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Illustrator Tutorial 0004 - Saving your File as a PDF

There are several reasons to create a PDF file of an Illustrator document. PDF is "portable", meaning anyone with Acrobat Reader, or Apple's Preview application can open a PDF. If you are having problems getting certain element on a page to print, creating a PDF and printing the PDF can help. If you go into graphic design, a good thing to keep in mind is that many service bureaus are moving to a PDF workflow, due to the very nature of its portability and compatibility. Now that we understand the reasons for creating a PDF, we can get to the instructions on how to create a PDF.

In Illustrator, this is extremely easy.

1. Go to the FILE menu and choose Save As...

2. Select Adobe PDF from the pull-down list of possible formats.

3. Add ".pdf" to your filename to distinguish it from the original.

4. Click the "Save" button.

That's all there is to it. When you want to print, you can open the file in Adobe Reader (formerly, Acrobat Reader) or Preview, and print the file.