How to Create Adobe PDF eBooks

How to Create
Adobe
e
PDF
Books
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© 2001 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights reserved.
How to Create Adobe PDF eBooks for Windows and Macintosh.
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iii
Contents
Introduction
Bene?ts of creating Adobe PDF eBooks
. . . . . . . . . .1
About this guide
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2
Designing document templates for eBooks
Specifying page sizes
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3
Setting page margins
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4
Formatting text
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5
Using color
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6
Converting documents to Adobe PDF
About Acrobat Distiller
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8
Deselecting Acrobat Distiller security options
. . . . . .8
Setting Acrobat Distiller job options for eBooks
. . . .9
Optimizing your Adobe PDF documents
Creating thumbnail images of the cover
. . . . . . . . 16
Adding metadata
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

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iv
ADOBE PDF EBOOKS
Setting options for opening eBooks
. . . . . . . . . . . 19
Renumbering eBook pages
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Linking the table of contents
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Creating bookmarks
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Uploading eBooks to Adobe Content Server
. . . . . 26
Checklist for preparing Adobe PDF eBooks
. . . . . . 26
Customizing Acrobat Distiller job options
Customizing General job options
. . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Customizing Compression job options
. . . . . . . . . 31
Customizing Fonts job options
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Converting speci?c ?le types to Adobe PDF
Converting Adobe FrameMaker documents
. . . . . . 37
Converting Adobe InDesign documents
. . . . . . . . 40
Converting Adobe PageMaker Plus documents
. . . . 43
Converting Microsoft Word for
Windows documents
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Converting QuarkXPress documents
. . . . . . . . . . 52
Converting existing PostScript and
PDF documents
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

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1
Introduction
elcome to Adobe’s How to Create Adobe PDF eBooks, a
W step-by-step guide that covers the basics of creating and
optimizing Adobe® Portable Document Format (PDF) ?les so
that they can be viewed as electronic books (eBooks) using the
free Adobe® Acrobat eBook Reader™ 2.2 software.
Unlike traditional printed books, eBooks are designed to be
viewed online. When you design a document template in your
authoring application, you should use a smaller page size, ample
margins, and fonts that look good on-screen. Before converting
your document to Adobe PDF, you should set recommended job
options for eBooks in Acrobat Distiller® or your authoring appli-
cation, so that it generates an Adobe PDF document to be viewed
primarily online. Last, you should make ?nishing touches to
your Adobe PDF document such as renumbering pages using
Adobe Acrobat®, so that it displays at its best in Acrobat eBook
Reader.
Bene?ts of creating Adobe PDF eBooks
Creating eBooks in Adobe PDF brings you and your customers a
variety of bene?ts. You can upload Adobe PDF eBooks to Adobe
Content Server for packaging and distribution. In turn,

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2
ADOBE PDF EBOOKS
Introduction
customers can buy, download, and read Adobe PDF eBooks from
Web-based eBooks stores using the free Acrobat eBook Reader
software.
Adobe PDF eBooks are compact ?les that can be downloaded
quickly from commercial Web sites and transferred between
reading devices with no loss of quality. They can be read on a
broad range of computer platforms. They preserve the exact look
and feel of your source documents, including page layout, fonts,
colors, and images. So that customers can ?nd what they’re
looking for quickly, they provide navigation features such as
bookmarks and links.
About this guide
In this guide, you’ll ?nd the basic procedures and techniques you
need to create Adobe PDF eBooks, including designing
document templates for eBooks, setting recommended job
options for eBooks in Acrobat Distiller or your authoring appli-
cation, converting your documents to Adobe PDF, and
optimizing your Adobe PDF documents for electronic
publishing using Acrobat. Of course, your speci?c work?ow
depends on the type of documents from which you start.
This guide assumes you’re familiar with the different applica-
tions described. For more information on each application, refer
to the user guide or online help system included with it. If you’re
familiar with Acrobat eBook Reader and have it installed on your
system, you can use it to read this guide online.

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3
Chapter 1: Designing document
templates for eBooks
hen creating an Adobe PDF eBook, you can start with an
W existing document or create an entirely new document.
Many publishers have archived content from which to produce
eBooks, including source, PostScript®, and PDF documents. If
you’re starting with an existing source document or from
scratch, you should design a document template that makes it
easy to view your eBook in Acrobat eBook Reader. The guide that
you’re reading now is a good example of a document designed
speci?cally to be viewed online. When designing a document
template in your authoring application, follow the guidelines in
this chapter to determine page size, page margins, text format,
and use of color.
Specifying page sizes
When determining a page size for your Adobe PDF eBook, it’s
important to consider what computer devices your readers will
use to view it. In most cases, your readers will be using a variety
of computer devices, rather than one particular platform. To
accommodate readers with smaller displays, it’s a good idea to
specify a smaller page size. For most eBooks, you should specify

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4
ADOBE PDF EBOOKS
Chapter 1: Designing document templates for eBooks
a page size of 6 by 9 inches. Pages of this size can be comfortably
displayed on a variety of devices and easily printed to standard
8.5 by 11-inch pages.
Note: When converting to Adobe PDF using Windows NT or
Windows 2000 operating systems, the resulting PDF document will
retain the 8 1/2 by 11 inch page size instead of the custom page size.
In this case, you can use Acrobat 5.0 to crop the document to the
proper size. To crop multiple documents, see “Batch Processing” in
Adobe Acrobat 5.0 Online Help.
In some cases, you may need to specify a page size larger than 6
by 9 inches. For instance, you may be creating an eBook from a
textbook, which has a typical page size of 9 by 12 inches. If you
specify a page size larger than 7 by 10 inches, you should also
specify for the eBook to open at Fit Width magni?cation in
Acrobat eBook Reader. For more information, see “Setting
options for opening eBooks” on page 19.
Setting page margins
In both printed books and eBooks, page margins help readers
follow the text and rest their eyes when needed. To make dense
pages more inviting, you should set ample margins that reduce
the amount of text and images cramped on each page. You
should also use the same margins throughout your eBook. If you
use different margins on left and right pages, the text will appear
to jump left to right as the reader pages through the book in
Acrobat eBook Reader.

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ADOBE PDF EBOOKS
5
Chapter 1: Designing document templates for eBooks
Formatting text
When formatting text for an eBook, choose fonts that look good
on screen and are especially easy to read. Fonts with delicate
serifs or thin strokes that look good on the printed page can lose
their de?nition on screen, making them appear fuzzy and
dif?cult to read.
In general, you should use larger font sizes and higher leading
values than you would use for printed books. For maximum
readability at 100% magni?cation in Acrobat eBook Reader, you
should use a font size of at least 12 points and a leading of 2
points for body text.
If you have an issue with letter spacing, try to address it by setting
tracking values instead of kerning multiple pairs of individual
characters. Kerning many letter combinations to perfection often
adds little value and increases the ?le size.
After you’ve created your Adobe PDF eBook, it’s a good idea to
check the readability of its text under a variety of conditions,
including both a CRT and LCD display, as well as a variety of
both magni?cation and CoolType settings in Acrobat eBook
Reader.

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6
ADOBE PDF EBOOKS
Chapter 1: Designing document templates for eBooks
Using color
Although printing books in color can be expensive, there’s no
additional cost to displaying color in Acrobat eBook Reader.
Therefore, you should consider using colorful images and adding
color to text elements such as headings, captions, and callouts.
Printing usually uses the CMYK color model, while computer
displays use the RGB color model. These models have different
gamuts, or ranges of colors that they can accommodate. In
addition, devices do not display the same colors in the same way.
These differences can result in differences between print and
screen colors, and between the same colors displayed on different
screens.
When you generate your Adobe PDF eBook, it’s recommended
that you set options in Acrobat Distiller or your authoring appli-
cation to convert all colors to the device-independent sRGB
model. These settings calibrate colors in a device-independent
way, so that they appear accurately on a variety of computer
displays.
Although Acrobat can be used to standardize colors across
devices, the appearance of colors in your eBook still depends on
each computer device’s color palette. If your eBook contains
colors that aren’t in the palette, the device approximates the
colors using colors in its palette. After creating an Adobe PDF
eBook, it’s a good idea to preview its colors on a variety of
platforms featuring palettes with 256 colors and true colors.

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Document Outline

• Contents
• Introduction
  • Benefits of creating Adobe PDF eBooks
  • About this guide
• Designing document templates for eBooks
  • Specifying page sizes
  • Setting page margins
  • Formatting text
  • Using color
• Converting documents to Adobe PDF
  • About Acrobat Distiller
  • Deselecting Acrobat Distiller security options
  • Setting Acrobat Distiller job options for eBooks
• Optimizing your Adobe PDF documents
  • Creating thumbnail images of the cover
  • Adding metadata
  • Setting options for opening eBooks
  • Renumbering eBook pages
  • Linking the table of contents
  • Creating bookmarks
  • Uploading eBooks to Adobe Content Server
  • Checklist for preparing Adobe PDF eBooks
• Customizing Acrobat Distiller job options
  • Customizing General job options
  • Customizing Compression job options
  • Customizing Fonts job options
• Converting specific file types to Adobe PDF
  • Converting Adobe FrameMaker documents
  • Converting Adobe InDesign documents
  • Converting Adobe PageMaker Plus documents
  • Converting Microsoft Word for Windows documents
  • Converting QuarkXPress documents
  • Converting existing PostScript and PDF documents

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