Creating a PDF File from Adobe Illustrator

These instructions are for Illustrator CS and CS2. If you are using an earlier version of Illustrator and have access to Acrobat Standard or Professional (not Acrobat Reader) version 6 or later, please see the instructions on how to create a PDF file using Acrobat.

Converting your colors:

Open your Illustrator file and choose Select > All then choose Filter > Colors > Convert to CMYK for color files. For black and white files, choose Filter > Colors > Convert to Grayscale instead. Choose File > Save As..., a Save As dialog box will appear. Name the file and choose the folder in which you would like the PDF to be saved. Choose Adobe PDF (pdf) as the format and click Save.

A dialog box will appear. For Illustrator CS2, choose [PDF/X-1a:2001] for the Adobe PDF Preset option. For Illustrator CS, choose [Press] for the Adobe PDF Preset option. Then make sure all the options on your machine match the screenshots on this page. Go through each category and match the options laid out. Once completed, be sure to compare the PDF version of the file with the original version.

General	Compression	Marks and Bleeds
Output	Advanced	Summary