DTP to PDF on a Mac question

Factual Questions
1

I’m looking for some advice here on the most cost effective way to get page layout files made on my Mac into PDF format and to a printer. I used to be involved in desktop publishing prepress, but it’s been probably about 7 or more years.

The place I’m dealing with wants PDF files to work off of. The cover can be done as a TIF file, so I can handle that, but the interior I’m not sure on. All I have currently is a Mac running OS 10.1.5 and a pretty old copy of QuarkXPress (version 3.31, so running in emulation). The inkjet printer I have for some reason doesn’t want to work with OS X but does ok if I launch into Classic. For right now I want to be able to do this on the cheap.

So my question here is if there’s a way to get a PDF with fonts, images, output dpi and everything correctly set either with what I have or inexpensively. I am willing to upgrade the OS or other things as needed up to maybe a couple hundred dollars, but since I plan on hopefully getting top of the line page layout software (actually would like the whole Adobe CS Professional Suite on an upgrade from Photoshop once I get that kind of money together) I would rather not spend money on software that I’d just toss out later.

I think I can go to a postsript file in my copy of Quark, but then I don’t have Acrobat Distiller and am not sure if that would work efficiently. I also hear that OS X allows you to print direct to postscript, but I don’t know if the file size is bloated that way (on dial up and would need to send the file to them over the net), and my software isn’t running in the OS X environment anyway.

I’ve considered getting Open Office (would need the upgraded OS, but then I’d need that eventually sometime anyway) and trying to print from the Microsoft Word-compatible software (my layout wouldn’t be that complex to start with). I’ve also thought about getting an old copy of PageMaker, but that would just be something I’d replace later anyway so the money would be a waste.

After researching things I’m just a bit overwhelmed and thought maybe someone with more recent experience could just give me a clue…

Anyone have any suggestions for me? TIA.

2

You might give PrintToPDF a try. It’s a little limited, and might not work too well if your document is fairly complex. Worth a shot, though. It’s saved my butt making PDFs in OS 9 more than a few times over the years.

But yeah, you will want to upgrade that OS X. I don’t remember what the state of 10.1.5 is, but these days anything you can print out from a native OS X application you can print into a PDF file instead.

3

Hi drewbert. Thanks for the suggestion. Unfortunately, the PrintToPDF FAQ file says it doesn’t embed fonts, so it wouldn’t work for my purposes.

4

It might not work since you’re on dial-up, but I have a copy of Distiller and I’d be willing to make a PDF of it for you. I can also see if InDesign CS will open the Quark document itself and I could then send you a PDF, though of course I can’t guarantee everything will look the way you want. Feel free to e-mail me for either or both.

5

If you can print to a postscript file, and you aren’t scared of the command line, try ps2pdf.

OSX probably comes with it installed, as it’s a fairly common *nix app. Open up a terminal, type

ps2pdf --help

…and see what it says.

Reading that link will probably make it a little more clear.

6

10.2 and 10.3 have a “Save to PDF” button in the print dialog box. I’m not sure if this existed in 10.1. Using this allows the creation a a PDF from any file in any application.

I use this all the time. The files created are not the most efficient PDF (they tend to be larger than necessary), but they display fine. I’m also not sure if this includes fonts, but it does include all graphics.