20 Marketing tips
2008 Colour predictions
How to write a PDF
How to produce your own artwork
How to present your artwork to Pre Press
UV varnish v's laminating
UVP Defined
What is bleed
 

How to write a PDF

On an Apple Mac this is easy. If your are unfortunate only to have a PC then its a little more complicated. In both instances you should splash the cash and buy Adobe Acrobat, it is the leading industry standard software and simply the best tool for the job. However if you are strapped for cash you could download the 30 day free trial, otherwise try these suggestions below.

REMEMBER BOTH OPTIONS BELOW HAVE THEIR PROBLEMS, TRANSPARANCIES AND FONTS MAY NOT PRINT AS EXPECTED. CHECK AND CHECK AGAIN BEFORE SENDING OFF YOUR PDF TO BE PRINTED

How do I create PDF documents in Mac OS X?

Most Mac OS X applications should be able to take advantage of the system’s ability to generate PDF files.
If your still on OS9 or earlier then you have the same problem as a PC. Try the 30 day trail or download free software.

1. From within the application, select Print from the File menu.
2. Instead of choosing Print, choose Preview instead.
3. Your default PDF application (usually Preview or Adobe Acrobat).
will launch and show your document in PDF format.
4. Choose where you want your PDF file to be saved.
5. Save your PDF document.

Note: in some applications you cannot save as a PDFx, remember if you cannot save as a PDFx there is no guarantee that the file will print correctly - if the job is important leave it to the professionals.

Create PDF documents on a PC?

PC's cannot generate PDF’s from within its own system. You will need to download software which allows you to create a PDF from the print dialoge box. You can simply search for a PDF writer, our choose our recommendion - pdf995

Pdf995 makes it easy to create professional-quality documents in PDF file format. Its easy-to-use interface helps you to create PDF files by simply selecting the "print" command from any application, creating documents which can be viewed on any computer with a PDF viewer. Pdf995 will support network file saving, shared printing, Citrix/Terminal Server, custom page sizes and large format printing. It is a printer driver that works with any Postscript to PDF converter. The pdf995 printer driver and a free Converter are available for easy download.

http://www.pdf995.com/download.html

Simply install the pdf995 onto your computer following the on screen instructions.

1. From within the application, select Print from the File menu.
2. Instead of choosing Print, choose pdf995 instead.
3 Carefully ensure that you set the print parameters correctly, don’t forget the bleed
4. Choose where you want your PDF file to be saved.
5. Save your PDF document.
6 An advertisement will appear just ignore that (you have to purchase the software to remove the advertisement).
7 Open a PDF reader and print and check your file.

Note this will not be a PDFx file so there is no guarantee that the file will print correctly - if the job is important leave it to the professionals.