File format options for PDF export

When you export PDFs to different file formats using the Export PDF tool in Acrobat, each file format includes unique conversion settings. To view the various formats to which you can export the PDF in Acrobat, see Tools > Export PDF.

Adobe PDF options (Acrobat Pro)

You can resave PDFs as optimized PDFs, using settings in the PDF Optimizer dialog box. The PDF Optimizer lets you change the compatibility version of your PDFs so they can be viewed using older versions of Acrobat or Acrobat Reader. When you change the compatibility setting, newer features may be unavailable in the PDF. For an explanation of each compatibility setting, see PDF compatibility levels.

Image conversion settings

JPEG and JPEG 2000 options

Note that the options available depend on whether you are exporting a document to JPEG or JPEG 2000.

File Settings

• Grayscale/Color: Specifies a compression setting that balances file size with image quality. The smaller the file, the lesser the image quality.
• Tile Size: Divides the image being compressed into tiles of the given size. (If the image height or width is not an even multiple of the tile size, partial tiles are used on the edges.) Image data for each tile is individually compressed and can be individually decompressed. The default value of 256 is recommended. This option is available only for JPEG 2000 format.
  
• Format: Determines how the file is displayed. Available only in JPEG format. It provides the following options:
  • Baseline (Standard): Displays the image when it has fully downloaded. This JPEG format is recognizable to most web browsers.
    
  • Baseline (Optimized): Optimizes color quality of the image and produces smaller file sizes but is not supported by all web browsers.
    
  • Progressive (3 scans-5 scans): Downloads the image first as a low-resolution image, with incremental quality improvements as downloading continues.
    

Color Management

Specifies the type of color management to be applied to the output file and whether to embed an ICC profile.

Conversion

Specifies a color space and resolution for the output file. You can let Acrobat determine these settings automatically. To convert color images in the file to shades of gray, choose Grayscale.

PNG options

PNG format is useful for images that are used on the web.

File Settings

Specifies if the image is interlaced. None creates an image that displays in a web browser only after downloading is complete. Adam7 creates an image that displays low-resolution versions in a browser while the full image file is downloading. Adam7 can make downloading time seem shorter and assures viewers that downloading is in progress; however, it increases file size.

Filter: Lets you select a filtering algorithm.

• None: Compresses the image without a filter. Recommended for indexed-color and Bitmap-mode images.
• Sub: Optimizes the compression of images with even horizontal patterns or blends.
  
• Up: Optimizes the compression of images with even vertical patterns.
  
• Average: Optimizes the compression of low-level noise by averaging the color values of adjacent pixels.
  
• Paeth: Optimizes the compression of low-level noise by reassigning adjacent color values.
  
• Adaptive: Applies the filtering algorithm—Sub, Up, Average, or Paeth—best suited for the image. Select Adaptive if you are unsure of which filter to use.
  

Color Management

Specifies the type of color management for the output file and whether to embed an ICC profile.

Conversion

Specifies a color space and resolution for the output file. You can let Acrobat determine these settings automatically. To convert color images in the file to shades of gray, choose Grayscale.

TIFF options

TIFF is a flexible bitmap image format supported by virtually all paint, image-editing, and page-layout applications. Resolution is determined automatically.

File Settings

Specifies a compression format. CCITTG4 is the default and generally produces the smallest file size. ZIP compression also produces a small file.

Color Management

Specifies the type of color management for the output file.

Conversion

Specifies a color space and resolution for the output file. You can let Acrobat determine these settings automatically. To convert color images in the file to shades of gray, choose Grayscale.

Microsoft Word & RTF options

You can export a PDF to Word format (DOCX or DOC) or Rich Text Format (RTF). In Acrobat, go to Tools > Export PDF  and select Microsoft Word or Word 97-2003 Document. The following options are available when you click on the (settings) icon:

Layout Settings

• Retain Flowing Text: Specifies that text flow must be retained.
• Retain Page Layout: Specifies that page layout must be retained.

Comments Settings

• Include Comments: Exports comments to the output file.

Image Settings

• Include Images: Exports images to the output file.

Text Recognition Settings

• Recognize Text If Needed: Recognizes text if the PDF contains images that contain text.
• Set Language: Specifies the language setting for OCR.

HTML Web Page options

The following options are available when you click on Advanced Settings:

File and Navigation Pane Settings

Specifies that a single HTML file is created when you export to HTML. To add a navigation pane, enable the following:

• Add Headings-based Navigation Frame

• Add Bookmarks-based Navigation Frame

Specifies that multiple HTML files are created when you export to HTML. Choose one of the criteria to split the document into multiple HTML files.

• Split by Document Headings

• Split by Document Bookmarks

Content Settings

Specifies if images are exported when you export a PDF as HTML.

Specifies if header and footer content in the PDF should be deleted and removed from the HTML files.

Text Recognition Settings

Recognizes text if the PDF contains images that contain text.

Specifies the language setting for OCR.

Spreadsheet options

In Acrobat, go to Tools > Export PDF  and select Microsoft Excel Workbook or XML Spreadsheet 2003. The following options are available when you click on the (settings) icon:

Specifies whether to create a Worksheet for each table or page, or the entire document.

Specifies the decimal and thousands separators for numeric data. Select one of the following:

• Detect decimal and thousands separators using regional settings

• Treat the following as decimal and thousands separators. Enter or choose separators in the respective fields.

Text Recognition Settings

Recognizes text if the PDF contains images that contain text.

Specifies the language setting for OCR.

PostScript or Encapsulated PostScript (EPS) options

You can export a PDF to PostScript® for use in printing and prepress applications. The PostScript file includes full DSC (Document Structuring Conventions) comments and other advanced information preserved by Adobe Acrobat Distiller®. You can also create an EPS file from any PDF for placement or opening in other applications. The options available depend on whether you are converting a document to PostScript or EPS.

ThePostScript Printer Description (PPD) provides the necessary information to format a PostScript file correctly for a particular output device. Device Independent creates only composite (not color-separated) PostScript or EPS files. Acrobat Default provides a starting point and reference for creating all types of PostScript and restores all default settings for the conversion. Adobe PDF 7.0 is compatible with most devices. This option is available only for PostScript (PS) format.

Specifies the output format of image data. Binary output yields smaller files, but not all workflows can accommodate binary output.

Specifies the level of PostScript compatibility. Use Language Level 3 only if the target output device supports it. Language Level 2 is suitable for EPS files that are placed in another document and color-separated as part of that document. Use Language Level 2 for EPS files that you import into Microsoft applications.

Specifies the fonts to be included in the PostScript. Embedded fonts are taken from the PDF; the referenced fonts are taken from the computer in use.

Preserves the appearance of comments in the resulting PostScript file.

Converts TrueType fonts to Type 1 fonts in the resulting PostScript file.

Specifies if a TIFF preview is created for the resulting EPS file. This option is not available when saving as PostScript.

Specifies the pages you want to export. When you export files to EPS output, each page in the range is saved as a separate EPS file.

Text and XML options

You can export from PDF to Text and XML formats. In Acrobat, go to Tools > Export PDF > More Formats  and select Text (Acessible) or Text (Plain) or XML 1.0 as required.

 The following options are available when you click on the XML 1.0 (settings) icon:

Output File Settings

Refers to the binary values, based on international standards, used to represent the text characters. UTF-8 is a Unicode representation of characters using one or more 8-bit bytes per character; UTF-16 represents characters using 16-bit bytes. ISO-Latin-1 is an 8-bit representation of characters that is a superset of ASCII. UCS-4 is a Universal Character Set coded in four octets. HTML/ASCII is a 7-bit representation of characters developed by ANSI.

Use Mapping Table Default uses the default character encoding defined in mapping tables, which appear in the Plug-ins/SaveAsXML/MappingTables folder. These mapping tables specify many characteristics of how the data is output, including the following default character encodings: UTF-8 (Save as XML or HTML 4.0.1) and HTML/ASCII (Save as HTML 3.2).

Generates bookmark links to content for HTML or XML documents. Links are placed at the beginning of the resulting HTML or XML document.

Generates tags for files that are not already tagged, such as PDFs created using Acrobat 4.0 or earlier. If this option is not selected, untagged files are not converted.

Image File Settings

Controls how images are converted. Converted image files are referenced from within XML and HTML documents.

Specifies the folder in which to store generated images. The default is Images.

Specifies the prefix added to the image filenames if you have several versions of the same image file. Filenames assigned to images have the format filename_img_#.

Specifies the final format of images. The default is JPG.

Downsamples image files to the specified resolution. If you do not select this option, image files have the same resolution as in the source file. Image files are never upsampled.