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Editorial
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Grech V*. Publishing on the WWW. Part 7 - The
Portable Document Format - PDF . Images Paediatr Cardiol 2002;11:1-3
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Editor-in-Chief, Images Paediatr Cardiol
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MeSH
Abstract
This article demonstrates how documents prepared in hypertext or word
processor format can be saved in portable document format (PDF). These
files are self-contained documents that that have the same appearance on
screen and in print, regardless of what kind of computer or printer are
used, and regardless of what software package was originally used to for
their creation. PDF files are compressed documents, invariably smaller
than the original files, hence allowing rapid dissemination and download.
Article
Portable Document Format (PDF - Adobe) was created in order to allow
formatted documents to be widely distributed regardless of whether specific
fonts or postscript files are available on the user’s system.1,2
PDF files have the ability to internally embed specialised fonts, images,
colours and formatting regardless of the application and platform
used for the documents' creation. This ensures that as long as the user
has the ability to read PDF files, documents will be viewed exactly as
formatted by the original authors, with both appearance and content integrity.
Moreover, for online viewing, the browser plug-in is stable, easy to
use and available for download. PDF files also allow the easy distribution
of large documents, and the indexing facility inbuilt in the PDF format
can create a fast lookup system. PDF is one of the most portable file formats
available, and does not require a browser for viewing, only the Acrobat
Reader which is free and compact. PDF files can also be viewed on Palm
devices. The PDF format has been found to be very reliable, and is used
for the dissemination of official documents by governments worldwide (Adobe
Acrobat and PDF - essential tools for e-government - http://www.adobe.com/government/images/pdf/acr_egov.pdf).
Tables of contents, articles and announcements (such as lists of conferences)
should be made available in PDF format. The conversion of hypertext documents,
complete with graphics and tables, to the PDF format, can be most easily
carried out with the Adobe PDF Maker software. This program allows the
direct conversion of Word documents to the PDF format from Word itself
(and also other Microsoft Office software such as Excel and PowerPoint)
by using one of two alternatives:
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PDFWriter: generates PDF files in a one-step process with preset default
settings. The resulting files have only basic functionality and this method
is only recommended for the creation of simple, small text files that do
not contain graphics, tables or links.
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Acrobat Distiller: generates PDF files using a two-step process in which
the Word file is first converted to high-quality PostScript output (as
if printed to a file instead of to a printer), and then to PDF. This method
is recommended as it allows the user to set a variety of job options that
enhance both appearance and functionality of the output PDF files, and
easily converts documents containing graphics, tables or links.
The following steps are used:
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The relevant hypertext document should be loaded into Microsoft Word –
all recent versions of Word (97, 2000, XP) are inherently able to read
hypertext documents, complete with graphics, tables or links.
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The document should then be saved in native Word format. This allows the
document to be formatted including left and right justification and page
setup. The actual page length is now known, and page numbers and document
name in header/footer can now be inserted.
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The Acrobat Distiller is launched and PDF file created. PDF files converted
from Word are cropped to match the Word page size and can be immediately
viewed by Adobe Acrobat or Acrobat Reader.
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Output options include the ability to embed hyperlinks. The generated output
can also be screen optimised, print optimised or press optimised, with
increasing levels of resolution and display detail, at the cost of increasing
the output file size. For example, this document output in the above three
optimisation levels, generated file sizes of 312
kb, 405 kb and 412 kb respectively.
A prominent link from the hypertext document to the PDF file should naturally
be made available, and it is courteous to state the approximate size of
the PDF file, perhaps as part of the link itself. The intermediate Word
document should be retained for backup purposes. The output PDF file may
be reduced in size by the substitution of logos with text where possible
and in this respect, tables can be useful (figure 1).
Figure 1a: Journal logo for online use - transparent gif file
Figure 1b: Journal logo for PDF output - as a table
Logo is a table with two columns and one row.
The vertical divider (gridline) is not visible on printing
Content in PDF files can be saved in Rich Text Format and reused in
other applications. The most recent version of the Distiller software incorporates
a tagged format, which allows PDF files to contain logical document structure
(how the document is organised). This allows tagged PDF files can be reflowed
to fit small-screen devices. In general Adobe PDF files are smaller than
the original source files. They can be downloaded from the internet and
viewed a page at a time for fast display.
References
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Katzman GL. Adobe acrobat: an alternative electronic teaching file construction
methodology independent of HTML restrictions. J Digit Imaging 2001;14:9-13
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Gilbert J, Simoneau C, Cote D, Boenke A. An Internet compendium of analytical
methods and spectroscopic information for monomers and additives used in
food packaging plastics. Food Addit Contam 2000;17:889-893
