Adobe InDesign
If you find yourself exporting fillable-forms from InDesign to PDF often, you no doubt have felt the frustration of all your work being dumbed-down or flat-out not looking right when you open the file in Acrobat. It’s really frustrating. But don’t sweat it, there is a solution.
Adobe Illustrator
Not a whole lot needs to be said about this. Download the free script for Adobe Illustrator to allow you to open multi-page PDFs – each page being placed on its own artboard.
General
I had completely forgotten that I had downloaded the premiere issue of MyApple Magazine, a new English-language magazine about the world of Apple from the combined staff of Apple World Today and MyApple.pl.
General
If you’re a designer, you most likely have a copy of Acrobat Pro (or the new Acrobat DC). But it’s quite likely that your clients do not. If you want to be a hero to your client in need of help with their PDF files, you can share some of the tips found in this excellent article from Hongkiat for working with PDF files when you don’t have a copy of Acrobat Pro.
The tips include converting documents, extracting text to other file formats, opening PDF files with passwords (which I’ve covered here), merging PDF files, and more.
General
Ever wonder how many of your fellow graphic designers break the law? Well, around 60% of them are at least honest about it when they say they are. Grab a copy of The Hidden Risks of Font Misuse, a survey of creatives conducted by Extensis.
About 80% don’t bother to read a font license, because around 80% of us can’t understand a frigging word of the legal mumbo-jumbo. I suspect this is at least 50% of the problem.
Apple | Mac
I can’t stand when I get a PDF file that has a password that restricts printing, editing or saving, etc. Thankfully, a clever developer offers a simple way to crack those pesky PDFs online – no software installation required.
Crack My PDF can remove restrictions for copying, editing, printing & extracting, and works on PDF files up to version 9 with 40-bit RC4 ecryption, 128-bit RC4 decryption and 128-bit AES decryption.
It cannot completely remove an open password, remove DRM, or enable you to save forms locally or add comments or digital signatures.
For me, the ability to at least print those PDFs makes Crack My PDF worth bookmarking!
Resources
Life was much easier back in the days when everyone used Points and Picas for measurements in the design field – most readers probably have probably never used them, but I assure you it was much easier. Inches is a ridiculous measurement system, particularly in our business. Has anyone ever been told to provide a 6 59/64 wide ad or poster? For years I’ve used this fraction-to-decimal chart, keeping it tacked to the wall next to my monitor for quick reference.
You can download the free fraction-to-decimal chart here.
Adobe InDesign
A friend recently asked what happened to the ability to export color separations from Adobe InDesign CS5 to a PDF using custom page sizes. I’ve never heard of or had the need to do this, so I was of little help. But for whatever reason, I was able to do it because I still had the generic Postscript PPD installed. The only thing I could think of was that I still had CS4 installed on my Mac, and the ability to do it remained in CS5 because of that.
In any case, my friend discovered the work around, and shared with me where he found it. Russell Viers offers the solution, that requires little more than a quick PPD download and install. Again, I’m not sure why you would want to do this because your printer generally handles this in-RIP at their printing facility. You really need to know what you’re doing when you enter the settings.
Apple | Mac
Just like Adobe Reader on the desktop, now you can use your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch to quickly view and interact with the widest range of PDF file types – including PDF Portfolios, password-protected PDF documents and even Adobe LiveCycle rights-managed PDF files with Adobe Reader for iOS.
Using Adobe Reader for iOS, you can open and view PDF files from email, on the Web or from any application that supports the “Open In” function. Through its highly intuitive user interface, Adobe Reader provides you with an efficient PDF viewing experience regardless of the iOS device you happen to be using.
But that’s not all. You can also interact with PDF files in a number of ways including searching for specific text in the PDF or using bookmarks and page thumbnails to quickly navigate to different sections in the PDF file. And should you need a hard copy, you can also print the PDF wirelessly using iOS AirPrint.
I’ve been using Adobe Reader on my iPhone 4 for the last week or so, and found it to work extremely well. Previously I was using a 3rd party app, but it wasn’t nearly as fluid or easy to use as Adobe’s own solution.
Apple | Mac
It’s not often that I get a password protected PDF file that I don’t get the password for. I’m not talking about a restricted PDF that doesn’t allow you to print or copy text out of, those are easy to work around. I’m referring to the obnoxious graphic artist at Client X who no longer works there who set the security settings on an important PDF to require a password just to open. That guy is a jerk, but that’s for another time. How to get into the PDF is the immediate dilemma we need to deal with.
Prior to Mac OS X Leopard, you could open the PDF in Apple’s ColorSync Utility – a simple workaround that obviously got missed by someone at Apple. Unfortunately, that doesn’t work anymore. So I decided to give Eltima’s Recover PDF Password ($40 minus 15% off if you use the offer code GRAPH-MAC-15 at checkout time) app a try. It’s the only Mac solution I came across that not only can bypass the no-print restrictions, but the more annoying “password just to open issue.” Plus, I’ve reviewed a few of Eltima’s apps before and found them to work pretty darn well. Below are my findings in my initial tests. Read more “Recovering PDF passwords: what to expect”
General
Many users of Adobe’s Creative Suite software are unaware that Adobe provides an excellent printing guide in PDF format to aid in learning the ins-and-outs of successful commercial printing using the Creative Suite apps
The guide is an excellent resource for new users, serving as a training manual, as well as a brush-up for experienced users. The guide covers a wide-range of printing-related topics in Adobe InDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator and Acrobat. The free Creative Suite 5/5.5 Printing Guide is a 22MB download.