| • | Choose PDF document format from the Options|Configuration|General dialog (f8) then click the Options... button,
or
Choose PDF document format from the File|Export dialog (ctrl + E) - see PDF document file export - then click PDF options... |
| • | Clicking Apply accepts the set-up and returns to the 'General' Configuration page or Export dialog. |
To set options for PDF export
| 1. | In the 'PDF options' panel: |
| o | Select combine text strings together to store text as longer phrases to improve searching. |
| o | Select render as graphic or render all but text as graphic, see Notes below. |
| o | Select include TrueType fonts to include any TrueType font, downloaded in the original PCL file, in the exported PDF file. Using TrueType (i.e. scalable outline) fonts usually results in better appearance than bitmapped fonts, but may have adverse effects on the file size if only a few characters from a font are used. If this box is not checked then by default such fonts are converted to bitmap fonts. |
| o | The omit blank pages option may be ticked as required - for example when exporting a document which is to be viewed on screen (not printed) from a duplex original. |
| 2. | To reduce the size of the exported PDF file, you may specify when to substitute fonts in the original document and 'Use standard Adobe fonts' instead. |
| o | If you choose to replace bitmap fonts, TrueType fonts or always, ensure that such fonts in the document are using the Windows® character set, otherwise characters may be wrongly attributed. |
| o | The if substitute font given option will only omit the download font if it is recognized as having a known substitute, so is more reliable: see also Substitute fonts. |
| 3. | To restrict the capabilities for general users select one of the 'Do not allow' options: |
| o | Adding or changing notes and form fields |
| o | Selecting text and graphics. |
| 4. | Set the 'Resolution' for line drawing and images and for text positioning: 300dpi or 600dpi. |
| 5. | To generate PDFs with restricted access, 'specify the password the user will use' |
| o | Another password should be entered to enable administrators to change Security options.
Warning: curly brackets, { and }, will be interpreted as introducing a field name (see Special fields in composed strings), so to incorporate these characters in the password you must substitute the two character sequences _{ and _} respectively. |
| o | Select save encrypted password in the PDF to allow the password to be recovered by RedTitan if it is lost. |
| 6. | Select 40-bit or 128-bit 'Encryption' (40-bit is quite strong enough for general use). |
| 7. | Depending on the way opaque and transparent elements have been layered in a document (e.g. shading), it may be advisable to select graphic elements first or keep original element order; see Notes below. |
In addition, when you have finished setting up the options, you may also choose to create a Shortcut icon that uses all the options you have set by clicking Shortcut... (see Shortcuts - the easy way to construct a command line) or click the Save button to retain these settings after you close the program.
Notes
A PDF file may be rendered as a graphic only or as a graphic with text. The 'graphic only' option will produce an accurate image from the file, including an image of the text, but cannot be used for extracting text for further processing. Exporting the file as 'graphic with text' retains the text features (e.g. search) and consumes less memory, but note that EscapeE will always place text and drawn lines on top of any opaque elements, e.g. shading. You may override this feature by selecting the 'Keep original element order' option. Double-byte fonts, e.g. currency symbols, Chinese characters, are rendered as graphics, as are box-drawing characters.
Text phrases can be stored as longer phrases to improve searching. As this entails deciding whether individually positioned words form part of a continuous string the results may sometimes be unsatisfactory.
There is a command-line option to specify the password for PDF input independent of the one for output: see /PDFREADPASS
PJL comments and JOB commands in the original PCL document are passed into the exported PDF if Keep PJL comments PCL export option is selected (choose PCL document Format from the General page of the Configuration dialog then click Options...). See also Document Properties: PJL.
Links
PDF document file export
Special fields for PDF export
More options for PDF export
