Topic awaiting preservation: converting word to pdf

Hi all,

I am having problems while converting the word files to pdf. My text is full of equations inlined with the text. But when converting to pdf with print to pdf method, the alingment of the text and equations changes. They are being aligned at bottom.

Is there a way to avoid this problem?

Thanks a lot.

It would help if I new more about exactly how you are generating the pdf. What software and system? What kind of fonts true type or postscript are they embeded.

I would first make sure all fonts are getting embeded.

Acrobat Distill would provide the best results. It should work directly, but you could try installing the Adobe Postscript Driver an printing to a disk files. The resulting file, will contain raw postscript code, normally used for generationing the file at the printer. This could then feed directly through Acrobat Distiller. Either set up a watched folder or drag & dropping the file on to Adobe Distiller application. Just make sure to name the file with a .ps extention if you try the inbox method.

Here is a link to the postscript driver, the Adobe Acrobt PPD is aslo useful.
http://www.adobe.com/products/printerdrivers/main.html


J. Stuart J.

I am using windows XP. I make pdf files by printing with Acrobat Distiller. I am trying to succeed on exporting docs correctly, font type is not important, can be times new roman or arial. My text includes lots of equations in word doc. But in pdf alignment of text and equations changes.

I have Acrobat 6.0 pro do i still need to install that printer driver?

You would only need to if you choose to use the generated Postscript first method. The only thing I can think of is what I mentioned above is that the font my not be embedding properly. I guess you will have to play with the settings. Did you mention if it prints correctly if you spool direcly a printer, I simply could just be Word's handeling of type. It would be a lot of work but you could try setting the formula in Illustrator and placing them as EPS files.

Only one other thing springs mind, are you you bolding, underlining, or setting any type as italic. I am unsure of how MS Word handles such effects or how it generates the Postscript. I do know using the faux bold and italic effects casues similar font issues in QuarkXPress.

J. Stuart J.

[This message has been edited by jstuartj (edited 01-10-2004).]

Word has some problems with font/type while converting to pdf. So this could be a real pain in the ass. I did see some realystrange things happen to word files after conversion to pdf. Most of them without any good explanation how they work. So if you want to make the formulas look right there are some fool proof options
1) Make the formulas in Photoshop/Illustrator and add little pictures in your text (resolution should be 150/200 dpi if you do this) Then make pdf.

2) Don't make pdf and print word files. (check version and put your fonts with the document Word does NOT warn about missing fonts but DOES get a 'simular' font....)

3) Use [url=http://www.openoffice.org/]Open Office] to make the document this program can write directly to pdf file. (I did not test this option yet but since it's free you might give it a shot.)

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