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Creating PDFs with Distiller for Mac

Creating PDFs on the Macintosh using Adobe Acrobat Distiller can be done in either of two ways:

  1. Using the 'Acrobat PDFWriter' printer that is created by the AdobePS printer driver and Adobe Acrobat.
  2. Opening a Postscript file (created from your printer driver or from another application) with Acrobat Distiller.

The first option simply involves selecting the Acrobat PDFWriter when you print your document. This requires that you have the full version of Adobe Acrobat installed.

The second is a multi-step process, but uses Adobe Acrobat Distiller, which is included with Adobe PageMaker and Adobe Acrobat and can provide better control over the process. See the About Acrobat and PDF files page for more information on the available options.

Part I: Print document to a Postscript file

  1. Make sure you have a Postscript printer (usually a Mac-compatible laser printer) selected for your print.
  2. Select the Print command as you normally would to print a document.
  3. From the popup menu next to Destination:, select File rather than Printer. The Print button in the lower corner of the dialog box should change to a Save button.
  4. Click the Save button and save the Postscript (.ps) file to a location that you can find later.

Part II: Distilling the Postscript file

  1. Launch Adobe Acrobat Distiller. It may initialize the list of fonts available to it on launch, which takes a fair amount of time (15 seconds or more).
  2. When Acrobat has indicated it is ready (middle of the window has a Status message), select the desired Job Options setting (or customize via the Settings menu). In most cases, Screen will be the best choice as it produces the smallest files.
  3. Open the Postscript (.ps) file that was saved in part one. This can be done either via choosing the Open... command under the File menu or simply dragging and dropping the file into the Acrobat window. Acrobat will process the file and indicate any errors, including font subtitution, in the bottom portion of the window.
  4. After a moment, a .pdf file should appear in the same location as the .ps file.


Adobe Acrobat and PDF files

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