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Overview of PDF creation

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  1. Acrobat User Guide
  2. Introduction to Acrobat
    1. Access Acrobat from desktop, mobile, web
    2. What's new in Acrobat
    3. Keyboard shortcuts
    4. System Requirements
  3. Workspace
    1. Workspace basics
    2. Opening and viewing PDFs
      1. Opening PDFs
      2. Navigating PDF pages
      3. Viewing PDF preferences
      4. Adjusting PDF views
      5. Enable thumbnail preview of PDFs
      6. Display PDF in browser
    3. Working with online storage accounts
      1. Access files from Box
      2. Access files from Dropbox
      3. Access files from OneDrive
      4. Access files from SharePoint
      5. Access files from Google Drive
    4. Acrobat and macOS
    5. Acrobat notifications
    6. Grids, guides, and measurements in PDFs
    7. Asian, Cyrillic, and right-to-left text in PDFs
  4. Creating PDFs
    1. Overview of PDF creation
    2. Create PDFs with Acrobat
    3. Create PDFs with PDFMaker
    4. Using the Adobe PDF printer
    5. Converting web pages to PDF
    6. Creating PDFs with Acrobat Distiller
    7. Adobe PDF conversion settings
    8. PDF fonts
  5. Editing PDFs
    1. Edit text in PDFs
    2. Edit images or objects in a PDF
    3. Rotate, move, delete, and renumber PDF pages
    4. Edit scanned PDFs
    5. Enhance document photos captured using a mobile camera
    6. Optimizing PDFs
    7. PDF properties and metadata
    8. Links and attachments in PDFs
    9. PDF layers
    10. Page thumbnails and bookmarks in PDFs
    11. Action Wizard (Acrobat Pro)
    12. PDFs converted to web pages
    13. Setting up PDFs for a presentation
    14. PDF articles
    15. Geospatial PDFs
    16. Applying actions and scripts to PDFs
    17. Change the default font for adding text
    18. Delete pages from a PDF
  6. Scan and OCR
    1. Scan documents to PDF
    2. Enhance document photos
    3. Troubleshoot scanner issues when scanning using Acrobat
  7. Forms
    1. PDF forms basics
    2. Create a form from scratch in Acrobat
    3. Create and distribute PDF forms
    4. Fill in PDF forms
    5. PDF form field properties
    6. Fill and sign PDF forms
    7. Setting action buttons in PDF forms
    8. Publishing interactive PDF web forms
    9. PDF form field basics
    10. PDF barcode form fields
    11. Collect and manage PDF form data
    12. About forms tracker
    13. PDF forms help
    14. Send PDF forms to recipients using email or an internal server
  8. Combining files
    1. Combine or merge files into single PDF
    2. Rotate, move, delete, and renumber PDF pages
    3. Add headers, footers, and Bates numbering to PDFs
    4. Crop PDF pages
    5. Add watermarks to PDFs
    6. Add backgrounds to PDFs
    7. Working with component files in a PDF Portfolio
    8. Publish and share PDF Portfolios
    9. Overview of PDF Portfolios
    10. Create and customize PDF Portfolios
  9. Sharing, reviews, and commenting
    1. Share and track PDFs online
    2. Mark up text with edits
    3. Preparing for a PDF review
    4. Starting a PDF review
    5. Hosting shared reviews on SharePoint or Office 365 sites
    6. Participating in a PDF review
    7. Add comments to PDFs
    8. Adding a stamp to a PDF
    9. Approval workflows
    10. Managing comments | view, reply, print
    11. Importing and exporting comments
    12. Tracking and managing PDF reviews
  10. Saving and exporting PDFs
    1. Saving PDFs
    2. Convert PDF to Word
    3. Convert PDF to JPG
    4. Convert or export PDFs to other file formats
    5. File format options for PDF export
    6. Reusing PDF content
  11. Security
    1. Enhanced security setting for PDFs
    2. Securing PDFs with passwords
    3. Manage Digital IDs
    4. Securing PDFs with certificates
    5. Opening secured PDFs
    6. Removing sensitive content from PDFs
    7. Setting up security policies for PDFs
    8. Choosing a security method for PDFs
    9. Security warnings when a PDF opens
    10. Securing PDFs with Adobe Experience Manager
    11. Protected View feature for PDFs
    12. Overview of security in Acrobat and PDFs
    13. JavaScripts in PDFs as a security risk
    14. Attachments as security risks
    15. Allow or block links in PDFs
  12. Electronic signatures
    1. Sign PDF documents
    2. Capture your signature on mobile and use it everywhere
    3. Send documents for e-signatures
    4. About certificate signatures
    5. Certificate-based signatures
    6. Validating digital signatures
    7. Adobe Approved Trust List
    8. Manage trusted identities
  13. Printing
    1. Basic PDF printing tasks
    2. Print Booklets and PDF Portfolios
    3. Advanced PDF print settings
    4. Print to PDF
    5. Printing color PDFs (Acrobat Pro)
    6. Printing PDFs in custom sizes
  14. Accessibility, tags, and reflow
    1. Create and verify PDF accessibility
    2. Accessibility features in PDFs
    3. Reading Order tool for PDFs
    4. Reading PDFs with reflow and accessibility features
    5. Edit document structure with the Content and Tags panels
    6. Creating accessible PDFs
  15. Searching and indexing
    1. Creating PDF indexes
    2. Searching PDFs
  16. Multimedia and 3D models
    1. Add audio, video, and interactive objects to PDFs
    2. Adding 3D models to PDFs (Acrobat Pro)
    3. Displaying 3D models in PDFs
    4. Interacting with 3D models
    5. Measuring 3D objects in PDFs
    6. Setting 3D views in PDFs
    7. Enable 3D content in PDF
    8. Adding multimedia to PDFs
    9. Commenting on 3D designs in PDFs
    10. Playing video, audio, and multimedia formats in PDFs
    11. Add comments to videos
  17. Print production tools (Acrobat Pro)
    1. Print production tools overview
    2. Printer marks and hairlines
    3. Previewing output
    4. Transparency flattening
    5. Color conversion and ink management
    6. Trapping color
  18. Preflight (Acrobat Pro)
    1. PDF/X-, PDF/A-, and PDF/E-compliant files
    2. Preflight profiles
    3. Advanced preflight inspections
    4. Preflight reports
    5. Viewing preflight results, objects, and resources
    6. Output intents in PDFs
    7. Correcting problem areas with the Preflight tool
    8. Automating document analysis with droplets or preflight actions
    9. Analyzing documents with the Preflight tool
    10. Additional checks in the Preflight tool
    11. Preflight libraries
    12. Preflight variables
  19. Color management
    1. Keeping colors consistent
    2. Color settings
    3. Color-managing documents
    4. Working with color profiles
    5. Understanding color management

Before you begin

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What’s the best way to create a PDF?

You can create PDFs from documents printed on paper, Microsoft Word documents, InDesign® files, digital images, and more. Different types of sources have different tools available for PDF conversion. In many applications, you can create PDFs by selecting the Adobe PDF printer in the Print dialog box.

If a file is open in its authoring application (such as a spreadsheet that is open in Microsoft Excel), you can convert it to PDF without opening Adobe Acrobat. Similarly, if Acrobat is already open, you don’t have to open the authoring application to convert a file to PDF.

Every PDF balances efficiency (small file size) and quality (such as resolution and color). If the balance between the file size and the quality is critical to your task, you must use an appropriate conversion method.

For example, you can drag files to the Acrobat icon to create PDFs. In this case, Acrobat applies the most recently used conversion settings without providing access to those settings. If you want more control over the process, you’ll want to use another method.

 

Adobe Acrobat deeplink

Try it yourself
Convert your documents into PDFs in a few simple steps.

Open Acrobat
Open Acrobat

PDF creation methods by file type

Refer to the following lists to determine the methods available for the different types of files.

File Type PDF Creation Methods
Any file format

Method 1: From the top tools bar, select Create. Then, select a file type and then select the file that you want to convert to PDF.

Or, select the hamburger menu  (Windows) or the File menu (macOS)  > Create and then select the appropriate file type and follow through the steps. 

Method 2: Drag and drop a file from your system to the Acrobat Home page.

Method 3: Right-click on the file and then select Convert to Adobe PDF.

Method 4: Open the file in its source application and go to Print > Adobe PDF printer.
Paper documents (Requires a scanner)

Method 1: From the top tools bar, select Create. Then, select Scanner as the file type, select the scanner, and follow through the steps or browse to locate a pre-scanned page. 

Or, select the hamburger menu  (Windows) or the File menu (macOS) > Create from scanner and follow through the workflow. 
Microsoft Office documents

Method 1 (Windows only): From the authoring application toolbar, select Adobe Acrobat > Create and Share Adobe PDF.

Method 2 (Windows only): Open the file in its source application and then go to Print > Adobe PDF printer.

Method 3 (Windows only): Right-click on the file and select Convert to Adobe PDF.

Method 4: Drag and drop the file from your system to the Acrobat Home page.

Method 5 (macOS only): From the authoring application, select File > Print > PDF > Save as Adobe PDF.
Email messages

Method 1 (Windows only): Within Microsoft Outlook or Lotus Notes, select Acrobat PDFMaker or select Adobe PDF menu options (Outlook) or the Actions menu (Lotus Notes).

Method 2 (Windows only): From the email application, go to Print > Adobe PDF Create a PDF (not a PDF Portfolio).

Method 3 (Outlook 2010 or later): From the email folder or selection of messages, right-click and then select Convert to Adobe PDF.
Web pages

Method 1: From the top tools bar, select Create. Then, select Web page as the file type and follow through the steps. 

Or, select the hamburger menu  (Windows) or the File menu (macOS) > Create > PDF from web page and follow through the workflow. 

Method 2: Drag and drop the HTML file from your system to the Acrobat Home page.

Method 3: Right-click on the file and then select Convert to Adobe PDF.

Method 4: From the top-right corner of the webpage, select> Print > Adobe PDF.
Content copied on the clipboard

Method 1: From the top tools bar, select Create. Then, select Clipboard as the file type and follow through the steps. 

Or, select the hamburger menu  (Windows) or the File menu (macOS) > Create > PDF from clipboard and follow through the workflow. 
AutoCAD files (Acrobat Pro for Windows only)

Method 1: From the top tools bar, select Create and then select the file. 

Or, select the hamburger menu  (Windows) or the File menu (macOS) > Create > PDF from file and follow through the workflow. 

Method 2: Drag and drop the HTML file from your system to the Acrobat Home page.

Method 3: Right-click the file and select Convert to Adobe PDF.

Method 4: Within AutoCAD, go to Print > Adobe PDF.
Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, and Adobe InDesign files

Method 1: From the top tools bar, select Create a PDF and then select the file. 

Or, select the hamburger menu  (Windows) or the File menu (macOS) > Create > PDF from file and follow through the workflow. 

Method 2: Drag and drop the file from your system to the Acrobat Home page.
PostScript and EPS files

Method 1: From the top tools bar, select Create and then select the file. 

Or, select the hamburger menu  (Windows) or the File menu (macOS) > Create > PDF from file and follow through the workflow. 

Method 2: Drag and drop the file from your system to the Acrobat Distiller icon or Acrobat Distiller window.
3D files (Acrobat Pro)

Method 1: From the top tools bar, select Create and then select the file. 

Or, select the hamburger menu  (Windows) or the File menu (macOS) > Create > PDF from file and follow through the workflow. 

Method 2: Drag and drop the HTML file from your system to the Acrobat Home page.

Method 3: From Microsoft PowerPoint, select Adobe Presenter > Publish.

Balance PDF file size and quality

You can select various settings to ensure that your PDF has the best balance between file size, resolution, conformity to specific standards, and other factors. The settings you select depend on your goals for the PDF that you are creating. For example, a PDF intended for high-quality commercial printing requires different settings than a PDF intended only for onscreen viewing and quick downloading over the Internet.

Once selected, these settings apply across PDFMaker, Acrobat, and Acrobat Distiller. However, some settings are limited to specific contexts or file types. For example, PDFMaker options can vary among the different types of Microsoft Office applications.

For convenience, you can select one of the conversion presets available in Acrobat. You can also create, define, save, and reuse custom presets that are uniquely suited to your purposes.

For scanned documents, you can choose from Autodetect Color Mode or several scanning presets that are optimized for scanning documents and images in color or black and white. You can modify these presets or use your own custom scanning settings.

Try these online PDF tools: convert Word to PDF, convert Excel to PDF, convert PowerPoint to PDF, convert JPG to PDF

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