Tek-Tips is the largest IT community on the Internet today!

Members share and learn making Tek-Tips Forums the best source of peer-reviewed technical information on the Internet!

Register Log in
  • Congratulations wOOdy-Soft on being selected by the Tek-Tips community for having the most helpful posts in the forums last week. Way to Go!

Image quality and file size

Status
Not open for further replies.
jh1023

jh1023

Technical User
May 6, 2010
3
US
I'm working on a sort of user's guide/brochure with a lot of images. The images were originally PDFs, edited in Photoshop and saved as JPEG. I placed them in my document, and when I export to PDF they look great, but the file size is quite large. I've been trying to find a way to significantly reduce the file size without sacrificing quality. The images contain text which must be clearly legible in the end result.

So far I've tried exporting with different PDF profiles, and am getting file sizes from 15.7 MB (PDF/X-1a) to 19.6 MB (High Quality Print), or small files with poor quality images (Smallest File Size- 2.6MB). The images are all 300 ppi, and any sort of compression seems to cause a problem when viewing the PDF at various levels of zoom. This will mostly be viewed on-screen, so I'm not worried about it being print quality, but I would like the images to be clear whether they are at 100% or are viewing more of/all of the page.

Is there any way to get this level of quality in a smaller (optimistically below 5MB) file size?
 
Sort by date Sort by votes
The images were originally PDFs, edited in Photoshop and saved as JPEG.
Click to expand...

The images contain text
Click to expand...

Do you mean single spot ink text without halftoning? If so, they should have never been opened and converted to JPG in Photoshop. Your problem to address may be higher up in the workflow.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I'm sorry, I'm not sure what you mean by "single spot ink text without halftoning."

Would saving them in a different format be preferable?
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
If you were to print the PDF file before it is altered in Photoshop, would the text likely print on a single plate, such as black? Is this regular copy text or is it graphic text?

PDF files, unless they were created in Photoshop, are not well suited to be edited in Photoshop.

 
Upvote 0 Downvote
The original PDF files were definitely not created in Photoshop, they are reports generated by my company's software. The document is intended to provide examples and explanations of the available reports. Photoshop came into the picture because I needed to edit them for size as well as security/privacy.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Hi

Can you place the images into Indesign in the PDF format instead of converting them to JPGs?

I'm not sure how that would effect the size but it's worth a shot.

I'm not sure how Indesign handles PDF files sizes when they are re-saved in a smaller size as part of a new document.

Mike
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Definitely save as a PDF format. JPG compression is going to cause digital clutter at that file size regardless.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

SuzDes
  • Locked
  • Question
Are there major differences between ID v5 and v6 for forms design?
Replies
1
Views
433
spamjim
spamjim
annconroy
  • Locked
  • Question
Create outlines and embedded fonts
Replies
1
Views
375
spamjim
spamjim
Brett Creamer
  • Locked
  • Question
Adobe InDesign text and graphic elements moving on their own
Replies
0
Views
407
Brett Creamer
Brett Creamer
stefanobernardi
  • Locked
  • Question
Adobe InDesign file translation
Replies
4
Views
529
stefanobernardi
stefanobernardi
kvhall2
  • Locked
  • Question
Viewing at Actual Size
Replies
1
Views
201
spamjim
spamjim

Part and Inventory Search

Sponsor

Back
Top