James Walker's Mac Stuff

General Questions

Will PrintToPDF work in Mac OS X?
Why does Mac OS X produce larger PDF files than PrintToPDF?
Is there any utility that can merge two PDF files into one?
Why does a c with a cedilla (ç) show up in the PDF as an a with a cedilla?
Why is PrintToPDF creating very large PDF files?
How can I set A4 instead of U.S. Letter as the default page size?
I don't see any PrintToPDF desktop printer icon, though PrintToPDF otherwise works.
When I download PDF files, they often seem to be damaged. Is there anything I can do?
Why do I see a blank button in the Chooser when I choose PrintToPDF?
Why do certain bitmapped pictures produce a black rectangle in the PDF, while looking fine on the screen?
My document is supposed to be in landscape mode, but the PDF is in portrait mode, with stuff cut off on the sides. How can I fix that?
I e-mailed a PDF file to someone on Windows, and they couldn't read it. Isn't PDF supposed to be portable?
When I print a PDF file on an EPSON printer, why are there little dots scattered over the page?
Why don't you provide a way to choose PrintToPDF by holding special keys when selecting Print, as some FAX software does?
I can't seem to select PrintToPDF in the Chooser and have the selection "stick". What could cause that?
I uploaded a PDF file to my web site, but downloaders can't read it correctly. What's wrong?
PrintToPDF icons keep appearing on my desktop. What causes this, and what can I do about it?
Are there any extensions that conflict with PrintToPDF?
I registered, why haven't you told me how to remove "unregistered"?
What can Acrobat do that PrintToPDF can't do?
Do you have any plans to support more languages?

Application-specific Problems

A. The most likely reason is that you have checked one or more text fonts in the Fonts list in PrintToPDF's preferences dialog. I said right in the dialog that "I recommend that you use this feature only for symbol and dingbat fonts, not text fonts", but you did it anyway, didn't you?

The second most likely reason is that your documents contain a lot of pictures. If they are photographic images (as opposed to, say, diagrams, scanned text, or screen shots), you should turn on the JPEG option under the Images tab in PrintToPDF's preferences dialog. You can also save space, at some expense in image quality, by choosing the 12 bit color option.

Also see the FAQ on tables in Word documents.

Q. How can I set A4 instead of U.S. Letter as the default page size?

A. Simple: Choose A4 in the Page Setup dialog. PrintToPDF remembers that in its preferences file. However, some applications may store page sizes in their own preference files or even in individual documents, so you may need to select the page size more than once.

Don't be confused by the fact that U.S. Letter shows up first in the Sizes panel of PrintToPDF's preferences dialog. The Sizes panel is for editing sizes, it has nothing to do with choosing a size.

Q. I don't see any PrintToPDF desktop printer icon, though PrintToPDF otherwise works.

A. If you are running a version of the Mac OS earlier than 8.5, then you won't see desktop printer icons for any non-Apple printer drivers. If that's not the problem, you may have disabled some Apple extensions such as "Desktop PrintMonitor", "Desktop Printer Spooler", or "Desktop Printer Extension".

Q. When I download PDF files, they often seem to be damaged. Is there anything I can do?

A. Assuming the PDF files were uploaded correctly, you probably need to correct the settings in your Internet control panel.

Q. Why do I see a blank button in the Chooser when I choose PrintToPDF?

A. This sometimes happens when you have been running a version of PrintToPDF earlier than 2.0. This seems to be harmless, but you should be able to get rid of it as follows:

Choose a different printer driver.
Move PrintToPDF out of the Extensions folder, perhaps to Control Panels.
Open the Chooser, then close it.
Move PrintToPDF back to the Extensions folder.
Open the Chooser and select PrintToPDF.

Q. Why do certain bitmapped pictures produce a black rectangle in the PDF, while looking fine on the screen?

A. Although a picture appears to be a simple color bitmap (pixmap), its internal structure may be more complicated. I've seen a few pictures that make an image by overlaying two bitmapped images in a certain way. I'm not sure what program created them, because they've been pictures that people have had sitting around for years.

It's unlikely that I can make PrintToPDF handle such a picture well. But there's a simple way to "normalize" it: Paste it into a bitmap editing program, such as an AppleWorks "paint" window. Then copy it back out.

Q. My document is supposed to be in landscape mode, but the PDF is in portrait mode, with stuff cut off on the sides. How can I fix that?

A. After choosing PrintToPDF as your printer driver, open the document and do a Page Setup. Make sure the orientation is set to landscape.

This is most likely to be a problem in applications that present a completely customized Page Setup dialog, such as Excel, PowerPoint, and QuarkXPress. In these cases you should be able to get to the standard Page Setup dialog by clicking a button in the customized dialog. Make sure that both dialogs are set to landscape mode.

Q. I e-mailed a PDF file to someone on Windows, and they couldn't read it. Isn't PDF supposed to be portable?

A. When you attach a file to an e-mail message, the file needs to be encoded by the sending e-mail program, and decoded by the receiving e-mail program. One of them is doing it wrong. Check your e-mail program's settings to make sure that attachments are encoded in MIME (sometimes called AppleDouble) format. It is also possible that your e-mail program thinks that a PDF file is a text file; see my answer on downloading PDFs. If fiddling with settings doesn't help, you or the recipient may need to try a different e-mail program, or you may need to Stuff or Zip the file before attaching it.

Q. Will PrintToPDF work in Mac OS X?

A. Applications that have not been updated for Mac OS X will run in the "Classic" compatibility environment, and PrintToPDF should continue to function in that environment. But Mac OS X native applications require completely rewritten printer drivers. Also, Mac OS X native applications have a built-in way to print to PDF, though without live URLs and bookmarks. Currently there does not seem to be any practical way to rewrite PrintToPDF for Mac OS X, but that may become more clear when more documentation becomes available. It was only this January that Apple posted a preliminary document called "About the Mac OS X Printing System", which is rather sketchy.

Q. Why does Mac OS X produce larger PDF files than PrintToPDF?

A. One factor is that Mac OS X embeds fonts, while PrintToPDF does not. Of course, font embedding has the advantage that you can be sure that the PDF will look the same to all viewers. Another factor is that Mac OS X appears to use less efficient PDF code to represent the text on each page.

Q. Is there any utility that can merge two PDF files into one?

A. Besides Acrobat, you can do that with MacGhostView.

Q. Why does a c with a cedilla (ç) show up in the PDF as an a with a cedilla?

A. This only seems to happen when the font is bold Times (or the bold style of any font that PrintToPDF substitutes with Times). Believe it or not, this is not a bug in PrintToPDF. It's a bug in Acrobat Reader's built-in Times Bold font. The PDF file is fine, as you can see by viewing it with GhostScript or with Mac OS X's "Preview" application. Until Adobe fixes the bug, the only workaround is to use a different font or style.

Q. When I print a PDF file on an EPSON printer, why are there little dots scattered over the page?

A. I don't know why, but I do know that it's not specific to PrintToPDF, it can happen with a PDF file from any source. You may be able to reduce or eliminate the dots by adjusting advanced settings in the Epson printer driver. In the case of the Stylus Color 600, the No Halftoning option seemed to do the trick. In the case of the Stylus Color 760, the No Halftoning option is not available, but increasing the Brightness setting helps. ColorSync may also be involved.

Q. Why don't you provide a way to choose PrintToPDF by holding special keys when selecting Print, as some FAX software does?

A. That would require adding a system extension, which would make it more difficult to keep PrintToPDF stable and compatible.

Q. I can't seem to select PrintToPDF in the Chooser and have the selection "stick". What could cause that?

A. The chosen printer is recorded in the System file. If you lock the System file, or protect the System file or folder in some other way, then you interfere with that process.

Q. I uploaded a PDF file to my web site, but downloaders can't read it correctly. What's wrong?

A. Most likely, you uploaded it as text instead of binary data. If you used an FTP program that is supposed to decide automatically whether a file is text or data, you may have incorrect settings in the Internet control panel or Internet Config. When the Internet control panel is set to advanced user mode, click the Advanced tab and look at the File Mappings. Find the extension ".pdf" and double-click it. In the "Change Mapping" window, click "Show Advanced Options". Under "Default Format", make sure that the radio button "Binary Data" is selected.

Q. PrintToPDF icons keep appearing on my desktop. What causes this, and what can I do about it?

A. Update to the current version of PrintToPDF. This bug was fixed in version 2.1.

Q. Are there any extensions that conflict with PrintToPDF?

A. "Microsoft Office Manager" reportedly prevents using PrintToPDF in Internet Explorer 5.0. "ClickBook" reportedly sends you back to Page Setup every time you try to print. "YesNoCancel" reportedly causes a crash when you try to tab between fields in the preferences dialog. "Suitcase 9" reportedly caused multiple PrintToPDF desktop printer icons to appear.

Q. I registered, why haven't you told me how to remove "unregistered"?

A. I did, or rather Kagi Shareware did, at the end of the "Thanks for your Payment" e-mail you should have received. Most likely, you didn't bother reading all the way to the end. If you deleted the message, ask me and I'll send you a copy. If you never received it, either Kagi never successfully processed your registration, or else you gave them an incorrect e-mail address.

If you registered before August 2000, you may not have received a registration key that will work with PrintToPDF 2.0 or later. In that case, send me e-mail, giving the name and e-mail address with which you registered, and I will send you updated registration information.

Q. What can Acrobat do that PrintToPDF can't do?

A. It's not my place to sell you Acrobat, I don't even own a copy, but I can name a few things:

Annotate or edit existing PDF files
Create password-protected PDF files
Embed fonts in PDF files

Q. Do you have any plans to support more languages? (Hebrew, Greek, Russian...)

A. I realize that there are people who want this, but I don't expect to be able to do it soon. (It is possible to select any font to be rendered as bitmaps, but then you only have pictures of text, not real text.)

FileMaker Pro

Q. Why does FileMaker present a print job again and again when used with PrintToPDF?

A. This bug, triggered by the presence of certain third-party FileMaker plug-ins, is fixed in PrintToPDF 2.4.

Q. Why does PrintToPDF fail to make a PDF file from my FileMaker database, with no error message?

A. You need to update to a newer version of PrintToPDF. This bug was fixed in version 2.2.4.

MS Word

Q. Why do certain Word files produce multiple PDF files?

A. Most likely, different sections of the document have different page layouts. To fix this, use Page Setup. Make sure that the pop-up menu labelled "Apply Size and Orientation to:" is set to "Whole Document". Then save the document. Thereafter, you should get a single PDF.

Q. Why do my Word documents that contain tables produce surprisingly large PDF files?

A. If you look closely at your tables, you will probably find that there are dotted lines marking the boundaries of the table, or dividing rows or columns. Oddly enough, Word draws these dots as little pictures, which take up a lot of room in the PDF. If you remove the dotted lines or replace them with solid lines, you should find that the PDF gets substantially smaller.

Q. After increasing PrintToPDF's resolution setting, why do PDFs created from Word show the page text as only a small part of the PDF image?

A. When you change PrintToPDF's resolution setting, be sure to quit Word, restart Word, and do a Page Setup before printing. Word's programmers did not anticipate that a printer driver's maximum resolution could change while Word was running.

Q. In Word, my footer is supposed to say "page 1 of 10", "page 2 of 10", and so on, but instead says "page 1 of 1", "page 2 of 2", and so on. How can I fix this?

A. Do a Page Setup before printing.

Q. If I fill an autoshape with a gradient, the gradient extends through the whole bounding rectangle of the shape.

Q. Most "Word Art" images don't come out right in the PDF.

A. When Word (or Excel, or PowerPoint) fills a shape with a gradient, it uses QuickDraw operations that have no equivalent in PDF, involving several images that partially cancel each other out. Sorry, but I can't think of any way to fix this. As a workaround, you could copy the picture, paste it into a "paint"-type graphics program, then copy it and paste it back. This will convert it to a purely bitmapped picture.

Q. Why can't I get the bookmark feature to work on section headings that use the "small caps" style?

A. Word uses two different font sizes for the large caps and small caps. Therefore, there is no single font size that you can specify for the bookmarks that will match all of the letters of your headings. Possible solutions:

Just don't use the small caps style.
If you must use the small caps style, apply it to a font that is not used for anything else in the document. That way, you can specify a size of "any" in your bookmark settings.
Instead of the small caps style, use a real small caps font, such as the Capitals font that comes with the OS.

MS Excel

Q. When I print an Excel file with several worksheets, why do I get a separate PDF file for each sheet?

A. I don't know why Excel does that, but I know that it's Excel's fault. The same thing happens with other printer drivers, it's just not as obvious when printing to paper. For example, if you set up a LaserWriter desktop printer to print as PostScript files, you'll get a separate PostScript file for each sheet.

Q. Why do Excel's page breaks change when I switch from my usual printer to PrintToPDF?

A. I don't understand it either, but it is not unique to PrintToPDF. For instance if you switch from Apple's Color StyleWriter 2500 driver to Apple's ImageWriter driver, the page breaks will also change substantially.

Q. Why are my cell borders being drawn in the PDF as thick lines instead of hairlines?

A. This seems to be an Excel bug, but there's a workaround. If you look in Excel's Page Setup dialog, you should see choices something like "Adjust to: 37% normal size" or "Fit to: 1 page wide x 1 page tall". Make this say "Adjust to: 100% normal size", and you'll get hairlines. You can still scale the output, by clicking the Options button and specifying a scaling percentage in PrintToPDF's Page Setup dialog.

Q. The printed area is offset from where it should be when I use landscape orientation in Microsoft products.

A. I have worked around this Microsoft bug in PrintToPDF 2.3.

MS PowerPoint

Q. Why aren't my bookmarks working in a PowerPoint document?

A. You probably checked "Scale to fit paper" in the Print dialog. This alters the size of the text, which confuses recognition of bookmarks by size.

Netscape

Q. When printing from Netscape, why does a picture on one page often appear again on the next page?

A. It's a Netscape bug, not a PrintToPDF bug. The same thing can happen when printing web pages to a physical printer.

Nisus Writer

Q. When printing to PDF from Nisus Writer 5.1.3, why is the page image too high? That is, the top margin is less than I specified in Layout Page, and the bottom margin is greater, by about 10 points.

A. I believe this is a Nisus Writer bug. (You can still blame me, if you want, because I once worked at Nisus.) People using using physical printers probably wouldn't notice the bug, because they'd blame the inaccuracy on the paper feed mechanism of the printer. I don't know whether the bug still exists in Nisus Writer 6.

PageMaker

Q. Why can't I get live URLs to work in PageMaker?

A. PageMaker draws the text one letter at a time, presumably for more precise positioning. This prevents PrintToPDF from seeing the URL as a whole. A workaround is to make the URL as a picture in a draw-type program, or with PrintToPDF Link Maker, and paste the picture into PageMaker.

Quark XPress

Q. Why don't the pictures show up in a PDF I made from a Quark document?

A. Quark has an option as to how pictures should be treated when it prints. In Quark 4.1, go to the Print dialog, click the Options tab, and under Pictures, there is an Output option with the choices Normal, Low Resolution, and Rough. Set it to Normal.

Q. When I type a URL in QuarkXPress, why does PrintToPDF see only the "http://www." part of the URL?

A. Quark splits the text into pieces, presumably to make small adjustments in the text positioning. That doesn't seem to happen if you use Courier for the URL.

Q. Why does rotated text appear in the PDF at a much lower resolution than plain horizontal text?

A. The Quark programmers were too lazy to draw rotated text in a way that would work well with non-PostScript printers. You can get somewhat better results by increasing the "Maximum Resolution" setting in the "Misc." panel of PrintToPDF's preferences dialog. An alternate workaround would be to make rotated text in some application that handles rotated text better, such as PowerPoint, and paste it into Quark as a picture.

Ragtime

Q. Why can't I get live URLs to work in Ragtime?

A. Ragtime draws the text in parts, which prevents PrintToPDF from seeing the URL as a whole. A workaround is to turn off kerning. Another workaround is to make the URL as a picture in a draw-type program, or with PrintToPDF Link Maker, and paste the picture into Ragtime.