Add metadata to your document. Set options for opening your document in Acrobat eBook Reader. Renumber pages in your document. Add links to the documents table of contents. Upload your Adobe PDF eBook to Adobe Content Server.
Adding Metadata
In Acrobat eBook Reader, users can display information about a selected eBook in the Book Information dialog box. The information displayed includes the books title, author, publisher, and categories. You provide this information (also called metadata) when you enter your eBook into the Adobe Content Server database. The Adobe Content Server conveys the metadata to Acrobat eBook Reader when your eBook is downloaded. If you dont plan on uploading your eBook to the Adobe Content Server, add metadata to your Adobe PDF document using Acrobat. To Add Metadata to an Adobe PDF Document using Acrobat: Open your Adobe PDF document in Acrobat. Choose File > Document Properties > Summary. Enter the books title and author, and click OK.
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If metadata was entered into the source document using an authoring application it is automatically added to the Adobe PDF document during conversion.
To Set Options for Opening an Adobe PDF Document in Acrobat eBook Reader:
1) Open your Adobe PDF document in Acrobat. 2) Choose File > Document Properties > Open Options. 3) Do one of the following: To have your document open in Fit Width in Acrobat eBook Reader, choose Fit Width from the Magnification pop-up menu. To have your document open in Two-Page View in Acrobat eBook Reader, choose Continuous - Facing from the Page Layout pop-up menu. 4) Click OK.
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If you chose both the Fit Width and Continuous Facing options in Acrobat, the Acrobat eBook Reader opens the eBook in Fit Width.
PDF eBook displays properly in Two-Page View in Acrobat eBook Reader with odd-numbered pages on the right. If needed, insert pages into your Adobe PDF eBook using Acrobat, although it is generally easier to insert blank pages in the authoring application than after converting to Adobe PDF. By default, when you are viewing an Adobe PDF document, the page numbers that appear in both the Acrobat status bar and the Adobe Acrobat eBook Reader page navigator bar are numbered in Arabic numerals beginning with 1. So that these page numbers match the actual numbers on the pages of your Adobe PDF eBook, renumber them using Acrobat. Acrobat lets you renumber pages one section of a document at a time.
If you are renumbering a range of pages such as the front matter or body pages, select the From/To option for entering a range of pages, and enter the desired range. 5) Under Numbering, make sure that the Begin New Section option is selected. Then choose a numbering style from the Style pop-up menu: For the front cover, choose A, B, C. For the inside front cover, choose a, b, c. For the front matter, choose i, ii, iii. For the body pages, choose 1, 2, 3. 6) For Start, enter the value that corresponds to the desired page number for the first page of the new section: For both the front and inside cover, enter 3 so that the page is numbered with the third letter in the alphabet. For the front matter, enter 1 or 3 depending on whether you want the numbering to begin with i or iii. For the body pages, enter 1. 7) Click OK.
Page Numbering dialog box with options set for renumbering the front cover.
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Similarly, you can use Acrobats Link tool to create cross references and to add links to index entries in your Adobe PDF eBook.
Creating Bookmarks
The Acrobat eBook Reader lets readers add bookmarks to an eBook. Later, readers can display a list of bookmarks in the Bookmarks dialog box and use them to jump to corresponding locations in the eBook. If your Adobe PDF document contains bookmarks created in Acrobat, these bookmarks will appear in the Bookmarks dialog box in Acrobat eBook Reader. When generating an Adobe PDF document, some authoring applications let you specify for bookmarks to be created automatically. If you were unable to do this, add bookmarks to your Adobe PDF document using Acrobat. For example, you can create a bookmark for each chapter.
After you have created a bookmark, you can change its order or hierarchy in the Bookmarks palette by dragging it to a new location in the palette. While you drag, the location where the bookmark will be moved is indicated by a black bar.
8) Upload your Adobe PDF eBook to Adobe Content Server and enter the books title, author, and other information. 9) Upload a GIF image of the books cover to Adobe Content Server. 10) Set permissions for the Adobe PDF eBook and encrypt it using Adobe Content Server software.
document to be converted to Adobe PDF, choosing a left-side or right-side binding, specifying a resolution, and specifying a default page size. In most cases, youll want to make your Adobe PDF file compatible with Acrobat 4.0 or later, so that features such as the use of sRGB color arent lost. Youll also want to keep the Embed Thumbnails option deselected. Thumbnail previews of pages cant be viewed in Acrobat eBook Reader and increase the file size substantially. Choose Left for Binding unless your document contains an Asian language that uses right-side binding. For more information on customizing General job options, see Acrobat Online Help.
Downsampling Images
When you downsample an image, you decrease the number of pixels in the image, resulting in image data being lost. Acrobat Distiller lets you specify how images are downsampled; using average downsampling, bicubic downsampling, or subsampling. After selecting a downsampling method for each image type, enter the desired resolution in dpi for the images. To achieve a smaller file size than with the recommended job options for eBooks, try specifying a desired resolution of 96 dpi for color and grayscale images, and 150 dpi for monochrome images. Next, enter a resolution to determine which images will be resampled (images with a resolution above the value you entered will be resampled). For more information on downsampling images, see Acrobat Online Help.
simple images created with paint programs. For more information on compressing color or grayscale images, see Acrobat Online Help.
Subsetting Fonts
To embed only a subset of each font when the percent of characters used is less than a given value, select the Subset Embedded Fonts When Percent of Characters is Less Than option, and specify a percentage. If you select this option and specify 100, Acrobat Distiller embeds a subset of each font thats used in the document, which saves on file space.
2) Select the text for the Web link, and apply a character format to it that differentiates it from the surrounding text. 3) Choose Special > Hypertext. 4) From the Command menu, choose Go to URL. In the scrolling text box after the phrase message URL, enter a URL for the link using the syntax indicated in the dialog box. Click New Hypertext Marker.
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The Adobe Acrobat application must be installed on your system to use this procedure.
4) In the Export PDF dialog box, make sure that PDF Options is chosen from the menu directly below the Style menu, and then do the following: In the Subset Fonts Below text box, enter 100%. From the Color menu, choose RGB. Under Imported Graphics, choose High Resolution from the Images menu. Then deselect all options under Omit, and select the Crop Image Data to Frames option. Under Options, select the Optimize PDF option only.
External Links to include the hyperlinks you specified to external URLs or destinations outside of the current publication. Internal Links to include the hyperlinks you specified to anchors within the publication.
8) Choose Miscellaneous from the topmost menu. Deselect the Override Distiller Options option, so that PageMaker uses the Acrobat Distiller settings to perform the conversion. 9) Click Export. 10) In the Save As dialog box, enter a filename, choose a file location, and click Save.
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When converting to Adobe PDF using Windows NT or Windows XP operating systems, the resulting PDF document will retain the 8 1/2 by 11 inch page size instead of the custom page size. In this case, you can use Acrobat to crop the document to the proper size. To crop multiple documents, see Batch Processing in Adobe Acrobat Online Help.
4) Click the Setup tab, and choose Acrobat Distiller from the Printer Description menu. For Orientation, select Portrait regardless of the dimensions of your document.
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Its very important to set the recommended options in the AdobePS Page Setup dialog box. Smoothing text or substituting fonts can make your Adobe PDF files large and unwieldy.
Resolution menu to optimize your document for electronic distribution. This dpi setting is used in the conversion of blends and gradients.
10) Choose a filename for the Adobe PDF document to be created, select a file location, and click Save. 11) Click Print.
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Although you can use Acrobat to combine multiple Adobe PDF files, its not recommended unless youre combining a small Adobe PDF file such as the front cover with an additional Adobe PDF file containing the rest of the eBook. Each Adobe PDF file can contain embedded font subsets. When you combine multiple Adobe PDF documents, the resulting Adobe PDF document can contain multiple embedded subsets of the same font, which can substantially increase the file size.
2) In Acrobat Distiller, open the PostScript document that you want to convert to Adobe PDF. 3) In the Save dialog box, enter a filename for the Adobe PDF document to be created, select a file location, and click Save.
3) Save the modified file using the prefix that you want Acrobat Distiller to give to the Adobe PDF document. (For example, if you name the file Handbook.ps, Acrobat Distiller creates an Adobe PDF document named Handbook.pdf.) 4) Quit your authoring application. 5) If you havent already done so, deselect security options in Acrobat Distiller and configure Acrobat Distiller job options as recommended in Setting Acrobat Distiller job options for eBooks. 6) In Acrobat Distiller, open the file you just created. Acrobat Distiller combines the PostScript files into a single Adobe PDF document. 7) Open and view the Adobe PDF document in Acrobat to make sure that all of its parts are present and in the correct order.