Why PDFs?

What’s a PDF? and how do I make one?

Many printing companies (48 Hr Books included) require PDFs for printing. However, if you’re not sure how to create a PDF, if your PDF doesn’t look like your original files, or if you aren’t even sure what PDF means, this requirement can seem a little overwhelming.

Luckily, PDFs are easy to create and work with–once you know the correct settings.

Files that are not PDFs can still be printed, but cause many unnecessary headaches. In the next few posts, I’ll go over some of the common problems and how to avoid them. These headaches are why it’s best to print from a PDF file, or a file that is in Portable Document Format. This type of file will end in .pdf

Just as image files have a .jpg or .tif at the end, and word documents have a .doc or .docx at the end, the .pdf at the end just lets the computer know what program to use when opening it. It’s simply a type of a file.

When writing and editing your book, you’ll likely use Microsoft Word, Adobe InDesign, or another editing program. All of these file types can be converted to PDFs when you’re ready to print.

You’ll most likely need a PDF converter to get your files in the correct format and to make sure they’re the best quality for printing. If you need, you can use 48 Hr Books’ FREE PDF CONVERTER. You can download the software and find instructions for the free converter on our website or by clicking here.

If you’re using our converter, which is called doPDF, you won’t be “saving” your document as a PDF, you’ll be “printing” it to a PDF. Don’t worry – this doesn’t mean you’re actually printing out copies of your book.

After you’ve downloaded our converter, select File and then Print.

A box will pop up with printer settings. Make sure you select DoPDF as your printer.

Click OK and when the next box pops up, make sure you save the document on your computer where you can easily find it. The PDF file may be saved in your “My Documents” folder by default.

I’ll end with a video that provides an overview of how to create a PDF. Keep an eye out for my next post on how to avoid common PDF conversion problems!