Specifications

To create the file, we used Microsoft Word to design a document. One of the tools in the

Acrobat package is Adobe Distiller. Within Distiller, we needed to select a few non-default

options. The file must be stored in ASCII format, and compression needs to be turned off.

After these are set, creating a PDF file is as easy as printing.

You can find out more about Acrobat here:

http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/

and either buy it online or from a regular software retailer.

Another option to create PDFs is the conversion program ps2pdf, which as the name suggests

converts PostScript files into PDF files. This has the advantage of being free, but does not

always produce good output for documents with images or non-standard fonts. The ps2pdf

converter comes with the Ghostscript package mentioned previously.

Obviously, if you are going to create a PDF file this way, you will need to create a PostScript

file first. UNIX users will typically use either the a2ps or dvips utilities for this purpose.

If you are working in a Windows environment, you can also create PostScript files without

Adobe Distiller, albeit via a slightly more complicated process. You will need to install a

PostScript printer driver. For example, you can use the Apple LaserWriter IINT driver. If you

don’t have a PostScript driver installed, you can download one from Adobe at

http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/5672.htm

To create your PostScript file, you will need to select this printer and the Print to File option,

typically found on the Print dialog box.

Most Windows applications will then produce a file with a .prn extension. This should be a

PostScript file. You should probably rename this to be a .ps file. You should be able to view it

using GSview or another PostScript viewer, or create a PDF file using the ps2pdf utility.

Be aware that different printer drivers produce PostScript output of varying quality. You might

find that some of the PostScript files you produce give errors when run through the ps2pdf

utility. We suggest using a different printer driver.

If you only intend to create a small number of PDF files, Adobe’s online service might suit

you. For $9.99 a month, you can upload files in a number of formats and download a PDF file.

The service worked well for our certificate, but does not let you select options that are impor-

tant for this project. The PDF created will be stored as a binary file and compressed. This

makes it very difficult to modify.

This service can be found at

http://createpdf.adobe.com/

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