If you are using the combination MiKTeX and WinEdt to write your papers but you have problems with Type-1 fonts
and Letter-sized documents (8.5x11 in, or exactly 215.9x279.4 mm),
here are a few hints (assuming typical installation of the required software packages):

1) In order to generate proper PDF documents, you should go through the flow: LaTeX -> DVIPS -> PSPDF.
2) DVIPS fixes:
- Open 'Options->Execution Modes' and go to the tab 'dvi2ps'.
- Change the default switch list from '-P pdf' to '-P cmz -t letter -R0'.
There is a security problem with relative paths for the standard call of dvips. The switch 'R0' allows relative paths.
(Thanks go to Kris for this tip: http://www.latex-community.org/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=84).
Alternatively, you can omit the switch and dump all figure files in the same directory as your tex file.
The rest of the switches in the above list are meant to enable Type-1, embedded fonts and Letter-size document generation.
(Read more here: http://www.acm.org/sigs/publications/sigfaq#q14).

3) PSPDF fixes:
- Open 'Options->Execution Modes' and go to the tab 'ps2pdf'.
- Change the default switch list from '-dBATCH -dNOPAUSE -sDEVICE=pdfwrite -r600 -dCompatibilityLevel=1.4' to
'-dBATCH -dNOPAUSE -sDEVICE=pdfwrite -r600 -dCompatibilityLevel=1.4 -dPDFSETTINGS=/printer -dMaxSubsetPct=100 -dSubsetFonts=true -dEmbedAllFonts=true'. (Read more here: http://people.engr.ncsu.edu/txie/publications/writingtools.html).

That's it! You're set :)

Christos Strydis, 2008 (c)