I thought the whole point of .pdf files was you create a document and you know it’ll be the same layout and format wherever it’s looked at, as long as the end user has a .pdf reader. It’s worked great for years.
Until now. Apparently Adobe got all “clever” and started adding options to .pdf’s and now this tried-and-true format is showing brand new bugs.
Specifically, I’m trying to save a Photoshop CS4 file as a straightforward .pdf file. Should be simple. “Save as.” But pdf is no longer an option. Now it’s called a “photoshop pdf” and I’m not sure why. It even gives the option of saving individual layers.
[rant]
I don’t want LAYERS. If I wanted LAYERS that can be individually edited, I’d save the stupid file as a… wait for it… PHOTOSHOP file! Sheesh. I want a simple PDF that just works from computer to computer. That I can trust. That I can have my partners look at, approve, and send to a printer halfway across the country knowing he’ll have the same images I sent over.
But nooooooo. Even though I turned the layers option OFF, something’s buggy. On my computer, everything is fine. I open the .pdf in Acrobat and see the entire layout of the graphic.
But as soon as I email it to my business partner, he opens it and it’s missing several layers. I don’t believe him, so he takes a screen grab and emails it back. Yup. PDF files no longer show everything you want them to like they used to.
[/rant.]
OK. Now for the questions.
1 – how do I save a Photoshop CS4 file (Mac) as a pdf so that I am 100% certain the entire graphic exists in the pdf. That all the layers are there. That all the layers that I see on my end actually transfer across the internet to my partner’s computer.
2 – is assassinating the folks who broke this thing illegal? Or will “duh, it had to be done to save the world from idiots” serve as a legitimate and winning legal defense?