If it is possible, try to use Adobe Acrobat PDF distiller rather than Adobe Acrobat PDF Writer. It is also important to create the PDF file on the same machine where the original document was created. This will insure that the fonts necessary for viewing and printing the resulting PDF file are available during PDF creation.

The file must be self-contained: all figures and tables should be in the same file as the text of the paper.

Fonts should be limited to those used in the paper, and they should be embedded in the PDF file. Embedding fonts essentially means to include in the PDF file the information necessary to re-create the characters used in your PDF file. It is advised to use western-encoded versions of the fonts Times (Times New Roman), Helvetica (Arial), and Symbol, and the standard distributions of Computer Modern.

If you cut a figure from a graphics program and paste it into a document, be sure you have the entire figure and be sure that it looks right when you're done.

Please look through your PDF file before uploading it to make sure that everything that you want in the file is there, and that it is properly formatted and in the right order.

One of the common problems is in converting TeX or LaTeX files to PDF. Not following the NSF instructions will typically produce a PDF file that is excessively large and of poor quality. Another common problem is the failure to embed all fonts. If the Embed All Fonts option is not checked in the “Printer Setup” when the PDF is created, symbol fonts will appear incorrectly. It is a good idea for every submitter to test the quality of their PDF file by printing it out on a computer that does not have TeX, LaTex, or Scientific Word installed on the machine. The submitter should be especially careful to check that math symbols appear correctly when printed.

If your PDF file is still larger than 2 MB after carefully following the NSF instructions, then it is probably because you have many complex graphics. You should either edit the graphics so that they are not so large (e.g., by reducing the resolution of the graphics) or you should eliminate some of the graphics. It is fine to include a link in your paper to an appendix on your web site that contains the complex graphics in a separate file.

Papers are limited to 2 MB to limit the burden placed on the Program Committee of handling the electronic submissions. Typically a 40 page paper with numerous graphics and mathematics is no more than 0.5 MB. We therefore thought that 2 MB was an appropriate upper limit.