Stupid PDF Question: What's the difference between "Save As PDF" and Printing to a PDF "printer"?

[JohnHuntington]

Is there a quality difference? 

The "Save As" seems to run Distiller, but if I select "Print Document" and select "Adobe PDF" as the printer, it also seems to work OK, although I sometimes get a "Times" font not available, will be replaced by "Times New Roman", even though I can't find any reference to "times" in my book.

Is there an advantage to running Distiller?

Thanks!

John

www.controlgeek.net

[Jeff_Coatsworth · Accepted solution]

They're basically the same - one has traditionally been more stable (print) than the other (save as).

Your mystery font may be hiding in a graphic somewhere. Sometimes an examination of the MIF can show it. You could always try the suggested font substitution and save the resulting "fixed" file if you don't care about Times.

[JohnHuntington]

Thanks!

John

[Guest]

Save As PDF allows you to set up PDF features, like bookmarks that can be linked to index page numbers, etc. Printing to PDF does not allow you to customize the PDF features.

Ron Tillotson

Technical Writer

P Please consider the environment before printing this email.

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

Umm, sure it does - select File > Print > Generate Acrobat Data > PDF Setup; make your selections; uncheck Print to File & print

[Guest]

Ron Tillotson

Technical Writer

P Please consider the environment before printing this email.

Thanks Jeff. Thank you for the feedback. I probably was printing to Cute PDF that caused the feature limitations. I really never pursued selecting Adobe PDF, then Generate Acrobat Data. -- Ron

[Bob_Niland]

> Is there a quality difference?

I'd expect them (as well as print-to-Ps & Distill) to be the same for the same settings.

We print to Ps & Distill, for several reasons, not all of which may apply to you:

1. More control. Distilling provides menus for everything Adobe lets you control in PDF gen. Print/SaveAs may not (and don't in our environment).
2. Faster printing (Frame doesn't have to wait for the tps to pdf gen). You can get back to work while a long job renders.
3. Unequal versions/different platforms. We author on FM8/Unix and Distill on Acro9/PC.

> ... although I sometimes get a "Times" font not available, will be replaced by "Times New Roman", even though I can't find any reference to "times" in my book.

Save the component files to MIF and examine with a plaintext editor. If not found, the font invocation is probably coming in with a text inset, or a graphic of type DWG, DXF, EPS, PDF or possibly SVG.