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Converting Files to PDF for Scholars' Bank

For text-based works, the University of Oregon Libraries recommend PDF as the preferred file format. Although Scholars' Bank will accept MS Word, WordPerfect, and other file formats for text, PDF is preferred because it is open source and easier to preserve.

If you need to submit a PDF file you will want to convert from whatever format you presently have to Adobe PDF. For most electronic documents that's a process that's almost as simple as printing, though you may need some specialized software:

• If you are presently using MS Word or a similar PC/Mac word processor to prepare your work, the easiest thing to do is to use Adobe Acrobat (the commercial product, not the free Acrobat Reader) to create a PDF file.
  • Acrobat can be purchased at the UO Bookstore; there is a substantial educational discount. A 30 day free trial copy is also available from the Adobe website. Copies of Acrobat are available for your use in several labs on campus, notably the Knight and Science Library ITCs.
• If you have access to a modern Mac (one running MacOS X), you can print to PDF files from any Mac application; no need to purchase Acrobat.
• If you are using LaTeX, you can run Acrobat Distiller on darkwing or gladstone to create the PDF file from a postscript file, or simply run pdflatex instead of latex to directly create the PDF file from your TEX source.
• Users of OpenOffice (a free competitor to Microsoft Office, for PC, Mac, and Linux systems) can also create PDF documents directly from their word processor.
• We have also had good success using PDFCreator, a free virtual printer for PCs that produces PDF files. PDFCreator version 8 (with AFPL Ghostscript) is available on the 2004-05 DuckWare CD.
• There are several low-priced commercial products that perform the same function as PDFCreator, converting printable documents to PDF.
• Alternatively, you can use the online PDF conversion service provided by Adobe. A free trial subscription allows you to convert up to 5 documents, or you can subscribe ($10/month) for further access (Note: we have not experimented extensively with this option yet).

Special Formatting Issues

As you create a PDF file, you will need to pay special attention to fonts. It's very important that all unusual fonts be included ("embedded") in the PDF file as TrueType or Postscript fonts, since otherwise the font you used might not be available when someone later tried to view or print your magnum opus.

Note that many readers of your work will view it after printing the PDF file on a black & white laser printer. Although the PDF format allows you to include a wide variety of media, you should insure that the crucial information will be preserved when the document is reproduced. If you include color images in your PDF file, make sure that they are still readable if printed in monochrome on letter-size paper.

For More Information

For UO Graduate School style rules (mandatory for UO theses and dissertations, and the basis for rules used by many other collections), please see the Style and Policy Manual for Theses and Dissertations.

Instructional faculty can get assistance in producing PDF files from the FITT Center. Students can get assistance from the Library ITCs.

There is a wealth of information about PDF on the web. See for instance:

• Adobe
• PDFzone.com

or Google "pdf".

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