ADOBE ACROBAT 8 STANDARD 90

User Guide

A
B

C
D

Acrobat Distiller main window (Windows)

A. Menus B. Adobe PDF settings files C. Files in job queue D. Failed job E. Context menu F. Status window

Note: In Mac OS, there is no context menu. Instead, a Clear List button clears all distilled jobs from the list.

Start Acrobat Distiller

❖ Do one of the following:

• In Acrobat, choose Advanced > Print Production > Acrobat Distiller.

• (Windows) Choose Start > Programs > Acrobat Distiller 8.0.
• (Mac OS) Use the Finder to locate Acrobat Distiller 8.0, and double-click it to open the Distiller application.

Manage the conversion queue

Distiller lets you queue PostScript files that you create in authoring applications and then monitor them throughout
the PDF conversion process.

Queue a PostScript file

1 In Distiller, select an Adobe PDF settings file from the Default Settings pop-up menu.
2 (Optional) Choose Settings > Security and select an encryption level.
3 Open the PostScript file and start the conversion process, using either method:
• Choose File > Open, select a PostScript file, and click Open.
• Drag one or more PostScript files from the desktop to the Acrobat Distiller window.
Click Pause before doing step 3 if you want to review the queue before Distiller starts converting the files.
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Change the queue during processing

Do any of the following:
• To temporarily stop processing the current job, click Pause. Or (Windows only), right-click the job queue and
choose Pause.
• To resume processing the current job, click Resume. Or (Windows only), right-click the job queue and choose
Resume.
• To delete files from the queue, click Cancel Job. Cancel Jobs deletes all files from the queue that are not yet success-
fully completed. Or (Windows only), select and right-click individual files in the job queue and choose Cancel
Job(s) to delete only those files.
• (Windows only) To open the folder where the selected files are, right-click the job queue and choose Explore.
• (Windows only) To open the selected PDF in Acrobat, a browser, or Reader, right-click the job queue and choose
View. Or, double-click the PDF to open it in Acrobat.

Save a history of the job queue (Windows)

❖ Right-click the job queue, and choose Save List.

Distiller saves and opens the history as a PDF.

Clear the queue

Remove all paused and successfully converted files from the list:
• (Windows) Right-click the job queue, and choose Clear History.
• (Mac OS) Click the Clear List button above the queue.

Distiller preferences
The Distiller preferences control global Distiller settings. You set Distiller preferences by choosing File > Preferences
(Windows) or Distiller > Preferences (Mac OS).
(Windows) Notify When Windows TEMP Folder Is Nearly Full Warns you if available hard disk space is less than 1 MB.
Required hard disk space is often double the size of the PostScript file being processed.
Ask For PDF File Destination Lets you specify the name and location for files when using drag-and-drop or the Print
command.
Ask To Replace Existing PDF File Warns you if you are about to overwrite an existing PDF.

View PDF When Using Distiller Automatically opens the converted PDF.

Delete Log Files For Successful Jobs Creates a log file (named messages.log) only if there are messages from inter-
preting the PostScript file or if a PostScript error occurs. (Log files for failed jobs are always created.)

Guidelines for creating PostScript files

If you want to fine-tune the creation of the PDF with Distiller parameters or pdfmark operators, first create a
PostScript file and then convert that file to PDF. For details, download the Adobe Acrobat 8 SDK or specific parts of
it, such as the pdfmark Reference Manual, from various tabs on the Acrobat SDK documentation page (English only)
on the Adobe website.
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User Guide

Printer resolution Default line screen Image resolution

300 dpi (laser printer) 60 lpi 120 ppi

600 dpi (laser printer) 85 lpi 170 ppi

1200 dpi (image- 120 lpi 240 ppi

setter)

2400 dpi (image- 150 lpi 300 ppi

setter)

Downsample (Off) Reduces image resolutions that exceed the For Images Above value to the resolution of the output
device by combining pixels in a sample area of the image to make one larger pixel.
Average Downsampling To Averages the pixels in a sample area and replaces the entire area with the average pixel
color at the specified resolution.
Subsampling To Replaces an entire area with a pixel selected from that sample area, at the specified resolution.
Causes faster conversion time than downsampling, but resulting images are less smooth and continuous.
Bicubic Downsampling To Uses a weighted average, instead of a simple average (as in downsampling) to determine
pixel color. This method is slowest but produces the smoothest tonal gradations.
Compression/Image Quality Applies compression to color, grayscale, and monochrome images. For color and
grayscale images, also sets the image quality.
Anti-Alias To Gray Smooths jagged edges in monochrome images. Choose 2 bit, 4 bit, or 8 bit to specify 4, 16, or 256
levels of gray. (Anti-aliasing may cause small type or thin lines to look blurry.)
Note: Compression of text and line art is always on. If you need to turn it off, you can do so by setting the appropriate
Distiller parameter. For details, see the documentation available for download on the Acrobat SDK documentation page
(English only) on the Adobe website.
Policy Opens the Image Policy dialog box, where you can set processing options for Color, Grayscale, and
Monochrome images that are less than the resolutions you specify. For each type of image, enter a resolution value,
and then choose Ignore, Warn And Continue, or Cancel Job.

Fonts panel options

The Fonts options specify which fonts to embed in a PDF, and whether to embed a subset of characters used in the
PDF. You can embed OpenType®, TrueType, and Type 1 fonts. Fonts that have license restrictions are preceded by a
lock icon . If you select a font that has a license restriction, the nature of the restriction is described in the expla-
nation area of the Adobe PDF Options dialog box.
Note: When you combine PDF files that have the same font subset, Acrobat attempts to combine the font subsets.
Embed All Fonts Embeds all fonts used in the file. Font embedding is required for PDF/X compliance.

Embed OpenType Fonts Embeds all OpenType fonts used in the file, and maintains OpenType font information for
advanced line layout. This option is available only if either Acrobat 7 (PDF 1.6) or Acrobat 8 (PDF 1.7) is selected
from the Compatibility menu in the General panel.
Subset Embedded Fonts When Percent Of Characters Used Is Less Than Specifies a threshold percentage if you want
to embed only a subset of the fonts. For example, if the threshold is 35, and less than 35% of the characters are used,
Distiller embeds only those characters.
When Embedding Fails Specifies how Distiller should respond if it cannot find a font to embed when processing a file.
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Document Rendering Intent Choose a method to map colors between color spaces. The result of any particular
method depends on the profiles of the color spaces. For example, some profiles produce identical results with
different methods.
Acrobat shares four rendering intents (Perceptual, Saturation, Relative Colorimetric, and Absolute Colorimetric)
with other Creative Suite applications. For descriptions of these rendering intents, see “About rendering intents” on
page 324.
Acrobat also includes a rendering intent called Preserve, which indicates that the intent is specified in the output
device rather than in the PDF. In many output devices, Relative Colorimetric is the default intent.
Note: In all cases, intents may be ignored or overridden by color management operations that occur subsequent to the
creation of the PDF file.
Working Spaces For all Color Management Policies values other than Leave Color Unchanged, choose a working
space to specify which ICC profiles are used for defining and calibrating the grayscale, RGB, and CMYK color spaces
in distilled PDFs. For more information on working spaces, see “About color working spaces” on page 320.
• Gray Choose a profile to define the color space of all grayscale images in files. The default ICC profile for gray
images is Adobe Gray - 20% Dot Gain. Choose None to prevent grayscale images from being converted.
• RGB Choose a profile to define the color space of all RGB images in files. The default, sRGB IEC61966-2.1, is
recognized by many output devices. Choose None to prevent RGB images from being converted.
• CMYK Choose a profile to define the color space of all CMYK images in files. The default is U.S. Web Coated
(SWOP) v2. Choose None to prevent CMYK images from being converted.
Note: Choosing None for all three working spaces has the same effect as selecting the option Leave Color Unchanged.
You can add ICC profiles (such as ones provided by your print service bureau) by placing them in the ICCProfiles
folder in the Common folder, the Windows\System\Color folder (Windows), or the System Folder/ColorSync folder
(Mac OS).
Preserve CMYK Values For Calibrated CMYK Color Spaces When selected, device-independent CMYK values are
treated as device-dependent (DeviceCMYK) values, device-independent color spaces are discarded, and PDF/X-1a
files use the Convert All Colors To CMYK value. When deselected, device-independent color spaces convert to
CMYK, provided that Color Management Policies is set to Convert All Colors To CMYK.
Preserve Under Color Removal And Black Generation Retains these settings if they exist in the PostScript file. Black
generation calculates the amount of black to use when reproducing a color. Undercolor removal (UCR) reduces cyan,
magenta, and yellow to compensate for black generation. Because UCR uses less ink, it’s suitable for uncoated stock.
When Transfer Functions Are Found Specifies how to handle transfer functions in PDFs. Transfer functions are used
for artistic effect and to correct for the characteristics of a specific output device.
• Remove Deletes any applied transfer functions. Applied transfer functions should be removed, unless the PDF is
to be output to the same device that the source PostScript file was created for.
• Preserve Retains the transfer functions traditionally used to compensate for dot gain or dot loss that may occur
when an image is transferred to film. Dot gain or loss occurs when the ink dots that make up a printed image are
larger or smaller than in the halftone screen.
• Apply Applies the transfer function, changing the colors in the file but doesn’t keep it. This method is useful for
creating color effects in a file.
Preserve Halftone Information Retains any halftone information in files. Halftone information is intended for use
with a particular output device.
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Replace all headers and footers

1 Choose Document > Header & Footer > Add, and then click Replace Existing in the message that appears.
2 Type text in the header and footer text boxes.
3 Select formatting options, as needed.
Note: This process applies only to headers and footers added in either Acrobat 7 or Acrobat 8.

Remove all headers and footers

❖ Do one of the following:

• To remove all headers and footers, choose Document > Header & Footer > Remove, and then click Yes in the
confirmation message that appears.
• To remove one header and footer immediately after adding it, choose Edit > Undo Headers/Footers.
Note: This process applies only to headers and footers added in either Acrobat 7 or Acrobat 8.

Add and edit backgrounds

A background appears behind text or images on the page. The background can be as simple as a solid color or you
can use an image. You can selectively apply a background to only specific pages or page ranges in a PDF. A PDF
supports only one background per page, but the backgrounds can vary from page to page.

Before and after adding a background

Add, replace, or edit a background

1 Choose Document > Background > Add/Replace.
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CropBox Defines the boundary for the contents of a page when it’s displayed or printed. If not otherwise specified
(for example, in the JDF settings), the crop boundary determines how page contents are positioned on the output
medium.
ArtBox Defines the meaningful content of the page, including white space.

TrimBox Defines the finished dimensions of the page after trimming.

BleedBox Defines the clipping path when the page is printed professionally to allow for paper trimming and folding.
Printing marks may fall outside the bleed area.
Remove White Margins Crops the page to the artwork boundary. This option is useful for trimming the edges of
presentation slides saved as PDFs.
Set To Zero Restores the crop margins to zero.

Revert To Selection Reverts to the crop margin selected with the Crop tool.

Undo cropping
Cropping a PDF does not reduce file size because information is merely hidden, not discarded. By resetting the page
size, you can restore the page and its content to its original condition.
1 Open the Crop Pages dialog box by choosing one of the following:
• Document > Crop Pages.
• Crop Pages from the Options menu on the Pages panel.
2 Reset the margins to the original dimensions.

Rearranging pages in a PDF

Rotate a page
You can rotate all or selected pages in a document. Rotation is based on 90˚ increments.
1 Open the Rotate Pages dialog box using one of the following methods:
• Choose Document > Rotate Pages.
• From the Options menu on the Pages panel, choose Rotate Pages.
2 For Direction, select the amount and direction of the rotations: Counterclockwise 90 Degrees, Clockwise 90
Degrees, or 180 Degrees.
3 For Pages, specify whether all pages, a selection of pages, or a range of pages are to be rotated.
4 From the Rotate menu, specify even pages, odd pages, or both, and select the orientation of pages to be rotated.
To temporarily change your view of the page, choose View > Rotate View > Clockwise or Counterclockwise. The
original page orientation is restored the next time you open the PDF.

Extract pages in a PDF

Extraction is the process of reusing selected pages of one PDF in a different PDF. Extracted pages contain not only
the content but also all form fields, comments, and links associated with the original page content.