February 1st, 2017 - Version 4.0
PREFACE

Disclaimer: 

Information contained herein is for informational and educational purposes solely and is not an 

endorsement of any product contained in these materials. Any copyrighted materials, referred to herein, 

are subject to the protections of copyright law.
TABLE OF CONTENTS

1.0 Introduction.........................................................................................................................4

2.0 Support and Contact Information......................................................................................4

3.0 System Requirements and Recommendations................................................................4

3.1 Adobe Acrobat XI Professional Requirements

4.0 Software Setup and Configuration

4.1 Setting Up and Configuring Adobe Acrobat Distiller/PDFMaker and Setting

Preferences

4.1.1 Adobe Acrobat XI Professional ..........................................................................6

4.2 Setting Up and Configuring Adobe Preflight

4.2.1 Adobe Acrobat XI Professional ........................................................................15

5.0 Conversion Information

5.1 Converting Microsoft (MS) Office Suite 2013 to PDF

5.1.1 MS-Word .............................................................................................................17

 5.1.1a Create PDF.....................................................................................................19

 5.1.1b Print to Adobe PDF .......................................................................................21

6.0 Verifications and Document Testing Before Submission

6.1 Searchable Text (Hidden Text Error).....................................................................22

6.2 Embedded Fonts Verification.................................................................................24

6.3 Fast Web View .........................................................................................................25

6.4 Preflight Error Tests................................................................................................25

7.0 Miscellaneous

7.1 FAQs.........................................................................................................................28

7.2 Quick Links..............................................................................................................29
1.0 Introduction

The NRC has prepared this “Desk Reference Guide for PDF Document Generation” 

to help its customers and other Federal agencies generate PDF (Portable File 

Format) files that comply with NRC’s “Guidance for Electronic Submissions to the 

Commission” (https://www.nrc.gov/docs/ML1303/ML13031A056.pdf). This guide 

gives the required custom settings for generating PDF files from commonly used 

applications in Microsoft Office Suite 2013 such as MS-Word, PowerPoint, MS-Excel,

etc.. It does not address special applications to include scanning software and 

graphics enhancement software such as Adobe Photoshop and Corel Draw, or any 

software that comes with your scanner. It does not address hardware configurations 

for scanning text or graphic images to generate a PDF file. This document was 

created and tested using Adobe Acrobat XI Professional, Microsoft Office 2013. 

Please contact the manufacturers for instructions on software or hardware that is not 

mentioned in this desk reference guide. 

2.0 Support and Contact Information

 Feedback

We want to hear from you. If you do not find the information you need in this 

guide or wish to send comments, find broken link(s) on our Web site, or have 

problems finding information on our Web site, please contact the NRC Web 

Team by completing the form at http://www.nrc.gov/site-help/esubmittals/contact-us-eie.html.

 Technical support

If you have technical problems in complying with the “E-Rule” guidance, such 

as converting documents to PDF files, setting software configurations, fixing 

problems with deficient submittals, or any questions regarding materials 

discussed in this guide please contact the Help Desk by telephone (toll free) at 

866-672-7640 or by email using the form on the NRC web site at 

http://www.nrc.gov/site-help/e-submittals/contact-us-eie.html.

3.0 System Requirements and Recommendations

 3.1 Adobe Acrobat XI Professional requirements

Windows

• Intel® 1.3GHz or faster processor

• Microsoft Windows® XP with Service Pack 3 for 32 bit or Service Pack 2 for 64

bit; Windows Server 2008 or 2008 R2 (32 bit and 64 bit); Windows 7 (32 bit and

64 bit); Windows 8 or 8.1 (32 bit and 64 bit)

• 256MB of RAM (512MB recommended)

• 320MB of available hard-disk space

• 1,024x768 screen resolution

• Internet Explorer 7, 8, 9, 10, or 11; Firefox Extended Support Release; Chrome

• DVD-ROM drive
• scanner (optional)

• Video hardware acceleration (optional)

Macintosh

• Intel® processor

• Mac OS X v10.6.4, v10.7.2, or v10.8

• 1GB of RAM 

• 320MB of available hard-disk space

• 1,024x768 screen resolution

• Safari 5.1 for Mac OS X v10.6.8 or v10.7.2; Safari 5.2 for Mac OS X v10.8; 

Safari 6.0 for Mac OS X v10.7.4 or v10.8

• DVD-ROM drive

• scanner (optional)
4.0 Software Setup and Configuration

 4.1 Setting Up and Configuring Adobe Acrobat Distiller/PDFMaker and Setting 

Preferences

You can download and install a Distiller Job Options file (profile) created by NRC 

by following instructions in question 4 of the FAQs section.

Launch Adobe Acrobat Distiller by clicking on Windows Start > Programs > Adobe 

Acrobat Professional > Adobe Acrobat Distiller XI or while in Adobe Acrobat 

Professional, select Tools > Print Production > Acrobat Distiller.

4.1.1 Adobe Acrobat XI Professional

 

The Acrobat Distiller window pops up.
Change the settings by going to the pulldown menu and selecting Settings > Edit Adobe 

PDF Settings.

The Standard - Adobe PDF Settings window pops up. On the default General

folder, change the following settings.

• In the Description section enter: 

Use these settings to create Adobe 

PDF documents suitable for 

compliance with 10CFR1, 

Appendix A. Created PDF 

documents can be opened with 

Adobe Reader 5.0 and later.

• From the dropdown menu, set 

Compatibility to Acrobat 5.0 (PDF 

1.4).

• Keep Tags only as the Object 

Level Compression default.

• Set Auto-Rotate Pages to Off.

• Keep Left as the Binding default.

• Set Resolution to 300 dots per 

inch.

• Verify that All Pages is selected.

• Verify that Optimize for fast web view is checked.
Select the Images folder and change the fields for all sections as follows:

• Color Images

Downsample: Off

Compression: ZIP

300 ppi

• Grayscale Images

Downsample: Off

Compression: ZIP

300 ppi

• Monochrome Images

Downsample: Off

Compression: CCITT Group 4

Anti-alias to gray: Off

450 ppi

Click on the Fonts folder and—

• Verify that the Embed all fonts 

box is checked. 

• Verify that Subset embedded 

fonts when percent of 

characters used is less than is 

checked and set at 100%. 

• Keep Warn and continue as the 

default for When embedding 

fails.

• In the Embedding section, verify 

that Font Source is set to 

C:\WINDOWS\Fonts\ and remove 

everything in Never Embed (if 

there is anything) by selecting 

everything in the Never Embed 

field and clicking on Remove.
Click on the Color folder. In the Adobe Color Settings section—

• Make sure Settings File is set to None.

• Change Color Management Policies to Convert All Colors to sRGB.

• Keep Document Rendering Intent set to Preserve.

For the Working Spaces subsection—

 Set Gray to None.

 Keep RGB set to sRGB IEC61966-2.1.

 Keep CMYK set to U.S Web Coated (SWOP) v2.

In the Device-Dependent Data section—

 Check the Preserve under color removal and black generation option.

 Set When transfer functions are found to Preserve.
Click on the Advanced folder and make sure the following items in the Options

section are selected and checked:

• Allow PostScript file to override Adobe PDF settings.

• Convert gradients to smooth 

shades.

• Convert smooth lines to 

curves.

• Preserve Level 2 copypage 

semantics.

• Preserve overprint settings.

• Overprinting default is 

nonzero overprinting.

• Save original JPEG images in 

PDF if possible.

• Save Portable Job Ticket 

inside PDF file.

The following items should be 

checked and enabled in the 

Document Structuring 

Conventions section:

• Process DSC comments.

• Preserve EPS information from DSC.

• Preserve OPI comments.

• Preserve document information from DSC.

• Resize page and center artwork for EPS files.

Click on the Standards folder. Leave everything as is in the Standards Reporting 

and Compliance section and verify that Compliance Standard is set to None.

Click on in the bottom left corner of the window to save the changes. 
In the File Name field, enter NRC-10CFR1_11.joboptions as a new profile name (or 

whatever name you want to call it). Click on . Then . 

The Acrobat Distiller window now pops up. Verify that Default Settings is set to 

your newly created profile (for example, “NRC-10CFR1_11"), as in the screen below. 

Select File > Exit or click on to close Acrobat Distiller.
It is important to set the preferences in Adobe Acrobat so you can convert 

different types of documents to PDF while in Adobe Acrobat.

From the main menu, click on Edit > Preferences to set the preferences.

In the Preferences window, select Convert To PDF option from the Categories 

subwindow. You will see a list of application in the Convert to PDF subwindow. 

One of these applications may be the application used to create your document. The 

screen below gives configuration instructions for Microsoft Office, Project, and 

Publisher documents and TIFF images. Select and change the configurations for 

your application.

Microsoft Office Word

 Select Microsoft Office Word and click on .
In the Adobe PDF Settings for supported documents window, click on the 

dropdown menu and select the newly created profile (for example, “NRC10CFR1_11"). Then click .

Microsoft Office Excel

 Select Microsoft Office Exel and click on .

In the Adobe PDF Settings for supported documents window, click on the 

dropdown menu and select the newly created profile (for example, “NRC10CFR1_11").

Click on Convert entire Excel 

workbook to ensure that the 

conversion of the whole Excel 

workbook is supported. Then click on 

.

Microsoft Office PowerPoint

 Select Microsoft Office PowerPoint and click on .

In the Adobe PDF Settings for supported documents window, click on the 

dropdown menu and select the newly created profile (for example, “NRC10CFR1_11"). Then click on .
TIFF

 Select TIFF then click on .

In the Adobe PDF Settings window, select Scan Optimization and OCR. Click on 

.

Change the settings in the Optimization Options section as follows:

 Set Color/Grayscale to ZIP

 Set Monochrome to CCITT Group 4

 Move Slider to High Quality

Click on .

Click on again to close the Preferences

window. 
 4.2 Setting Up and Configuring Adobe Preflight for—

4.2.1 Adobe Acrobat XI Professional

You can download and install a NRC created Adobe Preflight profile by following 

instructions in question 4 of the FAQs section.

Launch Adobe Acrobat XI Professional. From the main menu, click on Tools>Print 

Production and select Preflight.

 From the Preflight window, select a profile and click on Edit from the menu bar.

 In the Preflight: Edit Profiles window, click on to create a new profile designate 

to NRC.
• Give the new profile a name (e.g., “NRC-10CFR1_11").

• Edit the subcomponents as follows:

• Then click on . 

The new Preflight profile is created and can be used later for testing. See section 

6.4.
5.0 Conversion Information

 5.1 Converting Microsoft (MS) Office Suite 2013 to PDF

5.1.1 MS-Word

Please follow these steps for all of the MS-Office Suite including PowerPoint, Excel, Publisher, 

Access and Project.

Important: If you haven’t done so, follow the instructions in Section 4.1, “Setting 

up and configuring Adobe Acrobat Distiller/PDFMaker and setting preferences”, to create 

an Acrobat Distiller/PDFMaker profile. 

*** Please make sure all the sensitive/unwanted text or images are completely removed 

before proceeding any further. Instructions to remove/delete sensitive/unwanted text can be 

found at

http://adamswebsearch.nrc.gov/idmws/ViewDocByAccession.asp?AccessionNumber=ML060760600.

Launch Microsoft Word (either on the desktop or from Start > Programs >

Microsoft Office 2013 > Word 2013).

Verify that the Microsoft Word conversion settings match the profile you created in 

Section 4.1 by going to the main menu and clicking on Acrobat, then click on 

Preferences.

Do so once and then leave the settings alone unless you want to use other settings. 

When you have configured and saved the Acrobat PDFMaker settings, start the 

conversion process on page 19 of this section.
The Acrobat PDFMaker window pops up. 

Click on the Settings tab then in the Conversion Settings field of the PDFMaker 

Settings section. Click on the dropdown arrow and select the profile you have 

created (e.g., “NRC-10CFR1_11"). Uncheck Convert Document Information.

Leave the settings on the other tabs as they are. Click on .
Follow the steps below to convert a Microsoft Office Word 2013 document to PDF.

Launch Microsoft Word (either on the desktop or from Start > Programs > 

Microsoft Office 13 > Word 2013).

Open a Word document by clicking on > Open or Crtl+O. The Open window 

appears.

Select the Microsoft Word document you want to convert to PDF and click on .

Remove all hyperlinks to other electronic files or Web sites unless the document includes a 

disclaimer that the hyperlinks are either inoperable or are not essential to the filing.

There are 2 ways/methods to convert a Microsoft Office Word 20013 to PDF file, 

“Create PDF” and “Print to PDF”. 

 5.1.1a “Create PDF” method: 

If you are using an older version of Microsoft Word or Adobe Acrobat 5.0 or older, 

please follow the instructions on page 21, “Print to PDF”.

From the main menu, click on Acrobat tab and click on Create PDF.
The Save Adobe PDF File As window pops up. Enter the name you want in 

the File Name field, then click on .

A series of popup windows show the conversion status.

When the conversion process is completed, the Microsoft Office Word 2013

document is converted into a PDF document and Adobe Acrobat Professional 

(or Adobe Acrobat Reader) may launch automatically with the new PDF 

document.
 5.1.1b “Print to PDF” method:

Remove all hyperlinks to other electronic files or Web sites unless the 

document includes a disclaimer that the hyperlinks are either inoperable or are not 

essential to the filing.

From the main menu, click on File > Print. 

Change the Printer to Adobe PDF. Click on Printer Properties.

On the Adobe PDF Document Properties screen.

• Click on the Adobe PDF Settings tab and change the following settings:

• Change the Default 

Settings to NRC10CFR1_11 (the default 

profile created in Section 

4.1).

• Uncheck Add document 

Information (optional)

• Uncheck Rely on system 

fonts only; do not use 

document fonts

(This will ensure that the fonts are 

embedded and exclude 

document’s Properties 

information.)
Click on . Click on to start the conversion process.

When the conversion is completed, the Microsoft Office Word 2013 document 

is converted to a PDF document and Adobe Acrobat Professional (or Adobe 

Acrobat Reader) may launch automatically with the new PDF document.

6.0 Verifications and Document Testing Before Submission

6.1 Searchable Text (Hidden Text Error)

 

Follow these steps to verify that Optical Character Recognition (OCR) has been 

applied correctly to the image-only scanned pages.

• Open the PDF document in Adobe Acrobat Professional.

Make sure you’re in the “Scrolling pages” view and not the “One full page” view.

• From the main menu, select Edit > Select All (Ctrl+A) to select all the text on all 

pages. Another way is to click the Select button on the Tools menu and place the 

mouse cursor on the first character of the very first page. With the left-mouse button 

pressed, drag downward through the pages until you get the last character.

If the text is highlighted, it means that Optical Character Recognition (OCR) process 

ran correctly and that there is searchable text (hidden text). If, however, the whole

page has a blue box, this means the OCR process has not been run (no 

searchable/hidden text), hence the OCR process needs to be run.

Acceptable: Not Acceptable:

A warning message will appear if OCR process has never been run. At this time, you have 

the option of running the OCR process. Click the OK button to start the OCR process. In the

Recognize Text window, choose one of the options, i.e. All pages/Current pages/From 

page x-x.
• The OCR process may also be started manually by going to Tools > Text 

Recognition > Aa In This File

• In the Recognize Text window, verify that PDF Output Style is set for 

“Searchable Image (Exact)” and Downsample is set to “No Dawnsampling”

• Click to start the OCR process.

After running OCR, Preflight will introduce an error of “Fonts Not Embedded”. This is 

normal and can be ignore since the error is on the scanned source image(s). 
6.2 Embedded Fonts Verification

The “Fonts Not Embedded” error in Preflight is acceptable for scanned images that have 

been OCRed.

Verify that all Fonts are embedded in the document by taking the following steps:

• From the main menu, select File 

> Properties or press Ctrl+D to 

bring up the Document 

Properties window.

• Click the Fonts tab and verify 

that all fonts in the ‘Fonts Used 

in this Document section’ 

include “Embedded Subset” at 

the end. You can also run 

Preflight function and see if 

Preflight reports any errors 

relating to Embedded Fonts.

• Click to close the 

Document Properties window.

If the fonts are not embedded, verify the Distiller Job Options used to generate the file has the 

correct settings. To correct the fonts not embedded issue, use one of the following three options...

1. Open the document in its native application and re-PDF the document by following 

examples in the “Desk Reference Guide for PDF Document Generations,” i.e. 

“Create PDF” or “Print to PDF” method.

2. Print to PDF inside Acrobat XI Professional 

following the “Print to PDF” examples in 

the “Desk Reference Guide for PDF 

Document Generations.”

3. In Adobe Acrobat XI Pro, launch Preflight 

by going to Tools > Print Production > 

Preflight.

a) Select the NRC’s recommended 

Preflight Profile, NRC-10CFR1_11

b) Click on to embed all the 

Fonts (will also Optimize Fast Web 

View at the same time).
6.3 Fast Web View.

Verify that Fast Web View is enabled by taking the following steps:

1. From the main menu, select File > Document Properties or press Ctrl+D to bring 

up the Document Properties window.

2. Under the Description tab, on the 

lower right corner, verify Fast Web 

View is set to ‘Yes’. If not, enable it 

by selecting File > SaveAs, or by 

running one of the batch sequences 

from Advance > Batch Processing 

(Advance > Document processing 

> Batch Processing, or just re-PDF 

the document.

3. Click OK to close Document 

Properties window.

Remember to perform File > SaveAs if changes are made to the document, because a 

typical File >Save will revert Fast Web View to “No”. 

6.4 Preflight Error Tests on Adobe Acrobat XI Professional

Do a Preflight test for any errors before submitting the document to the NRC.

• Launch Adobe Acrobat XI Professional.

• Open a PDF document that you want to test for errors.

• From the main menu, click on Tools and select Preflight.
• In the Preflight window, select the correct profile for testing, i.e., NRC-10CFR1_11, 

under Custom profiles or Imported profiles if it was downloaded from 

http://www.nrc.gov/site-help/electronic-sub-ref-mat.html. 

• Click on the button to start checking the document for errors.

In Adobe Acrobat XI Pro, when using the NRC’s Preflight Profile, click on the 

button will 1) embed the Fonts, and 2) Optimize PDF for Fast Web View. 
Below are some examples of Preflight errors:

• Fonts not Embedded

• Less than 300dpi and NOT Fast Web View

Click on button if you want a PDF version of the results, or click on to exit.
7.0 Miscellaneous

 7.1 FAQ

1. “I just scanned several images and converted into PDF. I ran Preflight and I received 

errors that my images were scanned at 299.99dpi, is this acceptable?”

Yes 299.99dpi is acceptable due to round off.

2. “Your guide has no information about scanners and the preferred method of scanning. 

Will you be adding instructions to support scanning?”

No. There are too many different scanners with proprietary software. 

Submitters may use any scanners and scanning software with the 

resolution set to scan no less than 300dpi.

3. “Where can I download a pre-configured Adobe Distiller PDF Settings (profile)? And 

how do I install it?”

You can download a Adobe Distiller PDF Settings (profile) for your 

version of Adobe at http://www.nrc.gov/site-help/electronic-sub-refmat.html and place it in C:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 

<x.0>\Distillr\Settings.

Follow these steps to add this new profile:

o Launch Acrobat Distiller (either from Start/Program/Acrobat Distiller XI or 

select Tools/Print Production/Acrobat Distiller inside Adobe Acrobat XI

Professional).

o The Acrobat Distiller window pops up. From the main menu, click on Settings

and select Add Adobe PDF Settings.

o An Add Adobe PDF Settings window pops up. Select the new profile you have 

downloaded (e.g. NRC-10CFR1_11.joboptions) and click on Open.

o The Acrobat Distiller window reappears with the newly loaded profile as the 

Default Settings.

4. “Do you have a pre-configured Adobe Preflight profile? If so, where can I download it 

and how do I install it?”

You can download a pre-configured Adobe Preflight profile for your 

version of Adobe at http://www.nrc.gov/site-help/electronic-sub-refmat.html and place it in C:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 

<x.0>\Distiller\Settings.
Follow these steps to install this new profile:

o Launch Adobe Acrobat XI Professional, and select Tools/Preflight.

o Preflight window pops up. click on Options and select Import Preflight 

Profile....

o In the Import Preflight Profile window, browse and select the downloaded 

Preflight profile (e.g. NRC-10CFR1_11.kfp), then click on Open.

o The imported profile will be listed under the Imported profiles section.

5. “Is JPEG compression an acceptable alternative to ZIP compression?”

At this time JPEG compression is an unacceptable alternative to ZIP compression

because it is a lossy compression method.

7.2 Quick Links

http://www.nrc.gov - U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission home page.

http://www.nrc.gov/site-help/e-submittals.html - Electronic Submittals homepage.

https://www.nrc.gov/docs/ML1303/ML13031A056.pdf - Guidance for Electronic 

Submissions to the Commission.

https://www.nrc.gov/docs/ML1014/ML101440354.pdf - PDF Document Submittal 

Checklist