Letterhead with Govt Brand Logo in Colour - Office of the Chief ...

Government of Newfoundland and Labrador
Office of the Chief Information Officer
Recommendations for PDF Output
What is a PDF?
Portable document format is a way of publishing a document and retaining its original layout and
appearance. It is a document encoding process developed by Adobe that maintains page layout,
fonts, and graphics and can include many other features such as hyperlinks. PDF is a universal
electronic file format, modeled after the PostScript language and is device and resolution
independent. Documents in the PDF format can be viewed, navigated, and printed from any
computer regardless of the fonts or software programs used to create the original.
PDF files may be created natively in PDF form, converted from other electronic formats or digitized
from paper, micro-film or other hard-copy format. When creating PDF files the application offers a
choice of several settings. The specific settings can affect preservation of and access to the file in
the short and long term. Certain choices of settings can change the appearance of the PDF file on
different environments.
What are the Software Products available?
Freeware Software:
1. PDFCreator (go to Start/Programs/LANDesk Management/LANDesk Software
Deployment Portal) – Advantages: No Cost. Uses a printing interface to create PDF files.
Has an email feature for sharing. Has a drag and drop function. Has sticky settings which
remember previous settings in document conversion. Disadvantages: Only functionality is
to convert existing documents to PDF.
2. PDF995 (http://www.pdf995.com/) – Advantages: No Cost. Easy-to-use interface helps
you to create PDF files by simply selecting the "print" command from any application,
creating documents which can be viewed on any computer with a PDF viewer. PDF995
supports network file saving, shared printing, Citrix/Terminal Server, custom page sizes
and large format printing. PDF995 is a printer driver that works with any Postscript to
PDF converter. Disadvantages: Only functionality is to convert existing documents to PDF.
Licensed Software:
3. Adobe Acrobat Writer – Advantages: Create documents, create interactive forms,
reverse conversion process, can be made searchable (catalogue feature to create
a full text index), etc. You will have the most certainty that your PDF file is portable
across systems and platforms without changing the content or look and feel of
the document now and in the future. Much more robust than the freeware
software. Disadvantages: There is a cost associated with each license which can
range from $185.00 to $285.00 depending upon if the standard or professional
version is required. The professional version is needed to create interactive
forms. There are more features and therefore, more of a learning curve.
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The full Adobe Acrobat Writer is recommended when there is a requirement to
create documents with enhanced functionality such as interactive forms or when
there is a need to reverse the conversion process in order to update older
documents.
The license is purchased at a cost to the requestor department through their
discretionary funding.
General Notes Concerning PDF Conversion:
Certain documents types such as certificates need to be tested to ensure they
maintain a suitable level of accuracy and authenticity once converted to PDF
format. The original document properties such as creation date, author, etc. may
get lost in the PDF conversion process.
Searchable PDF versus Image Only PDF:
Creating searchable PDFs will increase the overall file size. If the intent of the
PDF is to post to the internet or send through email, then image only PDF may be
the best option.