In this latest release from Adobe, Acrobat 4 offers a wide variety of options for creating PDF files, a popular format for printing, the Internet, tutorials, and CD-ROM. One of the things that makes the PDF file format so popular that those who receive your files will experience your documents as you have created them.
September 2, 1999
To create bitmaps small enough for network distribution or for use on CDs, it's necessary to compress PDF documents and images in a way that uses less space. For photographs, the JPEG Medium compression works will with a minimum quality loss. However, you may want to experiment with compression settings and comparing the results. Use Distiller to create several PDF versions of your file along with different compression setting. Next, save the file and open it in Acrobat, zooming up to 400% to view the quality. Check the file sizes as well.
A Note for Macintosh Users
Web Capture, Structured Bookmarks, Digital Signatures and PDFMaker are not available at this time. Adobe has indicated that they will port these features to the Macintosh, but not when. For more information, visit the Adobe web site at: http://www.adobe.com/prodindex/acrobat/main.html
Final Comments
With its new features, Acrobat 4 has a great deal to offer to the serious professional. Acrobat 4 has made the creation of PDF files even easier. As you become more familiar with Acrobat 4, you will probably discover all sorts of applications for this software. These tutorials will give you a good starting point.
Pricing and Availability
Adobe Acrobat 4.0 sells for an estimated street price of $249USD. Additionally, volume pricing will be available and registered users of Adobe Acrobat software, version 2.0 and higher, will be able to upgrade for $99 USD.
System Requirements:
Intel i486 or Pentium (Pentium recommended)
Microsoft Windows 95/98 or Windows NT 4.0 with Service Pack 3 or later
16 MB of RAM for Acrobat on Windows 95/98, 24 MB of RAM for Acrobat on Windows NT (32 MB recommended)
32 MB of RAM for the Paper Capture plug-in (64 MB recommended)
Hard drive with at least 75 MB of available space
CD-ROM drive
System Requirements (Macintosh):
Power Macintosh
Apple System Software version 7.5.3 or later
6 MB of RAM for Acrobat (12 MB recommended)
16 MB of RAM for Distiller or the Paper Capture plug-in (32 MB recommended)
This article is in three parts:
