What Is a JOBOPTIONS File?

How to open, edit, and convert JOBOPTIONS files

By
Tim Fisher
Photo of Tim Fisher, Lifewire GM and Writer
Tim Fisher
Senior Vice President & Group General Manager, Tech & Sustainability
  • Emporia State University
Tim Fisher has more than 30 years' of professional technology experience. He's been writing about tech for more than two decades and serves as the VP and General Manager of Lifewire.
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Updated on August 16, 2021

A file with the JOBOPTIONS file extension is an Adobe PDF Preset file.

Adobe products use it to define the properties of a PDF file that's to be generated. Some settings it controls include the PDF's fonts, image resolutions, color schemes, and security settings.

Older versions of Adobe products save PDF presets as files with the PDFS file extension instead.

How to Open a JOBOPTIONS File

Acrobat Distiller is responsible for creating PDF files, and so it, of course, can open and properly use JOBOPTIONS files.

Also, because PDF support is integrated into Adobe Creative Suite programs, any of those programs work as well, including InDesign, Illustrator, Acrobat, and Photoshop.

In Photoshop, for example, open a JOBOPTIONS through the Edit > Adobe PDF Presets > Load option. Similar steps work with other Adobe tools. Try the File menu if you can't find it in the Edit menu.

JOBOPTIONS files are text-only files, which means you can also open them with a simple text editor. Using Notepad or Notepad++ lets you view the instructions that the file contains—you won't actually be able to use the file to define the creation of the PDF.

Some JOBOPTIONS files are provided in a ZIP file, which means you must extract the file from the archive before you can use it with an Adobe product. If it's in a different archive file format, and you're having trouble opening it, try using an archive opener like 7-Zip.

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How to Convert a JOBOPTIONS File

Older versions of Adobe InDesign uses the PDFS file extension to store PDF presets. This older format can be converted to JOBOPTIONS if you import the PDFS into InDesign CS2 or newer and then export or save it.

Given the niche role of JOBOPTIONS, there's no benefit to attempting conversion to any other format.

More Information on JOBOPTIONS Files

New JOBOPTIONS files that you import into an Adobe product are stored in this folder:

  • Windows: C:\ProgramData\Adobe\Adobe PDF\
  • Windows XP: C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Adobe\Adobe PDF\
  • macOS: /Library/Application Support/Adobe/Adobe PDF/

File Still Doesn't Open?

If your file doesn't open with the suggestions from above, then it's likely that you're misreading the file extension, meaning that you don't actually have a JOBOPTIONS file.

One of the closest file extensions to this one is JOB, which can be used for both MetaCAM Nest Job files and Windows Task Scheduler Job files, neither of which are related to PDF files or used with an Adobe program.

If your file has the JOB suffix instead of JOBOPTIONS, it might work with a Metamation program or the Task Scheduler program built-in to Windows.

Task Scheduler related JOB files are stored in Windows at C:\Windows\Tasks, but some programs might use the JOB file extension for their own purposes, like to run scheduled virus scans or auto-update their program and keep the file elsewhere.

OPTIONS is another file extension that could easily be mixed up with JOBOPTIONS. It's used by SE-SOFT's SE-DesktopApps.

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