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<IMG SRC="../topline3.gif" ALT="MIT - Academic Computing" WIDTH=640 HEIGHT=50>

<H2>PDF FAQ</H2>

</CENTER>

<br>
<br>
<p>
PDF (Portable Document Format) is a file format developed by Adobe
Systems for distributing documents cross-platform, with original
formatting intact and independent of the application software used to
create them.  Reading PDF files requires a viewing program, which can be
set up for use within a graphical web browser (on Athena, the Adobe Acrobat
Reader is part of the standard Netscape configuration and is also
available as a stand-alone application).

<p>
While PDF is a highly convenient and popular format, individual PDF
files can be problematic if not created carefully.  The information below
is intended to help you create faithful reproductions of your original
documents as PDF files which behave properly when printed or viewed on
other systems.


<h3>Background information</h3>

<ul>
  <li><a href="#whypdf">What is PDF?  Why use it?</a>
  <li><a href="#acrobat">What is Adobe Acrobat?  Where can I get it?</a>
  <li><A HREF="#searching">Are PDF files searchable?</A>
  <li><a href="#webrefs">Where can I find more information about PDF and
       related topics?</a>     
</ul>

<h3>Creating PDF</h3>
<ul>
  <li><a href="#createPDF">How can I create PDF files?</a>
  <li><A HREF="#PDFWvsD">What is the difference between using PDFWriter
       and Distiller?</A>
</ul>

<h3>Using PDF effectively on the web</h3>

<UL>

  <li><A HREF="#postingPDF">Before I get started, are there any caveats
       about posting PDF on the web?</A> 

  <li><A HREF="#guidelines">What guidelines should I follow when
       generating PDF documents?</A>

<UL>
<LI>
<A HREF="#optimizing">Optimizing originals</A>

<UL>
  <li><A HREF="#fontinfo">The importance of fonts</A>

<LI>
<A HREF="#tex">TeX/LaTeX originals</A>

<LI>
<A HREF="#apps">Originals from a
     word processor or other application (including spreadsheets and
     PowerPoint slides)</A>
<LI>
<A HREF="#scans">Scanned documents</A>
</UL>

<LI>
<A HREF="#converting">Converting to PDF</A>
<UL>
<LI><A HREF="#filesize">File size</a>
<LI><A HREF="#fontuse">Dealing with fonts</A>
</UL>
</UL>

  <li><A HREF="#advice">What should
       I tell my students about viewing/printing PDF files from
       course web pages?</A>
<UL>
<LI>
<A HREF="#navigation">Viewing and navigation tips</A>

<LI>
<A HREF="#printguidelines">Printing guidelines</A>

<LI>
<A HREF="#acroprint">Tips for printing from Acrobat Reader on Athena</A>

<LI>
<A HREF="#lprprint">How to print a PDF file from the
command line</A>
</UL>
</UL>

<HR WIDTH="100%">
<BR><B>Q.</B><I>&nbsp;<A NAME="whypdf">What is PDF?  Why use it?</A>
</I>&nbsp;
<P><B>A. </B>
PDF (Portable Document Format) is a cross-platform file format developed
by Adobe Systems for delivering documents electronically in a device-
and resolution-independent manner, with original formatting intact.
That is, the PDF version of a document should look just like the
original, but it can be viewed or printed without access to the
application or system used to create it.
<p>
Some of the key features of PDF can be highlighted by comparing it
to two common cross-platform delivery mechanisms: HTML
and PostScript.

<p>
How PDF differs from HTML:

<ul>
  
  <li> PDF is a <em>page description language</em> which expresses the precise
       image of a document.  When rendered on screen or printed,
       its layout and appearance matches the author's original.

  <li> HTML is a <em>text markup language</em> which expresses a
       document's structure and content.  The author identifies key
       structural elements (headers, paragraphs, tables, text-level
       elements, etc.) and the web browser displays its content
       according to various settings under the user's control.  The
       layout of the text folows the logical structure specified by the
       author, but its appearance is determined by the browser. 

  <li> HTML can be parsed by common speech synthesis software for the
       blind or visually impaired; it can also be read through a
       text-only web browser.  PDF is a graphical format, which cannot 
       be used in either of these ways.
       
  <li> Generally, all of the formatting in an HTML document must either
       be coded by hand or with an HTML editor (though special purpose
       filters do exist for some programs to output directly to HTML).
       PDF files are converted from existing documents, retaining
       their original appearance; this allows you to design documents
       using tools considerably more flexible than HTML tagging, and
       still post them on the web for general viewing.  
       
  <li> PDF offers both page-based reading and browser-style navigation.
  <li> While HTML is shown directly in a web browser, PDF files are
       shown through a viewer (which has to be installed in addition to
       the web browser, either stand-alone or as a browser plug-in). 
</ul>

<p>
How PDF differs from PostScript:
<ul>

  <li> Both are page description languages (and are based on the same
       imaging model), but PDF can also express some of the structure of
       a document.  
  <li> Unlike PostScript, PDF does not have control structures and
       cannot be used as a programming language.
  <li> PDF files tend to be considerably smaller than PS.
  <li> PDF has features for interactive viewing absent from PS:
       <ul>
	 <li> PDF documents can include hyperlinks and hypertext objects.
	 <li> Navigating in a PDF file is fast (PostScript files are
	      linear, while PDF uses a file structure which facilitates
	      random access).
         <li> PDF files can be byte served over the web (so you 
	      don't have to wait for the whole file to download before
	      you can start reading it)
       </ul>
  <li> PDF contains information such as font metrics for viewing
       fidelity, and has features such as font embedding useful for
       archiving documents.
  <li> PDF files are resolution-independent, which allows for things
       like scaling a page to the screen without losing the clarity of
       text or graphics (e.g., the magnification features in Acrobat
       Reader). 
  <li> The Acrobat PDF Reader is freely available for Mac, Windows, and
       Unix; good PostScript viewers for Mac and Windows are hard to
       find.  
  <li> PDF files can't be downloaded directly to a PostScript printer
       (when you print a PDF file from Acrobat Reader, the program 
       first converts the PDF file to PostScript for downloading).
</ul>



The above is meant to indicate only some basic characteristics of PDF; for
further details and technical specifications, see the <a
href="#webrefs">information on the web about PDF</a>.


<HR WIDTH="100%">
<BR><B>Q.</B><I>&nbsp;<A NAME="acrobat">What is Adobe Acrobat?  Where
can I get it?</A>
</I>&nbsp;
<P><B>A. </B>
Acrobat is the Adobe software suite for creating and viewing PDF files (for complete product information, see <a
href="http://www.adobe.com/prodindex/acrobat/prodinfo.html">Adobe's
Acrobat page</a>).  The basic components of the suite are:
<ul>
  <li>Acrobat Reader, the freely distributable viewer
  <li>Acrobat Distiller, for converting PostScript files to PDF
  <li>Acrobat Exchange, which can be used to annotate or modify existing
       PDF files in various ways
  <li>PDFWriter on Mac and Windows, which can be used to convert
       documents from applications (word processors, spreadsheets,
       PowerPoint, etc.) directly to PDF
</P>
</ul>

For non-Athena machines, I/S provides a <a
href="http://web.mit.edu/is/help/acrobat/">step-by-step guide to
downloading and installing Acrobat Reader</a>.  The full suite can be
purchased at an MIT discount price through <a
href="http://web.mit.edu/ecat/necx/">NECX</a>.

<p>

On Athena, the full Acrobat suite is available on Suns, and the Reader
is available on SGIs (Adobe does not currently provide SGI versions of
the rest of the suite).  Acrobat Reader is configured as part of the
standard Netscape setup (i.e., if you click on a PDF link in a web page,
it will launch automatically in the browser window).  To launch it
separately:

<pre>
     athena% add acro; acroread filename.pdf
</pre>

or leave off the file name, and use File-->Open to locate the file once
the Reader is up.  
<p>
The other programs on Athena Suns are distill and acroexch (Acrobat
Distiller and Exchange, respectively).  For more information:
<pre>
     athena% add acro
     athena% more /mit/acro/README.athena
     athena% distill -help
     athena% acroexch -help
</pre>

<HR WIDTH="100%">
<BR><B>Q.</B><I>&nbsp;<A NAME="createPDF">How can I create PDF files?</A>
</I>&nbsp;

<P><B>A. </B>On Athena, you can convert PostScript files to PDF files
with Acrobat Distiller, or you can use the free Ghostscript PS-to-PDF
converter.  If you purchase the full <a href="#acrobat">Acrobat
suite</a> for Windows or Macintosh, you can use either Distiller or
PDFWriter to create PDF files (see the answer on <A
HREF="#PDFWvsD">differences between PDFWriter and Distiller</A>).

<p><strong>Keep in mind that while it is very easy to create a PDF file, it
takes a little care to make sure it looks good and won't cause problems
when posted on the web.  Please see the guidelines below, and feel free to
contact the <a href="mailto:f_l@@mit.edu">Faculty Liaisons</a> for
advice relating to course pages, or <a
href="http://web.mit.edu/cwis/">CWIS</a> for general help.</strong>  

<p> On Athena, Distiller is available on Suns only (Adobe does not
provide an SGI version). To use it, type:

<pre>
     athena% add acro
     athena% distill filename.ps
</pre>
where "filename.ps" is your PostScript file.  This will create a PDF file
named "filename.pdf", which you can then link from your web page as you
would any other file.  For help on distill options, type:

<pre>
     athena% distill -help
</pre>

<p>
Note: if you aren't sure how to create a PostScript file from a specific
application, try using its print command, but
specify "to file" rather than "to printer" and supply a filename ending
in ".ps".
<p>

Ghostscript has a free PS-to-PDF converter, which is available on
Athena in the gnu locker (the version currently installed is distributed
under the GNU General Public License).  To use it:

<pre>
     athena% add gnu; ps2pdf filename.ps
</pre>

For more information, see the ps2pdf man page, READMEs in the gnu
locker, or the <a
href="http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/index.html">Ghostscript home
page</a>.

<HR  WIDTH="100%">
<BR><B>Q.&nbsp;</B><A NAME="PDFWvsD"><I>What is the difference between using
PDFWriter and Distiller?</A></I>&nbsp;
<P><B>A. </B>

Acrobat Distiller is Adobe's full-feature PostScript-to-PDF
converter.  Distiller allows you to control options for the PDF you
generate, but requires that you start with a PS file.  

PDFWriter is a printer driver which allows you to use the print command
within an application (for example, a word processor, spreadsheet, or
PowerPoint) to create a PDF file directly from your original; it is
available only for Macintosh and Windows.  While convenient for direct
conversion of simple documents, PDFWriter lacks some features of
Distiller and doesn't work well for some types of documents.

<p>In general, if you don't get satisfactory results with PDFWriter, try
Distiller instead.  In particular, PDFWriter may not always successfully
process documents that contain Encapsulated PostScript (EPS) artwork or
images, or documents that use features available only with PostScript
printers.  (With EPS it uses the bitmap preview image that accompanies
the EPS file instead of the EPS graphic itself.)

<HR WIDTH="100%">
<BR><B>Q.</B><I>&nbsp;<A NAME="postingPDF"></A>Before I get started,
are there any caveats about posting PDF on the web?</I>&nbsp;

<P><B>A. </B> 

Two important things to think about are printing issues (even if you
don't <em>intend</em> for what you post to be printed) and the
accessibility of your materials to the disabled, particularly the
visually impaired.

<p><strong>Printing issues</strong>: 

<P>1. Put it on a web page and it <em>will</em> be printed.  While it
may be more convenient to put up files electronically than to distribute
paper copies to students, you should anticipate that anything you make
available on the web will be printed at some point by some portion of
the class.

<P>2. PDF files may cause printing problems if not properly generated.
When you print a PDF file, Acrobat converts it into PostScript and sends
the converted file to the printer. Depending on the choices made at each
step of the process (creation of the original doc., conversion to PDF,
and finally the print command), the PS file is sometimes generated very
inefficiently, and becomes much, much larger than it needs to be.&nbsp;
When such a file is sent to the printer, it can drastically slow down
printing and make server resources unavailable to other users.  

<P>3. Athena printers are a shared resource.  When students print very
long documents, excessively large files, or multiple copies of the same
file, it can block printing for everyone else in a cluster (or on the
same print server) for a significant period of time, and may require I/S
staff to intervene before normal service is restored.  Also keep in mind
that printing costs money (for supplies, printer upkeep, server
resources, and staff support); for the Institute as a whole, printing is
always more expensive per page than photocopying.

<p> As a general rule of thumb, you should provide hardcopy (either by
distributing photocopies in class or through <a
href="http://web.mit.edu/ctc/www/">CopyTech</a> or your dept. offices)
of any document longer than a few pages, or for use by a class of more
than 10 students.  Problems specific to PDF files can be avoided by
following the <a href="#guidelines">Guidelines for generating PDF
documents</a> and by posting a note on your web page(s) to explain
that:&nbsp;

<ul>
<li>PDF files are primarily for online reference, and printed copies
will be made available in class, dept. HQ, or from CopyTech, as appropriate.
<li>When printing PDF on Athena, students should specify <A
     HREF="#printguidelines">certain settings</A>&nbsp; in addition to
     following general <a
     href="http://web.mit.edu/is/help/printing/printerhog.html">Athena
     printing guidelines</a>.&nbsp;
</ul>

<p><strong><A NAME="access_and_pdf">Accessibility for the visually impaired"</A></strong>: 
<p>

To access information on the web, blind and visually impaired users rely
on tools such as speech synthesis software which can read text
(including HTML) out loud to them; because such software processes text
but not graphics or other formats, simple HTML is obviously the best
choice for web accessibility.  If you do choose to use PDF or another
format, you can make your web materials accessible by also providing the
content in either HTML or plain text form.

<p>Adobe offers a tool (<a
href="http://access.adobe.com/">Access.Adobe.Com</a>) which converts PDF
into HTML or text for this purpose.  Note that this is not the same as a
regular PDF-to-HTML converter, which would aim to preserve the visual
appearance of the document as far as possible; Adobe Access focuses on
stripping out graphics elements, and arranging the text content into an
approximate "reading order".  For documents with complex visual layout
or graphics, any conversion tool may provide poor results.

<p>There are several places on the web where you can find more <a
href="#webrefs">information about designing accessible web
materials</a>.

<P>
     
<BR>
<HR WIDTH="100%">
<BR><A NAME="guidelines"></A><B>Q.</B><I>What
guidelines should I follow when generating PDF documents?</I>&nbsp;

<P><B>A.</B> Providing good quality PDF files depends upon two things:
the characteristics of your originals, and the options you use when converting
them to PDF.  

<H3>
<A NAME="optimizing"></A>Optimizing original documents</H3>


<H4><A NAME="fontinfo">The importance of fonts</A></H4>

<P>

When Acrobat Reader opens a PDF file, it renders the characters it
contains in one of three ways: from fonts installed on the system, from
fonts embedded in the PDF file, or by creating substitute fonts.  (To
see exactly how each font is handled, you can <a href="#checkfonts">view
the PDF file's font information</a> in Acrobat Reader).  The type of
font you use can affect how text in your PDF file appears and prints.
(It can also affect whether the text is searchable using the Acrobat
viewer's search feature, but note that this is independent of <a
href="#searching">searching PDF content</a> with an internet search
engine.)

<P>If the characters in a PDF file display poorly, it is usually due to
the choice of fonts in the original. In particular, if Acrobat Reader
can't find the font installed on the system where it's being displayed,
and the font isn't embedded in the PDF file itself, it uses a substitute
font which may be a poor approximation to the original (unlike installed
and embedded fonts, which should match appearance of the original, on
whatever system they are displayed).  When creating PDF files, you can
avoid font problems and make sure your document's appearance is
preserved cross-platform by taking a few simple steps.


<H4>
<A NAME="tex"></A><B>TeX/LaTeX originals</B></H4>
DVIPS generates PS files which contain bitmap fonts for many of the common
mathematical fonts. When converted to PDF, these fonts appear dim and pixelated.
The solution is to have DVIPS substitute BaKoMa fonts (a free collection
of scalableType 1 fonts) instead; the BaKoMa fonts are installed on Athena
and can be used by creating a ~/.dvipsrc file consisting of the following
line (or adding it your existing file):
<P>
<pre>
     p +/afs/athena.mit.edu/contrib/tex-contrib/BaKoMa/fontmap.map
</pre>
</P>
If you don't wish to use these substitutions every time you use DVIPS,
you can either move aside the .dvipsrc file before running it, or leave
the above line out of .dvipsrc and instead create a file named
~/.config.bakoma consisting of the same line as above and then use the
syntax: 
<P>
<pre>
     athena% dvips -P bakoma foo.dvi
</pre>
</P>
when you want DVIPS to use the BaKoMa fonts.&nbsp;


<p>
For more information about posting TeX/LaTeX files on the web, see:

<ul>

  <li> <a
       href="http://www.adobe.com/supportservice/custsupport/SOLUTIONS/543e.htm"> Creating quality Adobe PDF files from TeX with DVIPS</a> (Adobe   
doc. 312143)

  <li> <a href="http://www.acm.org/toplas/latex/">Preparing LaTeX
       documents for the World-Wide Web</a> (ACM)

  <li> <a href="http://www.pdfzone.com/resources/texpdf.html">Creating
       PDF Files from TeX</a> (PDFzone)
</ul>
Note: if the first link does not take you to the named document, go to
<a href="http://www.adobe.com/">Adobe's main page</a>, hit the Search
button, and type in the document number shown here.  


<H4>
<A NAME="apps"></A>Originals from a
word processor or other application (including spreadsheets and
     PowerPoint slides)</H4>
Acrobat Reader includes a set of standard fonts (called the "Base 13" Type
1 fonts) on all platforms:&nbsp;
<P>
<ul>
<li>Courier (plain, Bold, Italic, Bold Italic)
<li>Helvetica (plain, Bold, Oblique, Bold Oblique)
<li>Times (plain, Bold, Italic, Bold Italic)
<li>Symbol
</ul>
</P>

These fonts are always available, and should display properly on other
systems. Unless you have a need for a particular font (for example, for
special symbols), sticking to the Base 13 gives best results. Keep in
mind that any other fonts you use may be rendered on other systems by
"substitute" fonts which may display or print poorly unless you're able
to embed them when you convert to a PDF file (see converting to PDF, below).
<p>
<a href="#fontlinks">Links to more information about fonts and PDF</a>. 

<H4><A NAME="scans"></A>Scanned documents</H4>
If you are starting with a scanned document, take a look at the tips in
<a href="http://www.pixelfoundry.com/Tips/KPT4/KPT4.html">Kai's Power
Tip #4: Clean up faxes & scans</a>. 

<H3><A NAME="converting"></A>Converting to PDF</H3>

<strong>Note: it is best to retain your original documents for future
changes; while the full Acrobat suite has some features for modifying
PDF files, for complete flexibility you would generally want to edit
your originals and then convert them to new PDF files.  To conserve
space, we advise discarding any intermediate files used in the PDF
creation process (e.g., TeX users should discard .dvi and .ps files, and
retain only the original .tex file and final PDF version).  </strong>

<P><A NAME="filesize"></A><B>File size</B>&nbsp;

<p>There are two issues here: number of pages in document, and the
actual size of the file which Acrobat will send to the printer.

<ol>
<li>We recommend that individual PDF files be limited to about 10 pages
in length.</strong>  While Acrobat Exchange can be used to chop up an existing
PDF file, it's usually easier to split the original document into
smaller chunks before converting it to PDF.  If it is a complex
document, there are table-of-contents and linking features that can be
used for easy navigation.

<br><br>
<li>Ideally, you should not only keep the number of pages small, but also
check whether your PDF files are suitable for Athena printing (i.e., how
big the postscript file Acrobat sends to the printer will be).  If this
sounds too complicated or time-consuming, we're happy to take a look at
what you plan to post and advise you of problems we find...Otherwise:

<ul>
  <li>Open the PDF file
  <li>Go to Print, but in the "Print To" section of the dialog box
       select File rather than Printer
  <li>Specify a name for the file in temp space (e.g. /tmp/test1.ps).
  <li>Look at the size of the ps file.  If it is no more than a couple
       of hundred kilobytes it should be ok.
  <li>Delete the ps file.
</ul>

</ol>
<P><A NAME="Acrobat compatibility setting"></A><B>Acrobat compatibility setting</B>&nbsp;
<P>The newer versions of Acrobat Distiller offer different "compatibility
options": selecting 2.1-compatibility will allow your PDF files to be viewed
by people who are using an Acrobat 2.1 or earlier viewer; selecting 3.0-compatibility
will optimize your PDF files, but they won't be readable from viewers older
than 3.0.&nbsp; 

<P><A NAME="fontuse"></A><B>Dealing with fonts</B>&nbsp;

<P>There are three options for handling each font in the file:&nbsp;

<P>1. Embed the font.&nbsp; This "packs" the font into the PDF file itself,
so the PDF Reader can recreate it on other systems for display faithful
to the original.&nbsp; This makes the PDF file larger, and is not necessary
for fonts which are already installed on the system (e.g., the Base 13
Type 1 fonts, which are installed by Acrobat Reader on every system).&nbsp;&nbsp;

<P>2. Subset the font.&nbsp; This embeds just the characters you're using
in the PDF file, rather than the entire font.&nbsp; If you are only using
a limited number of characters from a nonstandard font, this will take
up less space than embedding. Distiller and PDFWriter are configured with
a threshold value for subsetting, and will automatically embed the entire
font if you specify subsetting when more than the threshold (usually 35%)
of the font's characters are used.&nbsp;

<P>3. Don't embed at all.&nbsp; If a font is not embedded, but is installed
on the system where the PDF is viewed, it should appear correctly.&nbsp;
If it's not installed, it will be rendered by a substitute font, which
may look poor on other systems or when printed .&nbsp;

<p>

Note that it is not always legal to embed/subset a font (like any
software, fonts may be freeware, shareware, or commercially licensed and
have restrictions on redistribution).  However, it is permissible to
embed most Type 1 fonts.  See the <a
href="http://www.adobe.com/type/browser/info/licenseqa.html#q20">Adobe
Typeface Licensing FAQ</a> for details.

<P><A NAME="checkfonts"></A><B>Checking fonts used in a PDF file</B>&nbsp;
<p>To view information on how fonts are being used in a PDF file:
<ol>
<li>Open the PDF file in Acrobat Reader.  To do this on Athena, type:<P>
<pre>
athena% add acro; acroread filename.pdf
</pre></P>
     </li>
<li>Go to the File menu, select Document Info., and then Fonts
     </li>
</ol>     

This will show you information about the original fonts and any
embedded/substitute fonts.  Note that it lists only the fonts seen so
far in the document; click on "List All Fonts" to see info. for the
entire document.  For details on what each column means, see:
<blockquote>
<a
href="http://www.adobe.com/supportservice/custsupport/SOLUTIONS/12a16.htm">How
Acrobat Reader and Acrobat Exchange Handle Fonts and Font Information</a>
<br>Adobe Document no. 321474
</blockquote>
Note: if this link does not take you to the named document, go to
the <a href="http://www.adobe.com/">Adobe web site</a>, hit the Search 
button, and type in the document number shown here.  



<P><B>How to embed or subset fonts</B>
<BR>
<BR><B><I>Athena</I></B>&nbsp;
<BR>System-wide default is set to subset, but if you have customized
settings and need to specify it manually:
<pre>
     athena% add acro
     athena% distill -subsetfonts on filename.ps
</pre>
For options:
<pre>
     athena% distill -help
     athena% distill -help fonts
</pre>


<P><B><I>Mac</I></B>
<BR>Distiller:&nbsp;
Distiller-->Job Options, Font Embedding tab. (For drag-and-drop, hold
down the Command key to bring up the dialog box for specifying settings.)&nbsp;

<P>PDFWriter: File-->Page Setup, click fonts button.&nbsp; Older
versions may require you to hold down the Ctrl key while choosing
File-->Page Setup to bring up Fonts.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;

<P><B><I>Windows</I></B>
<BR>Distiller: Distiller-->Job Options, Font Embedding tab. (For drag-and-drop,
hold down the Command key to bring up the dialog box for specifying settings.)&nbsp;

<P>&nbsp;PDFWriter: Depending on Windows version and application, choose
File-->Print or File-->Printer Setup.&nbsp; Select Acrobat PDFWriter from
the Printer menu, click Properties (or Options or Setup), then click Fonts.&nbsp;
<BR>&nbsp;
<BR><B><I>By default, Distiller and PDFWriter treat fonts as follows:</B></I>
<P>
<I>adds description (doesn't embed):</I>
<BR>Type 1 fonts, ISO Latin characters (alphabet, numbers, punctuation)&nbsp;
<BR>&nbsp;
<BR><I>embeds:</I>
<BR>Type 1 fonts, non-ISO Latin characters (symbols, ligatures)&nbsp;
<BR>Type 3 fonts
<BR>Mac OS bitmap fonts (after converting them to Type 3 bitmaps)&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;

<P><I>converts to bitmap images: (will be viewed as graphics, not text)</I>
<BR>Windows outline fonts&nbsp;
<BR>PCL fonts
<p>
<strong><a name="fontlinks">For more information about fonts and PDF,
see:</a></strong> 
<blockquote>
<a
href="http://www.adobe.com/supportservice/custsupport/SOLUTIONS/605a.htm">Type
1 Fonts, TrueType Fonts, and ATM on the Macintosh General
Information</a> 
<br>
Adobe Document no. 312636
<br><br>
<a
href="http://www.adobe.com/supportservice/custsupport/SOLUTIONS/21fa.htm">Type
1 Fonts, TrueType Fonts, and ATM for Windows General Information</a>
<br>
Adobe Document no. 310049
<br><br>
<a
href="http://www.adobe.com/supportservice/custsupport/SOLUTIONS/8f3e.htm">Available
Font List Is Incomplete in PDF Writer 2.1 and Later</a> (info. on base
13 fonts)
<br>
Adobe Document no. 314618
</blockquote>

Note: if any of these links do not take you to the named document, go to
<a href="http://www.adobe.com/">Adobe's main page</a>, hit the Search
button, and type in the document number shown here.


<HR WIDTH="100%">
<BR><A NAME="advice"></A><B>Q.</B><I>
What should I tell my students about viewing/printing PDF files?</I>&nbsp;

<P><A NAME="navigation"></A><B>A. Viewing and navigation
tips:</B>&nbsp;

<P><B>Magnification: </B>When viewing a PDF file, the first thing you can
do to improve readability is to set the page view.&nbsp; Use the choices
at the top of the View menu, or hold down the middle button at the bottom
of the window to change from the current magnification (e.g. 100%); be
sure to try the "Fit Width" and "Fit Visible" settings as well as specific
maginifications.&nbsp; The three "page" icons on the right side of the
toolbar at the top of the viewer can also be used to switch between 100%,
Fit Page, and Fit Width, respectively.&nbsp;

<P><B>Navigation: </B>You can use the right scroll bar to move around a
page or between pages, one page at a time.&nbsp; To jump to a particular
page number, use View-->Goto or click on the left button at the bottom
of the window (labelled "Page X of Y") and a "go to" dialog box will open
where you can type the page number.&nbsp;&nbsp;

<P><A NAME="printguidelines"><B>Printing guidelines: </B></A> Please advise
students to follow the general Athena printing guidelines, as well as
the specific Acrobat Reader tips below.  

<P><B>Summary of Athena printing guidelines</B> (for full details, see
the posters in clusters or the web page <A
HREF="http://web.mit.edu/is/help/printing/printerhog.html">Tips on
Printer Etiquette</A>)&nbsp;

<OL>
<LI>
Make single, not multiple copies, of what you print.</LI>

<LI>
Print only the pages that you need.</LI>

<LI>
Preview before you print.</LI>

<LI>
Use "lpq" to check the print queue.</LI>

<LI>
Know how to kill your print job.</LI>

<LI>
Print PDF files using "Level 2 Only" and "Download Fonts Once".</LI>
</OL>

<H4>
<A NAME="acroprint"></A>Tips for Printing from Acrobat
Reader on Athena</H4>
When you go to printing from Acrobat Reader on Athena, you should always
check the following settings in the Print dialog box:&nbsp;
<ul>
<li>
     
<em>Page Range</em> section<br> Specify which pages to print unless you
need the whole thing; this is also a good way to space printing a long
document out into smaller jobs to allow others a chance to use a shared
printer.  To see at a glance how long the document is, look at the
bottom left corner in Acrobat Reader (it displays the current page
number and total page count, e.g. "Page 4 of 13").&nbsp;
     
<br><br>
<li><em>PostScript Options</em> section
<br>Select <strong>Level 2 PostScript Only</strong> and <strong>Download
     Fonts Once</strong> 

<P>These settings can substantially reduce the size of the PS files
Acrobat produces for printing, speed printer processing, and reduce
demand on print servers.  (Level 2 PostScript uses newer features which
allocate resources more efficiently, and is supported on all Athena
cluster printers. If "download fonts once" is not selected, any font
downloading happens at the start of each page, rather than once at the
beginnning of the file, which can result in a much larger PS
file and longer transmission time.)&nbsp;

<P>Newer versions of Acrobat Reader will make some of this unnecessary,
but for now you may set level 2 as the default by editing your ~/.acrorc
file to read:

<pre>    *PSLevel: 2</pre>

rather than:

<pre>    *PSLevel: 1</pre>

</ul>

<P><A NAME="lprprint"></A><B>Printing from the command line</B>&nbsp; 

<P>To print a PDF file from the command line, first convert it to PS
with Acrobat Exchange or the Ghostscript pdf2ps translator, then print
the PS file with standard lpr commands.&nbsp; Remember to delete the PS
file after printing, to save space; note that when converting, you can
save the PS file directly to /tmp (temporary storage) rather than your
account, so it won't use up your quota.&nbsp;

<ol>
  <li>Convert from PDF to PS:</li>
       <br><br>
       <ul>
  <li>Converting to PS with Acrobat Exchange (Sun only)</li>
<br>The following command will convert a file named "filename.pdf" to a PS
file named "filename.ps" in the same directory:&nbsp;<BR>
       <pre>
       athena% add acro<BR>
       athena% acroexch -toPostScript -level2 -fast filename.pdf&nbsp;&nbsp;</pre> 
</P>
<P>
Or to specify a different name/path:</P>
<P>
<pre>
       athena% acroexch -toPostScript -level2 -fast -pairs filename.pdf /tmp/newname.ps</pre> 
</P>
Note: the -level2 and -fast flags correspond to the "Level2 PostScript Only"
and "Download Fonts Once" <a href="#acroprint">Acrobat Reader
settings</a> explained above.

<P>
  <li>Converting to PS with pdf2ps (all platforms)</li>
<br>The Ghostscript pdf2ps converter is available in the gnu locker.  
</P>
<P>
       <pre>
       athena% add gnu
       athena% pdf2ps filename.pdf /tmp/newname.ps
       </pre>
</P>
	</ul>
<li>Print the PS file:
<pre>

       athena% lpr filename.ps [-Pprintername]</pre>&nbsp;
</li>
     </ol>

<P>
<HR WIDTH="100%">
<BR><B>Q.&nbsp;</B><A NAME="searching"><I>Are PDF files searchable?</A></I>&nbsp;
<P><B>A. </B>Your PDF files should be searchable by standard internet
search engines as long as you keep them in binary format, which is the
default for PDF files generated on Athena using distill.  
The alternative "asciipdf" format is 7-bit ASCII, which is not
supported by all search engines (in addition, asciipdf files are larger
than binary pdf).
<p>
Whether all of your text is searchable from the search feature within
Acrobat programs depends on your choice of fonts.  The short answer is
that Type 1 fonts are always searchable.  For more details, see:

<blockquote>
<a
       href="http://www.adobe.com/supportservice/custsupport/SOLUTIONS/12f6e.htm">How Acrobat Distiller and PDF Writer Handle Fonts</a>, section on "How Font Types Affect Text in PDF Files"  
<br>
Adobe doc. 319266     
</blockquote>


Note: if this link does not take you to the named document, go to <a
href="http://www.adobe.com/">Adobe's main page</a>, hit the Search
button, and type in the document number shown here.

     
<HR WIDTH="100%">
<BR><B>Q.</B>&nbsp;<A NAME="webrefs"><I>Where can I find more information
about PDF and related topics?</A></I>&nbsp;
<P><B>A. 
More information is available from the following sites.</B>
<p>
Adobe Systems is the developer of PS, PDF, and the Acrobat software:
<ul>
  <li><a href="http://www.adobe.com/">Adobe home page</a>
  <li><a
       href="http://www.adobe.com/prodindex/acrobat/main.html">Acrobat
       home page</a>
  <li><a
       href="http://www.adobe.com/studio/tipstechniques/acrobat.html">Tips & Techniques</a> 
</ul>
PDFzone.COM is an independent company which provides information
for PDF users and developers:
<ul>
  <li><a href="http://www.pdfzone.com/">PDFzone.COM home page</a>
  <li><a
       href="http://www.pdfzone.com/resources/tips/index.html">How-To/Tips & Tricks</a>
  <li> <a
       href="http://www.pdfzone.com/products/software/toolinfo.html">PDF
       tools (software from sources other than Adobe)</a>

</ul>
PurePDF is an "ezine" (Web-based magazine) devoted to PDF:
<ul>
  <li><a href="http://www.PurePDF.com/">PurePDF</a>
</ul>

Ghostscript is an interpreter for PS and PDF; free software based on
Ghostscript can be used to view and print both formats, but availability
and quality varies by platform.
<ul>
  <li><a href="http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/index.html">Ghostscript
       home page</a> 
</ul>

Information on making web materials accessible to those with disabilities:
<ul>
  <li><a href="http://access.adobe.com/">Access.Adobe.Com</a> (PDF to
       HTML tool)

  <li><a href="http://trace.wisc.edu/world/web/index.html">Designing
       More Usable Web Sites</a> (Trace Center)

  <li><a href="http://www.w3.org/WAI/References/QuickTips">WAI Quick
       Tips</a> (Web Accessibility Initiative)

  <li><a href="http://web.mit.edu/atic/www/">MIT's ATIC lab</a>
       (Adaptive Technology for Information and Computing)
       
</ul>
       
<P>
<HR>
<CENTER><A HREF="http://web.mit.edu"><IMG SRC="mit.gif" ALT="MIT" BORDER=1 HEIGHT=16 WIDTH=30 ALIGN=TOP></A><B><FONT SIZE=-1>
| <A HREF="../index.html">Academic Computing</A> | <A HREF="mailto:f_l@@mit.edu">Contact us</A></FONT></B></CENTER>


<P>
<HR>
<I>
<!-- hhmts start -->
Last modified: Tue Jan 26 10:49:46 1999
<!-- hhmts end -->
</I>  

</BODY>
</HTML>
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<p><strong>Accessibility for the visually impaired</strong>: 
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<strong>Note: it is best to retain your original documents for future changes;
while the full Acrobat suite has some features for modifying PDF files,
for complete flexibility you would generally want to edit your originals
and then convert them to new PDF files.</strong>
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set up for use within your web browser (on Athena, the Adobe Acrobat
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  <li><a href="#webrefs">Where can I find more information about PDF?</a>     
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As with other materials, posting PDF files on a web page makes them
available for printing.  Whether or not you <em>intend</em> what you post to be
printed, there are three important considerations when putting PDF files
on the web:
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about PDF?</A></I>&nbsp;
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<li><a href="http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/index.html">Ghostscript home page</a>
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  <li><a href="#refs">Where can I find more information about PDF?</a>     
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  <li><A HREF="#Q.What guidelines should I follow when generating">What
guidelines should I follow when generating PDF
documents?</A>
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<A HREF="#Optimizing original">Optimizing originals</A>
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  <li><A HREF="#Why_do_fonts">The importance of fonts</A>
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<A HREF="#Word Processor (or other application)">Originals from a
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<A HREF="#Converting to">Converting to PDF</A>
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<LI><A HREF="#File size">File size</a>
<LI><A HREF="#Dealing with">Dealing with fonts</A>
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  <li><A HREF="#Q. What advice can I give my students about">What should
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<A HREF="#A. Viewing and navigation">Viewing and navigation tips</A>
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<A HREF="#Printing">Printing guidelines</A>
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<A HREF="#Printing from Acrobat Reader on">Tips for printing from Acrobat
Reader on Athena</A>
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<A HREF="#Printing from the command">How to print a PDF file from the
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href="#refs">information on the web about PDF</a>.
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<P><B>A. </B>You can convert PostScript files to PDF files with Acrobat
Distiller, or you can use the free Ghostscript PS-to-PDF converter (both are
available on Athena).  If you purchase the full Acrobat suite for
Windows or Macintosh, you can use either Distiller or PDFWriter to
create PDF files (see the answer on <A HREF="#PDFWvsD">differences
between PDFWriter and Distiller</A>).
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distributing photocopies in class or through CopyTech or your
dept. offices) of any document longer than a few pages, or for use by a
class of more than 10 students.  Problems specific to PDF files can be
avoided by following the <a href="#Q.What guidelines should I follow
when generating">Guidelines for generating PDF documents</a> and by
posting a note on your web page(s) to explain that:&nbsp;
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     HREF="#Printing">certain settings</A>&nbsp; in addition to
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<BR><A NAME="Q.What guidelines should I follow when generating"></A><B>Q.</B><I>What
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<A NAME="Optimizing original"></A>Optimizing original documents</H3>
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<H4><A NAME="Why_do_fonts">The importance of fonts</A></H4>
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see exactly how each font is handled, you can <a href="#fontinfo">view
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<A NAME="Word Processor (or other application)"></A>Originals from a
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<H3><A NAME="Converting to"></A>Converting to PDF</H3>
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<P><A NAME="File size"></A><B>File size</B>&nbsp;
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<P><A NAME="Dealing with"></A><B>Dealing with fonts</B>&nbsp;
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<P><A NAME="fontinfo"></A><B>Checking fonts used in a PDF file</B>&nbsp;
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<BR><A NAME="Q. What advice can I give my students about"></A><B>Q.</B><I>
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<P><A NAME="A. Viewing and navigation"></A><B>A. Viewing and navigation
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<P><A NAME="Printing"><B>Printing guidelines: </B></A> Please advise
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<A NAME="Printing from Acrobat Reader on"></A>Tips for Printing from Acrobat
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<P>These settings substantially reduce the size of the PS files Acrobat
produces for printing, reducing both printing time and demands on print
servers.  (Level 2 PostScript uses newer features which allocate
resources more efficiently, and is supported on all Athena cluster
printers. If "download fonts once" is not selected, any font downloading
happens at the start of each page, rather than once at the beginnning of
the file, which can result in a much larger PS file.)&nbsp;
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<P><A NAME="Printing from the command"></A><B>Printing from the command
line</B>&nbsp;
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<br>The following command converts the files and creates filename.ps in
the same directory:&nbsp;<BR>
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       athena% acroexch -toPostScript -level2 filename.pdf&nbsp;&nbsp;</pre>
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<pre>athena% acroexch -toPostScript -level2 -pairs filename.pdf /tmp/newname.ps</pre>
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<br>The Ghostscript pdf2ps converter is available in the gnu locker.  If
results aren't satisfactory, try Acrobat Exchange on a Sun. 
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<BR><B>Q.</B>&nbsp;<A NAME="refs"><I>Where can I find more information
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@
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to two common cross-platform delivery mechanisms: PostScript and HTML.
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How PDF differs from PostScript:
<ul>
  <li> PDF is based on the same imaging model as PostScript, but is not
       a full programming language.
  <li> PDF files tend to be considerably smaller than PS.
  <li> PDF has features for interactive viewing absent from PS:
       <ul>
	 <li> PDF documents can include hyperlinks and hypertext objects.
	 <li> Navigating in a PDF file is fast (PostScript files are
	      linear, while PDF uses a file structure optimized for
	      random access).
         <li> PDF files can be byte served over the web (so you 
	      don't have to wait for the whole file to download before
	      you can start reading it)
       </ul>
  <li> PDF contains information such as font metrics for viewing
       fidelity. 
  <li> PDF files can be magnified or reduced on screen without losing
       clarity in text or graphics. 
  <li> The Acrobat PDF viewer is available for Mac, Windows, and Unix;
       good PostScript viewers for Mac and Windows are hard to find.
  <li> PDF files can't be downloaded directly to a PostScript printer:
       the actual print process first converts the PDF file to
       PostScript for downloading.
</ul>

<p>
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  <li> All of the formatting in an HTML document must be coded (either
       by hand or with an HTML editor), while PDF files are converted
       from existing documents and retain their original appearance.
       PDF allows you to create documents using design tools
       considerably more flexible than HTML, and still post them on the
       web for general viewing.  
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The above is meant to indicate only some basic facts about PDF; for
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servers.  (Level 2 Postscript uses newer features which allocate
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That is, the PDF version of a document looks just like the original, but
can be viewed or printed without access to the application or system 
used to create it.
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       PDF allows you to create documents using layout tools
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Distiller, or you can use a public-domain PS-to-PDF converter (both are
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Ghostscript provides a public-domain PS-to-PDF converter, which is
available on Athena in the gnu locker.  To use it:
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about PDF and Acrobat?</A></I>&nbsp;
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<BODY BGCOLOR="#FFFFF7" LINK="#325A0A" VLINK="#663300" ALINK="#000000" BACKGROUND="lines3.gif">
<IMG SRC="topline2.gif" HEIGHT=40 WIDTH=636 ALIGN=BOTTOM>
<TABLE ALIGN=LEFT BORDER=0 CELLPADDING=10 WIDTH="520" >
<CAPTION><!-- ******* Begin Sidebar Section ******* --></CAPTION>
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<TR>
<TD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="100">
<TABLE ALIGN=LEFT BORDER=0 CELLPADDING=2 WIDTH="120" >
<TR>
<TD ><B><FONT SIZE=-1>Other PDF Links</FONT></B>&nbsp;
<BR><IMG SRC="reddot.gif" ALT="*" HEIGHT=5 WIDTH=5 ALIGN=BOTTOM><FONT SIZE=-1>
<A HREF="http://web.mit.edu/is/help/printing/printerhog.html">Athena printing
etiquette</A></FONT>&nbsp;
<BR><IMG SRC="reddot.gif" ALT="*" HEIGHT=5 WIDTH=5 ALIGN=BOTTOM><FONT SIZE=-1>
<A HREF="http://web.mit.edu/is/help/acrobat/">Download Acrobat Reader</A></FONT>
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<!-- **** Begin sidebar footer **** -->
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<P><B><FONT SIZE=-2>AC Home | <A HREF="mailto:f_l@@mit.edu">Contact us</A></FONT></B><FONT SIZE=-1>&nbsp;</FONT>&nbsp;
</P>
<P><A HREF="http://web.mit.edu/"><IMG SRC="mit.gif" ALT="MIT" BORDER=1 HEIGHT=16 WIDTH=30 ALIGN=BOTTOM></A><FONT SIZE=-1>&nbsp;</FONT>&nbsp;
<BR><FONT SIZE=-1>&nbsp;</FONT></TD>
</P>
</TR>
</TABLE>
&nbsp;</TD>
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<!-- **** End sidebar **** --><!-- **** Start Second Column **** -->
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<TD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="420"><!--Page content begins here-->
<CENTER>
<H2>
PDF FAQ</H2></CENTER>
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PDF (Portable Document Format) is a page description language developed
by Adobe Systems for distributing documents cross-platform, with
original formatting intact and independent of the application software
used to create them.  PDF format is particularly well-suited for posting
on the web: it is a compact format based on PostScript which includes
features for hyperlinks, integrated graphics, etc.; finally, most people
already have the Adobe Acrobat PDF viewer configured in their browser
and are familiar with its use.

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While PDF is a highly convenient and popular
format, individual PDF files can cause problems if not created
carefully.  The guidelines below are intended to help you create
faithful reproductions of your original documents as PDF files which
behave properly when printed or viewed on other systems.
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<p>
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<UL>
  <li><a href="#acrobat">What is the Acrobat software?</a>
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<LI>
<A HREF="#Will my PDF files cause any problems when printed">Will my
PDF files cause any problems when printed from Athena?</A></LI>
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<LI>
<A HREF="#Q. What advice can I give my students about">What advice should
I give my students about viewing/printing PDF files from course web pages?</A></LI>

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<LI>
<A HREF="#A. Viewing and navigation">Viewing and navigation guidelines</A></LI>
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<LI>
<A HREF="#Printing">Printing guidelines</A></LI>
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<LI>
<A HREF="#Printing from Acrobat Reader on">Tips for printing from Acrobat
Reader on Athena</A></LI>
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<A HREF="#Printing from the command">How to print a PDF file from the
command line</A></LI>
</UL>
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<LI>
<A HREF="#Q.What guidelines should I follow when generating">What guidelines
should I follow when generating and posting PDF documents?</A></LI>

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<LI>
<A HREF="#Optimizing original">Optimizing originals</A></LI>
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<UL>
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<A HREF="#tex">TeX/LaTeX originals</A></LI>
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     word processor or other application</A></LI>
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<A HREF="#scans">Scanned documents</A></LI>
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<A HREF="#Converting to">Converting to PDF</A></LI>
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<LI><A HREF="#File size">File size</a></LI>
<LI><A HREF="#Dealing with">Dealing with fonts</A></LI>
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<A HREF="#Why_do_fonts">Why do fonts matter?</A></LI>
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<A HREF="#searching">Are PDF files searchable?</A></LI>
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<A HREF="#PDFWvsD">What is the difference between PDFWriter and
Distiller?</A></LI>     
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<BR><B>Q.</B><I>&nbsp;<A NAME="acrobat">What is the Acrobat software?</A>
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Acrobat is the Adobe software suite for creating and viewing PDF files.
It includes:
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       documents from applications such as word processors directly to
       PDF
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I/S provides a <a
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downloading and installing Acrobat Reader</a>.  For more information
about the full Acrobat suite, see <a
href="http://www.adobe.com/prodindex/acrobat/prodinfo.html">Adobe's
Acrobat page</a>.  <p>The full Acrobat suite is available only on Athena
Suns (Adobe currently provides an SGI version of Acrobat Reader, but not
the rest of the suite).
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Distiller, or you can use a public-domain PS-to-PDF converter.  If you
purchase the full Acrobat suite for Windows or Macintosh, you can use
either Distiller or PDFWriter to create PDF files (see the answer on <A
HREF="#PDFWvsD">differences between PDFWriter and Distiller</A>).
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<p>
On Athena, Distiller is available on Suns and can be used as follows:
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<FONT FACE="Courier New, Courier" SIZE="-1">
     athena% add acro; distill filename.ps
</FONT>
to create a PDF file named filename.pdf, which you can then link from
your web page as you would any other file.
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Note: if you aren't sure how to create a PostScript file from an
application such as a word processor, try using its print command, but
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<FONT FACE="Courier New, Courier" SIZE="-1">
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</FONT>
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<BR><B>Q.</B><I>&nbsp;<A NAME="Will my PDF files cause any problems when printed"></A>Will
my PDF files cause any problems when printed from Athena?&nbsp;</I>&nbsp;
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<P><B>A. </B>As more course materials are put up on the web, there has
been an increase in instances of public printers becoming bogged down by
a student printing excessively large files or multiple copies of files,
or by many students printing the same file simultaneously.  This can
delay or block printing for all of the students in the cluster (or on
the same print server) for a significant period of time, and may
require I/S staff to intervene before normal service is restored.&nbsp;
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<P>To help prevent inappropriate use of public printing facilities, we
ask instructors and course locker maintainers to follow a few guidelines
and educate their students about printing issues.  This will help not
only students in your class, but all of the people using the facilities.
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<P><B>There are two important considerations when putting PDF files on
the web:&nbsp;</B>
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<P>1. PDF files may cause printing problems if not properly generated.
PDF is a compact format, with files much smaller than PS or other
formats.  When you print a PDF file, Acrobat converts it into PostScript
and sends the converted file to the printer. Depending on the choices
made at each step of the process (creation of the original doc.,
conversion to PDF, and finally the print command), the PS file is
sometimes generated very inefficiently, and becomes much, much larger
than it needs to be.&nbsp; When such a file is sent to the printer, it
can drastically slow down printing and make server resources unavailable
to other users.&nbsp;
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<P>2. Printing from the web is not free.  While it may be more convenient
for you to put up files
electronically than to distribute paper copies to students, you should
anticipate that anything
you make available on the web will be printed at some point by some
portion of the class.
Printing from Athena costs money (for printing supplies, printer upkeep,
server resources, and staff support), and is always more expensive per page than photocopying.
You should provide hardcopy (either by distributing photocopies in class
or through CopyTech or your dept. offices) of any document longer than
a few pages, or for use by a class of more than 10 students.&nbsp; In addition,
we ask that you post a note on your web page(s) to explain that:&nbsp;
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are available in class, dept. HQ, or from CopyTech as appropriate.
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<BR><A NAME="Q. What advice can I give my students about"></A><B>Q.</B><I>
What advice can I give my students about viewing/printing PDF files?</I>&nbsp;
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<P><A NAME="A. Viewing and navigation"></A><B>A. Viewing and navigation
guidelines:</B>&nbsp;
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<P><B>Magnification: </B>When viewing a PDF file, the first thing you can
do to improve readability is to set the page view.&nbsp; Use the choices
at the top of the View menu, or hold down the middle button at the bottom
of the window to change from the current magnification (e.g. 100%); be
sure to try the "Fit Width" and "Fit Visible" settings as well as specific
maginifications.&nbsp; The three "page" icons on the right side of the
toolbar at the top of the viewer can also be used to switch between 100%,
Fit Page, and Fit Width, respectively.&nbsp;
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<P><B>Navigation: </B>You can use the right scroll bar to move around a
page or between pages, one page at a time.&nbsp; To jump to a particular
page number, use View-->Goto or click on the left button at the bottom
of the window (labelled "Page X of Y") and a "go to" dialog box will open
where you can type the page number.&nbsp;&nbsp;
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<P><A NAME="Printing"><B>Printing guidelines: </B></A> Please advise
students to follow the general Athena printing guidelines, as well as
the specific Acrobat Reader tips below.&nbsp;
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<P><B>Summary of Athena printing guidelines</B> (for full details, see
the posters in clusters or the web page <A
HREF="http://web.mit.edu/is/help/printing/printerhog.html">Tips on
Printer Etiquette</A>)&nbsp;

<OL>
<LI>
Make single, not multiple copies, of what you print.</LI>

<LI>
Print only the pages that you need.</LI>

<LI>
Preview before you print.</LI>

<LI>
Use "lpq" to check the print queue.</LI>

<LI>
Know how to kill your print job.</LI>

<LI>
Print PDF files using "Level 2 Only" and "Download Fonts Once".</LI>
</OL>

<H4>
<A NAME="Printing from Acrobat Reader on"></A>Tips for Printing from Acrobat
Reader on Athena</H4>
When you go to<B> Print from Acrobat Reader</B> on Athena, you should always
check the following settings in the Print dialog box:&nbsp;

<P>1. In the PostScript Options section, choose:&nbsp;

<P>* Level 2 PostScript Only&nbsp;

<P>* Download Fonts Once&nbsp;

<P>These settings substantially reduce the size of the PS files Acrobat
produces for printing, reducing both printing time and demands on print
servers.  (Level 2 Postscript uses newer features which allocate
resources more efficiently, and is supported on all Athena cluster
printers. If "download fonts once" is not selected, any font downloading
happens at the start of each page, rather than once at the beginnning of
the file, which can result in a much larger PS file.)&nbsp;

<P>Newer versions of Acrobat Reader will make some of this unnecessary,
but for now you may set level 2 as the default by editing your ~/.acrorc
file to read:
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<FONT FACE="Courier New, Courier" SIZE="-1">    *PSLevel: 2</FONT>
</P>
<P>rather than:
</P>
<P>
<FONT FACE="Courier New, Courier" SIZE="-1">    *PSLevel: 1</FONT>
</P>
<P>2. In the Page Range section, remember that the default will print
the entire document. Instead, you can select "From" and fill in start
and end pages to print (e.g., "from 4 to 6"). Use this option if you're
only interested in a few pages, or to space printing a long document out
into smaller jobs to allow others a chance to use a shared printer.
Note: the bottom left corner in Acrobat Reader displays the current page
and total page count, e.g. "Page 4 of 13".&nbsp;
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<P><A NAME="Printing from the command"></A><B>Printing from the command
line</B>&nbsp;
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<P>To print a PDF file from the command line, first convert it to PS
with Acrobat Exchange or the Ghostscript pdf2ps translator, then print
the PS file with standard lpr commands.&nbsp; Remember to delete the PS
file after printing, to save space; note that when converting, you can
save the PS file directly to /tmp (temporary storage) rather than your
account, so it won't use up your quota.&nbsp;

<ol>
  <li>Convert from PDF to PS:</li>
       <br><br>
       <ul>
  <li>Converting to PS with Acrobat Exchange (Sun only)</li>
<br>The following command converts the files and creates filename.ps in
the same directory:&nbsp;<BR>
       <FONT FACE="Courier New, Courier" SIZE="-1">
       athena% add acro<BR>
       athena% acroexch -toPostScript -level2 filename.pdf&nbsp;&nbsp;</FONT>
</P>
<P>
Or to specify a different name/path:</P>
<P>
<FONT FACE="Courier New, Courier" SIZE="-1">athena% acroexch -toPostScript -level2 -pairs filename.pdf /tmp/newname.ps</FONT>
</P>
<P>
  <li>Converting to PS with pdf2ps (all platforms)</li>
<br>The Ghostscript pdf2ps converter is available in the gnu locker.  If
results aren't satisfactory, try Acrobat Exchange on a Sun. 
</P>
<P>
       <FONT FACE="Courier New, Courier" SIZE="-1">
       athena% add gnu
       athena% pdf2ps filename.pdf /tmp/newname.ps
       </FONT>
</P>
	</ul>
<li>Print the PS file:
<FONT FACE="Courier New, Courier" SIZE="-1">

       athena% lpr filename.ps [-Pprintername]</FONT>&nbsp;
</li>
     </ol>
<P>
<HR WIDTH="100%">
<BR><B>Q.&nbsp;</B><A NAME="Why_do_fonts"><I>Why do fonts matter?</A></I>&nbsp;

<P><B>A</B>When Acrobat Reader opens a PDF file, it renders the
characters it contains in one of three ways: from fonts installed on the
system, from fonts embedded in the PDF file, or by creating substitute
fonts (you can <a href="#fontinfo">view the PDF file's font information</a>
in Acrobat Reader).  The type of font you use can affect
how text in your PDF file appears and prints, and also whether the text
is searchable.   

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the choice fonts in the original. In particular, if Acrobat Reader can't
find the font installed on the system where it's being displayed, and
the font isn't embedded in the PDF file itself, it uses a substitute
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whatever system they are displayed).&nbsp; When creating PDF files, you
can avoid font problems and make sure your document'sappearance is
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<BR>
<HR WIDTH="100%">
<BR><A NAME="Q.What guidelines should I follow when generating"></A><B>Q.</B><I>What
guidelines should I follow when generating or posting PDF documents?</I>&nbsp;
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<P><B>A.</B> Providing good-quality PDF files depends upon two things:
the characteristics of your originals, and the options you use when converting
them to PDF.  
<H4>
<A NAME="Optimizing original"></A>Optimizing original documents</H4>
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and can be used by creating a ~/.dvipsrc file consisting of the following&nbsp;
<BR>line (or adding to existing file):
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<FONT FACE="Courier New, Courier">p +/afs/athena.mit.edu/contrib/tex-contrib/BaKoMa/fontmap.map</FONT>
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you can either move aside the .dvipsrc file before running it, or create
a file named ~/.config.bakoma consisting of the same line as above and
then use the syntax:
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<FONT FACE="Courier New, Courier" SIZE="-1">athena% dvips -P bakoma foo.dvi</FONT>
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<A NAME="Word Processor (or other application)"></A>Word Processor (or
other application) originals</H4>
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<FONT FACE="Courier New, Courier" SIZE="-1"><BR>
Courier (plain, Bold, Italic, Bold Italic)<BR>
Helvetica ((plain, Bold, Oblique, Bold Oblique)<BR>
Times (plain, Bold, Italic, Bold Italic)<BR>
Symbol<BR>
</FONT>
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<P><A NAME="Converting to"></A><B>Converting to PDF</B>&nbsp;
<p>
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<FONT FACE="Courier New, Courier" SIZE="-1">
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</FONT></P>
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"How Acrobat Reader and Acrobat Exchange Handle Fonts and Font
Information"
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<br><a
href="http://www.adobe.com/supportservice/custsupport/SOLUTIONS/12a16.htm">
http://www.adobe.com/supportservice/custsupport/SOLUTIONS/12a16.htm</a>.
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Note: if this URL does not take you to the correct document, go to
the Adobe web site (<a
href="http://www.adobe.com/">http://www.adobe.com/</a>), hit the Search
button, and type in the document number above.  
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<BR>System-wide default is set to subset.&nbsp; If you have customized
settings, you can specify it manually:
<FONT FACE="Courier New, Courier" SIZE="-1">
     athena% add acro athena% distill -subsetfonts on filename.ps</FONT>
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<FONT FACE="Courier New, Courier" SIZE="-1">
     athena% distill -help athena% distill -help fonts</FONT>
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<P>&nbsp;<B><I>Mac</I></B>
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<P>&nbsp;PDFWriter: File-->Page Setup, click fonts button.&nbsp; Older
versions may require you to hold down the Ctrl key whicle choosing File-->Page
Setup to bring up Fonts.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
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<BR>Type 3 fonts Mac OS bitmap fonts (after converting them to Type 3 bitmaps)&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
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<BR>PCL fonts&nbsp;
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search engines as long as you keep them in binary format, the
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(The alternative "asciipdf" format is 7-bit ASCII, which is not
supported by all search engines.  In addition, asciipdf files are larger
than binary pdf.)
<HR WIDTH="100%">
<BR><B>Q.&nbsp;</B><A NAME="PDFWvsD"><I>What is the difference between using
PDFWriter and Distiller?</A></I>&nbsp;
<P><B>A. </B>
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Acrobat Distiller is Adobe's full-feature PostScript-to-PDF
converter.  Distiller allows you to control options for the PDF you
generate, but requires that you start with a PS file.  
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PDFWriter is a printer driver which allows you to use the print command
within an application such as a word processor to create a PDF file
directly from your original; it is available only for Macintosh and
Windows, and is installed along with Acrobat Exchange.  While convenient
for direct conversion of simple documents, PDFWriter lacks some features
of Distiller.  In general, if you do not get satisfactory results with
PDFWriter, try Distiller instead.
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<p>In particular, PDFWriter may not always successfully
process documents that contain Encapsulated PostScript (EPS) artwork or
images, or documents that use features available only with PostScript
printers.  (For documents with EPS, it uses the bitmap preview image
that accompanies the EPS file instead of the EPS graphic itself.) 
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| <A HREF="index.html">Academic Computing</A> | <A HREF="../comments.html">Contact us</A></FONT></B></CENTER>
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Last modified: Wed Dec  2 14:04:38 1998
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</I></TD>
</TR>
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</TABLE>
@


1.6
log
@Corrected formatting problems by replacing the <PRE> tags
with <FONT FACE="Courier New SIZE="-1"> and corrected a few
typos.
@
text
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<A HREF="http://www.ADOBE.com/prodindex/acrobat/readstep.html">Download Acrobat Reader</A></FONT>
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on the web: it is a compressed format (based on PostScript, but more
compact) which includes features for hyperlinks, integrated graphics,
etc.; finally, most people already have the Adobe Acrobat PDF viewer
configured in their browser and are familiar with its use.
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</ul>       
Acrobat Reader is free, and may be obtained from <a
href="http://www.adobe.com/prodindex/acrobat/readstep.html">Adobe's
download page</a>.  For more information about the full Acrobat suite,
see <a
href="http://www.adobe.com/prodindex/acrobat/prodinfo.html">Adobe's 
Acrobat page</a>.
<p>The full Acrobat suite is available on Athena Suns; on SGIs, only the
Reader is installed. 
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<P><B>A. </B>Yes, there are some potential problems.  As more course
materials are put up on the web, there has been an increase in instances
of public printers becoming bogged down by a student printing
excessively large files or multiple copies of files, or by many students
printing the same file simultaneously.  This can delay or block printing
for an entire cluster for a significant period of time, and may
requires I/S staff to intervene before normal service is
restored.&nbsp;
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and educate their students about printing issues.
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PDF is a compressed format, with files much smaller than PS or other
original documents.  When you print a PDF file, Acrobat converts it into
PostScript and sends the converted file to the printer. Depending on the
choices made at each step of the process (creation of the original doc.,
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| <A HREF="index.html">Academic Computing</A> | <A HREF="comments.html">Contact us</A></FONT></B></CENTER>
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Last modified: Tue Dec  1 08:21:03 1998
@


1.5
log
@added note on retaining originals
@
text
@d1 2
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<TABLE ALIGN=LEFT BORDER=0 CELLPADDING=2 WIDTH="136" >
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<P><!-- **** Begin sidebar footer **** -->
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<pre>
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</pre>
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<pre>
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</pre>
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we ask that you post a note your web page(s) to explain that:&nbsp;
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file to read:&nbsp; 

<pre>    *PSLevel: 2</pre>

<P>rather than&nbsp;

<pre>    *PSLevel: 1</pre>

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the same directory:&nbsp;
       <PRE>
       athena% add acro
       athena% acroexch -toPostScript -level2 filename.pdf&nbsp;&nbsp;</PRE>

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<PRE>athena% acroexch -toPostScript -level2 -pairs filename.pdf /tmp/newname.ps</PRE>

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       <pre>
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       </pre>
</ul>
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<PRE>
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       athena% lpr filename.ps [-Pprintername]</PRE>&nbsp;
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<BR>line (or adding to existing file):&nbsp;
<PRE>p +/afs/athena.mit.edu/contrib/tex-contrib/BaKoMa/fontmap.map</PRE>
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then use the syntax:&nbsp;
<PRE>athena% dvips -P bakoma foo.dvi</PRE>
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<PRE>
Courier (plain, Bold, Italic, Bold Italic)
Helvetica ((plain, Bold, Oblique, Bold Oblique)
Times (plain, Bold, Italic, Bold Italic)
Symbol
</PRE>

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<li>Open the PDF file in Acrobat Reader.  To do this on Athena, type:
<pre>
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</pre>
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<BR>System-wide default is set to subset.&nbsp; If you have custmoized
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<pre>
     athena% add acro athena% distill -subsetfonts on filename.ps</pre>
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<pre>
     athena% distill -help athena% distill -help fonts</pre>
@


1.4
log
@navigational changes, added info on:
scans, binary vs asciipdf, PDFWriter vs. Distiller, ps2pdf and vice versa;
misc. other stuff
@
text
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on the web: it is more compact than other formats such as PostScript,
can include hyperlinks, and has graphics and multimedia features;
finally, most people already have the Adobe Acrobat PDF viewer
configured in their browser and are familiar with its use.  <p> While
PDF is a highly convenient and popular format, individual PDF files can
cause problems if not created carefully.  The guidelines below are
intended to help you create faithful reproductions of your original
documents as PDF files which behave properly when printed or viewed on
other systems.
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the characteristics of your originals,and the options you use when converting
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Last modified: Mon Nov 30 22:21:04 1998
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<TR>
<TD>&nbsp;</TD>

<TD></TD>

<TD></TD>
</TR>
@


1.3
log
@Minor corrections, added page-lnegth and file-size recommendations.
@
text
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by Adobe Systems, designed for distributing documents electronically
with their original formatting intact, cross-platform.  PDF format is
highly compressed relative to PostScript and is particularly well
suited for posting on the web; it also has enhanced features for
hyperlinking and graphics.  The full Acrobat suite includes: Acrobat
Reader, the freely distributable viewer; Acrobat Distiller, for
converting PostScript files to PDF; Acrobat Exchange, which can be used
to annotate or modify existing PDF files in various ways; and a
PDFWriter on Mac and Windows, which can be used to convert documents
from applications such as word processors directly to PDF.&nbsp;
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<P>As more and more web publishers use Acrobat PDF instead of scanned images,
plain text, postscript, or html for their online documentation, we have 
seen problems arise from publishers' and end users' unfamiliarity with the tools. Below are some tips and suggestions for creating, viewing, and printing PDF documents.&nbsp;
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<I><A HREF="#Will my PDF files cause any problems when printed">Will my
PDF files cause any problems when printed from Athena?</A></I></LI>
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<I><A HREF="#Q. What advice can I give my students about">What advice can
I give my students about viewing/printing PDF files from course web pages?</A></I></LI>
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<A HREF="#A. Viewing and navigation">Viewing and Navigation guidelines</A></LI>
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<I><A HREF="#Printing from Acrobat Reader on">Tips for Printing from Acrobat
Reader on Athena</A></I></LI>
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<I><A HREF="#Printing from the command">How to print a PDF file from the
command line</A></I></LI>
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<I><A HREF="#Q.What guidelines should I follow when generating">What guidelines
should I follow when generating PDF documents?</A></I></LI>
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<I><A HREF="#Optimizing original">Optimizing originals</A></I></LI>
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<I><A HREF="#Optimizing original">TeX/LaTeX originals</A></I></LI>
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<I><A HREF="#Word Processor (or other application)">Word processor or other
application originals</A></I></LI>
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<I><A HREF="#Converting to">Converting to PDF</A></I></LI>

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<LI>
<I><A HREF="#Dealing with">Dealing with fonts</A></I></LI>
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<I><A HREF="#Why_do_fonts">Why do fonts matter?</A></I></LI>
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of public printers being bogged down by print jobs from students
printing excessively large files or multiple copies of files, or when
many students print the same file simultaneously.  These instances 
range from general delays to cases where a cluster full of students is
unable to print for a signifcant period of time.&nbsp;
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ask instructors and course locker maintainers to carefully consider to
follow a few guidelines and educate their students about the printing
issues.   
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<P>1. PDF is a compressed format, with files much smaller than PS or other
original documents.  When you print a PDF file, Acrobat converts it into 
PostScript and sends the converted file to the printer. Depending on the 
choices made at each step of the process (creation of the original doc., 
conversion to PDF, and finally the print command), the PS file is 
sometimes generated very inefficiently, and becomes much, much larger 
than it needs to be.&nbsp; When such a file is sent to the printer, it 
can drastically slow down printing and make server resources unavailable 
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<P><A NAME="Printing"></A><B>Printing guidelines:</B>&nbsp;
<BR>Please advise students to follow the <A HREF="http://web.mit.edu/is/help/printing/printerhog.html">Tips
on Printer Etiquette</A>* which are summarized below:&nbsp;
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*<B> </B>See the web page for details&nbsp;
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<P>These settings substantially reduce the size of the PS files Acrobatproduces
for printing, reducing both printing time and demands on print servers.
(Level 2 Postscript uses newer features which allocate resources more efficiently,
and is supported on all Athena cluster printers. If "download fonts once"
is not selected, any font downloading happens at the start of each page,
rather than once at the beginnning of the file, which can result in a much
larger PS file.)&nbsp;
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but for now you may set level 2 as the default by editing your&nbsp;
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<P>~/.acrorc file to read:&nbsp;
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<P>*PSLevel: 2&nbsp;

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<P>*PSLevel: 1&nbsp;
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<P>2. In the Page Range section, remember that the default will print the
entire document. Instead, you can select "From" and fill in start and end
pages to print (e.g., "from 4 to 6"). Use this option if you're only interested
in a few pages, or to space printing a long document out into smaller jobs
to allow others a chance to use a shared printer.&nbsp;

<P>Note: the bottom left corner in Acrobat Reader displays the current page
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<P>To print a PDF file from the command line, first convert it to PS as
follows, then print the PS file with standard lpr commands.&nbsp; Remember
to delete the PS file after printing, to save space; when converting, you
can use the -pairs option to save the PS file directly to /tmp (temporary
storage) rather than your account, so it won't use up your quota.&nbsp;
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<P>The following command converts the files and creates filename.ps in
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<PRE>athena% add acro</PRE>
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<PRE>athena% acroexch -toPostScript -level2 filename.pdf&nbsp;&nbsp;</PRE>
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<P>Or to specify a different name/path:</P>
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<PRE>athena% acroexch -toPostScript -level2 -pairs \
filename.pdf /tmp/newname.ps</PRE>
&nbsp;To print the file:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
<PRE>athena% lpr filename.ps [-Pprintername]</PRE>&nbsp;
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<P><B>A</B>.&nbsp;<!-- **** Begin Footer Section **** -->&nbsp; When Acrobat
Reader opens a PDF file, it renders the characters it contains in one of
three ways: from fonts installed on the system, from fonts embedded in
the PDF file, or by creating substitute fonts.&nbsp; The type of font you use can affect
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is searchable.
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find the font installed on the system where it's being displayed, and the
font isn't embedded in the PDF file itself, it uses a substitute font which
may be a poor approximation to the original (unlike installed and embedded
fonts, which should match appearance of the original, on whatever system
they are displayed).&nbsp; When creating PDF files, you can avoid font
problems and make sure your document'sappearance is preserved cross-platform
by taking a few simple steps.&nbsp;
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guidelines should I follow when generating PDF documents?</I>&nbsp;
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<P><B>A.</B> Generating good-quality PDF files depends upon two things:
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them to PDF.&nbsp;
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<A NAME="TeX/LaTeX"></A><B>TeX/LaTeX originals</B></H4>
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systems. Unless you have a need for a particular font (for example,
for special symbols), sticking to the Base 13 gives best results. Keep
in mind that any other fonts you use may be rendered on other systems by
"substitute" fonts (which may display or print poorly), unless you're able
to embed them when you convert to a PDF file (see converting to PDF section).
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<br>
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<P><B>How to embed/subset fonts</B>
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<BR>
<BR>
<FONT FACE="Courier New.Courier" SIZE="-1">athena% add acro athena% distill -subsetfonts on filename.ps</FONT><BR>
<P>
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<P>
<FONT FACE="Courier New.Courier" SIZE="-1">athena% distill -help athena% distill -help fonts&nbsp;</FONT>
</P>
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<BR><B><I>By default, Distiller and PDFWriter do the following:</B></I>
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<HR><!-- hhmts start --><I>Last modified: Tues November 24, 1998</I></TD>
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<!-- hhmts end --><!-- **** End Footer Section **** -->
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Acrobat is a page description language developed by Adobe Systems. It has
many enhanced capabilities over PostScript, including graphics and hyperlinking.
Acrobat files, ending with a .pdf extension, are often highly compressed
relative to PostScript and are platform-independent. The application suite
includes acroread, the viewer (which is freely ditributable), distill,
which creates pdf files from PostScript source, and exchange (acroexch),
which can be used to annotate existing pdf files in various ways.&nbsp;
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<P><B>A. </B>Yes, there are some potential problems. We've found that as
more and more courses put their course materials up on the web rather than
supplying paper copies, the students often end up using public printers
to make copies of the documents.. If it is a very large class and the documents
they are printing are large, printers can be tied up for hours and other
students can't get their work done. Public printing facilities are not
meant for such use.&nbsp;
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<P>We ask instructors and course locker maintainers to carefully consider
which documents should be supplied to a class as paper and which are suitable
to put on the web.&nbsp;
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<P>&nbsp; * PDF files are primarily for online reference, and printed copies
are available in class, dept. HQ, or from CopyTech as appropriate.&nbsp;&nbsp;
<BR>* When printing PDF, students should specify <A HREF="#Printing">certain
settings</A>&nbsp; in addition to following general Athena guidelines.&nbsp;
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Print PDF files as "Level 2" postscript.</LI>
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<P>Note: the bottom left corner in Acrobat Reader displays thecurrent page
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<PRE>p +/afs/athena.mit.edu/contrib/tex-contrib/BaKoMa
/fontmap.map</PRE>
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will optimize your PDF files, but they&nbsp;
<BR>can't be viewed by viewers older than 3.0.&nbsp;
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<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"
            "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd">
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<HEAD>  
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<TITLE>ACS FAQ: Adobe Acrobat PDF</TITLE>
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<BODY TEXT="#32220A" BGCOLOR="#FFFFF7" LINK="#325A0a" vlink="#663300" ALINK="#
000000">
<CENTER><IMG SRC="../topline3.gif" ALT="MIT - Academic Computing" WIDTH=640 HEIGHT=50></CENTER>
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<!--Page content begins here-->
<H2 ALIGN=center>Greetings, early Insider readers!</H2>
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You beat us to it: This page will be populated by Nov. 25, 1998
(estimated date of delivery of the Insider to campus mailboxes).  We
appreciate the fact that you read the Insider online, and hope you'll
come back in a few days for our tips on using PDF...or contact us in the
meantime if you have questions.
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<!-- **** Begin Footer Section **** -->
<hr>
<center>
<A HREF="http://web.mit.edu"><IMG SRC="../mit.gif" BORDER="1" ALT="MIT" 
HEIGHT="16" WIDTH="30" ALIGN=top></A><FONT SIZE=-1><STRONG>
 | <A HREF="index.html">Academic Computing</A> | <A HREF="mailto:f_l@@mit.edu">Contact us</A></strong></font>
</center>
<hr>
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<EM><!-- hhmts start -->
Last modified: Fri Nov 20 08:41:47 1998
<!-- hhmts end --></EM>
<!-- **** End Footer Section **** -->
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@
