Most programs that allow you to print to a file give you the option of saving the file as a postscript file, for example printfile.ps. There is a simple command for converting these .ps files to an Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) file.
At the Unix prompt, type the command ps2pdf, followed by a space, followed by the postscript file name, followed by a space, followed by the name you choose for the resulting PDF file, then hit return.
Example:
ps2pdf prinfile.ps printfile.pdf
The PDF file can then be read by Acrobat Reader on the most common operating system platforms. In the RS/GIS Teaching Lab, you can access Acrobat Reader from the Unix prompt by typing acroread, followed by a space, followed by the PDF filename you want to open, then hit return.
Example:
acroread filename.pdf