For Position Only: Creating “Real” PDF Files in OS X 10.2

A month ago I received an email from a reader who wanted to know if it’s possible to create “real” PDF files in OS X. Let me assure him, and you, that the answer is “yes” — with a caveat.

If you want to use Acrobat Distiller to create PDF files, then of course, the answer is “no.” Acrobat Distiller is one of the few major graphics applications that doesn’t run natively in OS X, and that is, indeed, a drag. Adobe did an excellent job in Acrobat 5.0 of making the process of distilling PDF files almost seamless: Just choose the Create PDF desktop printer (OS 9) or Acrobat Distiller printer (Windows), and then print PDF files directly from all of your favorite layout and design applications (see figure 1). Distiller launches in the background, you don’t have to do anything but wait for the PDF file to appear in a directory. In Microsoft Office applications (I know, I know, but admit it, you do use them), it’s even easier: The PDFMaker plug-in for Acrobat 5.05 puts a button in the toolbar that lets you generate PDF files with a click.

All of that’s gone in OS X, at least for the time being. But that doesn’t mean you can’t create PDF files in OS X. You just have to know your options, and understand how each option generates the file, because not all PDF files are created equally in OS X.

What Apple Offers
As you’ve probably heard (or at least read in a column by David Morgenstern) on creativepro.com , the Aqua interface that makes OS X so beautiful is actually based on PDF — well, it’s based on an imaging model called Quartz, which is based in PDF. So you can rest assured that when Apple offers a way to create PDF files, they’re “real,” and valid for some but certainly not all file-exchange purposes.

In OS X 10.2 — Jaguar — Apple added a convenient button to most applications’ Print dialog boxes: It says “Save As PDF…” (see figure 2). However, this is not the same print-to-PDF capability that Acrobat 5.0 affords in OS 9 and Windows.

PDF files created by clicking Save As PDF in OS X are based on Adobe’s PDF 1.3 and 1.4 specs. That means they’re capable of supporting transparency, and that you can add security and password protection to your files using Acrobat 5.0. However, you cannot control any of the parameters used to create the file — you cannot control compression, for example, or color space. The process does embed and subset fonts, but it saves all colors as RGB, and PDF files created by Jaguar are only 72 dpi. (Note: The author has since made addtional comments and corrections on this topic. Please see “For Position Only: On Quartz PDFs, OS X Fonts, and Light Bulb Jokes” for more information.)

As a result, clicking Save As PDF creates PDF files that are suitable for exchanging business documents — bids, proposals, and other non-color-critical documents that are destined to be printed at low resolutions (i.e., by laser printers). The Save As PDF button isn’t available in all applications — such as InDesign — but consider this a safety measure that prevents you from creating a PDF for high-quality reproduction that isn’t up to snuff.

Also note that you can create PDF files using Apple’s PDF engine within OS X’s Preview utility. Like Acrobat Reader, Preview lets you view PDF files, but you can also open other image file formats, such as JPEG and TIFF, and then export them from Preview as PDF by choosing File > Export. (Or, alternatively, open a PDF file in Preview and export it to another image file format.)

What Adobe Offers
Another way to create PDF files in OS X is to export them from an application that lets you Save As or Export to PDF. This includes but is not limited to InDesign, Photoshop, and Illustrator. (Quark XPress isn’t on the list because it’s not available yet for OS X. If you’re using XPress in OS 9 or OS X in Classic mode — or Windows, for that matter — just print or export to Distiller as usual.) InDesign, Photoshop, and Illustrator all produce PDF files from Adobe’s PDF libraries, so they don’t go through Distiller, but they do offer you control over many output options such as compression, color space, font embedding, and so on (see figure 3). Exporting PDF from these applications is super-fast, much faster than Distiller, and they create high-quality, high-resolution PDF files that can be used not just for exchanging business documents but also for color comps and review and approval cycles with clients and colleagues. And because they don’t go through Distiller, they maintain live transparency, as I’ve described in a previous column.

For high-resolution, four-color reproduction however, many PDF aficionados insist that final PDF files must be distilled. Distiller creates PDF files from normalized PostScript, so they’re theoretically the most reliable and robust type of PDF file, but more compact and more flexible than PostScript itself. And to do this, you do have to run Distiller in Classic mode. In a sense, it’s taking a giant step backward: Just like in earlier versions of Acrobat, you have to first save a PostScript file to disk in your creation application (in OS X), and then launch Distiller and manually convert the file — or use a watched folder, but the conversion still occurs under Classic. It’s not as seamless as it was to print to Distiller from within your applications in OS 9, but Classic runs so flawlessly that it’s not too bad, and we can only assume that Adobe is bound to rectify the situation (sooner rather than later, I hope).

Working with Acrobat 5 in OS X
Keep in mind that Acrobat 5 itself does run in OS X — as do a plethora of third-party PDF products and plug-ins. You can open, print, and edit any PDF file — including those created by Apple or on other operating systems — in Acrobat on OS X. To find out what type of PDF you’re dealing with, choose File > Document Properties > Summary. In the Document Summary dialog box, you can see what application created it (if it was created by Jaguar, it says “Mac OS X 10-2-1 Quartz PDFContext”), what version PDF it is, and other information. Choose File > Document Properties > Fonts to see whether and how fonts were embedded and subset. To find out the PDF file’s color space and resolution, open it in Photoshop or Illustrator, or use a PDF preflight tool or editor such as Enfocus Pitstop.

Finally, among the many PDF tools available for OS X is at least one that actually creates PDF files: PStill for OS X, from Stone Design. I can’t vouch for it, however, as I haven’t tried it, but if you’re curious, check it out and let me know how it goes — with PStill and your other experiences creating and using PDF in OS X.