Buenchico, If You're Around; Or A Deputy....

[kia cat]

Doing some colour fundraiser posters at home, for work.

Thought I'd pop them onto my sky drive to print at work. Their paper + ink etc... Trouble is having checked on my nexus, the fonts don't travel with it, but the artwork does?

If I want it to appear as done @ home do I need to save it as something like a pdf file? Is there any easy access one? thx

[twix123]

If you want a free pdf creator download CutePDF Writer. The program is set up a printer called CutePDF.

When you want to create a pdf file, print the document but select the Cute printer instead of your normal printer. This will name and save the file to whichever target you want, i.e flash drive or My Documents if you also want to retain a copy at home.

[Buenchico]

Since my name was mentioned, I'll post here but it's only to add my support to Twix123's suggestion. There are lots of pieces of software which do the job. I've used CutePDF in the past (and I can't recall any problems with it, except that you have to install GhostScript first) but I've got doPDF at the moment and I'm really happy with it.

CutePDF
http://www.cutepdf.com/Products/CutePDF/writer.asp

doPDF
http://www.dopdf.com/

As Twix123 says, to save a document as a PDF you need to click on 'Print' (which seems rather odd at first, since you're not actually printing anything!). Then change the printer, from whatever you normally print with, to 'CutePDF' or 'doPDF' as appropriate, using the drop-down menu, and click 'Print'. You'll be asked to choose a destination folder (such as 'My Documents') and to click 'OK'. That's all there is to it. (As far as I recall, CutePDF stops there. doPDF also opens the saved file in your PDF reader, such as Adobe Reader, so that you can see how it looks).

Applications such as CutePDF and doPDF work with any program that you can print from. If you're designing posters, you might be working with Microsoft Word or (far better) a proper DTP program, such as Microsoft Publisher. If you've not got a DTP program, this freebie is really good:
http://www.serif.com/desktop-publishing-software/?mc=FSSPAGEPLUS

[Buenchico]

Just one more thought:

If you'd rather not go down the PDF route, check out whether the program you're using to design your posters has the option to embed fonts. If so, using that option enables your fonts to travel with the document. e.g. here are the instructions for Microsoft Word:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/290952

[kia cat]

Wow! thanks Twix and Buenchico, that's brilliant, you stars! Cheers :)