soft proofing

1 COLOR PROFILES AND COLOR GAMUT
Soft proofing and color-simulation print proofing depend on the use of color profiles to simulate the appearance of an image or document as it will appear on a final output device. Both types of proofing are commonly, though not exclusively, used to predict how images and documents will ultimately print on commercial printing presses. Color profiles contain color gamut information (range of reproducible color) about both the proofing device and the final output device. The goal of the proofing process is to match the proofing colors to the gamut and appearance of the final output device.

2 SET UP ACROBAT COLOR MANAGEMENT
Activate the Preferences in Acrobat (Command-K [PC: Ctrl-K]), and click on Color Management in the Categories list on the left side of the dialog. In the Working Spaces section, select the RGB and CMYK color profiles you want to use for viewing and printing your images. We’ve selected Adobe RGB (1998) for RGB and U.S. Web Uncoated v2 for CMYK. Note: These working RGB and CMYK profiles should be consistent throughout your Creative Suite applications. You can create an initial color settings file in Photoshop and then apply that settings file to all the other Creative Suite applications through Bridge (Edit>Creative Suite Color Settings).

3 SET UP YOUR DOCUMENT VIEWING ENVIRONMENT
Create a duplicate copy of your PDF document. Then, open both documents and place them side by side on your screen, placing the proof copy to the right of the original. This will allow you to easily see the difference between the normal onscreen view and the soft proof of your final print. Scale both documents so they’re at the same dimensions. Note: For the most accurate viewing of your soft proof, you’ll want to calibrate your monitor with an external calibration device, such as the X-Rite i1Display LT, and provide a neutral gray surrounding background.

TAZ TALLY

4 ACTIVATE SOFT PROOFING
Select your right-side proofing PDF document. From the Advanced menu, choose Print Production>Output Preview. For soft-proofing print devices, select a profile from the Simulation Profile drop-down menu that matches the press and the substrate (here paper) on which you intend to print your final PDF. We selected a standard web printing press and uncoated stock profile (U.S. Web Uncoated v2). Next, check on the Simulate Paper Color checkbox. Note the Simulate Black Ink checkbox should also be automatically activated.

5 COMPARE PROOF AND ORIGINAL DOCUMENTS
Once you check on the Simulate Paper Color checkbox, you should see a noticeable reduction in the overall contrast of your document and a significant decrease in the color saturation. Acrobat, using information from the U.S. Web Uncoated profile, is attempting to simulate how this document and its images will appear when printed on a standard web press with uncoated stock. Feel free to compare and contrast other output profiles such as U.S. Sheetfed Coated and the new GRACoL profiles (updated sheetfed profiles) that have just been added in version 4 of the Adobe Creative Suite.

6 SHOW OVERPRINTING AND RICH BLACKS
To view which portions of your image are set to overprint or print as rich blacks, perform the following: (1) Check on the Simulate Overprinting checkbox; (2) in the Preview section, select Color Warnings; and (3) in the Warnings section, check on the Show Overprinting and Rich Black checkboxes. By default overprinting objects will be colored yellow and rich black objects will be colored blue-green. You can adjust the color of the warnings by clicking on the swatches located to the right of each checkbox.

7 ZOOM IN TO VIEW OBJECTS
Feel free to zoom in on any of your overprinting or rich black objects to see their details. Tip: If you’re viewing multipage documents, you can simply use your Right and Left Arrows to navigate forward and backward between document pages.

8 PROOF SPECIFIC COLORS
In addition to the color-separation techniques we covered last issue, you can also use the Output Preview dialog to view any individual colors that are set to separate during printing. To view color separations, first select the Separations choice in the Preview area. Then, check on the colors you’d like to preview. We checked on the Spot and Process Black colors. If you place your cursor over a portion of the process black plate, the black (K) percentage is shown in the column located to the right of the colors column (84% in this example).

9 PROOF PROCESS PERCENTAGES
In addition to viewing individual colors, you can also proof the process (CMYK) percentages that will be used to print any process portion of your document. To view your process percentages, check on the Process Plates checkbox located at the top of the Separations list. To view the CMYK percentages in any portion of an image, simply roll your mouse over that area and the percentages will be displayed in the column located to the far right.

10 POTENTIAL SHADOW DETAIL LOSS AREAS
You can also use the Output Preview dialog to check the reproduction of shadow detail. To proof your shadow detail areas, first check on the Total Area Coverage box. Then use the % field located to the right of this checkbox to select the total ink percentage for the press and paper on which you’re printing. Use the following total ink values as a guideline: Coated Stock: 300–340; uncoated stock: 280–300; and newsprint stock: 240–260. By default, any areas of your image containing ink total volumes exceeding your numeric value will appear as bright green.

color-simulation print proofs

1 ASSIGN YOUR TARGET DEVICE
In addition to onscreen soft proofs, you can print simulated hard proofs on a device other than your final print device. If you’d like to print a hard proof on your inkjet (or other proof printer) and have it simulate the appearance on a commercial print device, begin the process by assigning your final print device (target device)—here U.S. Web Uncoated v2—in the Simulation Profile drop-down menu located in the Output Preview dialog as we did in Step 4 above. This defines the print device you want to simulate. The print dialog in the following steps will use this profile setting.

2 SELECT PRINTER AND SCALING
Choose File>Print to activate the first print dialog. From the Printer drop-down menu, choose the proofing print device (we chose EPSON Stylus Photo R2400) on which you’ll be printing the simulation of the web press with uncoated stock. Set the number of Pages to print. Choose the amount of Page Scaling (if any) required to print the entire document on the paper dimensions of your proofing device. For instance, you may need to shrink your print dimension to include printer marks on an 8.5×11″ document.

3 SELECT COLOR HANDLING
To access the Color Management controls, click on the Advanced button located near the lower-left corner of the Print dialog. From the Color Handling drop-down menu located in the Color Management category, choose where the color management (the meshing of the target and the proofing profiles) will be accomplished. Choose either Acrobat Color Management, where Acrobat will merge the two profiles, or Printer Color Management, where the meshing will occur at the printer. Usually, you’ll choose Acrobat Color Management. If your proof device has a PostScript RIP you might choose Printer Color Management. Feel free to test both results.

4 ASSIGN COLOR PROFILE AND PRINT
Next, from the Color Profile drop-down menu, choose the color profile that matches your device, paper, and print setup conditions as closely as possible. You can download these paper-/print-specific profiles from most manufacturers’ websites. Now check the crucial Apply Output Preview Settings box to activate the meshing of the proof and target profiles (in this example, Epson R2400 and U.S. Web Uncoated v2, respectively). Click the OK button to apply your Advanced dialog color-management settings. Then, click the Print button in the Print dialog to initiate the creation of a U.S. Web Uncoated simulated proof on the proofing device.

[composite content proofs]

1 EXPORT PAGE LAYOUT TO PDF

Composite content proofs are designed to primarily show the content of a document—the layout of text and graphics. Composite proofs are usually viewed at 100% of the final output dimension, but usually use low-resolution images (for small file size to facilitate rapid distribution) and may or may not show accurate color. You’ll typically create a content proof from within your page-layout application such as InDesign. To begin, open your page layout in InDesign, choose File>Export, and select Adobe PDF from the Format drop-down menu in the Export dialog.

2 CHOOSE GENERAL OPTIONS

In the General section of the Export Adobe PDF dialog, choose Smallest File Size as a starting point from the Adobe PDF Preset drop-down menu. Select Acrobat 5 (PDF 1.4) for Compatibility to provide wide compatibility of your PDF proof. For Pages choose All. In the Options area check both Optimize for Fast Web View (this provides page-by-page delivery of a multipage PDF displayed over the Internet) and View PDF after Exporting (to automatically view your PDF in Acrobat). Note the designation “(modified)” will be added to the name “Smallest File Size” in the Adobe PDF Preset drop-down menu.

3 CHOOSE COMPRESSION SETTINGS

In the Compression section, set Bicubic Downsampling to 100 Pixels Per Inch for both Color Images and Grayscale Images (this will significantly reduce the file size of your PDF by lowering the resolution of your images). Set the Compression to Automatic (JPEG) for “smart” JPEG compression. Set the Image Quality to Medium. The default Image Quality for the Smallest File Size preset is Low—experiment with Low to evaluate image quality. Use the default settings for Monochrome Images, and then check on Compress Text and Line Art, and Crop Image Data to Frames (both of these will reduce the file size of your PDF without affecting viewing quality).

4 CHOOSE MARKS AND BLEEDS OPTIONS

In the Marks and Bleeds section, check Use Document Bleed Settings (this will ensure that any bleed elements you’ve created in your page layout will display properly at the edge of your document in your PDF). You can also check Include Slug Area if you’ve added any text to the slug area at the bottom of your document that you want included in your proof. Note: To create a slug area at the bottom of your InDesign document, choose File>Document Setup, click on the More Options button in the Document Setup dialog, and enter dimensions in the Slug fields.

5 CHOOSE OUTPUT OPTIONS

In the Output section, set Color Conversion to Convert to Destination. Set the Destination to Adobe RGB (1998) (the default sRGB is okay for Web output proofs; however, many print-oriented users have Adobe RGB assigned to their monitors). Make sure the Profile Inclusion Policy drop-down menu is set to Include Destination Profile (including the profile will help provide more accurate viewing on the receiving monitor). If your images are already in an RGB color space you may not see much reduction in file size, but CMYK images will be reduced by a minimum of 25%, along with file size reductions from Step 3.

6 SAVE AS PRESET; EXPORT PDF

Before you click the Export button to create your PDF, press the Save Preset button located in the lower left-hand corner of the Export Adobe PDF dialog. Name your new preset “Comp Proof,” and click OK. Your Comp Proof preset will now appear as a choice in your Adobe PDF Preset drop-down menu located at the top of the Export Adobe PDF dialog. You can now use this as a one-step method for creating composition proofs. Now click the Export button to create your content-accurate proof of your document that’s small enough to quickly email or post on the Internet.

[color-separated proofs]

1 USE PRINT DIALOG INSTEAD OF EXPORT

Creating color-separated PDFs is a quick-and-easy way to make sure you’ve assigned your print colors properly. High-quality PDFs can be created either directly from InDesign or through Distiller, a standalone application used specifically for creating PDFs from PostScript. If you’re creating multiple PDFs from large documents, Distiller is a better option than working through InDesign. Here we’re going to use InDesign to create a color-separated PDF. Instead of using the Export function as we did for the composite proof, let’s go to the Print dialog (File>Print), which provides ready access to controlling separations.

2 CHOOSE ADOBE PDF 9.0 FOR PRINTER DRIVER

Print dialogs vary depending upon application version and operating system. Here you see InDesign CS4 with Mac OS 10.5. In your print dialog, choose Adobe PDF 9.0 as your printer driver (in this example, we selected the driver from the Printer drop-down menu). Note: If you decide to use Distiller, you’d typically choose a PostScript printer driver rather than a PDF printer driver.

3 SELECT PAPER SIZE

In the General section, choose All to view color separations for all document pages. In the Setup section, designate the Paper Size for your PDF. Your choice here depends upon whether or not you include marks and bleeds. If you don’t include marks and bleeds, your PDF will have the same dimensions as your page layout document (here 8.5×11″). If you do include marks and bleeds, choose Custom from the Paper Size drop-down menu. When you select to include marks and bleeds (see next step), InDesign will automatically enter the proper dimensions to accommodate the additional space required.

4 MARKS AND BLEEDS OPTIONS

In the Marks and Bleeds section, check on the settings based on whether or not you want to include marks and bleeds. Remember, if you choose to add marks and bleeds, you need to make sure you’ve chosen Custom for the Paper Size in the Setup section; the paper dimensions will automatically increase to accommodate your marks and bleeds. And just as we did in the comp proof above, you can choose to include the slug area if you included one in your document with a messages or notes.

5 CHOOSE SEPARATIONS FROM COLOR MENU

The Output section is where you designate whether your output will be composite or separations. Click on the Color drop-down menu and choose Separations. Notice you have a variety of composite outputs, as well as an In-RIP Separations choice. Choose Separations because you want the colors to separate in the PDF prior to the document information going to the RIP. Also note under the Inks section there’s a list of all the assigned colors in this document. This example shows four process and one spot color available for separation.

6 CHOOSE PDF PRESET

Click the Printer button located near the lower-left corner of the Print dialog. This will activate a second Print dialog in which you can choose the PDF Preset you’d like to use. Choose PDF Options from the unnamed drop-down menu located near the middle of the dialog. From the Adobe PDF Settings drop-down menu choose the PDF preset you want to use (here High Quality Print), and the application you’d like to use to view the PDF after creation (here Adobe Acrobat Pro). Click the Print button to activate a Save dialog, name your PDF, and select a location to save it.

7 VIEW COLOR SEPARATIONS IN ACROBAT

After clicking the Save button, you’ll be returned to the original Print dialog. Click the Print button to initiate the creation of your PDF. If you monitor your print queue you’ll notice that Distiller is automatically launched to create the PDF. A color-separated version of the PDF will appear in Acrobat. Navigate through the PDF file to view each color-separated page (here the cyan and spot color pages are shown). Note your specific dialogs may vary somewhat from those shown throughout this tutorial, but the basic steps are the same. The most important setting is to locate the Composite and Separations choices.

1 PREFLIGHT BEFORE PRINT
Prior to activating the print dialog in Acrobat, it’s well advised to perform a preflight on your PDF document to determine its print dimensions and quality of content. You’ll want to determine content characteristics, such as the color space and linear resolution of any placed images; the number of assigned print colors, including spot colors; any color profiles that have been assigned; the printability of items, such as vector paths; and the presence of any printer’s marks you may want. (For more details on preflighting, see “Customize Preflight Profiles in Adobe Acrobat” at www.layersmagazine.com/category/acrobat.)

2 MATCH DRIVERS AND PDF TO PRINT DEVICE
First, download and install the latest print driver for your print device. Based on your preflight results (see Step 1), make any adjustments to the content of your PDF so the linear resolution, color spaces, and assigned print colors match the device to which you’ll be printing. For most commercial print documents, you’ll want to have 250–300 ppi CMYK images, plus or minus spot colors. For inkjet printing, your images should be around 200 ppi and RGB color space—keep in mind that any spot colors will be printed as CMYK+ colors.

3 PICK PRINTER IN PAGE SETUP
The next step is to format your PDF for your specific print device. The best place to start is to choose File>Page Setup. First, choose your specific print device from the Format For drop-down menu (in this example, we’re going to be printing to an inkjet printer, so we’ve selected Epson Stylus Photo R2400). Then choose your paper dimension from the Paper Size drop-down menu. Note: If you want to print full bleeds on an inkjet printer, be sure to select a full bleed option, usually a submenu selection, from this menu. To finish, confirm your Orientation, leave the Scale at 100%, and click OK.

4 LAUNCH THE PDF PRINT DIALOG
To enter the actual print dialog, choose File>Print. Once again, the first step is to select your specific printing device, this time from the Printer drop-down menu. The printer driver you select determines the available print options in the other portions of this dialog. You’ll likely see one or more Adobe PDF printer drivers. Choosing one of these drivers allows you to create an onscreen, color-separated version of your PDF without having to actually print the color separations.

5 ASSIGN PAGES TO PRINT
From the unnamed menu located below Presets, choose Copies & Pages (this should be the default selection). Now work your way through the options at the top left to select which PDF document pages you’d like to print. The options you see here will depend on the printer driver you selected in Step 4. If you selected specific PDF pages in the Pages panel prior to activating this print dialog (see image in Step 2), click the Selected Pages option to restrict printing to those pages. This feature allows you to visually select your print pages.

6 SELECT OPTIONS FROM COMMENTS AND FORMS
To control which components of your PDF document will print, click on the Comments and Forms drop-down menu. Notice you have the ability to print just the Document, the Document and Markups, Document and Stamps, or Form Fields Only. This is a little-known and often ignored print control capability that adds a great deal of flexibility and customization to your PDF printing. Here, we chose to print the Document only.

7 DETERMINE PAGE SCALING
With Acrobat, you can apply on-the-fly scaling of your print image. Click on the Page Scaling drop-down menu. Here you see many print dimension options, including the ability to print multiple pages on one sheet or print large images across several sheets. There’s even a Booklet Printing option that allows you to print facing pages on single sheets (see image). The default setting is typically Fit to Printable Area. If you’ve already set the dimensions of your image exactly as you want them (as we’ve done here), then choose None from this menu list.

8 SELECT MEDIA TYPE
From the unnamed drop-down menu, choose Print Settings. (Note: Depending on your printer, some settings in the following steps may be located in sections with different names than the Epson driver we’re using here.) Check that you still have the proper printer driver selected, then review the Page Setup, which indicates the print dimension you assigned in Page Setup in Step 3. Make sure this matches the page setup you expect (here Sheet Feeder—Borderless). From the Media Type drop-down menu, select the media type on which you’ll be printing (here Ultra Premium Photo Paper Luster). Then from the Color menu, choose your preferred mode (here Color).

9 TURN OFF COLOR ADJUSTMENT
Steps 9 and 10 are critical for determining which color controls will be used in your printing. From the Color Settings drop-down menu, choose the default printer driver control color profile (here Epson Standard [sRGB]). Now click on the Advanced Color Settings tab, and note the printer driver-based controls. Return to the Color Settings drop-down menu and choose Off (No Color Adjustment). Once again, click on the Advanced Color Settings tab and note the paper-specific color profile that’s indicated. This setup will typically achieve the highest quality and most consistent print results.

10 USE COLORSYNC FOR COLOR MATCHING
Return once again to the unnamed menu, currently with Print Settings selected, and choose Color Matching. Here, you see a choice between two color control modes: ColorSync and an option for your particular printer (Epson Color Controls in this example)—in the printer option, the printer driver controls the color matching. Click on the ColorSync button and you’ll see the paper-specific color profile. You can click on the Profile drop-down menu to select another profile if you wish, but we’ll stick with the same paper-specific Premium Luster profile we used in Step 9. This avoids any potential conflict with the Epson driver.

11 CHOOSE PRINT QUALITY
Now return to the Print Settings menu, click on the Advanced button in the Mode section, then click on the Print Quality drop-down menu. The choices you see will depend upon your printer and printer driver. You can experiment with the various print modes to understand their effect on image quality. Here, we’ll select either Best Photo or Photo RPM to achieve high-quality prints. Note: RPM is a higher resolution mode that’s useful for images containing high detail such as text. Also test the High Speed setting (turned off here), which allows bidirectional printing, but can sometimes lower image quality.

12 EXPERIMENT WITH EXPANSION SETTING
Return to the unnamed drop-down menu and choose Expansion. You want to pay attention to this setting if you’re printing full bleed—that is, to the edge of your print. Feel free to test the effect of the various Expansion settings. The Expansion setting is the printer version of dragging an image past the bleed marks that you set in a page layout document. You may simply want to use the Max setting to make sure your images always bleed off the edge of your print media.

13 ADVANCED PRINT SETUP: SEPARATIONS
If you want to print color separations or control overall color-management settings, choose Copies & Pages from the unnamed menu and click on the Advanced button located in the lower-left quadrant of the print dialog. Click Output (in the list on the left). From the Color drop-down menu, select the type of output you’d like (here Composite). This is the menu from which you can choose to print separations either directly from Acrobat or send them to a RIP (Postscript Level 3 only). If you print separations, click on Marks and Bleeds and assign printer marks in that menu.

14 ADVANCED PRINT SETUP: COLOR MANAGEMENT
Click on Color Management in the list. From the Color Handling drop-down menu, choose whether you want Acrobat to manage the color (selected here); the printer to manage the color; or disable color management and allow embedded color profiles to be used. If you choose Acrobat Color Management, select the paper-specific Color Profile from the drop-down menu. You can even direct Acrobat to simulate printing on another device: Just check the Apply Output Preview Settings box and assign the device to be simulated using Advanced>Print Production>Output Preview. (See “Output Preview” in the preflight article referenced in Step 1.) All that’s left now is to press Print.

ALL IMAGES BY TAZ TALLY UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED

1 CREATE A SMALL PDF DOCUMENT
Your first two tasks are: To create a small-size, Web-friendly PDF version of your document for review—typically, images with a resolution of 72-ppi with moderate compression will provide image quality good enough for review. (For more on repurposing PDFs, see “Optimizing PDFs,” Layers, Sept/Oct 2008, p. 72.) Then, establish a naming scheme for your PDF document versions, making sure everyone in your group is aware of it. For this example, we’ll use a simple, sequential, numeric naming system that adds “_#” at the end of each successive version—Gallery Promo_1, for example.

2 CHOOSE REVIEW/DISTRIBUTION OPTION
Acrobat offers two kinds of managed reviews: Server-based shared and email-based reviews. Shared reviews (used here) are the most flexible, as reviewers can interactively view and respond to each other’s comments, track comments, and even participate in live interactive review sessions. Acrobat 9 is required to initiate a shared review and Commenting tools can be used in either review method. Acrobat 6 or later and Reader 7 or later are required for an email-based review. In a shared review, you can use either the Acrobat.com free server (used here) or your own server for document distribution.

3 ENABLE COMMENTING FOR READER USERS
If reviewers have only Acrobat Reader, they can view and add their own comments. But Commenting (and its automatically available tools) must first be activated for these Reader users from Acrobat Pro or Pro Extended. Setting up a shared review automatically activates Commenting for Reader 9 users; however, Acrobat 9 is required to participate in shared reviews via Acrobat.com. For email-based reviews, you can activate Reader Commenting by choosing Comments>Enable for Commenting and Analysis in Adobe Reader. Acrobat 8 (or higher) is required for sharing comments via email-based review.

4 INITIATE SHARED REVIEW
First make sure you’re connected to the Internet, preferably with a broadband connection. To initiate a shared review, open the PDF you want to share and choose Comments>Send for Shared Review. The drop-down menu at the top of the dialog should be set to Automatically Download & Track Comments with Acrobat.com. Click Next and you’ll be prompted to provide your Adobe ID (usually an email address) and password. If you don’t have an Adobe ID and password, you can create one here: Just click on the Create Adobe ID link. Be patient, the linking process can take a few minutes…go grab a cup of coffee or run a few sprints.

5 SET UP YOUR SHARED DOCUMENT
When the Send for Shared Review dialog appears, in the To or CC fields, list the email addresses of everyone you want to participate in this collaboration, separating each email address with a semicolon (;). (Note: Click on the To or CC buttons to access your email list in your default email application.) Type in a Subject (ours is Gallery Promo File). If you want to change the Review Deadline, click on the link and select either a new date or No Deadline. Don’t click Send yet….

6 SET ACCESS LEVEL
There are two choices of Access Level: Open Access and Limited Access. Open Access allows access to anyone who knows the URL for the shared file. Limited Access is restricted to those listed in your share list and they’ll have to create a free Acrobat.com account to access the shared document. Open Access is a bit easier for your recipient to use and is the access we’ll choose here. Note: If the document on which you’re collaborating is sensitive, such as a financial report or product release, you may want to use the Limited access. Now, click the Send button.

7 DOWNLOAD, VIEW, AND COMMENT
Each person you include will receive an email invitation (with a link to the document) to join the document review. They can copy-and-paste the link into their Web browser (preferred) or they can activate the link through the email. Each reviewer will be taken to Acrobat.com where they’ll be asked if they’sd like to download the document to access additional features in Acrobat or Reader. After clicking Download, they can review and comment on the shared PDF and then publish their comments in Acrobat or Reader. A Task Bar appears at the top of the shared document, allowing reviewers to Check for New Comments or Publish Comments.

8 TRACK COMMENTS
To help manage your shared documents, activate the Track Reviews function in Acrobat or Reader. This tracking allows you to monitor all shared documents and shared comments created in Acrobat or Reader. Once you click the Send button in Step 6, Acrobat informs you that that your document has been distributed and provides a link for opening the Tracker. You can also choose Comments>Track Reviews (Reader: View>Tracker). In the Tracker window you can view all of your shared documents and track comments and reviewers. The Tracker will also inform you about any new comments, the status of the file, and when the review is set to expire.

9 VIEW YOUR SHARED DOCUMENT ONLINE
To view your documents online, visit Acrobat.com and log in with your Adobe ID. Your document(s) are listed under My Files. To the right of the My Files icon, there are a variety of document-management tools, including several document-view controls. Click on the List by Author (head-and-shoulder) icon to show the author and the View As Thumbnails (four squares) to view thumbnails of the document(s).

10 VIEW AND MANAGE REVIEWERS
To view and manage the reviewers for a particular shared document, simply click on the document’s thumbnail and a list of all the reviewers to whom you sent invitations appears at the bottom of the share.acrobat.com window. Move your cursor over a reviewer’s name to view their access status. In our example, you’ll see that the Artshop reviewer can view and download this file. Also note that Reader Commenting has been activated automatically. To remove a reviewer, hover your cursor over the reviewer’s name, then click on the down-facing arrow at right and click Remove.

11 MANAGE YOUR SHARED DOCUMENT
If you click on the down-facing arrow at the lower-right corner of your shared document’s thumbnail, a pop-up menu opens, allowing you to Open, Share, Convert to PDF (if it’s not a PDF), Download, Live Enable, Delete, Copy Link (for placing a link to this document in an email) and Copy Embed Code (for placing a link on a website). If you click Share, a dialog appears above the file thumbnails with the selected shared file listed under Choose Files to Share. To add another reviewer, complete the right side of the window and then click Share.

12 VIEW AND ACCESS FILE INFO
To view a complete compilation of information about your document and its contents, click on the hyperlinked name below its thumbnail (or choose Open from the menu accessed in the last step). The file appears in the Preview area. At the top of this window, you can change magnification, scroll through the document, and control the page display. On the right are listed document statistics and reviewers. Double-click on any reviewer name to manage that reviewer. In the upper-right corner, click on the My Files icon to return to the previous file icon preview.

13 WORK LIVE
In addition to the asynchronous review process detailed above, you can also work “live” on documents with your reviewers through Acrobat.com. There are several avenues for working live: You can choose Live Enable from your shared document pop-up menu to create a live version of your shared document; you can also participate in online meetings and live text document editing (Buzzword documents) by clicking on their respective icons located in the upper-right corner of the shared.acrobat.com window; or you can initiate a live review from within Acrobat by choosing File>Collaborate>Send & Collaborate Live.

1 CREATE A PDF PORTFOLIO
To begin the process of creating a PDF portfolio, choose File>Create PDF Portfolio. This will activate the portfolio workspace. Through this workspace you can gather your various documents; define a layout for how your portfolio will be organized and presented; format your portfolio (with headers, background images, and color schemes); edit existing portfolios; as well as save, preview, manage, share, and publish your portfolios. This Portfolio workspace is a special, separate workspace within Acrobat. Now Choose File>Save Portfolio to name and locate your portfolio (here “50 Hikes–Photo Marketing”).

2 LOCATE AND ORGANIZE YOUR FILES
You may find it useful to use Bridge to locate, gather, name, and organize your folders and images prior to placing them in your portfolio. You can manually organize your files and folders in Bridge and then use the Batch Rename tool for quick alpha or numeric renaming of your folders and files. Using Bridge to organize your files and folders is not required, but may save you some time.

3 ADD FILES AND FOLDERS
You can add individual files, entire folders of files, or you can create portfolio folders in Acrobat into which you place files. You can access these commands at various places: the File>Modify PDF Portfolio menu; the Modify menu at the top of the document workspace; or more easily, simply click on the appropriate buttons located in the lower-left corner of the portfolio dialog. You can also Control-click (PC: Right-click) in the preview area to access a pop-up menu that includes these same options. And finally, you can drag files from any location on your computer into your preview area.

4 DEFINE YOUR DISPLAY COLUMNS
In List view you can display certain criteria, such as file name and size, to sort or to simply view file information. To manage your display criteria, click on the Specify File Details tab located at the bottom of the Edit PDF Portfolio panel (this will switch you to List view). Check the boxes of the criteria you’d like to display. To create your own custom criteria, type in a new column name (here “Document/Image”) in the white text field located at the top of the Specify File Details panel, select the type of criteria from the drop-down menu (Text, Number, or Date), and then click the Plus (+) button.

5 SORT YOUR PORTFOLIO
Use the Initial Sort drop-down menu at the bottom of the Specify File Details panel to sort your portfolio files by any of the display criteria you activated in the previous step. You can also sort by ascending or descending values. If you’d like to create a custom sort, you could assign sequential alpha or numeric values to the various files and folders in the Description column. Just double-click in the Description column next to one of the files to type in a value. Once you’ve entered all your values, simply sort by Description.

6 SELECT A LAYOUT
To select your layout, click on the Choose a Layout tab located in the Edit PDF Portfolio panel. You can choose from several layout views, including Basic Grid, Revolve, and Sliding Row. Here we chose the Revolve option, which is a good way to view one portfolio item at a time. You can use the Basic Grid and Sliding Row to view multiple portfolio items simultaneously. To navigate your portfolio in Revolve or Sliding Row, simply click on the white triangles to either side of the preview area. Double-click folders to view their contents and then navigate back using the folder path at the upper-left corner of the view window (here Home/50 Hike Book).

7 ADD A BACKGROUND IMAGE
If you’d like to display your portfolio items over a background image, click on the On An Image layout option located under the Basic Grid option. Then click the Pick an Image icon that appears next to the Create New Folder icon at the bottom of the dialog. To control the scale and placement of the background image, drag the slider directly under the image to scale it, and click-and-drag directly on the image to adjust its position.

8 PREVIEW PORTFOLIO FILES
You can preview many documents and images without having to open them in their native applications. To preview an image, simply select the file and click on the Preview the Selected File icon (it looks like a page) located in the upper-left corner of the dialog. Or you can simply double-click on the item to activate its preview. If Acrobat can display a preview of the file, a large preview will appear. You can control the scale and orientation of the preview using the appropriate icons located at the top of the preview. Click the Open button to open the image in its native application.

9 MANAGE YOUR PORTFOLIO ITEMS
Any document or image in your PDF portfolio can be deleted, exported, edited, or converted to PDF. The easiest way to access these options is to simply Control-click (PC: Right-click) on any portfolio image or document (make sure you’re not in Preview mode). From the pop-up menu that appears, choose the appropriate action. If you need to reduce the file size of any item in the portfolio, convert it to PDF. Good news note: If you open and edit an image or document in its native application, this editing will not affect the original file, only the file contained in the portfolio.

10 ADD A WELCOME PAGE
Click on the Add Welcome & Header tab located in the Edit PDF Portfolio panel, then click on the Welcome Page tab. Choose whether you want Text Only, Image Only, Image & Text, or Flash Movie (we selected Image & Text). Click on the Add an Image and Add Text areas that appear to import images and type text, then use the formatting tools that appear beneath content. When you place an image, you can control its scale, opacity, and background color. Click the Done button to complete the process.

11 ADD A HEADER
Click on the Header icon below the Welcome Page icon. Choose from the various text, logo, and image options (we chose Logo & Structured Text). Click on the active image and text areas and use the format tools that appear for each header element. View the results of your Welcome Page and Header additions by clicking on the Open the Welcome Page icon located at the top of the dialog. Note: All your portfolio contents including your welcome page and headers are searchable though the Search field located in the upper-right corner.

12 ASSIGN A COLOR SCHEME
To control the colors used in your portfolio, click on the Select a Color Scheme tab located in the Edit PDF Portfolio panel. First, click on the various built-in, well-matched complimentary Color Schemes to find a set of colors that works well with your portfolio. If you want to try your hand at assigning colors, click on the Customize Color Scheme area. Color swatches will appear for the background, text, and card colors. To adjust a specific color, simply click on one of the color swatches to activate a color picker.

13 PUBLISHING YOUR PDF PORTFOLIO
You have several output options for your PDF portfolio including saving, printing (whatever portions you like), emailing, placing your portfolio on your own website, or using Acrobat.com. You can access these various output functions either through the Save, Print, and Share icons located at the top of you portfolio dialog, or by clicking on the Publish tab located in the Edit PDF Portfolio panel. Tip: Prior to emailing/uploading your portfolio, perform a Save As and check its file size by choosing File>Portfolio Properties and clicking the Description tab to make sure it’s an appropriate size. Large portfolios can be shared via Acrobat.com.

1 OPEN YOUR PDF DOCUMENT
Open the PDF document that you wish to preflight for commercial printing. To preserve the integrity of the original PDF, make a copy of the file by going to File>Save As and renaming it “(filename)_Preflight” (we named ours “ArtShop Flyer_Preflight”).
Note: If you run a preflight profile with fixups (see Step 2), Acrobat automatically gives you the option to save the fixed file as a copy, but I still don’t like to work with the only copy I have of a file.

2 ACTIVATE PREFLIGHT TOOL
In Acrobat 9, go under the Advanced menu and choose Preflight. In the Preflight dialog, click on the Profiles tab (top left) to display the list of preflight profiles currently available. You’ll see a variety of analyses, fixups, and compliance choices. It may be a bit overwhelming at first, but once you get the hang of this dialog, it gets easier!
Note: A fixup applies an actual change to your PDF, such as converting spot colors to process colors. You have the option to execute these profiles with or without fixups.

3 CREATE YOUR CUSTOM PREFLIGHT PROFILE
You can choose to create a new profile from scratch or modify an existing one. (If you’re new to the preflight profile game, you might want to start with an existing profile.) Twirl open the Prepress profiles and click on Sheetfed Offset (CMYK). We’re going to use this as our starting profile. Now click on the down-facing arrow beside Options (upper-right corner of the dialog) and choose Duplicate Preflight Profile to activate the Preflight: Edit Profile dialog.
Tip: Don’t edit these default profiles directly; always duplicate one and then edit it.

4 NAME AND DESCRIBE YOUR PROFILE
First assign a name to your preflight profile—ours is “Sheetfed Offset (CMYK)_Custom.” Then type your name and email address in the Author and Email fields and add this profile to the Group you want: Prepress, in our example. You may also want to add notes in the Purpose field to augment or replace the current copy. As an example, you might include info about a specific output device or a customer if this is a customer-specific profile. Lastly, make sure your profile is Unlocked, which it should be if you’ve chosen to duplicate an existing profile.

5 DOCUMENT SPECS
Now, click on Document in the list on the left-hand side of the dialog and the screen at right shows your configurable choices: PDF version, encryption, and damage. Each choice has a drop-down menu where you can set your profile to ignore (Inactive), provide Info only, serve as a Warning, or as an all out Error. (The Damage section is set to Error by default.) For this example, we set the PDF Document Uses Features That Require At Least option to give us a Warning. We then selected Acrobat 5.0 (PDF 1.4) to ensure that the PDF version supports transparency or perhaps as a RIP preference.

6 PAGES SPECS
Next, click on Pages in the left-hand list. Note that the option Page Size or Page Orientation is Different from Page to Page is indicated as a Warning (circled). If this is a concern, leave it as is or change it to Error. If page size/orientation isn’t an issue, check Inactive.
We’ve chosen Error for Page Size Is Not, entered 8.5 and 11, and chosen Inches as our Measurement Unit at the bottom of the dialog. This, along with the page orientation option, will check for a consistent page size of 8.5×11″ and a single orientation. You can, of course, choose Ignore Page Orientation if you prefer.

7 IMAGES SPECS
In the Images profile segment, we activated Resolution of Color and Gray Scale Images to indicate that any image lower than 200 ppi should be a Warning. This will let you check on any image with linear resolutions of less than 200, but allow you to review and pass muster on marginally lower images. Note: I don’t place any Higher Than Resolution limits because of the high effective resolution of many of my screen grabs.
We also applied a Warning for Images Use Lossy Compression to indicate the potential of image degradation from too much compression.

8 COLORS SPECS
In the Colors profile segment, we activated Warning for images that contain any (More Than 0) Spot Colors. We also activated Warnings for Objects on Page [that] Use RGB or Use Device Independent Colors (Lab, for instance).
Note: We designated these as Warnings because I know from looking at the fixups (see Step 14 below) that if I run this profile with fixups, then spot colors and RGB will be automatically converted. By designating these as warnings, I can run this profile without fixups, find these color challenges, and fix them manually, if needed.

9 FONTS SPECS
Under Fonts, we need to make sure that the font files used to create this document were embedded in the PDF, which protects the PDF’s typesetting integrity and discourages font substitution. So here, we set the profile to indicate an Error if a Font is Not Embedded.
Note: You can designate the profile to look for specific font types, such as CID fonts, and even specific font names that you may want to check prior to printing. Also note that other font checks are and can be included in the Custom Checks (see Step 13 below).

10 RENDERING SPECS
For Rendering, we’ve kept the Warning (included in the original duplicated profile) of finding a Custom Halftone Setting Used. We also added a Warning to find any Line Thickness Less Than 0.5 points in width.
The custom halftone setting is designated to be removed in the fixups in the original profile, and setting a minimum line width can be added to the fixups (see Step 14 below). If you’re concerned about transparent objects in your PDF, you can also activate the Transparency Used check at the top of the Rendering options.

11 PDF/A/X/E SPECS
This section is to let you specify which, if any, PDF standard compliance you may want your PDF to meet. In the Sheetfed Offset (CMYK) profile, by default PDF/X-1a (2001) is active as an Error check. This compliance is not necessary for my printing needs, however, so I’ve made all the PDF standard compliance checks Inactive.
Note: Any profile check you deactivate will reduce the complexity of the preflight report and file you generate, thereby reducing the time required in its evaluation.

12 CONVERT TO PDF/A/X/E SPECS
If, however, you’re working in a PDF standard-compliant workflow (PDF/X-1a is a common choice), the Convert to PDF options can be very useful.
It’s important if you do convert a PDF to a standard to choose the proper output/destination profile in the Set Output Intent To drop-down menu. If appropriate, check Use Embedded Output Intent If Present, or if embedding isn’t desired, check Omit ICC Profile Unless Embedding is Required.

13 CUSTOM CHECKS
In this section you can add, duplicate, edit, or delete specific profile checks. For instance, the Text is Smaller Than 5 pt check can be removed from the Custom Checks in this Profile list. If you want to add a check, locate it in the All Available Custom Checks list and click the arrow icon below the list. Or you can modify a check by clicking the Edit Check icon (circled) to bring up the Preflight: Edit Check dialog.
Tip: As when creating custom preflight profiles, I suggest duplicating and editing an existing Custom Check when creating a new check.

14 FIXUPS
This last setting (before Summary) is a list of edits, known as fixups, that can be applied to a PDF when you choose to execute a preflight with fixups. A common prepress fixup (shown here) is to Convert Alternate Color Space for Spot Colors (conversion of non-CMYK colors to process [CMYK] colors). As with Custom Checks items, each of these fixups can be added, duplicated, edited, or deactivated. Once you’ve completed your profile, use the drop-down menu at the top to Lock it, click the Save button at the bottom, click OK, and then take it for a spin by executing it on a PDF file!

1 LAUNCH CONTROL—GLOBAL
To specify the default application used to open PDF documents through Bridge, press Command-K (PC: Ctrl-K) to activate the Preferences dialog in Bridge. Then, select File Type Associations from the list on the left. Scroll down the alphabetical list of file formats to PDF Document (.pdf). Click on the downfacing arrow located to the right to activate the list of PDF-capable applications (the number may surprise you). Select the application you want, and click the OK button. Your choice will now be the default application to open any PDFs through Bridge.

2 LAUNCH CONTROL—DOCUMENT SPECIFIC
Sometimes you may want to open a PDF document in an application other than the one you designated in Step 1. To specify a particular application to open a PDF document, first select the PDF you want to open in Bridge. Control-click (PC: Right-click) on the image to activate the contextual menu. Choose Open With to activate the list of PDF-capable applications. Select the application you want (here Photoshop CS3) and your PDF will be opened in that application.

3 VIEW CONTENTS WITHOUT OPENING
In Bridge, select Window>Workspace>Horizontal Filmstrip to activate an enlarged preview of you documents. Then, select the PDF document you want to preview from the thumbnails in the Content tab located at the bottom of the Bridge window. If your PDF has more than one page, you’ll see navigation arrows, a page display field indicating the page you’re currently viewing, and the total number of pages. Use the navigation arrows to scroll through your PDF. Note: You can adjust the dimension of the preview by changing the size of the Bridge window or dragging the bar between the Preview and Content areas.

4 COMPARE MULTIPLE PDFS
As you did in Step 3, select Window>Workspace>Horizontal Filmstrip to activate an enlarged preview of your documents. Command-click (PC: Ctrl-click) each PDF document you want to view and compare in the Content tab (we used three documents). Enlarged previews of all the selected PDF documents will be displayed, side-by-side. Note: You can navigate the contents of any of the PDFs that contain multiple pages.

5 QUICK WAY TO MAGNIFY THUMBNAILS
Use the following keyboard shortcuts to enlarge or reduce the onscreen dimensions of the thumbnails in the Content tab: Command-+ (PC: Ctrl-+) to enlarge; Command-– (PC: Ctrl-–) to reduce. If you first select one of the thumbnails, Bridge will keep the selected PDF in view as you enlarge or reduce.

6 CONVERT FILES TO PDF VIA PHOTOSHOP
From the Content tab, select the images you’d like to convert to PDF. These images can consist of a broad range of file formats including TIFFs, JPEGs, and PSDs. You can Shift-click to select a continuous sequence of images or Command-click (PC: Ctrl-click) to select noncontiguous images.

Tip: If you don’t select any images in a folder displayed in the Content tab, Bridge assumes you want to work on all the images contained in that folder. This is a very handy feature when you’re working with dozens or even hundreds of images in a single folder.

7 CREATE A PDF PRESENTATION
Choose Tools>Photoshop>PDF Presentation. When the PDF Presentation dialog appears, all the images you selected are listed in the Source Files section. You can add to this list by either clicking on the Browse or Add Open Files button. Configure your output Options section. We selected Multi-Page Document rather than Presentation, but you can use Presentation mode to assign Presentation Options such as Transitions (these can be controlled more completely in Acrobat). It’s recommended that you check the Include Filename box to facilitate image identification in your PDF. Click Save, then name and choose a location for your PDF.

8 CONFIGURE PDF CHARACTERISTICS
When the Save Adobe PDF dialog appears, select an Adobe PDF Preset or configure your own PDF settings. (In this example, we’re using a custom preset called “PDF Presentation_Web.”) Then, click the Save PDF button to create your PDF.

Note: For your PDF settings, be sure to consider the resolution, compression, and color space that’s consistent with how you intend to use this PDF.

Tip: For multipage Web PDFs, check the Optimize for Fast Web Preview option to allow your PDF to be sent across the Internet one page at a time.

9 CREATE TEMPLATE FOR CONTACT SHEET
Using InDesign, create a contact sheet template. Stick with a basic layout until you get the hang of it; so just design a simple headline at the top of the page—no need to create image frames, as Bridge and InDesign will perform this. Go to Layout>Margins and Columns and adjust the Top margin so it’s below your headline. This way, only the white space below the headline will be used by Bridge and InDesign to place the selected images.

10 SELECT IMAGES FOR CONTACT SHEET
When you’re done, save your template. In the Save As dialog, choose InDesign CS3 Template as the Format. In Bridge, gather the images that you’d like to place in a contact sheet. You can either select images from a larger set or isolate your choices in a separate folder (as shown). Decide how many images you want to have on each page—the greater the number of images per page, the smaller the image dimension. If you want to use all the images, don’t select any (remember the Bridge tip in Step 6), and then choose Tools>InDesign>Create InDesign Contact Sheet.

11 CONFIGURE YOUR CONTACT SHEET
In the Contact Sheet dialog, set the number of Columns and Rows (here 3, 3). Then check the Auto–Spacing box. Now set the captions to be used (filenames in this example). Check the Use InDesign Template box and locate and select the InDesign template you created in Step 9. If you think you might use this Contact Sheet setup again in the future, click the Save Settings button to create a preset. Don’t click OK yet.

12 CONFIGURE YOUR CONTACT SHEET PDF SETTINGS
Check the Save as PDF box at the bottom of the Contact Sheet dialog. In the Select InDesign PDF Preset dialog that appears, choose a PDF preset that matches your output intentions. Once again, consider the image resolution, compression, and color space in your decision. Click the OK button to confirm your PDF Preset settings, which will return you to the Contact Sheet dialog.

13 VIEW YOUR INDESIGN PDF CONTACT SHEET
Click the Output File button next to Save as PDF, name your PDF, select a location, and click Save. Click OK back in the Contact Sheet dialog to begin the Contact Sheet and PDF creation process. Using either Bridge (the fastest way), Acrobat, or another PDF application, view your new InDesign PDF contact sheet.

Step 1: [OPEN PDF; DETERMINE FILE SIZE]
In Acrobat 9, open a commercial, print-oriented PDF (here a two-page brochure with uncompressed, 300-ppi, CMYK images). To determine its file size, choose File>Properties (Command-D [PC: Ctrl-D]) and view the Advanced section of the Description tab. Notice the current file size in this example is 73.29 MB—fine for commercial printing, but you’ll want to make this PDF substantially smaller to make it appropriate for sending or viewing over the Internet. You could create another PDF if you had the original layout files, or you can use the following Acrobat 9 tools to repurpose your PDF.

Step 2:[PERFORM A SIMPLE SAVE AS]
Choose File>Save As to save this PDF as another PDF (we named ours Brochure_Web_1). View this new PDF’s file size in the Document Properties dialog and it’s now 43.85 MB—about 40% smaller than the original file. Performing a simple Save As will often result in the deletion of unnecessary file components that have been retained in the PDF, dramatically reducing the file size without any reduction in the PDF’s output quality.

Step 3:[LAUNCH THE PDF OPTIMIZER]
Further reducing the file size of this PDF can involve a combination of removing document components, reducing the resolution of contained images, and compressing file components. You’ll want to carefully consider which combination of these techniques you’ll employ to decrease the size of the PDF. Your goal—and challenge—is to minimize quality loss while maximizing file size reduction. The PDF Optimizer provides plenty of control over file size and quality, so choose Advanced>PDF Optimizer to open the dialog.

Step 4: [DETERMINE SPACE USAGE]
To know where to concentrate your digital weight loss efforts, it’s handy to know where most of the file size is contained. For many PDFs, the majority of the file size is contained in the graphic files. To see a detailed analysis of the content of your PDF, click on the Audit Space Usage button located at the upper-right corner of the PDF Optimizer dialog. For our example, you can see that 99.73% of the file size (45.8 MB of the 45.9 MB) is contained in the images. So we know exactly where to focus our weight loss program: the images.

Step 5: [ASSIGN IMAGE RESOLUTION]
Click OK in the Audit Space Usage dialog and then click on “Images” at the top of the list on the left-hand side of the PDF Optimizer dialog. This is where you control the amount and method of resolution reduction. For both Color Images and Grayscale Images, try 100 ppi in the Downsample fields. (Don’t use 72 ppi, as this may not be sufficient resolution for displaying on a variety of monitors.) Also select Bicubic Downsampling To (the default choice) as your Downsample method to produce the smoothest tonal transitions in your image. For Monochrome Images, try 300 ppi. Don’t click OK yet.

Step 6: [ASSIGN IMAGE COMPRESSION]
The amount and kind of compression you apply will determine how much tonal or color values you’ll lose. To prevent image data loss, try Zip Compression. This will result in less compression (thus less file size reduction) and works best for black-and-white images (and okay for grayscale images too). For substantial compression, assign JPEG, which typically varies from 5:1 to 100:1 compression and reduction in file size. For viewing only, you can often use Medium Quality (substantial but not maximum compression). If you intend to use these PDFs for desktop printing as well, you might want to choose High or Maximum. Experiment!

Step 7: [PREVENT UNNECESSARY OPTIMIZATION]
To prevent the Optimizer from applying unnecessary downsampling or compression, be sure to check the Optimize Images Only If There Is a Reduction in Size box. Even with this option off, Optimizer will automatically ignore any images that are lower than the prescribed resolution, such as Web images or screen grabs you may have placed in your layout (although there are none here in the commercial print PDF, and there better not be!). Note: You can protect delicate images from downsampling by saving them in EPS format prior to placing them in the original page layout before creating your PDF.

Step 8: [PRESERVE FONTS]
In any type of PDF file optimization, you typically want to retain the original font files that have been embedded to maintain the typesetting integrity of your document. Click on the Fonts list choice and check Do Not Unembed Any Font. While it’s true you can reduce the file size of your PDF by unembedding fonts, the file reduction is usually minimal (here embedded font files command only 19 KB or .04% of the file size) and the typesetting consequences are often significant.

Step 9: [FLATTEN TRANSPARENCY]
Flattening transparency can help reduce file size in your PDF document; however, this may have little or no effect depending on the amount and complexity of the transparent areas. If the Transparency box is checked on, this flattening will be applied prior to any other optimization, such as image downsampling and compression. If you use this feature, try using the High Resolution setting to flatten the transparent areas, as this doesn’t convert text or strokes to outlines, and then count on the image processor to control the resolution and compression.

Step 10: [DISCARD OBJECTS]
Objects such as form components, JavaScript actions, and alternate images can add significant file size to your document. To selectively remove the various types of objects that can be included in a PDF document, click on the Discard Objects choice on the left of the PDF Optimizer. (The PDF document we’re using doesn’t have many of these objects.) Look through this list carefully though, as there may be some objects that take up little space but may be very helpful, such as bookmarks. Caution: Avoid checking the Convert Smooth Lines to Curves to prevent any unpredictable line alterations.

Step 11: [DISCARD USER DATA]
Just like Discard Objects, Discard User Data allows you to selectively reduce file size by removing various file components such as hidden layers, comments, forms, multimedia, and file attachments. In our document, this accounts for less than 1% of the document, but in other types of PDFs, this content may be significant. Again, pay attention to those document elements that you may want to retain, such as comments.

Step 12: [OPTIMIZE FOR WEB VIEW]
The Clean Up setting panel allows you to remove document content and apply compression to document components. But the most important option here is to Optimize the PDF for Fast Web View. This allows your website-placed PDF to be served up one page at a time rather than demanding the whole document
at once. This can really speed up Web viewing! Select Acrobat 5 and Later from the Make Compatible With pop-up menu to provide all-around viewing and opening compatibility of your PDF.

Step 13:[SAVE SETTINGS; OPTIMIZE; CHECK FILE SIZE]
Once you’ve set up the PDF Optimizer to suit your output needs, think about saving these settings (click the Save icon located at the top of the dialog). That way, you can easily use these settings again in the future. Now you’re ready to click the OK button to apply the PDF Optimizer settings. Acrobat will ask you to create and name the new PDF. After you save the new PDF, choose File> Properties to view the file size. Note that our file size is now only 728.88 KB—a 99% reduction in file size!

Step 14: [CONVERT CMYK IMAGES TO RGB]
Finally, convert your CMYK images to RGB. Choose Advanced> Print Production>Convert Colors. Under Matching Criteria, choose Image for Object Type and Any CMYK for Color Type. Under Conversion Attributes, choose Convert to Profile for the Convert Command, sRGB IEC61966-2.1 (for generic Web viewing) for the Conversion Profile, and Use Document Intent for the Rendering Intent. Check the Embed option on to provide color profile guidance when your PDF is displayed on various monitors. Click OK. This doesn’t reduce the file size by very much, but it will give you a better idea of how your PDF will appear when it’s displayed on the Web.

1 CREATE LAYERED PHOTOSHOP IMAGE
Open an RGB image in Photoshop and set two type layers (preferably PostScript or OpenType). We’ll be keeping one layer of type editable, which means it will be linked to active font files external to your image. Typically, we’d save this image as a PSD, TIFF, or EPS. In each case, the font files will either remain external to the image (PSD and TIFF) or lack editability (EPS). We’ll also rasterize the other type layer and add a spot color. After we convert the file to a PDF, we’ll look at how these type layers and spot color translate into InDesign and back into Photoshop.

TAZ TALLY

2 CREATE A DUPLICATE IMAGE
Make a Duplicate copy of this image by choosing Image>Duplicate, and name this image with the suffix “CMYK” (here, “Alaska Frosting_Layered_CMYK”).

Tip: I label all my CMYK colors pace images with the CMYK suffix so I can tell at a glance these images have been converted to CMYK. In fact, I label any image in a color space other than RGB, such as Index color or LAB. That way, I can assume all images without a color space label are RGB.

3 DECIDE WHICH TYPE LAYER TO KEEP EDITABLE
Decide which text layer you want to rasterize (convert to pixels) and which you want to keep as editable. Rasterized type blends in nicely with its surroundings and takes on a softer blended edge and it will no longer be linked to any external font files, thereby simplifying the image. In contrast, editable type maintains a harder, sharper edge and will remain linked to its external font files. In our example, we rasterized the signature text layer: Just Control-click (PC: Right-click) on it in the Layers panel and choose Rasterize Type.

4 CONVERT DUPLICATE IMAGE TO CMYK
To convert your layered RGB image to a layered CMYK file, choose Edit>Convert to Profile. In the dialog, select a CMYK Destination Space Profile appropriate for the printing device on which you’ll be printing this image. In our example, we’ve selected U.S. Sheetfed Coated v2, one of the built-in CMYK profiles. Be sure to uncheck the Flatten Image checkbox to maintain the layers. Click OK and then click Don’t Flatten in the warning dialog that appears.

(Tip: If your printer hasn’t told you which custom profile to select, choose the type of press and paper on which you’ll be printing.)

5 CREATE A SPOT COLOR SELECTION
Click on the rasterized type layer in the Layers panel to make it active. Now Command-click (PC: Ctrl-click) on this layer’s thumbnail to select the type. This is the selection to which we’ll assign a spot color.

Note: Assign a spot color to print a very specific color not reproducible with CMYK inks and only add a spot color to an image bound for printing on a commercial printing press. Spot colors are separated from other print colors, such as process CMYK colors, and printed on separate cylinders on a commercial printing press.

6 ASSIGN A SPOT COLOR
Activate the Channels panel (Window>Channels) and from the Channels panel flyout menu, choose New Spot Channel. In the dialog, click on the color swatch and select the spot color of your choice—here, PANTONE 2577 C. (Click on the Color Libraries button in the Color Picker to access the Pantone libraries.) Then click OK to create your new spot color channel. This adds a fifth building block (not Alpha) channel to your Channels panel.

Tip: Use a Pantone swatch book to select your spot color, not its appearance onscreen, which will only yield a simulation and often not a very good one!

7 VIEW YOUR NEW SPOT COLOR
Photoshop will provide an onscreen simulation of the spot color you’ve assigned. To view your new spot color separation, click on the Eye icon next to the CMYK channel to turn off all the channels, leaving only your new spot color visible. Now you’ll see the true black-and-white nature of the separation. Remember, the spot color is only actually created when it’s printed on press.

Tip: To knock out, rather than overprint this spot color, reselect the type, turn off the spot color channel view, and delete the selection from the active CMYK channels.

8 BEGIN THE PDF CREATION PROCESS
The traditional choice for saving an image containing a spot color that’s to be separated for printing would be to save it in Photoshop DCS2.0 format, a complex, pre-separated version of EPS. Instead, we’re going to use the Photoshop PDF format—a simpler and more flexible file. Choose File>Save As, then in the dialog, select Photoshop PDF from the Format pop-up menu. To maintain your text layers, check the Layers box. Check the Spot Colors box to make sure your spot color is included in the PDF as a separate color. Uncheck the Embed Color Profile box, and click Save.

9 CONFIGURE PDF GENERAL SETTINGS
In the Save Adobe PDF dialog that appears, click on the General category on the left. Now choose Acrobat 5 (PDF 1.4) from the Compatibility pop-up menu (this is a very compatible and accepted version of PDF that also supports transparency). Also check the Preserve Photoshop Editing Capabilities box to ensure you can open and edit this PDF in Photoshop. You can also check the View PDF After Saving box to automatically view your PDF once its creation is complete—a nice timesaver!

10 CONFIGURE PDF COMPRESSION SETTINGS
Next, click the Compression category on the left side of the dialog, which is where you control what happens to your image in terms of downsampling and compression when you click the Save PDF button to create the PDF—it’s a handy way to downsample and compress an image you might want to send across the Internet or view onscreen. But to maintain maximum image quality and sharpness, choose the Do Not Downsample option and None for Compression.

Note: You can also convert 16-bit images to printable 8-bit images on the fly here!

11 CONFIGURE PDF OUTPUT SETTINGS
In the Output category, select No Conversion from the Color Conversion pop-up menu and Don’t Include Profile from the Profile Inclusion Policy. This will allow colors in your image to pass through “unmolested” during PDF creation.

Again, this can be an easy way to configure your PDF for Web and screen use but to maintain the integrity of the color in your image, just pass the color pixels through as we did in Step 10.

PDF-X compliance can be established by assigning an Output Intent Profile Name, but this isn’t required for general commercial printing.

12 SAVE SETTINGS AND CREATE PDF
When you’re finished with your PDF settings, click the Save Preset button to save these settings for future use. This preset can then be selected via the Adobe PDF Preset pop-up menu located at the top of the Save Adobe PDF dialog. Then click the Save PDF button located in the lower-right corner to create your PDF.

Note that the linked font files associated with your editable type layer will be embedded in your PDF to guarantee the typesetting integrity of your PDF file, no matter where you send it.

13 PLACE YOUR PDF IN INDESIGN
Now let’s run a test to see if the spot color you assigned will be recognized by InDesign, which will be critical if you intend to place the PDF and separate/print it from within an InDesign document. Create a new InDesign document. Choose Window>Swatches (or press F5) to activate the Swatches panel. Choose File>Place, then locate the PDF you just created. As soon as you place the PDF file, your spot color, Pantone 2577 C, is added to the Swatches panel as a spot color.

14 OPEN YOUR PDF IN PHOTOSHOP AND ACROBAT
Now to test your PDF file for editability, open your PDF in Photoshop. Note how all the layers you started with, including your editable type layer, are intact and indeed editable. Also note that your spot color channel is happily there as well!

Now open your PDF in Acrobat 8. Choose Advanced>Print Production>Ink Manager to see the process CMYK inks and the 2577 C spot color you assigned in Photoshop.

Other print- or press-oriented images, such as duotones and Photoshop images containing vectors, can also be saved as complete, editable, printable, and Internet-safe PDF files.

1 ACTIVATE THE FORMS TOOLBAR
Acrobat 8 allows you to create eight varieties of custom fields in your form. Activate the Forms toolbar (Tools>Forms>Show Forms Toolbar), which contains all the tools you need to edit, preview, and distribute your PDF forms. The toolbar’s left side contains eight tools: Button, Checkbox, Combo Box, List Box, Radio Button, Text Field, Digital Signature, and a Barcode. The right side contains the Edit Layout/Preview (depending on the current state of your form), and Distribute tools.

2 RESIZE OR DELETE FIELDS
Open a copy of the form you want to edit (we’re using the form we created in Part 1, Layers magazine, Jan/Feb 2008, p. 76). Click on the Edit Layout tool (all the fields are highlighted with corner and side control points). To activate a field, roll your mouse over the field. To resize the field, click-and-drag on any corner or side control point. In our example, we’re going to click on the State/Province field and then press Delete to remove this field. We’re going to replace this with a Combo Box containing a list of states and provinces.

3 CREATE A COMBO BOX
Click on the Combo Box tool (third from the left on the toolbar). Drag your cursor over the area to the right of the State/Province entry in the form and a Combo Box field is placed on the form. The Combo Box Properties dialog appears (see Step 4).

Note: Whenever you create a new custom form field, a properties dialog like this will appear. Its content will vary depending upon the type of form field created.

4 CONFIGURE THE COMBO BOX
Click on the General tab. Type in a name for this field—for example, State/Province. Next, type in a Tooltip that you want to appear when a user rolls their mouse over this field. In our example, we used “Tab to or click on this field to select a state/province.” Click on the Form Field menu and choose your preferred option—we selected Visible. If you want this to be a required field, check the Required box. To make sure the list of choices will be available, be sure Read Only is not checked.

5 ASSIGN COMBO BOX APPEARANCE
Next, click on the Appearance tab and click on either the Border Color swatch or Fill Color swatch to choose a color, or No Color. If you assign a border color, then configure the Line Thickness and Line Style to control the border’s appearance. Under Text, assign a Font, Font Size, and Text Color. Tip: Keep it simple; for example, san serif fonts display more legibly onscreen, particularly at small point sizes.

6 CREATE YOU LIST
Click the Options tab and type in the name of a state/province in the Item field, then click Add to add this choice to the Item List. Repeat this for each list entry you want. You can assign an Export value to each item, typically an alpha/numeric value, if you want to track statistics on this field. For our example, we want to know how many form fillers were from Alabama. Check the Sort Items box to automatically sort the list alphabetically and turn on the Commit Selected Value Immediately box to prevent multiple selections.

7 TEST YOUR COMBO BOX
Close your Combo Box Properties dialog to apply all your settings. Now select the Hand tool and either tab or click on your newly created State/Province combo box. Click on the down-facing arrow to the right of the first item, then use your Up and Down Arrow keys (or the alpha keys) to navigate the list. Press the Return (PC: Enter) key to apply your list choice.

8 REPLACE CHECKBOXES WITH RADIO BUTTONS
When either/or items need to be created, such as Payment Method in our example, use radio buttons. For multiple choices, checkboxes are appropriate. During our automatic forms creation process in Part 1, Acrobat automatically recognized our Payment Method checkboxes and replaced them with Acrobat forms checkboxes. Because this is an either/or option, we need to replace the boxes with radio buttons. Click on the Edit Layout tool, select the Check and Credit Card checkboxes, and delete them.

9 CREATE CHECK RADIO BUTTON
Select the Radio Button tool, then click-and-drag over the Check checkbox, and the Radio Button Properties dialog appears. Under the General tab, type “Payment Checkbox” in the Name field and “Click here to select payment by check” in the Tooltip field, and turn on the Required checkbox. Next click on the Options tab and select Check from the Button Style menu. Now type “A” in the Export Value field, and Close the dialog to create the Radio Button.

10 CREATE CREDIT CARD RADIO BUTTON
Press the Option (PC: Alt) key as you drag the Check Radio Button over the top of the Credit Card checkbox, making a duplicate copy. Double-click on this new button and under General, keep the same Name “Payment Checkbox” but for Tooltip, type in “Click here to select payment by credit card via PayPal.” Click on the Options tab and type “B” in the Export Value field—by having the same name but different export values, users may check only one of these boxes. Also check the Button Is Checked By Default box to make this the default.

11 TEST YOUR RADIO BUTTONS
After you’ve clicked the Close button to create your Credit Card Radio button, select the Hand tool. Click on the Check Card checkbox and then click on the Credit Card checkbox. When you click on the Credit Card checkbox, the Check checkbox should automatically uncheck. If this doesn’t happen, return to the Edit Layout mode and check the properties of both radio buttons to make sure they have the same Name (Payment Checkbox) but different Export values (A and B).

12 EDIT TAB ORDER
Click on the Edit Layout tool. Choose Forms>Edit Fields>Set Tab Order. You’ll get a message asking if Acrobat should set the tab order for you. Click No, and each data entry field will be labeled in the upper left with a tab order number. Note the Name field, should be #1, but it’s labeled 3 because of the two extra fields at the top created by the Auto Form Field Recognition in Part 1 (delete these at any time). To set the tab order, simply click the form fields in the order you want them to be activated.

13 TEST YOUR TAB ORDER
Select the Hand tool again, click on the Name field, and tab through the fields to make sure they’re in the order that you want. The tab order should finish up at the Submit button. If you haven’t removed the two extra auto-created tab fields, keep tabbing to find them. Return to the Edit Layout tool to select and delete them.

14 MULTIPLE FIELDS CREATION TIP
If you’re manually creating form fields with two or more identical fields, try this timesaver: Create your first field (ours is a Text field), then in Preview mode, select Forms>Edit Fields>Place Multiple Fields. In the Create Multiple Copies of Fields dialog, specify the Number of Fields, Overall Size, and Overall Position for the multiple fields you wish to create. Check the Preview checkbox to preview the setting results prior to clicking OK.

STEP 1 Open and Duplicate a PDF
Open a PDF document containing text and at least one color image file and choose File>Save As to create a working copy of your original PDF. This will protect the integrity of your original PDF document. You could also simply make a copy of your PDF document through your operating system or Bridge interface. However, using Save As through Acrobat will simplify your PDF by removing any unused and unnecessary document components.

STEP 2 Launch Output Preview and View Colors
Choose Advanced>Print Production>Output Preview to launch the Output Preview dialog. When the dialog appears, you’ll notice a variety of settings you can choose from. First, let’s see what colors have been included in this document. Click on the Separations choice in the Preview area. In the Separations area you will see a list of all the colors assigned to this document when it was created. Here you’ll see there are process colors (CMYK) and a spot color, 576 C. Here the C designation indicates the Coated version of the spot color assigned form the Pantone list of solid spot colors. The inclusion of this spot color requires either that this spot color be separated and printed as a separate color or converted to CMYK for printing along with the other process colors.

STEP 3 Find Specific Colors
You can use the Separations portion of the Output Preview dialog to locate and view specific colors. Simply check the color to view it and uncheck to hide. If I wanted to view my spot color, I’d just check it. It would appear black because this is how it would print on a separated plate. The actual green spot color would be applied on press. If you have more than one spot color, each color will appear separately in the list and can be rendered either visible or invisible by checking its display checkbox.

STEP 4 View the Black Plate
Another very useful display capability is your ability to view just the black plate. To do this, simply uncheck all the plates except for black. All the text and objects containing black ink will be visible (not just those that appear black). You can also view any grayscale images or graphics in your PDF, such as the logos and bar code in this PDF. This black display is also useful for viewing the black ink contribution to color images that will be printing as CMYK. Here you can see how the black ink is concentrated in the silhouetted foreground portion of the cover image (on the right), as well as the shadow portions of the images on the back cover (on the left). You can also see the black ink contribution to the cover gradients.

STEP 5 View the Image Ink Values
You can also determine both the individual and the total ink values of any portion of any image or area in your PDF. First, make all of the color plates in the Output Preview dialog visible. Then, simply move your cursor around the text and images in your PDF to see the ink values appear in real time. In the example shown here, I placed the cursor over the silhouetted foreground vegetation in the cover image. Notice the CMYK values are displayed as C=95%, M=85%, Y=85%, K=85%. The added combination of these four inks, known and displayed here as Total Ink Coverage, is equal to 350%. This will confirm this area of the image will be printing as a high-density, rich black and will appear as a silhouette. You can determine the sample size of the measurement by clicking on the Sample Size menu and choosing Point Sample, 3 by 3 Average or 5 by 5 Average. (I set mine to 3 by 3 Average.)

STEP 6 View Excessive Total Ink Values
In addition to being able to view ink densities of specific locations in your PDF, you can also view all the areas that have ink densities that exceed a specific Total Ink Coverage. This is very useful for quickly determining which areas in your image will contain shadow detail and which will print without detail. To view the areas that will print without detail first, set the maximum value of Total Ink Coverage that can be printed and still show detail on the output device on which you will be printing your PDF. To do this check Total Area Coverage and enter your value in the text box. This value may be as low as 240 for some newspapers and presses and as high as 340 for a coated stock printed on a commercial sheetfed press. (We set Total Area Coverage to 300.) The areas in your PDF that exceed a Total Area Coverage of 300% will be highlighted in the color you choose from the color swatch to the left of the Total Area Coverage field value. (We used bright green.)

STEP 7 Previewing Overprints and Rich Blacks
You can also preview any objects in your PDF that will be overprinting and printing as rich blacks—which are areas that are assigned colors created with K plus another color to print with higher density. To view your overprints and rich blacks, select Color Warnings from within the Preview window. To view all objects that will be overprinting (printing on top of any colors that are beneath them), check Show Overprinting. All overprinting objects (such as the type in the Countryman Press logo in our example) will be highlighted in the Overprinting color (we used the default orange). Similarly, to display all of your rich black objects, check Rich Black. All rich black objects will be highlighted in the assigned color (we kept the default aqua). You can also specify a minimum ink value (we used 80%) above which an object will be considered a rich black. This ability to view rich blacks is useful for previewing those areas that will be printing as high-density areas with no detail.

STEP 8 Inspect Details of Color Images
In Acrobat 9, you can get information about the color, dimensions, and resolution of particular images or areas in your PDF by using the Object Inspector. To open the Object Inspector, choose it from the Preview window. Now, simply click on the object or image you’d like to get more information about. Details about the image appear in the large display panel located at the bottom of the Output Prevew dialog. In our example, you can see this is an RGB color space image (listed as Device RGB). You can also see this image has an effective linear resolution of 136 ppi.

Note: This tool is sophisticated enough to display a horizontal resolution that incorporates any changes to the resolution that result from scaling the image. For instance, the native Horizontal Resolution of this image was 100 ppi when it was placed in the layout. However, scaling it later to fit better increased the Horizontal Resolution to 136.04 ppi.

STEP 9 Show RGB Images
You also have the ability to locate and display all images and objects that have specific color characteristics. One common use of this capability is identifying RGB images and/or objects in a PDF destined for commercial printing—where you’d want to have all text, images, and objects specified as either CMYK or spot colors. To locate all RGB images and objects, choose RGB from the Show drop-down menu and Separations from the Preview window. Only the three RGB items—two images and the bar code—will appear in the PDF. To extract these items individually, select the TouchUp Object tool (Tools>Advanced Editing>TouchUp Object tool). Then Control-click (PC:Right-click) on the image and choose Edit Objects from the contextual menu. Next, choose and color converted or be converted as part of a document-wide conversion (See Step 12 below). Make note of the wide range of objects you can search for and display with this simple menu including solid color, text, and line art.

STEP 10 Simulate Print Appearance – Coated
Of all the previewing capabilities that Acrobat 9 supports, one of the most useful in terms of predicting significant changes that may occur during printing is your ability to simulate the effects of a printing environment, and especially the impact of choosing a specific paper stock. For example, let’s preview on screen how this PDF will print on coated stock with a standard commercial printing press in North America. From the Simulation Profile pop-up menu at the top of the Output Preview dialog, select U.S. Sheetfed Coated v2. This selects a color profile that contains characteristics that exist for printing on coated paper stock on a typical sheetfed commercial printing press. To finish up the simulation of the print setup, check Simulate Paper Color and Simulate Overprinting just below.This setup will now send display adjustment instructions that will attempt to simulate the appearance of the print onscreen to your monitor. With this setup, you’ll likely see a slight darkening and reduction of contrast onscreen. Toggle the Simulate Paper check box off and on to compare the difference.

STEP 11 Simulate Print Appearance – Uncoated
Now let’s change the print simulation conditions to uncoated stock. From the Simulation Profile menu select U.S. Sheetfed Uncoated v2. Be sure the Simulate Paper Color is checked. Now Acrobat and your monitor will simulate how this document will print on uncoated stock. Here you will likely see a significant difference in the display of the image. Any bright or highly saturated colors, such as the sunrise colors in the cover photo, may be significantly desaturated (bright saturated greens, oranges and purples will show the greatest changes), and the overall contrast will be reduced. As you can see, paper stock has a significant impact on the appearance of your print—especially your brightly colored and saturated images. If you’re viewing your PDF on a newer, calibrated monitor, your results will be more accurate than if your monitor is older and/or uncalibrated. Fully color-managed monitors can display surprisingly accurate simulated previews.

STEP 12 Convert Images Color Spaces
In addition to previewing colors and objects, you can also covert the color of images using Acrobat 9. One way to accomplish this is by using the Convert Colors command. Choose Advanced>Print Production>Convert Colors to summon the Convert Color dialog. You can use this dialog to accomplish a wide variety of color conversions. As an example, let’s see how we would convert all of our RGB images and objects to CMYK for commercial printing. Under Matching Criteria, set Object Type to Any Object and Color type to Any RGB. Now under Conversion Attributes, set Convert Command to Convert to Profile, Conversion Profile to to type of paper you’ll be using (we set ours to U.S. Sheetfed Coated v2), and Rendering Intent to Use Document Intent. To make sure you RGB blacks will be converted to good, high-density CMYK blacks, check Preserve Black under Convert Options in bottom-left corner of the dialog. Now Click OK. Note this process cannot be undone, so make sure you want to perform this conversion. To convince yourself that the conversion has indeed taken place, return to the Output Preview dialog box and choose Show>RGB. No RGB color space items will be displayed.

STEP 13 Convert grayscale to Rich Black
One very nifty printing use of this Convert Color tool is the ability to convert grayscale areas that are originally created with just black ink (K) into CMYK (rich blacks) so that they will print with more density. Typically large areas covered with just 100% K will not print with high density because the K ink is translucent. Making these areas rich blacks by added cyan, magenta, and yellow will dramatically enhance their density when they print. You won’t see a big change onscreen, but creating a rich black will make a big difference when you print. To convert gray scale areas to rich black, simply check Promote Gray to CMYK, also under Convert Options.

In these examples we have used the Ouput Preview and Convert Color Tools for print output. However, these tools are just as useful for other types of output, such as documents intended to be viewed on monitors or screens.

1 [Design a Form in InDesign]
Design your form in InDesign or another page-layout application. (You can create a form in a word-processing application, but you’ll likely find it easier to position and edit your form components in a page-layout application such as InDesign.) Use underlined areas to designate your form’s text-entry fields, and checkboxes to designate choices to be checked. Acrobat easily recognizes underlined areas and checkbox icons so it can automatically create text-entry fields and checkable icons. Be sure to leave adequate room horizontally and vertically to accommodate the length and size of the text you want used in your form.

TAZ TALLY

2 [Create Your PDF Form Template Document]
Export your page-layout document to Acrobat (File>Export), choosing Adobe PDF in the Format field, to create your Acrobat PDF document where you’ll add your interactive form fields. In the Export Adobe PDF dialog, choose [Smallest File Size] as the Adobe PDF Preset to make your form easy to send across the Internet. This preset is also a good choice if your forms have no graphics. Check Optimize for Fast Web View for multi-page forms and click Export.

Tip: Keep any graphics in your form simple so you can compress them without fear of losing too much quality.

3 [Open your PDF: Start the Form Creation Process]
Make a copy of your PDF and open the copy in Acrobat. Choose Forms>Create New Form from the Tasks Toolbar at the top of the document to begin the form-creation process. In the dialog that appears, select Start With a PDF Document. (Forms can also be created using PDF forms templates, spreadsheets, and even scanned documents.) Click Continue and a “Creating and Distributing Forms” message appears. Click Continue to proceed with the forms-creation process.

Note: You can manually create all of your form fields, but the New Form Assistant can speed up the process considerably.

4 [First Step of the New Form Assistant]
The next dialog to appear is Step 1 of a four-step process that will identify and place form fields in your document. Click the Use the Current Document button to choose the currently open PDF file. (The other choice, Import a File from File System, allows you to Browse to find and select another PDF file to use for your form.) Click the Next button to move to the next step in the form-creation process.

Note: Prior to starting this New Form Assistant, you can choose Forms>Run Form Field Recognition to test Acrobat’s form field-recognition process.

5 [Activate Auto Field Detection]
In the Step 2 dialog, choose Run Auto Field Detection, which allows Acrobat to automatically recognize the form fields you’ve created. (As an alternative, you can select Place Fields By Hand if you want to…yep…manually create the fields.) With some practice, you’ll learn to create form fields in your page-layout program that lend themselves to easy sequential auto-form field creation in Acrobat. Organizing your form fields sequentially from upper left to lower right in your page-layout document is key here. Click Next to proceed.

6 [Finish Auto Detection and Form Field Creation]
Step 3 of the New Form Assistant requires only that you wait until the process is complete. When the Auto-Detection finishes, the dialog will indicate how many “field candidates” it detected and created (14 in our example).

Click Next to move to the final dialog, which simply congratulates you on finishing the process and tells you that you’re ready to begin editing your form. Click Done to exit the New Form Assistant.

7 [View and Evaluate Your Auto-Created Form Fields]
Zoom in on the area of your document containing the first (top) form fields. Notice the type of form fields that have been created and how they’re labeled. In our form, the first eight fields are text-entry fields (as they should be) that have been labeled using the names placed in the page-layout design; i.e., Name, Address, City, etc., down through the eMail field. As you can see, this form is set up to make good use of the auto-detection and form field-creation capabilities of Acrobat 8.

8 [Configure your Auto Form Fill]
Let’s stop for a minute to configure the auto-fill features: Choose Acrobat (PC: Edit)>Preferences then click on Forms in the list on the left-hand side of the dialog. In the Auto-Complete section at the bottom of the Forms dialog, select either Basic or Advanced to determine the specifics of how the auto-fill will function. Basic will offer likely alternatives while Advanced will auto-select the most likely field entry choice. Check Remember numerical data if you want Acrobat to remember numeric as well as alpha data. To edit the content of the auto-fill data list click the Edit Entry List button.

9 [Configure your Forms Preferences]
While you have the Forms Preferences dialog open, this is a good time to go ahead and configure the general settings that control how the form fields appear. At the very least, you’ll want to configure the Highlight Color area to assign a color to highlight the fields (here light blue). Click OK to close the dialog. As you begin to control more advanced features, such as required and calculation fields, you’ll return later to this dialog to fine-tune your Forms preferences.

10 [Check Field Data Entry Sequence]
Click on either the Select or Hand tool from Acrobat’s Toolbar. This will change the look of the form fields: They’ll no longer be outlined and labeled.

To begin the form field sequence check, simply click on the first (Name) field. After a brief pause, a blinking cursor will appear on the left side of this field. Now type in a name, then tab through, sequentially filling in the various text fields. At the end of the sequence, check one of the payment checkboxes.

11 [Add a Submit Button]
To finish the setup of your basic form, add a button that will be used to submit the completed forms data. If the Forms tool panel isn’t already open, choose Tools>Forms>Show Forms Tools, then click on the Combo Box tool. Now drag your mouse across a rectangular area at the bottom of the form to set the dimensions and location of the Submit button. A red outlined Combo Box will appear (shown bottom right) as well as the Combo Box Properties dialog.

12 [Configure the Submit Button]
To set up your Combo Box Properties dialog, click on the Actions tab, choose Mouse Down from the Select Trigger menu, choose Submit a Form from the Select Action menu, then click the Add button to open the Submit Form Selections dialog. Type in the URL of the website where you want the forms data sent, then select the data format in which you’d like the forms data submitted—for this example, choose PDF The Complete Document—and click OK. Notice that Mouse Down>Submit a form is added to the Actions area. (Don’t close the Combo Box Properties dialog yet.)

13 [Add a Name and Mouse Rollover Tool Tip]
Now, we’ll name our submit box and add a mouse rollover tip. Click on the Options tab and in the Item field, type “Submit.” Click the Add button, which adds the word “Submit” to the Item List. Click on the General tab and in the Name field, type “Submit,” then type “Click Here to Submit” for the Tooltip. Click the Required checkbox, which places a red border around your button, and click Close. Select the Hand tool and roll your mouse over the Submit button to view your handiwork.