Can't compress by PDFs enough for Web downloading

[chuckdesign]

I am creating a Quark 4.1 file that contains several very detailed screenshots. My client requires a PDF that is less than 400K, since the PDFs will be downloadable from the Web.

When I distill the PDF using Print-optimized settings (using Distiller 4.0), it works out to be 2 MB, which my client feels is way too big to post to the Web. When I use Screen-optimized settings, it's down to 300KB, but the all-important screenshots are illegible.

I thought the client was asking for the impossible until she showed me a PDF that another vendor had made for her, which contained several highly detailed screenshots; the file was less than 400K! What am I doing wrong?

Other things I've tried, all to no avail: saving with Acrobat 3.0 compatibility; distilling with graphics set to 166 dpi or lower; with font embedding turned of; and with the screenshots saved as indexed color from Photoshop. It's still over 1 MB.

Please help!


-- Chuckdesign

 

[tgreer]

Use Acrobat/Distiller 6.0. They support wavelet-based (JPEG2000) compression.



Thomas D. Greer

http://www.tgreer.com

Providing PostScript & PDF
Training, Development & Consulting

 

[Eggles]

Alternatively, is it possible to split the one large PDF into several smaller ones? If you are using the Screen joboptions in Distiller 5, then that's as small as they are going to get.

How did you get the screenshots into Quark? Did you go via Photoshop? In Pagemaker, for some reason you get clearer pics if you paste directly from the clipboard and bypass PS completely.

 

[chuckdesign]

Thanks for the advice. Turns out, we hadn't lowered the resolution for the Monochrome image setting (even though I couldn't find any monochrome images in the file). Once we lowered that resolution, the PDF file size came down dramatically.

-- Chuckdesign

 

[Eggles]

Mmmm... this should have happened automatically when you chose the Screen joboptions.

 

[chuckdesign]

No, we weren't using Screen-optimized job options. It created illegible screenshots. So we needed to find a compromise between Screen and Print that allowed for small file size with legible screenshots. Here's the solution, posted by kmc1 on Sep 30, 2003:

General
Compatiblity 3.0
Check the "Optimize for Fast Web View" box
Resolution: 1200 dpi

Compression
Color Images:
Check "Bicubic Downsampling to" "170 to 255 dpi"
Check Compression "JPEG", Quality "Minimum"

Grayscale Images
Check "Bicubic Downsampling to" "170 to 255 dpi"
Check Compression "JPEG", Quality "Minimum"

Monochrome Images
Check "Bicubic Downsampling to" "170 to 255 dpi"
Check Compression "CCITT Group 4"
Check "Compress Text and Line Art"

Fonts
Check "Embed All Fonts"
Check "Subset embedded fonts when percent of characters used is less than "100%"

Color
"Convert Everything For Color Management"
Intent "Default"

Working Spaces
Gray "None"
RGB "sRGB IEC61966-2.1"
CMYK U.S. Web Coated {SWOP} ver 2

Device Dependent Data
Check "Preserve Overprint Settings"
Check "Preserve Under Color Removal and Black Generation Settings"
"Preserve" Transfer Functions

Advanced
Options
Check "Allow Postscript file to Override Job Options"
Check "Preserve Level 2 copypage Semantics"
Check "Illustrator Overprint Mode"
Check "Convert Gradients to Smooth Shades"

Document Structuring Conventions (DSC)
Check "Process DSC Comments"
Check "Resize Page and Center Artwork for EPS files"
Check "Preserve Document Information from DSC"

-- Chuckdesign

 

[lizziebyrne]

Hi,

I've been trying to compress my PDF, but how do I use Distiller to compress it?

When I go to File/Open in Distiller to apply my settings it only opens post-script files.

Can some one point me in the right direction?

Thanks!

 

[Eggles]

>>When I go to File/Open in Distiller to apply my settings it only opens post-script files.<<

Ummm..... thats' what it is supposed to do.

I think you are confusing PDFs and postscript. They are NOT the same thing. The sequence is as follows:

1. authoring application (such as PM, PS or AI) ---> 2. postscript file, by printing 'to file' after selecting a postscript printer (including Distiller itself) ---> 3. PDF file, by opening the postscript in Distiller, choosing a set of job options (compression levels, font embedding etc) and then distilling.

The 2nd step can appear to be skipped if you elect to create PDFs using 'export to PDF' or similar setting in the authoring application, but all steps are still occurring, just that step 2 is happening in the 'background'.

If you think your postscript files are actually PDFs then no wonder you want to get them smaller. Postscript files can be HUGE, since they contain all info necessary to make any type of PDF, including ones needed for commercial printing, which have the least compression (if any), all fonts embedded and max info about the original file.

 

[chuckdesign]

While we're on this topic, do you know of any way to reduce the size of a PDF once it's been created?

Let's say I print a Quark file to PostScript, and then distill it using Print-Optimized settings. If it's too big, do I need to go back to Distiller and re-distill my PostScript file on a Screen-optimized setting? Or is there a way to squeeze down my existing PDF file?

-- Chuckdesign

 

[Eggles]

Chuck

>>If it's too big, do I need to go back to Distiller and re-distill my PostScript file on a Screen-optimized setting? <<

Yes, you can redistill the postscript file with new job options. It's probably better not to jump from Press optimised to Screen optimised. Try the Print setting or even the eBook setting first. But if the Quark file is going to be commercially printed, then leave it as Press optimised. But what does it matter? In commercial printing, quality is paramount and file size shouldn't be an issue. If it's for in-house printing (on say a digital printer) then Screen optimised will look terrible, but one of the in-between ones (i'm assuming Distiller 5) is much better. (On a side note, I always made PDFs with the eBook setting if it was to be printed in-house - but this was without the route via a layout application such as Quark).

>>Or is there a way to squeeze down my existing PDF file? <<

You can redistill the PDF directly. Open it in Acrobat, and remake the PDF as you would for any other authoring publication. I'm not sure how it would compare to redistilling the postscript - in quality or size - but you can always test it.

 

[chuckdesign]

I just tried dragging a PDF into Distiller, but nothing happens. I'm using Distiller 5. Is that a feature only of 6? (I created my original PDF as an export from Quark 5 for Mac.)

I agree, I wouldn't use Screen optimized for commercial prin -- only for reviewing drafts with clients or posting on the Web.

Thanks,

-- Chuckdesign

 

[Eggles]

>>I just tried dragging a PDF into Distiller<<

You can't do it that way. As I said in the previous post, open the PDF in Acrobat, not Distiller.

 

[chuckdesign]

>Open it in Acrobat, and remake the PDF as you would for any other authoring publication.


Oh, sorry for the confusion... but how exactly do you "remake the PDF" from within Acrobat? I export directly from Quark XPress, or I print to a PostScript file and run through Distiller. What I'm wondering is whether you can take that final Acrobat file and re-save as a lower-resolution PDF. I haven't found anything in Acrobat to let me do that.


-- Chuckdesign

 

[Eggles]

1. Open the PDF in Acrobat (full version, not the Reader).

2. Go to File>Print, choose Distiller as your printer (or whatever you normally use as your postscript prtinter when making PDFs from Quark).

3. If in Distiller, click on 'Properties' and then 'Adobe PDF settings' tab. Here's where you choose either a preset job option (such as eBook) or by choosing 'edit conversion settings' you get the usual menu of choices for compression etc.

4. You'll be prompted to name the PDF file and its location, then OK.

Assuming you have chosen a set of job options that compress more than the existing PDF was made with, the new PDF will be smaller. I think even choosing the same job options ('refrying' the PDF so to speak) will help reduce file size.