PDF stands for Portable Document Format. This format was developed to allow a document to be opened and viewed on any computer, irrespective of software, hardware, or operating system, in exactly the way you created it. It could be a one-page text document, a manual containing several hundred pages, a graphics-rich document, a poster, or a photo album.
PDF documents can be opened by the freely distributed Adobe Reader. By default, Mac opens PDFs in Preview, so with a Macintosh computer you don't even need Adobe Reader. The PDFs' wide accessibility make them extremely popular, so the ability to produce them is an essential requirement for a productivity software.
If your project is for commercial printing, PDF format is what printers will ask for. iWork/Pages includes dozens of beautifully designed templates, but to use them for professional commercial printing, they must be converted into PDFs.
Let's see how to turn iWork documents into PDFs.
There are several ways to make PDFs from iWork documents:
- Navigating to File | Export...:
After the Export Options window opens, choose PDF and tick the settings you require for the exported document.
- Navigating to File | Print | Preview:
In the Print dialog, click on the Preview button. When a preview of the document opens, choose Save As... from the File menu (or use the keyboard shortcut Command + Shift + S). This opens a dialog with saving options. Click on the Format drop-down menu and select PDF. Then, click on Save.
Tip
Don't be confused about what Preview is. First, it is a way of viewing a document before it is opened, printed, or saved. But it is also a Mac application that allows you to view documents in many different graphic formats and to change their formats. Also, it is the Mac's own PDF-making machine. So, when you see Preview at the top of your screen, remember that your active window is in the application called Preview.
- Navigating to File | Print | PDF:
Choose Print to open the Print dialog and click on the PDF button in the bottom-left corner. From the drop-down menu, choose Open PDF in Preview, and when the preview opens, save it.
- Navigating to iWork | PostScript | PDF:
In the Print dialog window, click on PDF and choose Save as PostScript....
A file with the .ps extension will be saved to the desktop or a folder of your choice. This file can then be opened in Preview or with the full version of Adobe Acrobat, which should include Adobe Distiller.
Adobe Distiller produces PDF documents with four-color separation, CMYK, and other typographical features that make them suitable for professional (commercial) printing in high quality.
The PostScript option turns iWork from a home-based desktop productivity suite to a highly versatile, simple, but powerful program that is suitable for professional work. You can use it to produce glossy magazines, catalogs, brochures, cards, posters, and many other high-end publications. Our publishing company designed the magazine in iWork/Pages, then made press-ready PDFs and delivered them—ready to go—to our professional printers.
A PDF that has been produced via Export or through Preview cannot usually be converted to CMYK four-color mode by commercial printers. Professional print shops need CMYK PDFs for large printing presses. That is where the PostScript stage in preparing a PDF is needed. PostScript is a computer language for page description that was specifically developed to allow high-end desktop publishing. The PDF format is largely based on PostScript.
To recap, the three steps to professional PDFs are as follows:
- Print file to PostScript:
Under the File menu, click on Print. When the Print dialog window opens, click on the PDF drop-down menu and choose Save as PostScript. As this will be a temporary work file, save it to the desktop.
- Launch Acrobat and process the PostScript file via Distiller:
In Distiller, use the required quality settings. If you don't know what settings to use, ask your printer.
- Save your PDF document:
Use Acrobat tools to check that your PDF is a CMYK press-ready document.
In current
versions of Mac OS, you can set iWork with the Save as Adobe PDF option in the Print dialog, skipping the .ps stage. This gives press-quality files to Adobe PDF straight from iWork documents.
Tip
In Acrobat, you can open your .ps file under the File menu, or navigate to the Create PDF... | From File option. A quicker, one-step way to do this is to put the Acrobat icon in the Dock and drag-and-drop the .ps file onto the Acrobat icon. Distiller launches automatically and produces the PDFs. In fact, a whole batch of .ps files can be distilled in one go. Press Shift and click on all .ps files you want to convert to PDF, one by one, and drag them all onto the Acrobat icon.
The need to have a full professional version of Adobe Acrobat/Distiller may be disappointing, but if you are planning to build a business, you may want to consider making some investments. Even if you have to buy Acrobat, the cost stays reasonably low compared to buying a much more expensive professional design program. Also, take into account the ease of learning and using iWork.
However, if you are not ready to invest in Acrobat, you can simply take your iWork files saved as PostScript to a printer—most will process them for you for a small additional fee. Or you can even go to a friend who has Acrobat to prepare PDFs from PostScript.
Remember that PDFs can be produced in the same way as described in this recipe, not just from iWork, but also from other text and graphics applications, including TextEdit, MS Office, and Open Office.