Converting a Word doc to a PDF

To publish my novel, Bonobo!, on CreateSpace, I needed to convert the text file from Word 2010 to a PDF file. The PDF had to have all the fonts embedded, no changed characters, and images at least 300 dpi. The only images in my file were on the title page. I tried four methods that failed before I found the (free!) solution: PDF995. However, this utility still required some tweaking.

Here’s what didn’t work:

• Word’s “Save as PDF” and “Send as PDF” functions (including the Windows program, the online version, and the Android app)
• FoxIt PhantomPDF printer
• Microsoft Print to PDF
• OpenOffice – In this case, I never tested the font embedding and image encoding, because OpenOffice altered the formatting too thoroughly to continue.

Then I remembered and tried PDF995. Here are the changes I made from the default settings to get the output to work for CreateSpace:

1. In Word, choose PDF995 as your printer.
2. Click on Printer Properties.
3. Click on Paper/Quality.
4. Click on Black & White (unless your book is in color).
5. Click on Advanced.
6. Under Paper Size, choose PostScript Custom Page Size.
7. A new dialog box should appear. Enter your book’s dimensions (mine was 5.25 x 8) and click on OK.
8. Change Print Quality to 300 dpi. (This might be optional.)
9. Change the TrueType Font setting to Download as Softfont.
10. Click OK and then OK again.
11. Now, when you print, it should go to a PDF file that CreateSpace will accept. But check your file carefully! It might have some feature that mine didn’t and that PDF995 can’t handle.

Good luck!