Mass PDF

[Sfen66]

Hi,
I have just finished an 86 page brochure and I need to PDF it before it can go to the printers. I know that I can PDF the pages individually but that way is very laborious and will take the best part of day. Is there a way of getting Corel Draw X3 to PDF all 86 pages in one go.
Many thanks

 

[attrofy]

Get a 3rd party PDF creater. It installs as a printer, then the entire booklet can be printed in one file. You select the PDF printer from your printer choices, and print to it as if it was a physically attached printer, then it will prompt you for a name and location to save the file. I prefer CutePDF, its free, but requires an additional application to install - google it, and follow the directions on the page. I have also used PDF995 from Software995, and as the name implies, all their apps cost $9.95, or you can run a feeware version with nag screens. I do not prefer this one as much, as the creation process is more cumbersome. But it has some great features for adding pages into a PDF at a later time. I have heard someone else in here recommend another PDF creation app, but I dont remember the name of it.

 

[Brushman]

Primo PDF is another free one. I've tried several free ones but still go back to Acrobat for my main work machine or Jaws PDF creator on a second machine. Attrofy is right the print method will serve you best.
Alan D

 

[bubbidge]

Can you not use the "Publish to PDF" in the file menu?

I use GS12 and as long as the brochure is created in the same Draw document, on multiple pages, the "Publish to PDF" does it all for you. I assume this feature is in X3 too....??

Andy

Andy
John Anthony Signs
Rayleigh
Essex
UK

 

[BernBennett]

I have just tried "Publish to PDF" inX3, and a 4page A5 newsletter with 7 small jpg images and text, resulted in a file size of 3090 kb. the same newsletter using PrimaPDF as the output resulted in a file size of 246 kb!

Need I say more?

 

[bubbidge]

Well that is only significant if there is a size issue. I should think that a printer could handle a 3MB file. If not, he shouldn't be in business!
An 86 page brochure with images is obviously going to be quite large and by reducing it down by too much will reduce the resolution, thus making the images look crap.

I would expect, as a printer, to see the PDF file to be around 20MB - 30MB. And for 86 pages, I dont think that is too bad. Do you???

Andy
John Anthony Signs
Rayleigh
Essex
UK

 

[BernBennett]

Hi Andy!

I.ve just checked the document info of both PDFs and the main difference seems to be that Draw embedds the images as 32bit CMYK whereas Primo embedds them as 24bit RGB.

Resolution is the same for both at 300dpi.

As an exprinter with some 53 yrs hands-on experience ranging from the letterpress days when type was set by hand and machines were only single colour and hand fed to imagesetters and 4col hispeed litho, I don't think there's much you can tell me about the practical aspects of print.

 

[bubbidge]

Obviously not.

Looks like I have going wrong all these years.

Thanks for the correction!

Andy
John Anthony Signs
Rayleigh
Essex
UK

 

[harry99]

To Sfen66: CorelDraw will create multi page PDF files using the File : Publish to PDF option. However, it may be defaulting to "Current Page" rather than "Current Document" and unlike the corresponding print page it doesn't show you (in version 11 anyway) unless you click the "Settings" button.

To BernBennett: The size of the PDF that a program creates is substantially dependent on the settings that are in force when the PDF is created. Downsampling and compression will have the most impact. The other program is probably not doing a better job in creating a smaller file, much more likely it is just using different parameters.

In CorelDraw You can use one of the "PDF style" presets for speed, or you can go into settings and set them manually.

What settings to use? I can't really answer that without knowing the purpose of your PDF, but if it is purely for screen display rather than printing you can easily experiment to find an optimum combination of downsampling and compression.