Acrobat has two different utilities to convert an electronic file to Adobe's Portable Document Format (PDF): PDFWriter and Acrobat Distiller. Although PDFWriter is quicker, Acrobat Distiller gives you better control over the process and provides higher quality output. This document describes the use of Acrobat Distiller.

Distiller creates a PDF file from a PostScript version of a document. To use Distiller, your computer requires a PostScript printer driver with a Distiller PostScript printer description file (PPD). You can download the most recent printer drivers from the Adobe Web site: [Windows|Macintosh].

To create a PDF file with Distiller:

1. Open the document that you wish to convert.
2. Choose File > Print.
3. Choose Acrobat Distiller from the Printer Name menu, click on the other print options that you want, and then click Print or OK. In some applications, you may need to click Setup in the Print dialog box to get access to the Printer Name menu.

PDFWriter and Distiller can embed Roman Type 1, TrueType, and base fonts (Windows only) in a PDF file. This ensures that the original fonts are used to display and to print on computers that may not have these fonts installed. To embed the fonts in the document follow the instructions below.

The Fonts Job Options menu specifies the fonts that will be embedded in a PDF file. To ensure that the PDF file you create is fully portable and readable on computers that may not have the same fonts installed, you should embed all fonts to guarantee that none are missed. To set the Fonts Job Options:

1. Start Distiller
2. Select the option that you will be using from the Job Options menu (Print Optimized, Screen Optimized etc), which is visible in the Acrobat Distiller dialog box.
3. Choose the Settings menu, click on Job Options (Settings > Job Options), and then click the Fonts tab.
4. To embed all fonts used in a file, select Embed All Fonts.

The Acrobat Help File, accessible from the Help Menu (Help > Acrobat Guide), discusses all the properties of Acrobat Distiller. However, you may also want to see the instructions at Distiller Font Management at the Adobe Network Solutions web site for further help on embedding fonts.

In some instances, Distiller may not be permitted to embed fonts in a PDF file. Each font has a licensing flag that Acrobat Distiller (version 4 or later) will honour. Fonts that may not be embedded are listed in the Job Options menu. This problem is frequently encountered with older versions of Corel's WordPerfect product. Fonts that cannot be embedded all start with "WP". When Corel took over WordPerfect from Novell, WordPerfect fonts were protected with the lincensing flag from being embedded in PDF files. Corel became aware of this problem in mid 2000 and has since tried to rectify the problem. However, in particular the older WordPerfect versions 8 and 9 (of which many are still in use) are subject to this problem. If you encounter this particular problem, please download the appropriate service patch from the Corel web site.

The National Science Foundation's FastLane system for managing NSF grant proposals has a detailed help page entitled FastLane PDF Creation Hints and Pointers that you may find useful referring to for further assistance.