How to create attractive PDF files?

Discussion in 'Products & Tools' started by timothius, Apr 30, 2008.

  1. #1
    Hi, I'm just wondering how the professionals create pdfs that look like they come from a custom made templates. I have all the text ready and such, but I want a nice custom background for it, and a header and footer graphic on each page. Pretty simple stuff, but I don't know how to best do it?

    I own Adobe Web Premium CS3, so I'm sure I have all the tools I need to create professional pdfs, but I don't really have the knowledge... do I use photoshop to create the graphics and the text for every single page and put it all the pages together with a create from multiples files project? I really have no clue...

    When using Adobe reader 8.0 I've tried creating pdfs from .html files, but they don't render very well... and don't always follow the CSS rules. Does anyone have some experience creating .pdfs here? Here's just a random example of a .pdf that has great design, with the kind of elements I want: http://static.battlelore.com/lang/english/images/bl_epic_en.pdf

    (It's a boardgame manual - and yes, I am a gamer geek - lol)
     
    timothius, Apr 30, 2008 IP
  2. A-L_E-X

    A-L_E-X Peon

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    #2
    you can do it with photoshop, o ryou can do the images with photshop and lay it out with indesign... with photoshop, just design it like you're designing a webpage, use the layer comps and when you finish go to file-scripts-layercomps to pdf
    cheers

    Alex
     
    A-L_E-X, Apr 30, 2008 IP
  3. timothius

    timothius Active Member

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    #3
    Thanks for the reply Alex... so I design the graphics and layout in photoshop or indesign, and lay out the text in those programs too?

    Also, do I need a SPECIFIC page or canvas size when designing in those Adobe programs?
     
    timothius, May 1, 2008 IP
  4. timothius

    timothius Active Member

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    #4
    Er... friendly bump anyone? :)
     
    timothius, May 2, 2008 IP