PDFs to reduced PDFs

[Craig Bagley]

Is there a way in the Publisher to take a full size (36x24) PDF Publisher set and re-publish a new set as 8 1/2 x 11 PDFs?

The Organizer suggests there is, since I can show the Publisher on both sides of the Organizer, create a new Publisher set on the right, and see options on the left side for PDFs called “Page Options”. However, selecting PDF formatted layouts on the left and changing page options before copying/drag/drop to the right doesn’t seem to do anything - it always defaults back to the original page size. Attached is a screen shot of the Organizer, using the AC15 template file.

I feel like I’m missing something. Perhaps “Page Options” works for something else. I know there are other ways to do this.....just wondered why it won’t work with this method. Can’t find any help in the Reference Guide.

[Chazz]

I've never tried this before but I notice the same unexpected behavior you describe (the page settings don't stick). Actually, in a weird GS sort of way this may not be too unexpected since they are grayed out right in the organizer pane itself (see below).

However, all this begs the question: why worry about it? One of the reasons we all love (and hate) PDF is that it scales to whatever the output size is. Your 24x36 is going to print just fine to 8.5x11. Many folks have a note on the title block that says something like "scale as shown only when printed to full size 24x36" or whatever....

[Craig Bagley]

Chazz wrote:
However, all this begs the question: why worry about it? One of the reasons we all love (and hate) PDF is that it scales to whatever the output size is. Your 24x36 is going to print just fine to 8.5x11. Many folks have a note on the title block that says something like "scale as shown only when printed to full size 24x36" or whatever....

Chazz:

Thanks for taking the time to investigate my problem.

I've found AC works for a lot of things besides construction drawings, and this is a file I created for some presentation boards. The layouts I created were huge in terms of megabytes, and I was experimenting to try to reduce file size to send individual layouts by email.

Which may or may not have worked, based on past experience. But I ran into this problem, instead.

But you are right....otherwise no need to worry about it.

Craig

[Karl Ottenstein]

Hi Craig,

As Chazz mentioned, the document size for a vector format document such as an AC-generated PDF doesn't really affect the file size in MB. Same number of vectors/curves/etc.

One thing that can shrink a PDF file size is compression of images... So, if you convert the AC PDF to an image-based PDF and increase the compression, you should be able to get quite small file sizes. For example, opening the PDF in Photoshop, which converts vector to raster, then saving a fresh PDF from there (100% raster/image) - and either adjusting compression settings then, or opening in Acrobat Pro and optimizing the file is one method if you have Adobe CS.

Cheers,
Karl

[Chazz]

Great tip Karl.

I had no idea that going from vector to raster could decrease the file size, I thought the exact opposite was the case (and perhaps it is for things like text).

Still, as I have noted elsewhere on the forum, in general I find that V15 (or is it Mac OS 10.7x?) builds very efficient, compact PDFs when compared with earlier combinations of OS and AC version. it's a huge help.

[Karl Ottenstein]

Chazz wrote:
Great tip Karl.

I had no idea that going from vector to raster could decrease the file size, I thought the exact opposite was the case (and perhaps it is for things like text).

Thanks, Chazz, but maybe more of an 'iffy' tip... as you illustrate the perfect counter example. A text document will be smaller as text (generally). Similarly, a simple floor plan outline is probably going to be as small or smaller as vector. But, a complex drawing is likely smaller as a (highly) compressed image - with corresponding loss of quality. I was thinking in particular of a discussion from some years ago involving the spanish roof tile accessory and the zillions of tiny vectors that it produced in elevations. Huge file sizes for that.

Personally, I would never consider printing from anything but a vector file. But, for email, maybe raster is worth the hassle if the files are just too huge...

Cheers,
Karl

[Craig Bagley]

Karl wrote:
Hi Craig,

As Chazz mentioned, the document size for a vector format document such as an AC-generated PDF doesn't really affect the file size in MB. Same number of vectors/curves/etc.

One thing that can shrink a PDF file size is compression of images... So, if you convert the AC PDF to an image-based PDF and increase the compression, you should be able to get quite small file sizes. For example, opening the PDF in Photoshop, which converts vector to raster, then saving a fresh PDF from there (100% raster/image) - and either adjusting compression settings then, or opening in Acrobat Pro and optimizing the file is one method if you have Adobe CS.

Cheers,
Karl

Thanks, Karl. I'll keep these tips in mind for future reference.

I noticed that if I take the same views that I was using for 2x3 layouts, but downscale the drawings to fit on 8 1/2 x 11 layouts, the resulting PDF via the Publisher has the same file size as the 2x3 PDF. I would have originally guessed otherwise.

Disregarding AC-generated PDFs for the moment, I've always been mystified why some PDFs compress well, and some don't.

Thanks for the tips.....

Craig

[vfrontiers]

Just wanted to throw my FIND from last week into this conversation.. I am coming late to the game, so forgive me if this has already been said...

After just changing over to LION, the "Simple Filters" no longer work for reducing PDF file sizes... So, after poking around a bit, I ran across PDF TOOLKIT (which looks remarkably like the simple filters)... It's in the APP STORE for about $5 and works like a champ... 4 choices for file reduction (quality vs size)... the 2nd setting seems the best ratio.

In addition, your $5 gets you CONCATENATE (glue a bunch of pdf's together to make one book) / SPLIT and / EXTRACT images or text from within a file.

Anyway.. for those on MAC... give this little guy a try....

[Chazz]

Keep in mind that Preview has allowed concatenation, extraction and deletion of pages for quite a while. It works like a charm. File size reduction also remains available under the export/quartz filter options of the latest version. It is amazing how little you need to reach for Acrobat Pro.

Now if only I could get the new version of Preview to ALWAYs open multipage PDFs in single page mode....

[vfrontiers]

Chazz,

Yes these SIMPLE FILTERS did the trick for me previously.. Again, they do nothing with LION..

Using the REDUCE FILE SIZE built into Lion's version of preview gave (way) less than optimum results...

SIDEBAR: Is there a way to NAME each page of a multi page PDF in preview? Always bugged me...