Datasheet

Acrobat Professional has added more tools for helping users repurpose documents. Tools for repairing prob-

lem files, downsizing file sizes, porting files to a range of different devices, and eliminating unnecessary data

are part of the many features found in Acrobat Professional. In addition, the new PDF/A format available in

Acrobat 8 is designed specifically for archiving documents. A standards committee has developed this for-

mat so documents viewed on computer systems 100 years from now will be compatible with future operat-

ing systems.

PDF and Adobe PostScript

The de facto standard for nearly all printing in the graphics industry has been Adobe PostScript. While

PostScript is still the dominant printing language, this will slowly change because Adobe has recently

announced support for PDF as the new print standard.

Okay, so how does PostScript relate to PDF? In the initial release of Acrobat, all PDF conversion began with

a file that was created as a PostScript file. Users selected the Print command in an authoring program and

printed the file to disk — thus creating a PostScript file. This file was then opened in the Acrobat Distiller

program and Distiller converted the PostScript to a PDF.

Distiller is still a part of Acrobat. In some cases, creating a PDF from a PostScript file rather than through

any of the many other means available may be preferable. It could be that you have a problem with export-

ing to PDF from a program, such as fonts not appearing embedded, or you may need to create a PDF for a

special purpose such as printing and prepress. In such circumstances using Acrobat Distiller may be your

best solution for generating a PDF document to properly suit the purpose.

For information related to printing PostScript files and using Acrobat Distiller see Chapter 10.

Printing to PostScript and opening PostScript files in Distiller is used much less today because now so many

programs support PDF creation through one-button clicks or using the Save As command. However, many

of these one-button clicks still use the Distiller application in the background to create the PDF file. You

may not see Distiller launched when PDFs are created in the background, but the program is working away

to convert your authoring application document to a PDF file.

PostScript can be a problem solver for you, and you may have an occasional need to use it even if your

workflow does not require its use all the time. The more you know about PostScript and Acrobat Distiller,

the more often you might be able to rescue problem files that don’t seem to properly convert to PDF.

PDF versions

Acrobat is now in version 8. The version number indicates the number of releases of the product. PDF is a

file format and with it you’ll also find a version number. The PDF version relates to the specifications of the

file format; for the end user it’s usually not so important to understand all the specifications as much as it is

to know what it does for you or what you can expect from it. If you create PDF documents for users of

older Acrobat viewers and use the newer PDF format, your users may not be able to view your PDF files.

Conversely, creating PDF files with the older version might prohibit you from using some newer features in

the recent release.

PDF versions are typically referred to as Acrobat Compatibility. A PDF version 1.7 file, for example, is an

Acrobat 8 compatible file. To understand how the PDF version relates to the Acrobat version, simply add

the digits of the PDF version together. For example, PDF version 1.4 is Acrobat 5–compatible (1 + 4 = 5).

PDF version 1.5 is Acrobat 6–compatible, and so on.

CROSS-REF

Welcome to Adobe Acrobat

Part I

06_050514 ch01.qxp 12/29/06 11:13 PM Page 6