PDFs and Compression

[Cergorach]

1. Graphical elements that are used more then once in the document should not be merged with other graphical elements (should be seperate images that are placed in ID).

2. When exporting to pdf be sure that you set the settings in compression correctly, i use the following for color and greyscale images:
Bicubic Downsampling to
Compression: JPEG
Image Quality: Medium
150 pixels per inch
for images above: 150 pixels per inch

I use the following for Monochrome (B&W) images:
Bicubic Downsampling to
Compression: CCITT Group 4
300 pixels per inch
for images above: 300 pixels per inch

Play around with these settings if you wish, but from experience these settings give the best quality/size pdf.

3. Generally ID compresses the pdf better then Acrobat (in the same quality).

 

[JVisgaitis]

1. Graphical elements that are used more then once in the document should not be merged with other graphical elements (should be seperate images that are placed in ID).

I understand everything else that you wrote, but this. What do you mean by they shouldn't be merged? *All* of our pages have a parchment background and a unique border treatment. This might be the issue. . .

 

[Cergorach]

I understand everything else that you wrote, but this. What do you mean by they shouldn't be merged? *All* of our pages have a parchment background and a unique border treatment. This might be the issue. . .

What i meant is that when you've got a parchment background throughout the book it should be a different image file then (for example) the monster illustration on page x. PDFs should store only one background image and show it multiple times, but if the image isn't the exact same image, then it stores it as seperate images and thus increasing the overal size of the pdf. Is that a bit clearer?

 

[JVisgaitis]

What i meant is that when you've got a parchment background throughout the book it should be a different image file then (for example) the monster illustration on page x.

OK. I don't know why you would do it any other way, but I see what you mean. We have one main parchment type with border treatment and one without. We just flip them natively in InDesign when we have to. So that probably isn't the issue. . .

Edit: Thank God I have a great Editor.

 

[FoolishFrost]

I have to vote for GhostScript for cleaning up PDFs: It allows you to choose the resolution of the processed PDF's graphics (I like 120 dpi) AND automatically finds repeating images and combines them so that backgrounds only are saved once, but show up normally.

It's wonderful.

Anybody know of a free product to add in the chapter listing into a PDF?

Oh, and for images: Use JPG. The others get size nasty in short order.

 

[JVisgaitis]

I have been messing around with a trial version of Indesign CS, and I can't get the size below 8 MB. Is there a way to look at the settings that someone else had used for a PDF? Cergorach, I used your settings verbatim, but that only shrunk it slightly.

 

[JVisgaitis]

Oh, and for images: Use JPG. The others get size nasty in short order.

I can't, I'm stuck using .PSD unless I convert to .PNG. What about compression? What is better, jpeg or zip?

 

[FoolishFrost]

I can't, I'm stuck using .PSD unless I convert to .PNG. What about compression? What is better, jpeg or zip?

For images added to a layout that will be converted to PDF? Always JPG. It scales better with the software I use.

 

[Cergorach]

I have been messing around with a trial version of Indesign CS, and I can't get the size below 8 MB. Is there a way to look at the settings that someone else had used for a PDF? Cergorach, I used your settings verbatim, but that only shrunk it slightly.

If your file size is 8MB with my settings, then i'm guessing your using a lot of color art. You can get it smaller by setting the dpi settings for color and grey to 72dpi, you can set it even smaller, but this is just about the minimum.

Personally i prefer the larger file size with the higher quality images to the lower file size with the lower quality images.

How many pages is the document your converting to pdf?

 

[JVisgaitis]

If your file size is 8MB with my settings, then i'm guessing your using a lot of color art. How many pages is the document your converting to pdf?

Your correct, we are using a lot of color art. The size of the PDF is around 35 pages. Here is what is driving me crazy though, Frostburn from Wizards of the Coast uses more color art then our PDF, and its 224 pages. Somehow, they got the file size down to under 10 meg. How is that possible?