How do I achieve crisp text in a Photoshop PDF?

My question is how to save the file as a PDF while ensuring that the text can be clearly read on screen at any size, and also when printed out? Photoshop is not the tool for achieving this, because it is a raster based program and not designed to ensure clearly read type. Ask your designer to do it in Indesign, it should be easy. Is this going to work (i.e., will the type turn out OK?), and/or should I be sending her a flat TIF or a layered PDF or some other type of file? It may turn out...ok, but it won't be great, probably. Let your designer do the type in Indesign, using the graphics from Photoshop. Quit doing type in Photoshop in you want clear, crisp type in the final product. Your questions here show that you're don't know what you're doing and you're probably going to screw it up. I don't mean to sound harsh, but if you have designer, why are you doing these things yourself?!

You're going about this the wrong way. Start by making the graphic for the book cover and let your designer do her thing to it and give you a tightened-down PDF file. Then write a press release in ordinary flat text and append the PDF with it. Do not attempt to do the press release in Photoshop with live links. Nobody wants to receive one of those, even if you can somehow create it. It will be a huge file and some of your recipients will not be able to accept it, see it, etc. and it will annoy people. The problem with the text layers is that fonts are missing. Either you started the file on a different computer, or you closed fonts between creating the file and reopening it. You will need to have the fonts open again on the box you're working on, and if you plan to send layers to your designer, she will need the fonts also. *Bonus question: if you have a designer, why are you breaking your head on this yourself?

Ugh, please don't do this. Press quality PDFs created in Photoshop are going to be too big to email, and you'll end up pissing off anyone you send it to. No one wants an unsolicited 10MB attachment in their email. It's a press release. It should be set up in text only, in Notepad or in Word if you want to get fancy. It makes it easier for someone to copy and paste your information into whatever they're using it for. Copying text from a PDF is a pain in the ass. If you want to include a cover image of your book, include it as a separate PDF or JPEG. May I see your press release and book cover? You can MeMail me a link if you don't want it public.

Follow-up on printing... as I feared, the type on the front covers is pretty atrocious. We'll see what happens from here!

Some follow-up... I haven't drafted a press release email yet, but I have with much aggravation reconstructed my Photoshop press release flyer in Word, and created a PDF from that file--it is far smaller and posts really well online (as opposed to the monster Photoshop PDF file)... I've added a couple hyperlinks, and it looks great. Thank you for insisting I use Word! The files have now gone to the printer--with layered TIFs for the covers. We'll see if that ends up a nightmare or not. I still have yet to figure out how to approach the emailed press release, but I'll work on that. I'm thinking of just plain text with a JPEG of the cover that's hyperlinked to the full PDF release posted online. That way they can click if they want, and the PDF can be printed out as well.

Agree with Brandon Blatcher and lekvar. This would not be difficult in InDesign. You know, if you have a Mac, it should be pretty easy to convert to PDF from Word. Just save as PDF.

Ahem. There are supposedly ways to do crisp type in Photoshop, but I can't swear by them and haven't used them professionally. http://creativebits.org/photoshop/preserving_vector_text_from_photoshop Don't flatten the layers, if you do the type won't be flat (i.e. vector). Don't not use fake bold or italics, i.e. don't click the bold or italic option in Photoshop for the type. Here's the official documentation about it from CS3:Print vector data If an image includes vector graphics, such as shapes and type, Photoshop can send the vector data to a PostScript printer. When you choose to include vector data, Photoshop sends the printer a separate image for each type layer and each vector shape layer. These additional images are printed on top of the base image, and clipped using their vector outline. Consequently, the edges of vector graphics print at the printer’s full resolution, even though the content of each layer is limited to the resolution of your image file. Choose File > Print. Choose Output from the pop‑up menu. Select the Include Vector Data option. If necessary, you can select an encoding algorithm (ASCII, ASCII85, Binary, or JPEG) from the Encoding pop‑up menu. This allows you to choose the way the data is saved and how much disk space it requires. If Include Vector Data is dimmed, your image doesn’t contain vector data. Click Print. Note: If you get a warning that your image is larger than the printable area of the paper, click Cancel, choose File > Print, and select the Scale To Fit Media box. To make changes to your paper size and layout, click Page Setup, and attempt to print the file again. Again, I've never tried this professionally and am leery of it, but hey, it just might work.

OK, I am definitely hearing that a Photoshop PDF is not the way to go for a press release/informational flyer, and that a Word PDF may not be the way to go either, since it's quite possible no one will open it (except contacts I know personally), and HTML isn't reliable either, because people may just end up getting gobbledygook. I will look into what I can do with just plain text, with perhaps a cover JPEG that COULD be clicked on to go to a gorgeously designed online page, should someone be moved to actually click on something. :)

The designer is either ignorant, incompetent, doesn't care or is pissed 'cause you didn't like her design and doing little things to make sure what you did doesn't look that good. I'd mention this antics to the editor, because they're unprofessional and potentially damaging to sales of your book. I don't want to dump on someone who can't respond directly, but from what you said above, roxie110, this sounds pretty accurate. Sadly, as you said, you're up against a deadline, so your best bet is to give her what she's asked for and make good and sure that she's not involved with your next project.