Getting into PDFs

[ffutures]

One of the reasons why I've been rather slow to get anything substantial done with Forgotten Futures X is that I'm looking at another project which may eventually be sold as a PDF. I'd rather not say much more about the nature of the project at present, this is more of a technical query.

It appears that the main steps of getting to a PDF are

1. Putting the document together in a DTP program.
   
2. Saving it as a postscript file.
   
3. Getting that converted to a PDF using Distiller.

Since I've never done any of this, and I gather that part C can probably be done for me by someone who owns Distiller, my first step is to look at DTP, about which I know very little. People generally seem to recommend Quark, inDesign, etc., all of which look to be rather expensive and run on a Mac. While I own an iBook, I don't own any DTP software for it. What I do have, but have never used, is Microsoft Publisher 2000 for Windows. It came as part of Microsoft Office 2000, and I've simply never got around to installing it, let alone using it.

My question, then, is simple; is Publisher up to the job of putting together a moderately substantial book, say 80-100 pages, and saving it as postscript? I'm probably looking at two column pages with occasional tables, illustrations, some boxed or shaded text, a few footnotes, etc. etc.

I'd really like to be told now if I should be looking elsewhere, rather than getting a third of the way in then finding that it simply isn't up to the job. But if Publisher can do it I'd greatly prefer to use it, since I'm a mean bugger.

Comments please!

Comments

[major-clanger.livejournal.com]

If you're using a Mac, you ought to be able to save a document as a PDF, if only by printing to a PDF file. Having said that, this will be a very plain PDF, with no internal links. If you want to produce a structured PDF, then I believe an authoring program is needed, although I don't know if Publisher has this capability.

MC

[elementalv.livejournal.com]

Or, since you now own an iBook with OSX installed, open the document you want to turn into a PDF, select the Print command, then click on "Save as PDF..."

As for DTP, Apple now offers low-end software in the iWork suite ($79US) that should do what you want it to do without having to spend the big bucks or time to learn on a high-end piece of software. QuarkXPress is good to version 3, gets a bit sloppy around version 4, goes down a bit more with version 5 and comes close to hitting rock bottom with version 6 and gets really bitchy with version 6.5. Unless you're earning a living with it, you don't need it. Nor do you need InDesign (which rocks, by the way). Both provide far too much muscle for what you need.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

To reply to you and major_clanger, I've been told that I need to do something better than the "save as PDF" thing or PDF distributors won't handle it.

[elementalv.livejournal.com]

This is a true thing. Distiller allows you to create PDFs to specific parameters. And if you ask me very nicely, I'll Distill your files for you.

[heliograph.livejournal.com]

Whoever told you that was wrong. They won't be able to tell, trust me. You just need to supply an un-DRMed PDF file, and OS X does that. The OS X PDF -IS- Adobe Acrobat.

[serpentstar.livejournal.com]

I've found Quark to be far more user-friendly, intuitive, and quick, than most other DTP software I've used. That said I've never used InDesign very much, though by all accounts that's equal to or better than Quark in all those qualities.

So if I were you I'd look out for a cheap old version of Quark -- version 3 should be fine for your needs, I would think.

[heliograph.livejournal.com]

If I didn't know better I'd swear you were doing this to torture Marcus ;-)

Quark: no no no. It's way more complicated than what you need.

[serpentstar.livejournal.com]

Hmmm, I found almost everything else really clunky. Oh well. Each to their own I guess!

[mr-wombat.livejournal.com]

Just do the whole thing in open office (www.openoffice.org). It takes a little time to get used to but once you manage to get your head around it its very powerful and exports to PDF flawlessly and with excellent compression. On the surface the word processor is a lot like MS Word but once you dig deeper it has a lot of the features of a DTP but has the advantage of being an all in one dealie.

[heliograph.livejournal.com]

You don't need the PS step (and haven't for years). Like everybody says you can use your Mac or get Acrobat Elements for the PC for like $20.

You don't need a fancy program. The previous version could have been done in Word. It'll only be about 40 pages, too, unless you go super-paddy.

You can use Publisher, but you don't really need it. Word 2000 will do everything you need. Word XP or 2003 is nicer, but not nicer enough to make it worth paying for.

Do you have any kind of word processor on your Mac?

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

I have MS Word and Abiword on the Mac.

What about internal links - don't you need something better than the "save as PDF" option to make them work?

[heliograph.livejournal.com]

Do you need 'em? I don't remember that being a requirement in either of the contracts I read.

What kind of links are you thinking of? Linking TOC to chapters and subheads? The doc won't be more than 40 pages: people can always use the search function.

[armb.livejournal.com]

He did say "I'd rather not say much more about the nature of the project at present". Working links for that sort of thing would be a good thing, even if not necessary, if they can be done easily.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

heliograph does know what this is about, and he may have a valid point. He's also probably right about the page count, I was thinking in terms of a smaller paper size.

Trouble is that the PDF I use most at work is a multi-document monster, a laboratory handbook with more than 1500 pages, and 200+ subsidiary documents, which does of course have loads of links. That probably is a little overkill for what I'm after.

What I really need to do is take a look at other comparable PDF products, preferably without spending money on them. Basically, RPGs / supplements in the 40-50 page range. Do they bother with internal links, or are they just "flat" documents?

[heliograph.livejournal.com]

Both of the contracts expressed a preference for 8.5" x 11", so I suspect that's what you should stick with (or a format that also prints out on the British "letter size").

[heliograph.livejournal.com]

He did say "I'd rather not say much more about the nature of the project at present".
---

I know what it is. That's how I know the potential page count, ja? Although it is sweet of you to try and protect him.

[armb.livejournal.com]

> I know what it is.

If you didn't, there wouldn't be any risk of you saying more than Marcus wanted to, would there?

[autopope.livejournal.com]

To clarify things a little -- Marcus, the GUI on OS/X renders a particular graphics format that applications throw at it in real time. The graphics format Quartz uses is "Display PDF". All native OS/X applications can generate true PDF, or they aren't graphical native OS/X applications.

[ggreig]

I wrote my thesis in Word (with lots of "live" cross references) and saved it as a PDF using the Word add-in (PDFMaker.dot) that comes with Adobe Acrobat. I'm not sure that's all that helpful to you, but it suggests that your friend with Acrobat might be able to accept a Word document from you rather than PostScript, and give you a PDF with live links as a result.

[saranjeuhal.livejournal.com]

For those using a PC, you can download PDFCreator from sourceforge.net, which is open-source and does a fantastic job making PDF documents. It functions as a virtual printer and has oodles of options you can set at print time.

I'd second the OpenOffice approach just because it's pretty powerful and can export to PDF directly. Version 2.0 is meant to be able to handle PDF forms as well.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Okay - thanks to everyone that's commented - I've got to get to bed, but please keep on arguing amongst yourselves, I'll be interested to see who wins!

[robertprior.livejournal.com]

Depending on what you want, you may find Word does the trick. I did a 700-page book using Word. Admittedly with a simple design, simple chapters with background watermarks on each page and no full-page bleeds.

Look at Pages, part of iWorks. It has some nice templates that are easy to tweak, as simple, and may well do what you need. I've converted from Word to Pages for almost everything now.

[lawbag.livejournal.com]

Part C is actually the easy part, as is B

Publisher has got better at integration over the years, and is not so openly laughed at by the DTP industry.

I personally use the Quark/Photoshop combination, along with a txt editor (with spelling checker) and Acrobat, which has distiller built in. You have to "jig" the Quark program to get to behave with Acrobat, but if it simple stuff for pasting and layout, then stick to Publisher as it talks very nicely to Acrobat.