Making a PDF...out of almost anything?

 

There are so many different applications out there to create a file for print that it’s nearly impossible

for every Print Provider to have every one of them.

 

And THEN there are the newer versions of documents that aren’t backward compatible. Shipman

currently uses Adobe InDesign CS6.  What if you have an InDesign file made with the newer

Creative Cloud version and no access to InDesign at all to save it down? What’s the best

way to provide a file so your print provider can use it? (The first time!)

 

Even if your Print Provider can’t open a file with that third party application that you got for free

from a developer, like Barbie’s SuperFun Print Party Plus! (I just made that up, so don’t sue me if

you can’t find it online!),  it’s more than likely that the print menu has a “Save as

PDF” or “Print to PDF” option. (PDF stands for “Portable Document Format,” so-called because

it’s pretty much a universal file format, with all of its elements self-contained.)

 

If this Print to PDF option isn’t available, it IS possible to print directly to a Generic Postscript

Printer  Driver (you can download one for your specific operating system, but most computers

come with one already). You simply choose the Postscript Driver as the “virtual” printer in your print

menu rather than the normal printer that you use and “print” the file to a location on your hard

drive. This will generate a PostScript file, which can easily be distilled into a PDF using Adobe

Distiller. If you don’t have Distiller, don’t worry! WE do! Just send us the PostScript file and we can

probably distill a PDF from it with little or no problem.

 

In conclusion, while it’s very possible that a low-end desktop publishing program doesn’t have the

right bells and whistles to create good spot colors, or convert text to outlines, making a PDF is a

GREAT PLACE TO START. It gives your print provider a LOT more options than just providing a

native file, since a PDF can be opened with Acrobat, Photoshop or Illustrator.

 

Next up: Setting up Better PDFs