Acrobat for Legal Professionals

January 21, 2006

AdobePDF Print Driver vs 1-button PDF Creators: Which to use?

You're in Microsoft Word. You can create an Adobe PDF file using either the:

  1. AdobePDF Print Driver
  2. 1-button PDF Creators installed by Acrobat in Word's toolbar

Which should you choose and what is the difference?

More…

09:25 AM | Permalink | Comments [4]

Converting Color PDFs to Greyscale or Black and White

It's rare to find color printers or copiers widely deployed in law firms. When color documents appear in discovery, firms don't always know what to do with them. Examples include PPT files, images scanned in full color, etc.

Acrobat files can contain color and non-color elements:

  • RGB: Red, Green, Blue color
  • CMYK: Cyan, Yellow, Magenta and Black
  • Greyscale: Shades of gray ranging from 0 (white) to to 256 (black) in value
  • Monochrome: Black and White

RGB or CMYK image-only PDFs, in particular, can be quite large. Converting these PDFs to grayscale or black can reduce the size of the file and speed printing.

Other times, litigation support departments will have to satisfy the odd attorney who prefers to read greyscale documents.

Whatever the reason, it is fairly easy to convert RGB or CMYK PDFs to Greyscale. It's a bit more difficult to convert to monochrome, but I've included a workaround for that, too. You'll need Acrobat Pro to make this work for you . . .

More…

08:39 AM | Permalink | Comments [1]

January 16, 2006

Understanding Tagged (Structured) PDF

Since version 5 of Acrobat, PDFs have the capability of having structure . . . aka tagging.


What is tagged PDF? Why is important?


Tagging is closely aligned with accessibility for the visually impaired, but it offers many other benefits for any PDF user.

More…

12:14 AM | Permalink | Comments [2]

January 13, 2006

How do I shrink the page size of a PDF?

How do I shrink a PDF file? Not file size, mind you, but the physical page size.

I hear this question with some regularity!

Some courts have very strict requirements for document margins, print area, and so on. For example, a court or government agency may require that Bates stamps appear 1/2 inch from the bottom margin of the page or that each page must have a one-inch of margin all the way around.

Unfortunately, lawyers and their firms encounter a variety of files that enter litigation or other processes that don't meet these standards. For example, you might receive a drawing- or scan of a drawing- that goes nearly edge to edge. Or, perhaps, you receive a document that is an odd size, say 9" by 12" or something quite a bit smaller than a standard letter-sized page.

You have a challenge. You need to turn these digital files into a PDF and still meet court/agency requirements.

In the old days, you'd throw these on a photocopier, but it doesn't seem very efficient to print and rescan your documents turning them into big images.

What to do?

More…

06:57 PM | Permalink | Comments [1]