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November 20, 2007
PDF Creation and Font Embedding for USPTO Submissions
Law firms that file the United States Patent and Trademarks Office (USPTO) need to heed the agency’s specific requirements for PDF generation.
The USPTO PDF specification does not allow PDFs to contain:
- Images (including entire scanned pages) above 300 DPI resolution
- Security of any kind
- Embedded multimedia (e.g. sounds or movies)
- Hyperlinks
- Layers
TIP: The PDF Optimizer in Acrobat 8 Professional can ensure compliance with these restrictions. Images may be downsampled, layers flattened and security, links and multimedia elements removed. The PDF Optimizer may be accessed using the Batch Processing facility, too! |
Many federal agencies have long relied upon PDF because of Acrobat’s ability to faithfully render all aspects of printed pages including layout, tables, images and fonts (typefaces).
The USPTO requires that PDF must be:
- Acrobat 4 (PDF 1.3) or higher
(See note at end of article)
- No larger than 8.5” by 11” or A4 page size
- Have all fonts embedded and subset
The last item—fonts—is a critical aspect of displaying documents.
Acrobat offers three font choices that balance file size versus view fidelity:
- Fonts Substitution
Acrobat renders—on the fly—a “faux font” representation using typeface information included in the PDF. - Fonts Embedding
All typefaces necessary to render a font are embedded in the file. - Fonts Subsetting
Only the typeface characters necessary to render the file are embedded. Typefaces may have thousands of characters. Only embedding the actual characters used can reduce file size.
While Font Substitution keeps file sizes small, it can be problematic for submissions as non-standard fonts and specialized math symbols may not render faithfully for reviewers.
Font Embedding places a copy of the entire typeface in the PDF document.
Font Subsetting balances file size and faithful display because it renders all the characters in a document accurately while keeping file size to a minimum.
Unfortunately, the “Standard” conversion setting in Acrobat does not embed the most common office fonts. These fonts such as Arial and Times Roman are normally installed as part of the operating system.
A recommended best practice is to create a new PDF Conversion setting and employ it for creating all PDFs when filing with the USPTO.
Read on to learn how . . .
August 21, 2006
Word Settings for Acrobat PDF Maker
Acrobat, Bookmarks and Microsoft Word
By Rick Borstein
Business Development Manager, Legal Market
Adobe Systems Incorporated
The goal of any author is simple—get people reading their work. In this age of near ubiquitous PDF distribution online, a little extra effort can greatly improve the readability of your PDF document online.
May 12, 2006
Acrobat Preferences: My Personal Favorites
One of the first things I do when exploring a new software application, is to look at the application preferences. I've talked to several software trainers that start every class they teach that way.
Adobe Acrobat has a plethora of preferences. The sheer number-- 29 different types-- can be a bit daunting, so I thought I would share a few of my favorites.
Have your own? Let me know!
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:
- AdobePDF Print Driver
- 1-button PDF Creators installed by Acrobat in Word's toolbar
Which should you choose and what is the difference?
November 18, 2005
Disabling 1-Button PDF Creators in Word, Excel and Outlook
Turning On/Off the One-Button PDF Creators in Word, Outlook and Excel
The one-button PDF Creators that Acrobat installs into Word, Excel and Outlook and other Office applications are perhaps the best way to create compact PDF files that offer additional features.
However, some older Document Management Systems do not offer support for the one-button PDF creators. Some large law firms use anywhere from 8-10 different macro additions s to Word, any of which could potentially conflict with the Acrobat add-ins.
If you run into compatibility issues with the one-button PDF Creators, first ensure that you are running version 7.05 of Acrobat. You can download the updates here.