[EDUCATIONAL] How to reduce the PDF filesize with free software.

[mroberon1972]

How many pages? and how much art per page?

 

[Dana_Jorgensen]

2 .gifs and a jpg. and 300 resolution. I even tried some of the other recomended settings (like DownsampleGrayImages) but the pictures degraded too much. Any hints would be appreciated. Is it the gifs? Should I convert them to JPG? Thanks!

Edit: Ok. I re-did it with all jpg's and it helped a little but not much. Same 300 resolution and the file is down to 1.71Mb compressed and 1.51Mb zipped.

Just a reference note about using .gif files. IIRC, the file specs for this old compuserve graphic interchange format do not allow for variable resolution or compression. So there is no downsizing them, and they're always at 72 dpi resolution. So always convert them to JPEG prior to embedding them into your books.

 

[Khaalis]

To answer again, I did convert to jpg already and it did help some. As for how much art and size, as I said before its 16 pages with a small MSWord page border and only 3 small jpgs 80.9Kb, 13.7Kb and 44Kb. The original word Doc With art is only 404Kb.

 

[mroberon1972]

1: What print driver did you use to output?
2: What are the full resolutions for each file?
3: If you reprocess at 300, 120 and 72, what are the file sizes for the final PDFs?
4: Did you change the settings for all three types of images (b/w, color, grey)? You only mentioned one.

 

[Khaalis]

1: What print driver did you use to output?
2: What are the full resolutions for each file?
3: If you reprocess at 300, 120 and 72, what are the file sizes for the final PDFs?
4: Did you change the settings for all three types of images (b/w, color, grey)? You only mentioned one.

1. The system you recommend in the thread - PDF995 then using the GSV convert. I may be getting my hands on Acrobat6 and will try that as well if I can get a copy.

2. Resolutions as follows (Size, Resolution)
JPG1) 535x625, 72 (Grey Scale; 8 Bit Depth)
JPG2) 600x812, 72 (Grey Scale; 8 Bit Depth)
JPG3) 299x345, 72 (Grey Scale; 8 Bit Depth)

3) I only processed 600 and 300. I will try 120 & 72 tonight and let you know.

4) Yes I fiddled with all 6 actually.
These I did one at a time and all 3 at a time.
DownsampleColorImages, DownsampleGrayImages, and DownsampleMonoImages.
(Set them to true) but the picture quality degraded too much.

These I tried to alter but saw no immediate changes but will try again.
Find ColorImageResolution, GrayImageResolution, and MonoImageResolution

Thanks again for the help and suggestions.

{EDIT} Worked on this more. There is no 120 Main Res only 300 and 72.
Raw Word Doc = 434Kb
Raw PDF convert using PDF995 = 1.74

Conversions @ All 3 Downsamples set to True
Main 72 / Color 72, Mono & Grey at 96 = 2.02
Main 300 / Color 72, Mono & Grey at 96 = 1.73
Main 600 / Color 72, Mono & Grey at 96 = 1.73

Main 300 or 600 / All 3 72 = 1.68 (but the graphics are very poor)
Main 300 / Color & Mono 72, Grey 96 = 1.68 (acceptable graphics)

1.68 seems to be the lowest I can get it.

Thanks!

 

[mroberon1972]

Glad to hear it worked better for you after some tweaking.

Good luck on your projects.

 

[Khaalis]

For those that were interested, here it is.

SORCERER REVISION UPDATE 3.31

The PDF version of the work-in-progress to date is located at:
http://home.rochester.rr.com/khaalisrealm/

Further comment and discussion is looked forward to.

Thanks for all your support.
-Khaalis

 

[jmucchiello]

OGL Stuff

For those that were interested, here it is.

SORCERER REVISION UPDATE 3.31

The PDF version of the work-in-progress to date is located at:
http://home.rochester.rr.com/khaalisrealm/

Further comment and discussion is looked forward to.

You make use of material from UA and FH:S and neither is mentioned in your copy of the OGL. A good habit when working with OGC is to update the OGL in the doc as soon as you make use of other material this way you don't have to remember to update it later. Also, you work needs a notice in the OGL. Even as a draft, technically you are still distributing it.

On-topic: I never use JPG or GIF when dealing with images. I use TIFF. GIF's color palette is pathetic and JPG is a losey compression. I have not considered how this affects PDF size but I thought I'd throw it out there.

 

[Khaalis]

You make use of material from UA and FH:S and neither is mentioned in your copy of the OGL. A good habit when working with OGC is to update the OGL in the doc as soon as you make use of other material this way you don't have to remember to update it later. Also, you work needs a notice in the OGL. Even as a draft, technically you are still distributing it.

Thanks, as I am not a "publisher" I am not so up on how to do this. I only went by what I found on the OGL website. Suggestions on what sections need updated for the 2 Sources? As well as myself?

On-topic: I never use JPG or GIF when dealing with images. I use TIFF. GIF's color palette is pathetic and JPG is a losey compression. I have not considered how this affects PDF size but I thought I'd throw it out there.

I'll play with some TIFFs tonight to see if it effects the size at all or quality.

Thanks again for the comments.

{EDIT} Actually, I believe I found it. This needs to be listed in OGL under section 15 for other sources as well as myself? I will edit and get it back out there ASAP.

Edited Again: I made the updates to Section 15 siting UA and FH:S as well as the copyright dates and authors' names and added an OGC statement for myself (though I am not sure what to add as its all 100% ogc). I also tried the TIFFs but they come out larger than the jpg with no change in quality due to already being greyscale.

 

[ruemere]

Simple (and free) alternative to create BOOKMARKED PDFs.

The following presents a free alternative way of creating bookmarked PDF files. This alternative should work on most popular platforms, like Linux and Windows.

Those who don't need bookmarks, can satisfy themselves with OpenOffice and Java (see 1. below), as the PDFs produced by OO are neat and easy to create (just click Export to PDF button).

Those who prefer to use Microsoft Office, can either
(a) open .doc later under OO and convert to PDF (beware, some corruption may occur - the Word way of handling styles is far from perfect),
(b) download and install PDFCreator, a wonderful (and complete) free tool for creation of optimized PDFs: PDFCreator at Sourceforge.

1. The toolbox.
Get yourself a copy of OpenOffice (1.1.1 minimum) for your operating system. It's a big download, but in return you get a suite which can achieve more than Office XP (though sometimes it takes to write a macro).
OpenOffice website / 1.1.1 download

Download latest stable Sun Java (required for OO macros to run).
Java for Desktops

Get latest versions of Ghostscript (both AFPL and GNU versions will do) and Ghostview.
GS and GSView, links

And finally, the most important thing, download a document containing the macro to create a PDF with bookmarks. Yes, that's right, a free BOOKMARKED PDF .
ExtendedPDF macro document

2. Installation.
- install Java
- install Ghostscript
- install GhostView
- (if you run Windows) make sure that /bin and /lib directories of Ghostscript installation are on system PATH (i.e. you can run gswin32c.exe from any directory), i.e. if you run SET PATH at you command (DOS) prompt, you'd get something like this: C:\gs\gs8.14\bin\;C:\gs\gs8.14\lib (among other paths)
- install OpenOffice
- open ExtendedPDF document (it's in .sxw format, i.e. it's just like a typical Word with some macros in) agreeing to run macros
- follow instructions in the document to install macro globally in OO
- enjoy (strictly optional step)

3. Creating bookmarked PDF, final tips
- (if you run Windows) remember to change "gs" to fully qualified path in macr menu (the window which opens whenever you run the macro)
- set bookmark conversion parameters (i.e. what styles are to be converted to what level bookmarks) according to your preference.
- (if you run windows) if you are not satisifed with conversion speed, change default PS printer driver to Apple Color Laser PS

Regards,
Ruemere

v1.01 (edited for clarity)