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If we never had to share files with other users or even other software, computing would be much easier. But we do have to share and therefore we have to find file formats that are common to the majority of users. Some of these file formats are meant to be fully editable while others are not. In this article we'll focus on PDF (Portable Document Format) as it is probably the most popular format for sharing files among users.
You can create PDF files from virtually any application and it will retain the exact look of the original even if the recipient of the file does not own the same software or fonts. We'll discuss how to create PDF files a little later in this article. To view PDF files, you'll want the Acrobat Reader. You can freely download this from Adobe at http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep.html but many of you probably already have a copy. For example, it is supplied with CorelDRAW 9. Acrobat Reader is available for Windows, Mac, Linus and DOS. So no matter which type of computer you (or the file recipient) use, you're covered.
PDF is extremely popular as a way to distribute documents. Were you missing a tax form at the last minute? You could have downloaded any form (federal or state) along with instructions from the Internet. Did you hear about Stephen King's latest novel that was available in downloadable form? The book viewer is based on Acrobat Reader with special features for preventing the copying of works. PDF is also the preferred file format for most newspapers to accept electronic artwork.
You've created a document in your favorite software. This document includes some off-the-wall fonts that most users don't have. So you convert the file to PDF and you can give it to anyone. They can see it on screen exactly as you saw it. And if they can see it, they can print it (unless you've set the document so that printing isn't allowed). The benefit is that you can give the document to anyone and have them output it for you perfectly. So this is a great way to take your artwork and send it to suppliers without having to worry about things getting messed up.
And if you can send your files to others, they can also send them to you. Let's say you have a client that creates their artwork in Macromedia Freehand. You're a CorelDRAW user and CorelDRAW can't read a Freehand file (coming soon to a CorelDRAW 10 near you). Even more confusing, this client is on a Mac and you're on a PC. If they create a PDF file and send it to you, the document will be perfect. Are you seeing the benefits to using PDF yet?
Since I've always been a CorelDRAW guy, we'll start with CorelDRAW 9. Look down the File menu and you'll find a Publish to PDF command that will create a perfect PDF in almost all circumstances. Note that while older versions of CorelDRAW have a PDF export, they are not the same and should not be used if you desire accurate results.
Let's go through the Publish to PDF dialog box so that you'll be able to create a perfect file the first time. After you select File | Publish to PDF, you'll get the dialog box shown at right. The first choice is the name of the file which you can either type in or select using the Browse button. As with printing, you can select the exact pages that will get exported. For now, we'll leave this at All. For situations where the file is to be printed, the Generate Job Ticket section can be quite handy. As it is quite involved, I'll leave that discussion for elsewhere. One of the most important settings is the PDF style. The choice you make here will control the settings in the other three tabs of this dialog box. There are four possible destinations supplied with CorelDRAW 9: Document Distribution, Editing, Prepress and Web. You should choose the option that best meets your needs. But keep in mind that these are just presets and you can change the settings elsewhere. If you find that you're using different settings on a regular basis, click the + button and add your own preset.
Moving on to the Objects tab shown at left gives us a number of settings that control bitmaps and text within our file. First up is bitmap compression. If you choose JPEG, the bitmaps will lose some quality. So you should only choose JPEG if the document is headed for the Web or making the rounds in your office. Use LZW if you want the highest quality. Since there will be times that you have high-resolution bitmaps in a file destined for the Web, you have the option of downsampling them to a lower resolution. Again it is important to choose values appropriate for the destination of your file.
Now let's look at the font options. These are extremely important. Export all text as curves will certainly keep the exact look of the document. But it does this by permanently converting any text into a shape. So leave the first option unchecked. By contrast, you'll almost always want to check Embed fonts in document. This does exactly what it says so that the recipient has access to the fonts you used. Embed Base 14 fonts will include the more "generic" fonts such as Times and Helvetica in every document. This isn't necessary if you are looking for the smallest file. If you use TrueType fonts, definitely check the option to convert them to Type 1. Compress text implies that the text itself will be stored in a compressed format thus making your file smaller. The last option can be a bit confusing. Subset Type 1 fonts indicates that only a portion of characters in a font will be embedded. If you've typed a lot of text, you've probably only used 70 or 80 different characters out of the 250+ that are stored in the font. So this setting says it will only save the characters you've used if you used less than 80 percent of all characters. You can change the percentage to whatever you desire. The upside is that the file is smaller, the downside would be if a character that would be needed in editing the file doesn't get stored. For absolute font fidelity, uncheck this option. But for most cases, leave it checked.
The last choice is for the encoding. Your best bet is to always use Binary. Next up is the Advanced tab shown at right. In the upper left are various checkboxes. The first one, Render complex fills as bitmaps, is a good idea if you have used texture fills, transparencies, pattern fills and even some gradient fills. The remaining four are mainly of use when you will be using the PDF for high-resolution film output at a service bureau.
One of the great features when making a PDF from CorelDRAW is that you can choose to keep all objects in the RGB color space. This is fantastic for Web output. You can also output objects in either CMYK or Grayscale. Fountain Steps should almost always be kept at 256. The only time you would want a lower number is for a very rough copy to distribute electronically. EPS files are where CorelDRAW just doesn't stand up to the method of using Adobe Acrobat Distiller to make a PDF file. You have the choice of using the Preview or the PostScript. If you choose Preview, you get a crummy bitmap and lose the underlying PostScript data. If you choose PostScript, you see nothing on screen but it will print correctly to a PostScript device. If you must process EPS files, you really need Distiller. Compatability lets you choose whether it works with Acrobat 3.0 or 4.0.
The Document Tab is not terribly important for outputting files from CorelDRAW and we will therefore skip over it. Click OK and your file will be saved to PDF. Make sure to open it in Acrobat Reader to verify that everything worked well.
As I said in the beginning, the CorelDRAW 9 solution will make PDF files in almost all situations. But you saw that it doesn't do well if there are embedded EPS files. There are other areas where it doesn't work as well as when using Acrobat Distiller. In the next article, we'll go through the steps of using Distiller to output from CorelDRAW as well as any other application.
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CorelDRAW X6 Font List · CorelDRAW X5 Font List · CorelDRAW X4 Font List · The Terms of Adobe Photoshop and Corel PHOTO-PAINT · CorelDRAW X3 Font List · Cropping and Rotating Files in Corel PHOTO-PAINT · The Magic of Color Styles · CorelDRAW's Find and Replace Wizard · Shorten Your Design Time with Templates · CorelDRAW's Multi-Faceted Eyedropper Tool · CorelDRAW and Special Characters · The Easy Way to Create Calendars in CorelDRAW · The Wide World of Labels in CorelDRAW · Including Variable Data with Print Merge · Resaving, Resizing & Resampling Files in Corel PHOTO-PAINT · Creating Your Own Fonts in CorelDRAW · The Evils of Using JPEG Files · Speeding Up CorelDRAW 11 and Windows XP · Symbols and Imposition · The Easiest Way to Recreate Logos · A Few Guidelines to Follow · Square Corners Can Be Sticky -- Rounding Corners in CorelDRAW · Creating Complex Shapes Easily with CorelDRAW · Identifying the Mystery Font · Two Ways to Create a Split Front Design · Last Word in Font Management · Calibrating Your Printed Colors with a Color Chart · Graphics Computing in 2001 · Hottest R.A.V.E. In Town · Get the Red Out of Eyes · Secrets of Color Management · Dressing Up Your PDF Files · How Adobe Acrobat Can Make Life Simpler · Why You Want PDF in Your Workflow · Converting a Scanned Logo to Vector in CorelDRAW · Designing 360 Degrees · Customizing Your Interface in CorelDRAW 8.0 · Fitting Text to a Path · Creating Cool Graphs Without a Spreadsheet · From CorelDRAW to Macromedia Flash, A Simple Example · Getting Rid of That Darned White Box · Converting a Bitmap Logo to Vector in CorelDRAW · Finding Clipart with ROMCAT
Xara Xtreme Pro 5.0
Serif WebPlus X2
Xara Web Designer 5.0
Xara Xtreme Pro 4.1
Macromedia Flash MX 2004 Professional
Fuji FinePix 2800 Zoom Digital Camera
Procreate KnockOut 2
Hemera Photo Objects Volume I and II
Wildform SWfx
Macromedia Fontographer 4.1 and FontLab 4
Caligari iSpace v1.5
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Web Site Design Made Easy
Alien Skin Eye Candy 4000
Swish 1.51
Macromedia Flash 5
Corel KPT 6
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1st Page 2000
Adobe Illustrator 9
Corel KnockOut v1.5
Xara 3D 4
Cool 3D 3
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