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How do I convert A4 PDF to Letter size?

Engaged ,
May 16, 2012 May 16, 2012

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I am using Acrobat X Professional on a Mac, OSX 10.6.8.

I have a 46 page PDF file that is currently formatted A4 (8.25 X 11.69 inches) and need to shrink it to Letter sized. I know I can print to fit, but that is not what I need. I need the actual PDF file to resized to fit 8.5X11 paper. I haven't figured out how to do it yet.

I've tried cropping, printing to PDF, etc, but Acrobat X doesn't let me do it.

I figure there has to be a way for this common task. Any suggestions?

Thanks,

Lou

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correct answers 1 Correct answer

Mentor , May 17, 2012 May 17, 2012

I've not examined the differences but (up to AA9) there are two options in the Page Scaling - Fit to Printable and Shrink to Printable; one may constrain proportions where the other does not.

Is there a benefit to scaling these in InDesign - I cannot wrap my (tired) thoughts to the benefit. AA will scale, and the end size, printed paper, will be 8.5 x 11.

OK, I expect you need a final document at 8.5 x 11.

Typically, you would Print to PDF with a 8.5 x 11 Page size and Scale.

You note that Acrobat

...

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Mentor ,
May 17, 2012 May 17, 2012

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There might be a more direct route, but from the Pages Panel I was able to

Crop Pages > Change Page Size > Fixed Sizes > Tabloid   (toggle All Pages radio button)

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Crop Pages > 3" Top & Bottom, 1.25" Left & Right

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Engaged ,
May 17, 2012 May 17, 2012

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Thanks for the response, Daniel.

While that works, I end up with a document that rides right up to the top and bottom edge of the 8.5X11 paper. A4 paper is 11.69 inches high, so cropping lops off that extra 0.69 inches. I can't find any other way to do it in Acrobat X, but that may just be my inexperience. I really need to be able to re-scale my original from 100% to about 95% of its current size and then crop to fit on 8.5X11 paper. Don't know if that can be done in Acrobat or not, but if so, I haven't figured it out yet.

What I can do (PITA) is paste the PDF into a new Indesign document, set up as 8.5X11, and re-scale and re-position each page. It's a kludge, but I can make it work. I also have to edit some of the pages, which is a bit more trouble, but I can get around that. It's just a very inefficient, clumsy way to work. It would be so much easier if they had this capability built right into Acrobat. I'm sure it is a common request, especially for international companies who deal with both A4 and Letter sized documents.

Anyway, thanks for the response. I appreciate it.

Lou

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Mentor ,
May 17, 2012 May 17, 2012

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I've not examined the differences but (up to AA9) there are two options in the Page Scaling - Fit to Printable and Shrink to Printable; one may constrain proportions where the other does not.

Is there a benefit to scaling these in InDesign - I cannot wrap my (tired) thoughts to the benefit. AA will scale, and the end size, printed paper, will be 8.5 x 11.

OK, I expect you need a final document at 8.5 x 11.

Typically, you would Print to PDF with a 8.5 x 11 Page size and Scale.

You note that Acrobat X does not allow Printing to PDF. This may involve that OSX 10.6 bug combined with Acrobat X removing the ability; I work in Mac 10.4 only occasionally, AA8 & 9

Within InDesign you could use one of a few excellent Scripts for placing multiple page pdf's

Check Here

Are you familiar with InDesign Scripts? This is a real time saver. I know I recognize your screen name, either from this forum or the InDesign forum...

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Engaged ,
May 17, 2012 May 17, 2012

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Thanks again, Daniel.

I tried AA9 Pro, and it won't let me print to PDF either, so both v9 Pro and v10 Pro won't do it. Very frustrating. I'm running OSX 10.6.8. Not sure if it is the OS, Acrobat, or perhaps a permissions setting in the original PDF file. However, the permissions are set to allow everything, including modifying the PDF, so I don't think that is the issue. It was worth a try—that would definitely have been the easy way. I've been able to print to PDF from other formats (Word, Pages, Excel, etc), but printing a PDF from Acrobat to PDF doesn't seem to work. I thought it was going to allow me to print to a postscript file, but that bombed too.

Yes, I need the final PDF to be on 8.5x11 paper size.

I am not very familiar with InDesign Scripts. I will check out the link you provided and see what I can find. I like time-savers.

Yes, I have hundreds of posts all over dozens of different forums, for at least the last 10-15 years. I really appreciate your assistance, Daniel. Thank you.

Lou

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Engaged ,
May 17, 2012 May 17, 2012

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Daniel,

I downloaded the CS5 script for importing a multipage PDF or INDD file into InDesign. I know it was written for IDCS5, but I loaded the script into my IDCS6 folder (which I just fired up yesterday). The script worked easily, quickly and seamlessly, resized, centered, etc. Awesome, and a big time saver.

Just wanted to say thanks again for the expert help! Much appreciated.

WooHoo!

Lou

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New Here ,
Oct 08, 2015 Oct 08, 2015

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Daniel - I just used this script in InDesignCC 2015 and it worked like a charm.  Thanks!

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New Here ,
Nov 16, 2015 Nov 16, 2015

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An easier solution:

Open the pdf in Safari and print the file with the option of setting the page size to US letter.

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Community Beginner ,
Apr 13, 2017 Apr 13, 2017

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This hack worked perfectly for me. Thank you. Ridiculous that Adobe doesn't have a native fix for this.

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