1 CREATE AN INTERACTIVE DOCUMENT
Open InDesign CS5 and create a new document (File>New>Document) that includes multiple page sizes and orientations, bookmarks, buttons, and has attached one or more media files such as voice, video, or animation. (Go to Window>Interactive to access all the panels for controlling your interactive elements.) It may take some getting used to being able to create multiple sized document pages in both portrait and landscape orientation—this is new in InDesign CS5. The PDF document format has long supported multiple document page sizes and orientations. Taking advantage of this capability from the beginning of your design workflow will help later on.

2 INITIATE EXPORT
After you’ve created your interactive document, go to File>Export (Command-E [PC: Ctrl-E]) to activate the Export dialog. From the Format drop-down menu, choose Adobe PDF (Interactive). There’s a second PDF choice labeled Adobe PDF (Print). Choosing this print version will activate the Export Adobe PDF dialog with which you’re familiar. With Adobe PDF (Interactive) chosen, locate where you’d like to save your interactive PDF; I recommend you place your InDesign document, all its linked files, and your initial Interactive PDF in the same folder. Click Save to activate the Export to Interactive PDF dialog.

3 DESIGNATE PAGE RANGE
In the Pages section, specify the range of pages you’d like to export to your interactive PDF. In the Range field, use hyphens between numbers to specify a range of sequential pages and place commas where you’d like to specify a break in the range of pages. Don’t click OK yet. Note: You can specify page ranges using either Absolute Numbering or Section Numbering sequences by going to InDesign (PC: Edit)>Preferences>General and using the View drop-down menu in the Page Numbering section. Type a plus sign (+) in front of each of the page numbers (i.e., +1–+5) in the Range field to override Section Numbering with Absolute Numbering.

4 VIEWING AFTER EXPORTING
Directly beneath the Pages field, enable the View After Exporting checkbox. Activating this option will immediately open your interactive PDF inside of your default PDF reading program once clicking OK. You’ll be best served to set Acrobat Pro as your default PDF reading program because Acrobat Pro will provide you with the greatest range of PDF editing capabilities. Be sure to specify Acrobat Pro as the default PDF reader in both your operating system and Adobe Bridge (Adobe Bridge CS5 [PC: Edit]>Preferences, select the File Type Associations category on the left, then locate PDF Document [.pdf] in the list of file types).

5 EMBED PAGE THUMBNAILS
Enable the Embed Page Thumbnails checkbox if you’d like to create a thumbnail preview for each PDF document page or spread. These thumbnails will be visible and available for use in the Open and Place dialogs in InDesign. Having these thumbnails can dramatically speed up the recognition and use of PDF files when opening and placing. However, adding individual page thumbnails will increase the file size of the final PDF document. If file size is an issue, try creating one with and one without the thumbnails so you can judge if the file size overhead of the preview thumbnails is acceptable.

6 CREATE ACROBAT LAYERS
If you wish to save each InDesign layer as a separate PDF document page, enable the Create Acrobat Layers checkbox. Each of these InDesign layers will be fully navigable in the PDF. So if you have different versions of the design layout stored on separate layers in your InDesign document, anyone viewing the PDF can create different design layout versions without having to return to the original InDesign document. Note: If using this capability, it will likely change the workflow you use to create your InDesign documents. And of course, adding all these layer pages will increase PDF document size.

7 CREATE TAGGED PDF
Enabling the Create Tagged PDF checkbox does not affect what content of the InDesign document is exported to PDF. Rather, tagging the PDF will provide help to identify what the various document elements are such as heads, subheads, body copy, tables, graphics etc., and provides structural information about how this document is put together. All of this tagging information can be useful when reformatting and editing a PDF document at a later time. Adding tagging is generally a good idea because it adds minimum file size to your document and provides far more future flexibility.

8 SET VIEW MENU
Click the View drop-down menu to set the initial view of the PDF when it’s opened. This view setting will override the default preferences in Acrobat. The content of the document will often determine your view choice. For instance, you might choose 100% if you’re sending a graphics portfolio and you want to make sure that its image quality isn’t compromised by an over-enlargement on a large display monitor. Or you might choose Fit Page if you want to make sure an entire design layout will be visible when the PDF is opened.

9 CHOOSE LAYOUT OPTION
The layout option you choose will depend upon how your document is laid out, such as single nonfacing pages or facing pages, and whether or not you’re exporting spreads from your InDesign document. For instance, if you have a facing pages InDesign document and would like the facing pages to be displayed together in their correct recto and verso positions, you’d choose Two-Up (Facing). Notice, two choices include a document with and without cover pages. This setting also overrides the default preferences in Acrobat. Note: If you select Default in either the View or Layout drop-down menus, the PDF will use the default settings in Acrobat.

10 PRESENTATION CHARACTERISTICS
If you’d like your PDF to act like a presentation as soon as it’s opened, in the Presentation section, enable the Open in Full Screen Mode checkbox. Set a new timing in the Flip Pages Every field, and from the Page Transitions drop-down menu, choose a page transition. Note: The first Page Transitions menu choice, From Document, will use page transitions assigned within the InDesign document. You can set up the page transitions in InDesign by going to Window>Interactive>Page Transitions. Also note, presentation functions applied to the interactive PDF can be reset when opened in Acrobat.

11 ACTIVATE BUTTONS AND MEDIA, OR NOT
Select Include All from the Buttons and Media section if you want all of your attached media (such as sound files, videos, and animations) to be included and active in your PDF file. If you select the Appearance Only option, all of your interactive buttons will be included in your PDF but they’ll occur only in their normal state and will not be active in the PDF document. By selecting Include All, your interactive buttons and media will be active in both the normal PDF viewing modes and in presentation modes.

12 IMAGE HANDLING CHARACTERISTICS
In the Image Handling section, you determine how pixel-based images will be converted when they’re processed for inclusion in your interactive PDF. Your choices should depend upon your images and their use. For instance, if you’re creating a high-quality portfolio, you might choose JPEG 2000 (Lossless) for Compression, while for a monthly sales report, you might choose JPEG (Lossy) for Compression and Medium for JPEG Quality. Your resolution choice will depend upon your output device. For onscreen, choose between 72–96 ppi; for desktop printing, choose 144 ppi; and for commercial or high-quality printing, choose 300 ppi.

13 SET SECURITY
Not all documents need security. In fact, adding security to some documents, such as a portfolio, may create unnecessary hurdles for someone to view your work. For instance, you may want people to view your work but not be able to print or edit it. That’s easy to set up. Click the Security button and enable the Use a Password to Restrict Printing, Editing and Other Tasks checkbox. Enter a password in the Permissions Password field, confirm your password, and click OK.

14 CREATE AND TEST YOUR PDF
To create your interactive PDF, click OK in the Export to Interactive PDF dialog. If you’ve enabled the View After Exporting checkbox, your PDF should open in your default PDF opening application (hopefully, Acrobat Pro). Review your view, layout, and any presentation settings you’ve assigned. Test all of your interactive elements. Also, feel free to change any of the PDF document characteristics in Acrobat. If you’ve assigned security, carefully check to make sure it’s working, and for heaven’s sake, write down any passwords you assigned (I use a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet for all my passwords). Voil ! An interactive PDF!

1 OPEN A PDF FILE
Open a multipage PDF file that contains a ToC and sequential page numbering. It’s helpful but not an absolute requirement that your document ToC lists page numbers, or even has page numbers. In fact, if your document or ToC lacks page numbers, the links you’ll create become even more important because no page number guides are required. We’re going to use a 25-page color-correction manual for this tutorial. Manuals are particularly good candidates for ToC links because readers are often looking for a specific set of instructions rather than having to read the entire manual.

2 LOCATE THE TABLE OF CONTENTS
Navigate to the ToC page (in our example page 2) and zoom in on the table of contents copy. Zooming in will make the placement of your navigation buttons easier and more accurate. Depending upon the dimensions of your document page, the number of ToC entries, and the point size of the ToC text, you may want to zoom in to the top half—or even tighter—on this area of the page.

3 DETERMINE NAVIGATION LINK LOCATION
Our approach here is to place internal hyperlink buttons on the ToC page that will link to individual document pages. Evaluate the layout of the ToC document page to determine where you’d like to place the active link buttons. You can create a link button directly on top of the copy, over part of the copy (such as over the page number), or completely off to one side. Here we’ll place the links to the right of the ToC copy in the column labeled “Notes,” which we can change to “Links” using Adobe Acrobat’s text editing tools.

4 PLACE ADVANCED EDITING TOOLS
Choose Tools>Advanced Editing>Show Advanced Editing Toolbar to display the advanced editing tools. Although you can certainly choose individual tools, such as the Button tool, you’ll find it far easier and faster to have all the advanced editing tools handy in their readily accessible toolbar. You can leave your advanced editing toolbar as a floating panel that you can move around, or you can dock it to one side of your page by clicking-and-dragging the toolbar to the edge of the document.

5 SELECT YOUR HYPERLINK TOOL
Mouse over to the Advanced Editing toolbar and click the Button tool, which we’ll use to create a hyperlink button. (Note: Other tools, such as the Link tool [also in the Advanced Editing toolbar], can be used to create internal hyperlinks but I chose the Button tool for this tutorial because of its wider range of formatting and action options. Once you’ve completed this tutorial, however, I encourage you to try the Link tool, as well. It’s similar to the Button tool, so setup will be fairly intuitive.)

6 CREATE FIRST HYPERLINK BUTTON
With your Button tool selected, drag a rectangle around the area where you want to create your first button link. A blue selection rectangle and coordinate lines become automatically available to help you place your button. Don’t worry too much about the button’s precise size and location because you can easily edit it at any time by activating the Select Object tool (it’s automatically activated after you use the Button tool) and dragging any of the rectangle control points to change its dimensions, or by dragging the middle of the button to alter its location.

7 NAME YOUR BUTTON; OPEN PROPERTIES
Once you release the mouse from drawing your initial button, a Field Name dialog appears. Type in a name for your button: “Navigate to Page 4.” (You can change this name via the Properties dialog.) Click Show All Properties located in the lower-right corner of the Field Name dialog. (Tip: You can also access the Show Properties dialog by Right-clicking on the link button with the Select Object tool and selecting Properties from the menu.)

8 ASSIGN APPEARANCE PROPERTIES
Click the Appearance tab to assign text and border properties. We chose the Helvetica Bold font, which allows for easy readability. Next, click on the Text Color swatch and select a color from the flyout menu—we used white. For the Border and Fill Color, we chose black. And finally, assign a Line Thickness (Thin) and a Line Style (Solid). Tip: Pick a point size large enough to read but also leave a nice border around the copy. You may want to adjust the dimensions of your button rectangle and type to suit each other also.

9 BUTTON OPTIONS
Under the Options tab, click the Layout drop-down menu and choose Label Over Icon to control the relative arrangement of the icon and label elements. In the Label field, type your label copy (“Press to go to pg 4”). Click the Choose Icon button to locate and place a graphic (we created our button in Photoshop). Click OK. Tip: Select an icon graphic that can be nonproportionally scaled without appearing distorted, such as the beveled-edge button shown here. This provides flexibility in your button’s dimensions and saves lots of icon editing time.

10 FINE-TUNE APPEARANCE OPTIONS
To control the scaling of your icon, click the Advanced button. In the Icon Placement dialog, choose Always from the When to Scale drop-down menu, Non-proportionally for Scale, and click OK. This allows the graphic to fit easily into the button dimensions, even when its dimensions are changed. Finally, to fine-tune your button behavior, in the Button Properties dialog, choose Push for Behavior and Rollover for State.

11 START BUTTON ACTION SETUP
Click the Actions tab to activate the hyperlink control settings. Choose Mouse Down from the Select Trigger menu and choose Go to a Page View from the Select Action menu. Notice the variety of choices in the Select Action menu so you can initiate many actions with a button like this. Here, we’re using our button to create an internal hyperlink to a specific page in the document.

12 FINISH BUTTON ACTION SETUP
Now, click the Add button and navigate to the page (page 4) where you want this hyperlink to acquire. Then choose View>Zoom>Fit Page to bring up full-page view. Once you’ve navigated to page 4, click the Set Link button in the Create Go to View dialog. Note: Be sure to navigate to the page and view that you want before clicking the Set Link button. Now go back to the ToC page, double-click on your button to open the Button Properties dialog, and the Actions panel will be highlighted. Review and confirm the button action you’ve created.

13 SET THE GENERAL TAB
If you want to rename your button or provide a tool tip, click on the General tab. What’s a tool tip? It’s the message that appears when someone rolls their cursor over the top of the button and pauses for a moment. You can also assign Common Properties, such as Form Field and Orientation. Here, we’ve added the Tooltip: “Press this button to navigate to Page 4.” Click Close. Now, choose the Hand tool and click on your button to try out your new hyperlink!

14 CREATING ADDITIONAL BUTTONS
To create additional buttons for each ToC link, you don’t have to start from scratch. You can duplicate this first button and adjust the name, label copy, and go to page link for each additional ToC link. Here’s how: Choose the Select Object tool and press the Option (PC: Alt) key while you drag your current button to create a duplicate copy. And, if you hold down the Shift key while you drag your original button, your new button will remain directly under the original. Double-click the new button to open the Button Properties dialog, and make your changes. Voil , ToC-based links!

ALL IMAGES BY TAZ TALLY UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED

1 PHOTOGRAPH YOUR FRAMES
Place one of the frames you want to use on a neutral background that provides good contrast with the edge of the frame. A large piece of white foam core works nicely. Photograph your frames under 5000–6500° Kelvin lamps and capture a crop-out grayscale target if the frame color is important. Set your camera so the middle of the lens is equidistant from all four corners of the frame with the camera back perpendicular to the plane of the frame. Use a bit of side lighting to enhance the 3D appearance in the final image. Repeat for any other frames you want to use.

2 CORRECT THE FRAME IMAGE
If you’ve used 5000–6500Âş Kelvin lamps, color correction should be minimal. If you’ve captured a grayscale target, use it to confirm or color correct the image. Then set Brightness and Contrast to suit the look your want for your frame. You can perform this correction either in the Camera Raw dialog or in Photoshop. Select the maximum image dimension (Image>Image Size) at which you’ll be displaying or printing your framed images. Save this image as a PSD file.

3 SQUARE UP THE FRAME
Choose Filter>Distort>Lens Correction. Using the Move Grid tool (M), align the Lens Correction grid system so an intersecting pair of vertical and horizontal grid lines are aligned with the top and left edges of the frame. Use the Angle field to rotate the image until the top of the frame is parallel to a horizontal grid line. With the Move Grid tool, fine-tune the placement of the grid lines. Use the Vertical and Horizontal Perspective sliders to align the left, right, and bottom edges of the frame so they are perfectly parallel with the grid lines. Zoom in on frame edges to check for “squareness.” Click OK.

4 ADD GUIDES TO CHECK SQUARENESS
After applying your lens correction adjustment, and with your Photoshop Rulers active (Command-R [PC: Ctrl-R]), click on the top ruler and drag a horizontal guide down to the top edge of your frame. Check to make sure the top edge of the frame fits perfectly along the guideline. It’s worth the time to make sure this top edge is perfect. Having the top edge perfect makes squaring up the rest of the frame easier. Add guides onto the bottom and side edges of the frame. Choose View>Lock guides so you don’t inadvertently move your Guides.

5 FREE TRANSFORM TO FINE-TUNE FRAME
No matter how careful you are with your photography and your Lens Correction, you may still have some frame distortion. Use the Rectangular Marquee tool (M) to draw a selection around the outside of the frame. Choose Edit>Free Transform. Zoom into a corner of your frame that needs adjusting. Press Command (PC: Ctrl) and drag the corner of the bounding box until the edges of the frame fit perfectly along the vertical and horizontal guides so there isn’t even one pixel deviation along the edges of the frame. Repeat for each corner, then press Return (PC: Enter) to commit the transformation. Press Command-D (PC: Ctrl-D) to deselect.

6 CROP THE FRAME
Go to View>Show>Guides to hide your guides. Activate your Crop tool (C) and click the Clear button in the Options Bar to empty all the fields. Click on the top-left corner of your frame and drag down to the lower-right corner. Now, starting in the upper left, zoom into each corner and fine-tune the placement of the bounding box until you’ve cropped out all the distracting edge pixels. You often have light, anti-aliased background pixels along the edge that you’ll want to remove. Press Return (PC: Enter) to apply the crop. This becomes your background frame layer.

7 DELETE IMAGE IN FRAME
Using your Rectangular Marquee tool, draw a selection around the contents inside the frame. Go to Select>Transform selection, zoom into the inside corners of the frame, and fine-tune the placement of the bounding box along the inner edges of the frame until you’ve cropped out all the distracting edge pixels. Press Return (PC: Enter) to commit the transformation of the selection. Press Delete (PC: Backspace) to remove the contents of the frame. You should now have the frame on a transparent background. Press Command-D (PC: Ctrl-D) to deselect.

8 ADD IMAGES OF LAYERS
Using your Move tool (V), drag your photographs into your frame image. Each image will be added on its own layer. Double-click each layer’s name and rename it to coincide with each image. You can drag layers into a specific order after you add them. If you have both portrait and landscape oriented images you might want to Image>Duplicate, Image>Image Rotation>90? CW, and then add your landscape oriented images to this frame base. In the Layers panel, drag the frame layer to the top of the layer stack. Click the Eye icon next to each layer to hide them except for the frame layer and one of the image layers.

9 FINE-TUNE IMAGE PLACEMENT
Click on the visible image layer to make it active. Choose Edit>Free Transform. Press your Shift key and drag a corner of your image to resize it to fill the frame. You can click-and-drag inside the bounding box to reposition the image. Press Return (PC: Enter) to commit the transformation. Repeat this for each image layer, hiding and revealing layers as needed. Click on the Frame layer to make it active, and then click on the Add a Layer Style icon at the bottom of the Layers panel and choose Drop Shadow. Experiment with the settings to create a natural shadow along the inside edges of the frame, and click OK.

10 CREATE LAYER COMPS
Choose Window>Layer Comps to activate the Layer Comps panel. With the base frame layer constantly visible, sequentially make the individual image layers visible and create layer comps of each image layer placed inside of the frame. To create a new layer comp, simply click the Create New Layer Comp icon at the bottom of the panel, name your comp in the resulting dialog, and click OK. You’ll use these Layer Comps to create your individual framed images without having to manually create separate images.

11 EXPORT LAYER COMPS TO CREATE FRAMED IMAGES
Choose File>Scripts>Layer Comps to Files. Select a Destination and File Type (here, high-quality JPEGs with Quality of 10–12) and provide a File Name Prefix. If you have multiple frames, orientations, and mattes you may find it useful to base your naming scheme on those, for example: Matte Horizontal, Matte Vertical, No Matte Horizontal, and No Matte Vertical. Click the Run button to create a sequence of framed images for each image and frame combination.

12 CREATE PDFS OF FRAMED IMAGES
In Adobe Bridge, navigate to your files, activate the Output panel (Window>Workspace>Output), and choose PDF at the top. Configure the Output panel to place a single, full-quality image on each page. Choose a Background color that complements your images (you’ll rarely go wrong with neutrals). Add header or footer copy to suit. Use the Refresh Preview button as you change settings. If you prefer, choose Open in Full Screen Mode in the Playback section and assign a Transition to have your framed images appear in a dynamic slide show. Select the thumbnails of all the images that you want to include in the PDF, and click the Save button to create your PDF.

13 COMBINE PDFS
Repeat Step 12 for each series of photos containing your various orientations and frames. With Acrobat, open the PDF containing the series of images you want to be at the beginning of your image sequence. Choose Document>Insert Pages to add your other PDFs of framed images to this document. You can change display mode (using File>Properties and clicking Initial View) and assign or change transitions by Right-clicking your PDF pages in the Pages panel and choosing Page Transitions from the context-sensitive pop-up menu.

14 Final Image

ALL IMAGES BY TAZ TALLY UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED

The ease with which you can move type and images between the Creative Suite applications allows you to take best advantage of the specific capabilities of each application. In the following tutorial, we’re going to use Photoshop, Illustrator, and Acrobat to create, display, and distribute a sequential demonstration of power flow from a wind turbine to an electric grid.

1 PREPARE BACKGROUND IMAGE
In Photoshop, prepare the background image you’d like to use. Resize this image (Image>Image Size) to its final presentation dimensions of 1024×768 and assign a linear resolution of 72 ppi. In this example, we’re using a photo of a connection between a wind turbine tower and the electrical grid at the Bear Creek Winery in Homer, Alaska.

2 SET TYPE IN ILLUSTRATOR
Using the superior type capabilities in Illustrator, select the Type tool (T) and type the various phrases you want to use in your presentation. Use the Control bar to set the Fill, Stroke, Font, and Font Size. We assigned a green color to the type associated with the turbine energy (to represent green energy), and red to designate the electrical grid energy. We also added a two-point black stroke to help the type show up when placed over the background image in Photoshop.

3 CREATE ARROWS IN ILLUSTRATOR
Still in Illustrator, create a series of arrows you’d like to place over your image in Photoshop to represent the electrical flow. While you can accomplish this in Photoshop, it’s much easier and faster in Illustrator. There are many ways to create or import arrows, but we’ll use the Glyphs panel (Type>Glyphs). Click on the artboard with the Type tool, select Zapf Dingbats in the Font drop-down menu, and then double-click one of the arrows in the Glyphs panel as a starting place. Create both red and green arrows to show both the turbine and grid input. Apply a two-point black stroke like you did with the type.

4 CONVERT TYPE TO OUTLINES IN ILLUSTRATOR
As an option, you can convert your type characters and arrows to outlines in Illustrator using Type>Create Outlines so you can edit them as vector paths. Here, we converted one of the Zapf Dingbats arrows into outlines and used the Direct Selection tool (A) to create a custom curved arrow. After you alter the arrow shape, you can still color and stroke your path. Note: You may want to use slightly different shades of green for your type and arrows to make them visually distinct.

5 PASTE TYPE AND ARROWS IN PHOTOSHOP
Use Edit>Copy in Illustrator and Edit>Paste in Photoshop to move your type and arrow segments into your Photoshop background image. Each pasted element will be assigned its own layer in Photoshop. Plan your copy-and-paste sequence to match the layer order in which you want the various type and arrow elements to appear to save yourself some layer-reorganization time in Photoshop (see next step). Your paste options in Photoshop include: Smart Object, Pixels, Path, and Shape Layer. Choose Smart Object to preserve the edge quality of the vectors during transformation in Photoshop, or Shape Layer to edit vector paths in Photoshop.

6 ARRANGE LAYERS IN PHOTOSHOP
Once you’ve pasted all your type segments and arrows into Photoshop, label and arrange your layers in the sequence you’d like them to appear in the demo. Use logical names for each of your layers to make them easy to identify. Place the first layer that will appear in the demonstration at the top of your layer sequence. Doing so will make it easier to relate your layer sequence to the sequence of layer comps you’ll create in Step 10 below.

7 TRANSFORM TYPE AND ARROWS IN PHOTOSHOP
Using the Move tool (V), reposition your type and arrows to where you want them over your background image. Use the Free Transform command (Edit>Free Transform or Command-T [PC: Ctrl-T]) to resize, reshape, and rotate your arrows to suit their various locations. Since you’ve placed your arrows as smart objects, you can transform them as many times as you like without loss of image quality.

8 EDIT TYPE AND ARROW SMART OBJECTS
If you want to change the characteristics of your arrows, such as color or stroke, or the formatting of your type—such as leading, color, or stroke—simply double-click directly on the thumbnail of the smart object layer in the Layers panel. This will take you back to the original Illustrator object where you can apply your edits and save them. When you return to Photoshop, the edits you made in Illustrator will automatically update in your Photoshop file. This method is simple, easy, and fast, and maintains the quality of all your smart object elements.

9 CREATE LAYER GROUPS IN PHOTOSHOP
To help you organize your many Photoshop layers into their display sequences, group your layers together in layer groups. Perform this by Shift-clicking on a sequence of layers you want to appear together, and then choose New Group from Layers from the Layers panel flyout menu. Each layer group appears as a folder in the Layers panel. Once again, label each layer group with easy-to-identify logical names. Click the triangle tick mark located on the left side of each layer group to display its constituent layers. Note: Whole groups or individual layers can be shown or hidden.

10 CREATE LAYER COMPS IN PHOTOSHOP
The layer groups you created in Step 9 should be in the order in which you’d like them to appear in your demonstration sequence. Test this sequence to make sure it’s correct by turning off the visibility of all layers (click on the Eye icon next to each layer) except the background image layer. Then, display (make visible) each group starting at the top and working your way down. Now, just display the first (top) layer group in your sequence and the background image. Then activate the Layer Comps panel (Window>Layer Comps), and choose New Layer Comp from the flyout menu. Create a layer comp for each layer group.

11 EXPORT LAYER COMPS TO JPEG FROM PHOTOSHOP
To create a sequence of demo images, choose File>Scripts>Layer Comps to Files. This dialog allows you to export each of your layer comps as a separate file. Your series of layer comp files will contain your demonstration sequence. You can export as a variety of file format types, including PDF; however, exporting as high-quality JPEGs (set Quality to 12) will reduce the size of your files. PDF and PSD files exported in this manner are often large and require some attention to reduce their file size.

12 REVIEW AND ORGANIZE LAYER COMP JPEGS IN BRIDGE
Review your exported layer comp JPEGs in Bridge. Check to make sure each file contains the sequence content you’d like. If you’ve paid close attention to the naming and organization of your layers, layer groups, and layer comps, you’ll likely have fewer problems at this point.

13 CREATE PDF PRESENTATION THROUGH BRIDGE
In Bridge, select the JPEG layer comp files and choose Window>Workspace>Output. Choose PDF at the top of the Output panel to activate the PDF export options. Assign the same pixel dimension and linear resolution as your exported JPEGs (here 1024×768 at 72 ppi) to minimize downsampling interpolation during the PDF creation process. In the Layout section, set both Columns and Row to 1. Add any Headers or Footers you like, and assign Playback characteristics (we turned on all the options). Set the Transition to None to keep the background stable during playback. Check on the View PDF After Save and then click the Save button to create your PDF.

14 TEST AND CONFIGURE INITIAL VIEW IN ACROBAT
Once your demo PDF opens in Acrobat, choose File>Properties and select the Initial View tab. Configure your Initial View as follows: Navigation Tab: Page Only; Page Layout: Single Page; Magnification: Actual Size; Open to Page: 1; and Window Options: Open in Full Screen Mode. These characteristics will control how your demo PDF will open and perform on someone else’s computer. Click OK and Save. You can now take, send, share, open and display your PDF demo on anyone’s computer who has Adobe Reader or Acrobat.

ALL IMAGES BY TAZ TALLY UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED

1 PAGE ZOOMING
There are numerous tools and methods for zooming in and out of PDF document pages. Here are the ones that have consistently proven most useful: Press-and-hold Command (PC: Ctrl) and then – to zoom out or + to zoom in on a document page. Press Spacebar and then Command (PC: Ctrl) and drag your mouse over the area into which you wish to zoom. Press Command-0 (PC: Crtl-0) to fit the entire page into the display area; use 1 instead of 0 to view page at 100%.

2 PAGE NAVIGATION
Use Command-0 (PC: Crtl-0) from Step 1 to first view an entire page of your document, then use the Right and Left Arrow keys to navigate forward and backward, respectively, through your document one page at a time.
Use the Home and End keys on your keyboard to navigate to the first and last pages of your PDF document.
Press Shift-Command-N (PC: Shift-Ctrl-N) to activate the Go To Page dialog to navigate to a specific page number.
You can also use your Pages panel (View>Navigation Panels>Pages) to navigate through your PDF document (see Step 3 for more on the Pages panel).

3 DOCUMENT AND PANEL NAVIGATION
Press Command-F6 (PC: Ctrl-F6) to navigate to the next open document (add the Shift key for the previous document). You can also press Command-~ (PC: Ctrl-~) to move from one PDF document to another.
To navigate within a document using the Pages panel, press the Arrow keys to select the page you wish to view, and then press Return (PC: Enter) to view that page in the display area.
Press F6 then the Arrow keys to navigate to one of the Navigation panels along the left edge of the document window. Then, press the Tab key to navigate through the various options within a Navigation panel.

4 ROTATE PAGES
Hold Shift-Command (PC: Shift-Ctrl) and press – to rotate pages quickly to the left in 90? increments or + to rotate to the right. You can use the Rotate Pages dialog instead by pressing Shift-Command-R (PC: Shift-Ctrl-R), but I think you’ll find the above keyboard shortcuts to be much faster. Even when you want to rotate 180? you need only tap + or – twice to rotate quickly through 180?. Note: After rotation, simply release the Shift key and press +/- (with your Command [PC: Ctrl] key still pressed) to zoom in and out (see Step 1).

5 ENTER AND EXIT FULL SCREEN MODE
Press Command-L (PC: Ctrl-L)—think “L” for “live” mode—to activate Full Screen (presentation) mode. Press the Escape key to exit Full Screen mode. Use the Full Screen Preferences (Command-, [PC: Ctrl-,] and select Full Screen on the left) to control characteristics of Full Screen mode, such as looping and transitions. (See Step 11 for a fast, flexible way to change transitions for Full Screen mode. See Step 6 for controlling the display appearance for traveling PDFs.)

6 ACCESS INITIAL VIEW SETTINGS
Press Command-D (PC: Ctrl-D) to access the Document Properties dialog, then select the Initial View tab at the top. Use the Tab key to navigate to drop-down menus, the Arrow keys to open the menus, and the Enter key to select a menu option. The Initial View settings control how a particular PDF will open and display on other computers. (See Steps 5 and 7 for controlling how your PDFs open and display on your computer.) Note: This Document Properties Initial View setting supersedes the Page Display in the Acrobat Preferences discussed in the next step.

7 ACCESS AND CONTROL ACROBAT PREFERENCES
Press Command-, (PC: Ctrl-,) to open the Preferences dialog, then use the Up and Down Arrow keys to navigate the left-side Categories list. Select a category and press the Tab key to jump through its options. As in Step 6, use the Tab and Arrow keys to set options in drop-down menus. Use Page Display Preferences to control how PDF files will open on your computer. (See Step 6 for controlling how your PDFs open and display on other computers.)

8 USE CONTEXT-SENSITIVE MENUS
Right-click to access context-sensitive menus on many PDF document features when working in Acrobat. For example, Right-click on a PDF document to view page options such as Add Sticky Note, Add Bookmark, and viewing Document Properties and Page Display Preferences. Note: You can also use this pop-up menu to rotate and navigate pages but these are more quickly accomplished with the shortcuts shown in Steps 2–4. This same contextual menu can be used to access spellchecking in a text field.

9 ADD AND DELETE PAGES
While there are many page-management functions in Acrobat, adding and deleting pages are the most commonly used. You can use straightforward keyboard shortcuts such as Shift-Command-I (PC: Shift-Ctrl-I) to insert pages or Command-Shift-D (PC: Ctrl-Shift-D) to delete pages. Either of these will activate a dialog through which you can navigate with your Tab and Arrow keys.
To access all of the page-management options—including Extract and Replace Pages—via a context-sensitive menu, simply Right-click on any page thumbnail in the Pages panel.

10 QUICK TOOL ACCESS
Many Acrobat tools can be accessed with single alpha key shortcuts. First, in Preferences>General, check on Use Single-Key Accelerators to Access Tools. Some of the more common tools that work consistently are: T=TouchUp Text tool, R=Select Object tool, L=Link tool, G=Snapshot tool, C=Crop tool, and A=Article tool. Shift-T will cycle through TouchUp tools, Shift-F cycles through form tools, and Shift-M cycles through multimedia tools.
To return to the Select tool, press the Escape key. To temporarily access the Hand tool, press the Spacebar. Press F8 to hide all toolbars for an uncluttered view of your page (this shortcut will not work if you have Enabled Spaces in the Preferences>Expos© & Spaces in Mac OS X).

11 WORKING WITH PAGES
One of the best tools for working with multiple pages is the Pages panel (View>Navigation Panels>Pages Panel). Right-click on any page thumbnail to display a complete list of page control options. For instance, select Page Transitions to set page transitions for Full Screen mode. Or select Page Properties to easily access control of Tab Order and page Actions. Most of these options can be set for single, multiple, or ranges of pages.

12 MAKE SHORTCUTS EVEN FASTER
You’ll be able to work faster by using two hands when applying keyboard shortcuts, with one hand for the control keys and the other for the alphanumeric keys. For instance, when keyboard zooming in Step 1, you’ll find it fastest to use your left hand to press the Command (PC: Ctrl) key while pressing + or – to zoom in and out.
And finally, try using the Tab and Arrow keys to navigate through the options in any open panel or dialog. If the Tab key doesn’t work, try the Arrow keys!

ALL IMAGES BY TAZ TALLY UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED

soft proofing

1 COLOR PROFILES AND COLOR GAMUT
Soft proofing and color-simulation print proofing depend on the use of color profiles to simulate the appearance of an image or document as it will appear on a final output device. Both types of proofing are commonly, though not exclusively, used to predict how images and documents will ultimately print on commercial printing presses. Color profiles contain color gamut information (range of reproducible color) about both the proofing device and the final output device. The goal of the proofing process is to match the proofing colors to the gamut and appearance of the final output device.

2 SET UP ACROBAT COLOR MANAGEMENT
Activate the Preferences in Acrobat (Command-K [PC: Ctrl-K]), and click on Color Management in the Categories list on the left side of the dialog. In the Working Spaces section, select the RGB and CMYK color profiles you want to use for viewing and printing your images. We’ve selected Adobe RGB (1998) for RGB and U.S. Web Uncoated v2 for CMYK. Note: These working RGB and CMYK profiles should be consistent throughout your Creative Suite applications. You can create an initial color settings file in Photoshop and then apply that settings file to all the other Creative Suite applications through Bridge (Edit>Creative Suite Color Settings).

3 SET UP YOUR DOCUMENT VIEWING ENVIRONMENT
Create a duplicate copy of your PDF document. Then, open both documents and place them side by side on your screen, placing the proof copy to the right of the original. This will allow you to easily see the difference between the normal onscreen view and the soft proof of your final print. Scale both documents so they’re at the same dimensions. Note: For the most accurate viewing of your soft proof, you’ll want to calibrate your monitor with an external calibration device, such as the X-Rite i1Display LT, and provide a neutral gray surrounding background.

TAZ TALLY

4 ACTIVATE SOFT PROOFING
Select your right-side proofing PDF document. From the Advanced menu, choose Print Production>Output Preview. For soft-proofing print devices, select a profile from the Simulation Profile drop-down menu that matches the press and the substrate (here paper) on which you intend to print your final PDF. We selected a standard web printing press and uncoated stock profile (U.S. Web Uncoated v2). Next, check on the Simulate Paper Color checkbox. Note the Simulate Black Ink checkbox should also be automatically activated.

5 COMPARE PROOF AND ORIGINAL DOCUMENTS
Once you check on the Simulate Paper Color checkbox, you should see a noticeable reduction in the overall contrast of your document and a significant decrease in the color saturation. Acrobat, using information from the U.S. Web Uncoated profile, is attempting to simulate how this document and its images will appear when printed on a standard web press with uncoated stock. Feel free to compare and contrast other output profiles such as U.S. Sheetfed Coated and the new GRACoL profiles (updated sheetfed profiles) that have just been added in version 4 of the Adobe Creative Suite.

6 SHOW OVERPRINTING AND RICH BLACKS
To view which portions of your image are set to overprint or print as rich blacks, perform the following: (1) Check on the Simulate Overprinting checkbox; (2) in the Preview section, select Color Warnings; and (3) in the Warnings section, check on the Show Overprinting and Rich Black checkboxes. By default overprinting objects will be colored yellow and rich black objects will be colored blue-green. You can adjust the color of the warnings by clicking on the swatches located to the right of each checkbox.

7 ZOOM IN TO VIEW OBJECTS
Feel free to zoom in on any of your overprinting or rich black objects to see their details. Tip: If you’re viewing multipage documents, you can simply use your Right and Left Arrows to navigate forward and backward between document pages.

8 PROOF SPECIFIC COLORS
In addition to the color-separation techniques we covered last issue, you can also use the Output Preview dialog to view any individual colors that are set to separate during printing. To view color separations, first select the Separations choice in the Preview area. Then, check on the colors you’d like to preview. We checked on the Spot and Process Black colors. If you place your cursor over a portion of the process black plate, the black (K) percentage is shown in the column located to the right of the colors column (84% in this example).

9 PROOF PROCESS PERCENTAGES
In addition to viewing individual colors, you can also proof the process (CMYK) percentages that will be used to print any process portion of your document. To view your process percentages, check on the Process Plates checkbox located at the top of the Separations list. To view the CMYK percentages in any portion of an image, simply roll your mouse over that area and the percentages will be displayed in the column located to the far right.

10 POTENTIAL SHADOW DETAIL LOSS AREAS
You can also use the Output Preview dialog to check the reproduction of shadow detail. To proof your shadow detail areas, first check on the Total Area Coverage box. Then use the % field located to the right of this checkbox to select the total ink percentage for the press and paper on which you’re printing. Use the following total ink values as a guideline: Coated Stock: 300–340; uncoated stock: 280–300; and newsprint stock: 240–260. By default, any areas of your image containing ink total volumes exceeding your numeric value will appear as bright green.

color-simulation print proofs

1 ASSIGN YOUR TARGET DEVICE
In addition to onscreen soft proofs, you can print simulated hard proofs on a device other than your final print device. If you’d like to print a hard proof on your inkjet (or other proof printer) and have it simulate the appearance on a commercial print device, begin the process by assigning your final print device (target device)—here U.S. Web Uncoated v2—in the Simulation Profile drop-down menu located in the Output Preview dialog as we did in Step 4 above. This defines the print device you want to simulate. The print dialog in the following steps will use this profile setting.

2 SELECT PRINTER AND SCALING
Choose File>Print to activate the first print dialog. From the Printer drop-down menu, choose the proofing print device (we chose EPSON Stylus Photo R2400) on which you’ll be printing the simulation of the web press with uncoated stock. Set the number of Pages to print. Choose the amount of Page Scaling (if any) required to print the entire document on the paper dimensions of your proofing device. For instance, you may need to shrink your print dimension to include printer marks on an 8.5×11″ document.

3 SELECT COLOR HANDLING
To access the Color Management controls, click on the Advanced button located near the lower-left corner of the Print dialog. From the Color Handling drop-down menu located in the Color Management category, choose where the color management (the meshing of the target and the proofing profiles) will be accomplished. Choose either Acrobat Color Management, where Acrobat will merge the two profiles, or Printer Color Management, where the meshing will occur at the printer. Usually, you’ll choose Acrobat Color Management. If your proof device has a PostScript RIP you might choose Printer Color Management. Feel free to test both results.

4 ASSIGN COLOR PROFILE AND PRINT
Next, from the Color Profile drop-down menu, choose the color profile that matches your device, paper, and print setup conditions as closely as possible. You can download these paper-/print-specific profiles from most manufacturers’ websites. Now check the crucial Apply Output Preview Settings box to activate the meshing of the proof and target profiles (in this example, Epson R2400 and U.S. Web Uncoated v2, respectively). Click the OK button to apply your Advanced dialog color-management settings. Then, click the Print button in the Print dialog to initiate the creation of a U.S. Web Uncoated simulated proof on the proofing device.

[composite content proofs]

1 EXPORT PAGE LAYOUT TO PDF

Composite content proofs are designed to primarily show the content of a document—the layout of text and graphics. Composite proofs are usually viewed at 100% of the final output dimension, but usually use low-resolution images (for small file size to facilitate rapid distribution) and may or may not show accurate color. You’ll typically create a content proof from within your page-layout application such as InDesign. To begin, open your page layout in InDesign, choose File>Export, and select Adobe PDF from the Format drop-down menu in the Export dialog.

2 CHOOSE GENERAL OPTIONS

In the General section of the Export Adobe PDF dialog, choose Smallest File Size as a starting point from the Adobe PDF Preset drop-down menu. Select Acrobat 5 (PDF 1.4) for Compatibility to provide wide compatibility of your PDF proof. For Pages choose All. In the Options area check both Optimize for Fast Web View (this provides page-by-page delivery of a multipage PDF displayed over the Internet) and View PDF after Exporting (to automatically view your PDF in Acrobat). Note the designation “(modified)” will be added to the name “Smallest File Size” in the Adobe PDF Preset drop-down menu.

3 CHOOSE COMPRESSION SETTINGS

In the Compression section, set Bicubic Downsampling to 100 Pixels Per Inch for both Color Images and Grayscale Images (this will significantly reduce the file size of your PDF by lowering the resolution of your images). Set the Compression to Automatic (JPEG) for “smart” JPEG compression. Set the Image Quality to Medium. The default Image Quality for the Smallest File Size preset is Low—experiment with Low to evaluate image quality. Use the default settings for Monochrome Images, and then check on Compress Text and Line Art, and Crop Image Data to Frames (both of these will reduce the file size of your PDF without affecting viewing quality).

4 CHOOSE MARKS AND BLEEDS OPTIONS

In the Marks and Bleeds section, check Use Document Bleed Settings (this will ensure that any bleed elements you’ve created in your page layout will display properly at the edge of your document in your PDF). You can also check Include Slug Area if you’ve added any text to the slug area at the bottom of your document that you want included in your proof. Note: To create a slug area at the bottom of your InDesign document, choose File>Document Setup, click on the More Options button in the Document Setup dialog, and enter dimensions in the Slug fields.

5 CHOOSE OUTPUT OPTIONS

In the Output section, set Color Conversion to Convert to Destination. Set the Destination to Adobe RGB (1998) (the default sRGB is okay for Web output proofs; however, many print-oriented users have Adobe RGB assigned to their monitors). Make sure the Profile Inclusion Policy drop-down menu is set to Include Destination Profile (including the profile will help provide more accurate viewing on the receiving monitor). If your images are already in an RGB color space you may not see much reduction in file size, but CMYK images will be reduced by a minimum of 25%, along with file size reductions from Step 3.

6 SAVE AS PRESET; EXPORT PDF

Before you click the Export button to create your PDF, press the Save Preset button located in the lower left-hand corner of the Export Adobe PDF dialog. Name your new preset “Comp Proof,” and click OK. Your Comp Proof preset will now appear as a choice in your Adobe PDF Preset drop-down menu located at the top of the Export Adobe PDF dialog. You can now use this as a one-step method for creating composition proofs. Now click the Export button to create your content-accurate proof of your document that’s small enough to quickly email or post on the Internet.

[color-separated proofs]

1 USE PRINT DIALOG INSTEAD OF EXPORT

Creating color-separated PDFs is a quick-and-easy way to make sure you’ve assigned your print colors properly. High-quality PDFs can be created either directly from InDesign or through Distiller, a standalone application used specifically for creating PDFs from PostScript. If you’re creating multiple PDFs from large documents, Distiller is a better option than working through InDesign. Here we’re going to use InDesign to create a color-separated PDF. Instead of using the Export function as we did for the composite proof, let’s go to the Print dialog (File>Print), which provides ready access to controlling separations.

2 CHOOSE ADOBE PDF 9.0 FOR PRINTER DRIVER

Print dialogs vary depending upon application version and operating system. Here you see InDesign CS4 with Mac OS 10.5. In your print dialog, choose Adobe PDF 9.0 as your printer driver (in this example, we selected the driver from the Printer drop-down menu). Note: If you decide to use Distiller, you’d typically choose a PostScript printer driver rather than a PDF printer driver.

3 SELECT PAPER SIZE

In the General section, choose All to view color separations for all document pages. In the Setup section, designate the Paper Size for your PDF. Your choice here depends upon whether or not you include marks and bleeds. If you don’t include marks and bleeds, your PDF will have the same dimensions as your page layout document (here 8.5×11″). If you do include marks and bleeds, choose Custom from the Paper Size drop-down menu. When you select to include marks and bleeds (see next step), InDesign will automatically enter the proper dimensions to accommodate the additional space required.

4 MARKS AND BLEEDS OPTIONS

In the Marks and Bleeds section, check on the settings based on whether or not you want to include marks and bleeds. Remember, if you choose to add marks and bleeds, you need to make sure you’ve chosen Custom for the Paper Size in the Setup section; the paper dimensions will automatically increase to accommodate your marks and bleeds. And just as we did in the comp proof above, you can choose to include the slug area if you included one in your document with a messages or notes.

5 CHOOSE SEPARATIONS FROM COLOR MENU

The Output section is where you designate whether your output will be composite or separations. Click on the Color drop-down menu and choose Separations. Notice you have a variety of composite outputs, as well as an In-RIP Separations choice. Choose Separations because you want the colors to separate in the PDF prior to the document information going to the RIP. Also note under the Inks section there’s a list of all the assigned colors in this document. This example shows four process and one spot color available for separation.

6 CHOOSE PDF PRESET

Click the Printer button located near the lower-left corner of the Print dialog. This will activate a second Print dialog in which you can choose the PDF Preset you’d like to use. Choose PDF Options from the unnamed drop-down menu located near the middle of the dialog. From the Adobe PDF Settings drop-down menu choose the PDF preset you want to use (here High Quality Print), and the application you’d like to use to view the PDF after creation (here Adobe Acrobat Pro). Click the Print button to activate a Save dialog, name your PDF, and select a location to save it.

7 VIEW COLOR SEPARATIONS IN ACROBAT

After clicking the Save button, you’ll be returned to the original Print dialog. Click the Print button to initiate the creation of your PDF. If you monitor your print queue you’ll notice that Distiller is automatically launched to create the PDF. A color-separated version of the PDF will appear in Acrobat. Navigate through the PDF file to view each color-separated page (here the cyan and spot color pages are shown). Note your specific dialogs may vary somewhat from those shown throughout this tutorial, but the basic steps are the same. The most important setting is to locate the Composite and Separations choices.

1 PREFLIGHT BEFORE PRINT
Prior to activating the print dialog in Acrobat, it’s well advised to perform a preflight on your PDF document to determine its print dimensions and quality of content. You’ll want to determine content characteristics, such as the color space and linear resolution of any placed images; the number of assigned print colors, including spot colors; any color profiles that have been assigned; the printability of items, such as vector paths; and the presence of any printer’s marks you may want. (For more details on preflighting, see “Customize Preflight Profiles in Adobe Acrobat” at www.layersmagazine.com/category/acrobat.)

2 MATCH DRIVERS AND PDF TO PRINT DEVICE
First, download and install the latest print driver for your print device. Based on your preflight results (see Step 1), make any adjustments to the content of your PDF so the linear resolution, color spaces, and assigned print colors match the device to which you’ll be printing. For most commercial print documents, you’ll want to have 250–300 ppi CMYK images, plus or minus spot colors. For inkjet printing, your images should be around 200 ppi and RGB color space—keep in mind that any spot colors will be printed as CMYK+ colors.

3 PICK PRINTER IN PAGE SETUP
The next step is to format your PDF for your specific print device. The best place to start is to choose File>Page Setup. First, choose your specific print device from the Format For drop-down menu (in this example, we’re going to be printing to an inkjet printer, so we’ve selected Epson Stylus Photo R2400). Then choose your paper dimension from the Paper Size drop-down menu. Note: If you want to print full bleeds on an inkjet printer, be sure to select a full bleed option, usually a submenu selection, from this menu. To finish, confirm your Orientation, leave the Scale at 100%, and click OK.

4 LAUNCH THE PDF PRINT DIALOG
To enter the actual print dialog, choose File>Print. Once again, the first step is to select your specific printing device, this time from the Printer drop-down menu. The printer driver you select determines the available print options in the other portions of this dialog. You’ll likely see one or more Adobe PDF printer drivers. Choosing one of these drivers allows you to create an onscreen, color-separated version of your PDF without having to actually print the color separations.

5 ASSIGN PAGES TO PRINT
From the unnamed menu located below Presets, choose Copies & Pages (this should be the default selection). Now work your way through the options at the top left to select which PDF document pages you’d like to print. The options you see here will depend on the printer driver you selected in Step 4. If you selected specific PDF pages in the Pages panel prior to activating this print dialog (see image in Step 2), click the Selected Pages option to restrict printing to those pages. This feature allows you to visually select your print pages.

6 SELECT OPTIONS FROM COMMENTS AND FORMS
To control which components of your PDF document will print, click on the Comments and Forms drop-down menu. Notice you have the ability to print just the Document, the Document and Markups, Document and Stamps, or Form Fields Only. This is a little-known and often ignored print control capability that adds a great deal of flexibility and customization to your PDF printing. Here, we chose to print the Document only.

7 DETERMINE PAGE SCALING
With Acrobat, you can apply on-the-fly scaling of your print image. Click on the Page Scaling drop-down menu. Here you see many print dimension options, including the ability to print multiple pages on one sheet or print large images across several sheets. There’s even a Booklet Printing option that allows you to print facing pages on single sheets (see image). The default setting is typically Fit to Printable Area. If you’ve already set the dimensions of your image exactly as you want them (as we’ve done here), then choose None from this menu list.

8 SELECT MEDIA TYPE
From the unnamed drop-down menu, choose Print Settings. (Note: Depending on your printer, some settings in the following steps may be located in sections with different names than the Epson driver we’re using here.) Check that you still have the proper printer driver selected, then review the Page Setup, which indicates the print dimension you assigned in Page Setup in Step 3. Make sure this matches the page setup you expect (here Sheet Feeder—Borderless). From the Media Type drop-down menu, select the media type on which you’ll be printing (here Ultra Premium Photo Paper Luster). Then from the Color menu, choose your preferred mode (here Color).

9 TURN OFF COLOR ADJUSTMENT
Steps 9 and 10 are critical for determining which color controls will be used in your printing. From the Color Settings drop-down menu, choose the default printer driver control color profile (here Epson Standard [sRGB]). Now click on the Advanced Color Settings tab, and note the printer driver-based controls. Return to the Color Settings drop-down menu and choose Off (No Color Adjustment). Once again, click on the Advanced Color Settings tab and note the paper-specific color profile that’s indicated. This setup will typically achieve the highest quality and most consistent print results.

10 USE COLORSYNC FOR COLOR MATCHING
Return once again to the unnamed menu, currently with Print Settings selected, and choose Color Matching. Here, you see a choice between two color control modes: ColorSync and an option for your particular printer (Epson Color Controls in this example)—in the printer option, the printer driver controls the color matching. Click on the ColorSync button and you’ll see the paper-specific color profile. You can click on the Profile drop-down menu to select another profile if you wish, but we’ll stick with the same paper-specific Premium Luster profile we used in Step 9. This avoids any potential conflict with the Epson driver.

11 CHOOSE PRINT QUALITY
Now return to the Print Settings menu, click on the Advanced button in the Mode section, then click on the Print Quality drop-down menu. The choices you see will depend upon your printer and printer driver. You can experiment with the various print modes to understand their effect on image quality. Here, we’ll select either Best Photo or Photo RPM to achieve high-quality prints. Note: RPM is a higher resolution mode that’s useful for images containing high detail such as text. Also test the High Speed setting (turned off here), which allows bidirectional printing, but can sometimes lower image quality.

12 EXPERIMENT WITH EXPANSION SETTING
Return to the unnamed drop-down menu and choose Expansion. You want to pay attention to this setting if you’re printing full bleed—that is, to the edge of your print. Feel free to test the effect of the various Expansion settings. The Expansion setting is the printer version of dragging an image past the bleed marks that you set in a page layout document. You may simply want to use the Max setting to make sure your images always bleed off the edge of your print media.

13 ADVANCED PRINT SETUP: SEPARATIONS
If you want to print color separations or control overall color-management settings, choose Copies & Pages from the unnamed menu and click on the Advanced button located in the lower-left quadrant of the print dialog. Click Output (in the list on the left). From the Color drop-down menu, select the type of output you’d like (here Composite). This is the menu from which you can choose to print separations either directly from Acrobat or send them to a RIP (Postscript Level 3 only). If you print separations, click on Marks and Bleeds and assign printer marks in that menu.

14 ADVANCED PRINT SETUP: COLOR MANAGEMENT
Click on Color Management in the list. From the Color Handling drop-down menu, choose whether you want Acrobat to manage the color (selected here); the printer to manage the color; or disable color management and allow embedded color profiles to be used. If you choose Acrobat Color Management, select the paper-specific Color Profile from the drop-down menu. You can even direct Acrobat to simulate printing on another device: Just check the Apply Output Preview Settings box and assign the device to be simulated using Advanced>Print Production>Output Preview. (See “Output Preview” in the preflight article referenced in Step 1.) All that’s left now is to press Print.

ALL IMAGES BY TAZ TALLY UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED

1 CREATE A SMALL PDF DOCUMENT
Your first two tasks are: To create a small-size, Web-friendly PDF version of your document for review—typically, images with a resolution of 72-ppi with moderate compression will provide image quality good enough for review. (For more on repurposing PDFs, see “Optimizing PDFs,” Layers, Sept/Oct 2008, p. 72.) Then, establish a naming scheme for your PDF document versions, making sure everyone in your group is aware of it. For this example, we’ll use a simple, sequential, numeric naming system that adds “_#” at the end of each successive version—Gallery Promo_1, for example.

2 CHOOSE REVIEW/DISTRIBUTION OPTION
Acrobat offers two kinds of managed reviews: Server-based shared and email-based reviews. Shared reviews (used here) are the most flexible, as reviewers can interactively view and respond to each other’s comments, track comments, and even participate in live interactive review sessions. Acrobat 9 is required to initiate a shared review and Commenting tools can be used in either review method. Acrobat 6 or later and Reader 7 or later are required for an email-based review. In a shared review, you can use either the Acrobat.com free server (used here) or your own server for document distribution.

3 ENABLE COMMENTING FOR READER USERS
If reviewers have only Acrobat Reader, they can view and add their own comments. But Commenting (and its automatically available tools) must first be activated for these Reader users from Acrobat Pro or Pro Extended. Setting up a shared review automatically activates Commenting for Reader 9 users; however, Acrobat 9 is required to participate in shared reviews via Acrobat.com. For email-based reviews, you can activate Reader Commenting by choosing Comments>Enable for Commenting and Analysis in Adobe Reader. Acrobat 8 (or higher) is required for sharing comments via email-based review.

4 INITIATE SHARED REVIEW
First make sure you’re connected to the Internet, preferably with a broadband connection. To initiate a shared review, open the PDF you want to share and choose Comments>Send for Shared Review. The drop-down menu at the top of the dialog should be set to Automatically Download & Track Comments with Acrobat.com. Click Next and you’ll be prompted to provide your Adobe ID (usually an email address) and password. If you don’t have an Adobe ID and password, you can create one here: Just click on the Create Adobe ID link. Be patient, the linking process can take a few minutesÂ…go grab a cup of coffee or run a few sprints.

5 SET UP YOUR SHARED DOCUMENT
When the Send for Shared Review dialog appears, in the To or CC fields, list the email addresses of everyone you want to participate in this collaboration, separating each email address with a semicolon (;). (Note: Click on the To or CC buttons to access your email list in your default email application.) Type in a Subject (ours is Gallery Promo File). If you want to change the Review Deadline, click on the link and select either a new date or No Deadline. Don’t click Send yetÂ….

6 SET ACCESS LEVEL
There are two choices of Access Level: Open Access and Limited Access. Open Access allows access to anyone who knows the URL for the shared file. Limited Access is restricted to those listed in your share list and they’ll have to create a free Acrobat.com account to access the shared document. Open Access is a bit easier for your recipient to use and is the access we’ll choose here. Note: If the document on which you’re collaborating is sensitive, such as a financial report or product release, you may want to use the Limited access. Now, click the Send button.

7 DOWNLOAD, VIEW, AND COMMENT
Each person you include will receive an email invitation (with a link to the document) to join the document review. They can copy-and-paste the link into their Web browser (preferred) or they can activate the link through the email. Each reviewer will be taken to Acrobat.com where they’ll be asked if they’sd like to download the document to access additional features in Acrobat or Reader. After clicking Download, they can review and comment on the shared PDF and then publish their comments in Acrobat or Reader. A Task Bar appears at the top of the shared document, allowing reviewers to Check for New Comments or Publish Comments.

8 TRACK COMMENTS
To help manage your shared documents, activate the Track Reviews function in Acrobat or Reader. This tracking allows you to monitor all shared documents and shared comments created in Acrobat or Reader. Once you click the Send button in Step 6, Acrobat informs you that that your document has been distributed and provides a link for opening the Tracker. You can also choose Comments>Track Reviews (Reader: View>Tracker). In the Tracker window you can view all of your shared documents and track comments and reviewers. The Tracker will also inform you about any new comments, the status of the file, and when the review is set to expire.

9 VIEW YOUR SHARED DOCUMENT ONLINE
To view your documents online, visit Acrobat.com and log in with your Adobe ID. Your document(s) are listed under My Files. To the right of the My Files icon, there are a variety of document-management tools, including several document-view controls. Click on the List by Author (head-and-shoulder) icon to show the author and the View As Thumbnails (four squares) to view thumbnails of the document(s).

10 VIEW AND MANAGE REVIEWERS
To view and manage the reviewers for a particular shared document, simply click on the document’s thumbnail and a list of all the reviewers to whom you sent invitations appears at the bottom of the share.acrobat.com window. Move your cursor over a reviewer’s name to view their access status. In our example, you’ll see that the Artshop reviewer can view and download this file. Also note that Reader Commenting has been activated automatically. To remove a reviewer, hover your cursor over the reviewer’s name, then click on the down-facing arrow at right and click Remove.

11 MANAGE YOUR SHARED DOCUMENT
If you click on the down-facing arrow at the lower-right corner of your shared document’s thumbnail, a pop-up menu opens, allowing you to Open, Share, Convert to PDF (if it’s not a PDF), Download, Live Enable, Delete, Copy Link (for placing a link to this document in an email) and Copy Embed Code (for placing a link on a website). If you click Share, a dialog appears above the file thumbnails with the selected shared file listed under Choose Files to Share. To add another reviewer, complete the right side of the window and then click Share.

12 VIEW AND ACCESS FILE INFO
To view a complete compilation of information about your document and its contents, click on the hyperlinked name below its thumbnail (or choose Open from the menu accessed in the last step). The file appears in the Preview area. At the top of this window, you can change magnification, scroll through the document, and control the page display. On the right are listed document statistics and reviewers. Double-click on any reviewer name to manage that reviewer. In the upper-right corner, click on the My Files icon to return to the previous file icon preview.

13 WORK LIVE
In addition to the asynchronous review process detailed above, you can also work “live” on documents with your reviewers through Acrobat.com. There are several avenues for working live: You can choose Live Enable from your shared document pop-up menu to create a live version of your shared document; you can also participate in online meetings and live text document editing (Buzzword documents) by clicking on their respective icons located in the upper-right corner of the shared.acrobat.com window; or you can initiate a live review from within Acrobat by choosing File>Collaborate>Send & Collaborate Live.