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Creating a PDF from QuarkXPressUsing MacOS9.2.1, Quark 5.0 and Acrobat 5.0

In this example, I’ll be creating a 72 dpi pdf, which is best-suited for on-screen viewing(web publication or as an e-mail attachment). I will, however, give alternate settings for a

hi-res pdf suitable for ad submission to our magazines or other publication.

Step 1: From your Apple Menu, select the Chooser inorder to change your selected printer.

Step 2: In the Chooser, select AdobePS. Different peo-ple have different preferences for creating their pdffiles. This is merely how I choose to do it. I have notnoticed a difference between whether an actual print-er is or is not highlighted, I just highlight my defaultprinter “to be safe.”

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Step 2a: You’ll justwant to make sureyou get the “Youhave changed yourprinter” alert, orsomething didn’twork right.

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Step 3: Next you’ll want toprint just like you were send-ing to a normal office printer.Remember, in QuarkXPress4.0 or later, you don’t need tochoose “Page Setup” first,because it just takes you tothe same screen as “Print”.

Step 4: I find it most helpfulto work through the printoptions from left to right.That way I’m usually prettysure I didn’t miss anything.So let’s start with the left-most print options. TheDocument tab doesn’t needany changing for our purpos-es. However, click on the“Page Setup” button in thelower left.

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Step 5: In the Page Setup options, change your Printer type to “Create Adobe PDF”. Also,make sure your Page Attributes are set right (Letter size, or custom or whatever).

Steps 6a & 6b: Next, select your PostscriptTM Options, and uncheck everything.Normally, Substitute Fonts, Smooth Text, and Smooth Graphics are checked. The reasonyou remove the Substitute Fonts check is so that you’re alerted if a font is missing instead

of the computer automatically replacing your text witha generic font. And to be honest, I’m not sure why youuncheck the other two, but everything I’ve read says todo so. After that, click OK.

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Steps 7a & 7b: Next,click on the “Printer”button, which is locat-ed right next to the“Page Setup” buttonwe just finished with.In the “Printer” settings, and where it says “General,” click to reveal the drop-downmenu. I usually work from bottom to top, as there are only a few of the settings you needto change in this menu. Start with the Printer Specific Options.

Step 8: For this example, I will be setting my resolution to 72 dpi. If you are preparingan ad for our magazine, you should setthe dpi to 300. Some publications mayrequire files be sent at 600 or even1200 dpi, but in actuality, if it’s aSWOP (Single Web Offset Press)-print-ed publication, like most 4-color maga-zines, it will print at 133 line screen orlines per inch (lpi), which only requiresa dpi of 266 (the standard rule ofthumb is that dpi = 2x lpi). However,the “industry standard” has become300 dpi (probably because it’s easier toremember), so for the purposes ofadvertising in our magazine, 300 dpi isall you need.

** It’s important to mention, however,that if you are creating this pdf foranother publication or for a differentprinter, you should confirm this num-ber prior to sending your file. **

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Step 9a: Next, move up one from the “Printer Specific Options” to the “PDF Settings.”The “eBook” option is something new in Quark 5.0, and I haven’t read about it yet, so Ihave no recommendations regarding that Job Option. For my purposes, I will choose theJob Option of “Screen”, because I’m creating a low-res pdf that only needs to be goodenough to read on-screen. If you are creating a pdf for our publication, please use the“Press” setting. The “Print” setting is kind of an in-between quality, and works well ifyou’re trying to send someone a document that they can print on their little office print-er, but not to run to an Offset Press.

Step 9b: The “After PDFCreation” option is purely mypreference. I like to look atmy document in Acrobat afterit’s been created, so that I canconfirm that everything cameout as intended, so I choosethe “Launch Adobe AcrobatReader” option. If I antici-pate having to change any ofthe document after pdf-ing, Ichoose “Launch AdobeAcrobat,” which will allow meto edit my file.

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Steps 10a & 10b: The final settings within this setare the PostScript Settings. Within them, you needto set the PostScript Level to “Level 2 Only”, theData Format to “Binary” (I do that since we’re Mac-based. However, pdf files are multi-platform andcan be read on any operating system, regardless ofthis setting), and Font Inclusion to “All ButStandard 13.” It’s ok if you set the Font Inclusion to“All”, as well, it’s just not necessary, as computersthese days come with certain standard fonts alreadyinstalled, and it’s redundant to also embed theminto your pdf file.

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So you see, there are only three different PrinterSpecific Options you need to worry about. Therest you can just let run in their default settings.

Now you canclick on “Save”,which is thebottom right-hand button.

Step11: This is where you specify what your file is going to be named. Don’t worry, theprogram isn’t going to take off and create your pdf file quite yet, it’s just wanting to knowwhat to name it once it is given the command to Print.

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Step12: Now let’s move on to the “Setup” tab. In this tab we’ll specify the PrinterDescription as “Acrobat Distiller”, the Paper Size to whatever your document is set at (inthis instance, my document was a standard 8 1/2 x 11” document, so the “Letter” setting),and the Page Positioning. I always “Center” my document, just in case I missed some otherpositioning or size setting ... that way at least everything looks centered and not off to oneside. This setting is hardly critical, though, so just do whatever you feel comfortable with.

Step13a: Next comes the “Output” tab, where we again specify dpi. First, let me mentionthat under Print Colors, I specified this document as “Composite RGB”, because I knowit’s a low-res pdf that will be used on the web or in e-mail. If you are creating a documentfor 4-color output, you should specify “Composite CMYK”. I will set my resolution at 72dpi, again, because this is a screen-quality pdf, but you should set the dpi to match whatyou specified in earlier settings.

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Step13b: This is anotherone of those “personal pref-erence” things of mine. Ialways prefer the results ofthe Printer’s Halftoning tothe Conventional Half-toning when printing to myprinter here at work, so Ijust always specify“Printer” in my pdfs aswell.

Step14: There’s no need to change any of the settings in the Options, Bleed, or OPI tabs.Then, just because I like to be 100% sure that everything looks right, I always look at the“Preview” tab and review all the information there. Once you’re sure everything looks cor-rect, click “Print”.

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Then, Voila! Your finished file pops open in Acrobat Reader,once the pdf-ing process is complete.

Now, if you’re wondering why I do this, and what this shows,I’ll explain it on the next couple of pages.

Using the alternate settings that I gave you throughout these instructions, I also created ahi-res pdf that would be able to be placed in our magazine for Offset Printing. I’ve namedthat file the same, but with an “HR” at the end. You can see the huge difference in size. Theon-screen-quality pdf was only 80k, while the hi-res pdf suitable for press is 1.8 mb.

What’s the difference? Not a lot when viewed at 100%. Interestingly, note the color differ-ence between the low-res RGB image (left) and the hi-res CMYK image (right). Now watchwhat happens when we view the images at higher than 100% ...

So you can see that once we view them at largely expanded views, you can easily tell thedifference between a low-res and hi-res pdf. What you’ll want to do, when creating your ads,is look at your finished pdf at 800% and see if your images are as crisp and clean as yourtext. If your text looks nice, but your images look like the one you see below left, then youhave some dpi setting wrong within your pdf setup.

While we (the Production staff at MI/ATV-I) open every single ad when we receive them,and usually catch something that looks like this, we are definitely human and miss thingsonce in a while. Please check your pdf files before you send them to us, to avoid our havingto call you to inform you that your images within your pdf are low-res.

Hopefully you have found this helpful in turning your Quarkdocument into a pdf. If you have any further questions or

need help, please call Kippy at 800-576-4624 or e-mail me [email protected] or [email protected].