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Thread Tools 09-10-2007, 08:31 PM

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Display Modes #1 Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: Minneapolis Posts: 5

RcntCnvrt
Junior Member PDF Writer for MAC

Just converted to MAC - Thankfully. I am looking for a PDF Writer like Cute PDF for PC - to send off noneditable quotes and invoices. Searching the web in Google and Ask - were fruitless - thought I might try here. Thanks for any insights or suggestions!

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09-10-2007, 08:54 PM

#2 Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Houston Posts: 3,031

mmkerc
Super Moderator

Part of the OS has PDF built in. Create your document in the program of choice then select file print. One of your option on the bottom left of the print dialog is to print to pdf. Select that then hit okay and it will save the file as a pdf.

09-10-2007, 08:57 PM

#3 Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: Minneapolis Posts: 5

RcntCnvrt
Junior Member

Outstanding! Thanks!

11-17-2008, 06:37 AM

#4 Join Date: Nov 2008 Posts: 1

Jam
Junior Member

Great, no faffing about downloading Cute pdf and then finding out it doesn't work on macs. Cheers for

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directing me to the built in pdf writer. It's actually easier to use than Cute.

11-19-2008, 08:56 PM

#5 Join Date: Nov 2008 Posts: 1

nowmacneverback
Junior Member Not perfect..

I do have to say that I love the built in PDF writer on MAC OS X... my issue is that when I open those pesky "fill in the blank and won't allow you to save inputed info" pdfs, it will not allow you to print to PDF. It instead tells you to save, which obvously doesn't work. Any ideas, anybody? UPDATE: To answer my own question.. I opened it in Preview instead of Adobe and typed in the fields and then print to PDF via Preview. Guess I should have played with it a little longer before I posted the question. Oh well, now I can share with everyone else.
Last edited by nowmacneverback; 11-19-2008 at 09:41 PM.

01-14-2009, 11:21 PM

#6 Join Date: Jan 2009 Posts: 10

gadgetgoddess
Member Quote:

Originally Posted by RcntCnvrt Just converted to MAC - Thankfully. I am looking for a PDF Writer like Cute PDF ... Me too new on Mac, and enjoying it so far. I'm also looking for a Cute PDF style program b/c the inbuilt pdf writer on OSX doesn't conform to some online applications... specifically I'm trying to upload a macconverted pdf file to lulu.com but get this error message: "Your document could not be created: ms_WWGD.pdf: This file was created with Mac OS X 10.5.5 Quartz PDFContext / Pages. We cannot print files created with this application." They have offered no solution or suggestions as to which program they will accept via a mac. In the past docs I created with Cute PDF worked, but I can't find a mac version. Does anyone here have advice??

01-15-2009, 12:00 AM

#7 Join Date: Jan 2009 Posts: 10

gadgetgoddess
Member

Further information from Lulu that may help? * Apple's Pages software creates PDFs that often cause problems in commercial printing. The primary problem with these PDFs is multiple embedded subsets of fonts. * Mac Quartz software often produces squares, odd formatting and strange-looking letters when
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commercially printed. Quartz implements a set of rules for describing how pictures and text are displayed in a monitor and printed on desktop printers, but these rules are inadequate for a professional prepress environment. We urge you to find an alternative method. Note: Lulu has discontinued font substitution because many creators complained that they did not want us to change the fonts that they specifically selected for their work. Quartz PDFs that may have printed in the past (with font substitution) will fail to print now.

01-15-2009, 05:35 AM

#8 Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 659

Solitare
Senior Member

I'm afraid I use Adobe Distiller for sending things out to Print On Demand outfits like that. Unfortunately, that costs money A workaround you COULD try is this: go to the pdf option in your print window, and under the menu, you should have "Save PDF as POSTSCRIPT" option. Postscript is one of the grandaddy of printer languages, and it will generate a huge file ending with '.ps' Hopefully this would strip out any problems that Lulu is encountering with your file. When you double click on this file, it will open (or at least try to open) in Preview - converting the postscript into something you can read, and then you can do a save as .pdf out of preview - as a generic pdf (there are some filters you can play with there to see which one will work). Another option of course is to e-mail Lulu and ask them for advice - or try a different POD vendor, such as Cafepress.com

01-15-2009, 06:55 AM

#9 Join Date: Jan 2009 Posts: 10

gadgetgoddess
Member

Solitare, I'm going to name my first born after you. That ps method seemed to work. Have ordered a proof copy just to make sure but for now, it looks good on screen, no awkward page breaks or floating images... Thanks so much!

01-15-2009, 08:10 PM

#10 Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 659

Solitare
Senior Member

*WHEW!* glad that workaround worked. You don't have to name your firstborn or anything after me but I am curious about your publication (unless it is a private affair) - hope it turns out okay, since the proof is in the print. A few details for anyone wandering down this thread in the future: As I noted, Postscript is one of the older printer languages. When you successfully create a file it it you have essentially turned the fonts into a picture (along with any pictures on the pages). If you can't convert the file into a postscript file then you have a postscript error going on - in other words, one of the fonts you are using is corrupted, or is having a problem with another font in your document. In the old days, the rule of thumb was to limit your fonts to three per project - partly to avoid this, and help with trouble shooting, and of course, there's only so much you can do with a machine running at 60 MHz or less with 32 MB of RAM. Today, you don't have these problems - but fonts do sometimes conflict with
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one another. To a far lesser degree, a file format called Encapsulated PostScript (.EPS) can also be a culprit, but in most cases it is a font. If you think that an .EPS file is at fault, convert the thing to a high resolution .TIF file (with LZW compression on, or it will be huge!) Now while Postscript essentially turns your document into a picture, Portable Ducument Files (.PDF) tries to embed the fonts into the document. The reason why is obvious - the file will be far smaller than a postscript file, and easier to edit in Acrobat Pro if needed. But if you have two fonts that don't get along, you wind up with printing problems. Never mind that the document printed out fine at home out of its native application, it happens. Even worse, sometimes the font is not embedded, and Acrobat tries to put in a substitute when it is reading it. Luckily, .PDF files are essentially a descendant of good old Postscript, and it was designed from the start to take those huge Postscript files and convert them into .pdf files. So the basic rule of thumb is, if your .pdf file is not working right, and you can't figure out the font that's causing the problem, try converting it to Postscript and then convert that file onto a .pdf. Good luck all!

01-21-2010, 03:28 AM

#11 Join Date: Jan 2009 Posts: 10

gadgetgoddess
Member one year on... still no solution Quote:

Originally Posted by gadgetgoddess Solitare ... That ps method seemed to work. Have ordered a proof copy just to make sure but for now, it looks good on screen, no awkward page breaks or floating images... Thanks so much! Following up on this issue you helped me with last year. Using the postscript version as my file, in the case of the above discussion the proof copy came back in gobbly-gook. In a second case I also used postscript and it was fine... I'm now onto a 3rd project (same size and specs as the first two) but the postscript writer is resizing my 6x9" page to US Letter. Have spent DAYS trying to resolve this. In the past year I have been unable to find a solution to producing a high-res pdf on a mac without purchasing more software. Very disappointing and frustrating. :/ GG

01-21-2010, 07:14 PM

#12 Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 659

Solitare
Senior Member

Back again.... I'm afraid that I am not aware of a work-around for anything other than the standard sized 8.5x11 settings - I imagine either Adobe withheld that capacity to get people to purchase Acrobat, or Apple assumed everyone would be happy enough printing out on personal printers.

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After running through the options (page setup, properties, etc) I'm a bit stumped. Assuming you are going through Lulu.com again, have you tried their in-house .pdf converter? Which program are you using again?

03-16-2011, 07:32 AM

#13 Join Date: Mar 2011 Posts: 1

metalim
Junior Member

We have 101 MB PDF file saved from Acrobat. OSX Print PDF makes it 58 MB. CutePDF makes it 13 MB. How can I achieve same small size file (without quality drop) on OSX ?

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