Smallpdf.com provides a free conversion service for converting word documents into PDF files. There are some other services some free and some commercial that provide similar facilities, but smallpdf.com is quick and easy and set up to work with mathematics.
|
Windows |
Mac |
Linux/Unix |
|
|
LaTeX |
|||
|
MS Word |
NA |
To create pdf files from
1. Creating a postscript file.
Remark: When creating the
postscript file it is important to use the appropriate fonts so that the
document is readable onscreen and when printed. You can use truetype
versions of
You can create a .ps file in one of two methods:
Print to a postscript printer driver such as the printer driver that ships with Acrobat Distiller (which is by default called Acrobat Distiller, but is distinct from the actual Distiller program). Further details for Scientific Word users are provided by the supplier here.
Use standard TeX methods, namely the dvips command (e.g., dvips -o myfile.ps myfile.dvi). For further details on this method click here.
2. Creating a pdf file.
A conversion program such as Acrobat Distiller creates a pdf file from a ps file. In creating the pdf file you must make sure to embed the fonts. In Distiller select the settings menu and the font dialogue box and check embed all fonts. Distiller ships with a program called Acrobat Assistant which, if running, will automatically start Distiller to convert any postscripts documents created with the Distiller printer driver.
There are also similar, less expensive but untested products: databecker's pdf producer, and ehelp's robopdf. There is
also a free product, ghostview,
and a free online converter,
ps2pdf, based on ghostview. If you use an untested product, it is
essential to make sure that it works on a computer that does not have any
software that will have installed mathematical or
pdflatex: You can convert a latex file directly to
pdf by using pdflatex from the command line. This is a standard part of some
Remark: There are other options and
advantages to pdflatex such as using the hyperref package (e.g.,
usepackage[pdftex]{hyperref}) to create links and bookmarks in the pdf file.
Some documentation on hyperref can be found here
and here.
The options [pdfview={Fit}, pdfstartview={Fit}] scales the text to the size of
window. Similarly, \usepackage[pdftex]{graphicx}will set up the graphicx
package to work with pdflatex, so that, for example \includegraphics{figure1}
will insert figure1.pdf into the
Acrobat PDFWriter also directly prints pdf files, but does not seem
to work effectively with
Scientific Workplace 5.0 can convert its .tex files to .pdf using pdflatex, as the supplier states here.
Acrobat Distiller 5.0 enables directly creating .pdf files from Scientific Word with correctly embedded fonts. See instructions here.
I use MikTeX in
conjunction with WinEdt. MikTeX is free and
very easy in install - you basically download a self extracting installation
program (the setup wizard) that then follow the instructions; you do need to be
connected to the web. If it asks about other
Once you have installed all this if you want to use it with Scientific Word
then you need to tell MikTeX that you will be using scientific word macros. You
do this by starting MikTeX Options (one of the programs that is automatically
installed as part of the MikTeX installation. Click on the Roots tab, and add
something like C:\swp35\TCITeX (the top folder depends on your version of scientific
word or workplace, but it is important that the full path including TCITeX is
there). Then click on Apply, and OK. And then on Refresh Now (the last step is
probably redundant, but does no harm). Now any
OSX natively produces pdf
files. Since MS Word uses truetype fonts, and
Historically Unix has had problems producing decent looking pdf. The primary source of the problem has been the embedding of Postscript Type 3 fonts, which are unreadable, rather than Postscripts Type 1 fonts. These instruction should work on most linux/unix systems. To get good looking Type 1 fonts be sure in your preamble to include the command \usepackage{pslatex}. This will also work around problems with ligatures and spacing that occur under some systems. You may also wish to use the hyperref package to better control the appearance of the pdf file. Some documentation can be found here. There are two methods for converting tex to pdf. To convert myfile.tex to myfile.pdf
pdflatex: >pdflatex myfile.tex
With pdflatex you will probably want to use \usepackage[pdftex]{hyperref}
and \usepackage[pdftex]{graphicx}
ps2pdf: >latex myfile.tex; dvips -o myfile.ps myfile.dvi; ps2pdf
-dCompatibilityLevel=1.3 myfile.ps
With ps2pdf you will probably want to use \usepackage[ps2pdf, bookmarks,
pdfview={FitH}, pdfstartview={FitH}]{hyperref} which converts section headers
into bookmarks, and scales the text to the size of window.
Note: More recent distributions include Ghostscript 7.05 which embeds Type
1 rather than Type 3 fonts. Unfortunately TeTeX appears to produce Type 3 fonts
for text, although it uses Type 1 fonts for math. If you do not wish to
\usepackage{pslatex} you can \usepackage{times}, which fixes the problem with
the text. You can check your version by ps --version. If it says 7.05 Type 1
fonts will be embedded. If it says 6.51 make sure you use pslatex.
You can either install a pdf printer or use on online conversion service.
Acrobat Distiller (about $250) is known to work effectively. Be sure to set the acrobat options to embed all fonts. Acrobat PDFWriter is known not to work effectively and should be avoided. With newer versions of Adobe Acrobat (Professional and Standard) the installation procedure installs a button on the MS Word toolbar that enables the creation of a PDF document simply by clicking on the button. There are two less expensive but untested products: databecker's pdf producer, and ehelp's robopdf. If you use an untested product, it is essential to make sure that it works on a computer that does not have any software that will have installed mathematical fonts (such as those installed by MathType).