I've been experimenting with Office 2007's PDF export and have found some things that are worth sharing.
Publisher gives you all of the options you need as far as font embedding, resolution, etc. However, depending on the file, you might use one of two methods:
1) Change the document color mode (to CMYK, spot, etc), then publish to PDF.
2) If you get the warning about transparent fills when changing the color mode, leave it in RGB. Publish to PDF and you'll get an RGB PDF with live transparency.
Word, Excel and Powerpoint are where the problems lie. There is no option for a press-quality PDF and there are no resolution controls. If you want all of the fonts embedded, you MUST check the PDF/A option.
Another problem with resolution is that, by default, Word, Excel, and Powerpoint all downsample and compress pictures when you save. You can turn this behavior off by following this procedure:
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/he...2001033.aspx#5
Experimenting, I placed a 300 dpi picture into Word. When I used the PDF export, the picture wound up at 200 dpi in the PDF. When I printed to Distiller, the picture was 220 dpi in the PDF.
After turning off the compression "feature," I re-placed the picture. I still wound up with a 200 dpi picture when I exported, but printing to Distiller finally got me to 300 dpi.
What sucks is that the customers will have the compression/downsampling turned on by default. I just wonder how Microsoft came to the conclusion that 220 dpi was good enough.
