PDF Services
A nice feature of Mac OS X’s print system is its tight integration with Adobe’s Portable Document Format (PDF). Earlier versions of Mac OS X had a simple Save as PDF button in the lower-left corner of the print sheet. With Tiger, the Save as PDF button has been replaced with a PDF menu that allows you to perform several different PDF-related tasks. The PDF menu also provides easy access to PDF workflows, which are scripts and programs designed to automate common tasks when working with PDFs:
- Save as PDF
The first—and simplest—is the Save as PDF option. Select it, give your new PDF a name, and Mac OS X does the rest of the work. The end result is a PDF version of what your document would look like on paper.
- Save PDF as PostScript
Selecting the Save PDF as PostScript option performs a very similar process to the Save as PDF option, you just end up with a file in the PostScript format (
.ps) instead of a PDF.- Fax PDF
As mentioned earlier in this chapter, Mac OS X Tiger has added fax support to the OS. This option is how you make use of that fax functionality. Selecting this option will pop up a new sheet for entering the fax recipient, cover page information, and other fax-related settings.
- Compress PDF
The Compress PDF option is the first of several Automator workflows that Apple has included with Mac OS X. You can examine this action yourself by double-clicking it in the
/Library/PDF Servicesfolder. The workflow contains a single action, which compresses all image files ...