| | | How to create PDF files |
There are numerous ways to create a PDF file from an existing word-processing document or LaTeX document. Here are some options, starting with ones that are easy to use but hard to customize and ending with ones that are harder to use but more flexible.
The freely available TOM Conversion Service on the World-Wide Web can convert many types of files into PDF (and other) formats.
Recent versions of Corel's WordPerfect can export to PDF format.
If you are an on-campus student at Texas A&M University, you can export from Microsoft Word to PDF by using the PCs in the University Open Access Labs.
On any Microsoft platform, you can convert files to PDF by installing the free program ghostscript.
LyX, a visual front end to LaTeX, can export to PDF. If
you use this method, be sure to consult section 3.3.6 of the
Extended Features guide on the LyX Help menu, which suggests
adding to the LaTeX preamble (accessed through the Layout
menu) the line "\usepackage{ae,aecompl}". (I have
found by experiment in LyX version 1.1.6 that after making
this addition, one must close the file and open it again in
order for the change to take effect.)
Adobe's Acrobat product (not the free Reader, but the full Acrobat package that costs money) creates PDF files. On a PC, you can "print" files from most applications to Acrobat to create PDF files. On a Unix system with the appropriate Adobe software installed, you can convert a PostScript file to PDF by using the Adobe program "distill".
Note: to get good quality PDF from PostScript files derived from LaTeX documents, you need to use appropriate options with the "distill" program. What gives me suitable results on the main server in the Department of Mathematics at Texas A&M University is the command "distill -maxsubsetpct 99 -embedallfonts on -compatlevel 3.0 filename.ps".
Technical aside: since I rarely work on the main mathematics server, the commands I actually use to create PDF documents from LaTeX files are "latex filename" and then "dvips -f -Ppdf filename | ssh math.tamu.edu distill -maxsubsetpct 99 -embedallfonts on -compatlevel 3.0 > filename.pdf".
If you are working on a system with a recent LaTeX
implementation, then you can convert a LaTeX file into
PDF by using the command "pdflatex filename" at the
command prompt in a terminal window.
Because of the way LaTeX handles fonts, some technical
complications arise when creating PDF files from LaTeX
files. Many LaTeX installations use bitmapped fonts by
default, and such fonts make poor PDF. Scalable fonts
(so-called Type 1 fonts) must be used to create quality PDF.
Several years ago, PostScript versions of the standard
LaTeX fonts were made freely available by the
American Mathematical
Society through
the generosity of Blue Sky
Research and Y&Y,
Inc., so current LaTeX systems do
include these fonts. You may need to read the documentation for
your LaTeX system to learn how to configure LaTeX to use
the right fonts. One tip is to call dvips with the
option -Ppdf.
Sophisticated and elegant results can be achieved by converting LaTeX into PDF for display on the World-Wide Web. See, for instance, what the pdfscreen package can do as well as the extensive work of D. P. Story.
The Math 696 course
pages were last modified April 5, 2005. | | | How to create PDF files |