Creating PDFs
ASME requires that authors submit their final, accepted papers in PDF. In submitting a PDF of your paper, you will have the satisfaction of complete control over your output, and can use whatever programs you prefer to create your paper. In order to convert a document to PDF format, you must have the full version of Adobe Acrobat. The free browser plug-in, Adobe Acrobat Reader, permits a user to view and save a PDF file only. Guidelines for converting are as follows.
- Set PDF Writer or Distiller to include all fonts, except the standard thirteen.
- Ensure all fonts are embedded
NOTE: Acrobat 4.0 and higher automatically embeds fonts. If fonts are not embedded and an earlier version of Acrobat is used, it may cause font substitution and technical errors in your paper.
- The resolution for gray and color images should be set to 150 dpi. Compression should be checked and set to automatic. Image quality can be set to medium.
- The resolution for monochrome (black and white) images should be set to 300 dpi. Compression should be checked and set to CCITT Group 4.
Check the new PDF document against your original document to ensure a successful conversion. The technical integrity of the document must be intact. We recommend viewing the new PDF on a different machine (preferably with different fonts) to find any errors your PDF may have. In addition, the document settings may show different line and page breaks depending on your printer.
Embedding Fonts
To ensure proper conversion, all fonts must be Type 1 and embedded in the document. We recommend the use of Adobe Acrobat 4.0 +, as the newer version(s) automatically embed all fonts in a document. Using an earlier version may result in flawed conversions of math and special characters if fonts are not embedded properly.
Errors When Viewing Asian Fonts
If an author uses Asian fonts but does not embed them in the document, you will receive an error message. In order to view or print the PDF, you need to obtain access to the correct fonts so the PDF can be viewed on your computer and other non-native systems.
The Adobe website provides free downloads of Asian font packs (two in Chinese, one in Japanese and Korean) to ensure access to PDF documents created on non-native systems.
Acrobat 3.0 + Users
Minor editorial corrections can be made to the PDF document (e.g., revising typos) by using the Touch Up Text tool. New text, missing material, etc, cannot be added in this version.
Microsoft Office 2000 Users
To convert a Word document into a PDF, click the Adobe icon on the toolbar to start PDF Writer. Your Word document will automatically be sent to Acrobat Distiller for conversion to PDF format.
Latex Users
If you’re using subsetted fonts in Latex and Acrobat Distiller creates a PDF, the PDF file will contain missing characters. Latex assigns the same name to different font sets of the same basefont in the postscript file. When reading the postscript file, Distiller assumes these fonts are the same, so they are not included in the PDF created. To remedy the situation, configure Latex to cease the subsetting of fonts when a postscript file is being generated. While subsetting refers to Acrobat Distiller, the same rules apply to PDF Writer.
IMPORTANT NOTE:
Please check the new PDF document against your original document to ensure a successful conversion: the technical integrity of the document must be intact. We recommend viewing the new PDF on a different machine from the one that created it, preferably one with different fonts. This way you will be able to spot any font errors.
See Adobe Web site at: http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat.html
For additional help, you may wish to review the following sites:
The LaTex Help Archive: www.wpi.edu
Using Acrobat on Unix: http://www.phys.ufl.edu/~bernard/acrobat.html
True Type 1 and PDFTeX: http://staff.ttu.ee/~alahe/atruetype.html