Overview of Writing Graphs to a PDF File

You can use one of the following methods to write your graph output to a PDF file:

use the ODS PDF destination to write to a standard PDF file or use the ODS PDF destination with the PRINTER=PDFA ODS option to write to a PDF file that you can archive
use the ODS PRINTER destination with the PRINTER=PDF ODS option to write to a standard PDF file or with the PRINTER=PDFA ODS option to write to a PDF file that you can archive
use the ODS LISTING destination with the DEVICE=PDF graphics option to write to a standard PDF file
use the ODS LISTING destination with the DEVICE=PDFA graphics option to write to a PDF file that you can archive

Using any of these methods, you can do the following:

create a PDF document that contains one or more pages of graphs with one or more graphs per page.
use the system fonts or the resident PDF fonts in your document. See Specifying Fonts.
use system options to control the page layout in your document. See Changing the Page Layout.

The ODS PDF destination and the PDF devices provide additional features and capabilities of their own. To help you to determine which method to use for generating your PDF file, Features and Capabilities Supported by ODS PDF and the PDF Devices lists the additional features and capabilities that the ODS PDF destination and the PDF devices provide.

Features and Capabilities Supported by ODS PDF and the PDF Devices

Method Used	PDF File Types	Document Metadata	Bookmarks	Compression	Drill-down Links
ODS PDF	PDF Version 1.4	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
ODS PDF PRINTER=PDFA	PDF/A-1b	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
ODS PRINTER PRINTER=PDF	PDF Version 1.4	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
ODS PRINTER PRINTER=PDFA	PDF/A-1b	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
ODS LISTING with DEVICE=PDF graphics option	PDF Version 1.4	No	No	Yes1	Yes
ODS LISTING with DEVICE=PDFA graphics option	PDF/A-1b	No	No	Yes1	Yes
1The DEFLATION= system option must be specified in the OPTIONS statement.

See also Creating an Archivable PDF File and Adding Drill-Down Graphs in Your PDF File.