PDF quality

I have need to create PDFs from Word & Excel. Works great on PC - the Mac produces extremely poor results using the "save as PDF" function (odd artifacting underneath characters in Word documents, formatting disappears from Excel files, graphics are extremely poor quality, etc...).
Searching (thus far in vain) for some insight into why this is.
Trying to switch the workflow of the studio to Mac, this is a relativly major roadblock to overcome...

...from 2003. Exactly descibes one of the issues I'm having, but it was unanswered:
I have an Excel form (11x8.5 landscape) with box lines around most of the cells. This is a form that my work uses but most people who need it don't have Excel, so i thought I'd try the universal PDF format which has worked great on most of my forms. This particular one prints fine in Excel but when I export to PDF, the boxes don't show... only the text. I've tried different fonts and changing the box lines but nothing works. I have other forms (some hugely complex) that have worked great. I can't seem to find a difference but this one won't work.
Any suggestions?

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PDF quality is degraded when InDesign file is reopened.

When I place PDF files in my InDesign document and print, or save to PDF immediately, the quality is great.
However, if I save the InDesign file and open it later, the PDF quality is much degraded. Too degraded to use.
I must make the document or book all over again.
Why does the PDF quality degrade when re-opening the InDesign?
HOW CAN I PREVENT THIS?
Thanks.

Regarding Peter's "be sure the link is up to date" because I was typing this after he posted:
Try placing a PDF into an ID doc, save the InDesign file, then reopen it. Select your placed file with the black selection tool, then go Window and select the Links panel. Looking at your linked image will tell you if InDesign can no longer find the image in the original location. (There'd be a yellow triangle with an exclamation point to indicate that the link is missing.) When you place your PDF into InDesign, a 72ppi preview of your linked file is saved in the INDD. In order to print, or export a good quality PDF, InDesign needs to be able to find the linked file.
So when you reopen, ID for some reason can't find the file. This could be caused by a wide variety of issues, but the most likely is that you moved either the InDesign file, or the linked PDF. Or perhaps your linked PDF is on an unavailable network drive? If you tell us more about your working environment, we might be able to figure out why the link is breaking.

Bad pdf quality when printing from word 2004

hello,
when i print a document with a lot of screenshots from wort in the save as pdf dialogue... the pictures in the document have a very bad quality.
where can i defin or setup the general quality for the print as a pdf?
i know, that there is a option for compressing file size as a pdf, but I work with the normal saving as a pdf.. and in the help, apple says, that this is the optimum quality..
can anyone help me?
thanks
fabian

Hi Fabian -
Screenshots produce very low resolution images... 72 pixels per inch on the Mac. The settings you are using do produce optimum quality, but based on what you are starting with, and 72 ppi is not sufficient for decent printed output.
If you save the screenshots (Grab saves as TIFF), use an image editor like Photoshop to create a better quality image (200 ppi) & then insert the image into your doc you'll get higher quality output.
There are also other programs that allow for higher quality screenshots if this is something you will need to do on a professional/regular basis.
HTH |:>)

Pdf quality problem

I put my slides on-line for students in the form of pdf files. To conserve paper, I put four slides per page but the quality is terrible, much of the text is barely readable. The font size is large enough that there should be no problem (If I manually reduce the size of the slide to 1/4 it is still fine). ARe ther settings that control the quality that I can play with, or an alternate approach?
Thanks

This is very odd. I just made a test PDF of a document I create to help somebody with an anagram problem where it was anagramming all the text and they only want one phrase to anagram then the other after it. So I made some of the text a graphic object in Preview and replaced the Text text object, if that makes sense.
Not only is the PDF perfectly rendered to any scale/zoom, the graphic of the second phrase has been converted back to text that can be highlighted with the text selection tool in Preview and Adobe Reader. Almost as if it has OCRed it.
So to answer your questions, text should be vector based and therefore readable at any scale. I am guessing that 10mm below where you set the number of slides per page you have a check-box ticked for "Draft Quality Printout". The text will be bitmapped and terrible. Why it was programmed this way is best known to Apple, given that it would be using more file bytes than the postscript to render the text at full-resolution.

PDF quality issues on Adobe Reader for Pocket PC 2.0

The quality of PDF's rendered by Adobe Reader 2.0 PPC is awful when compared to Adobe Reader LE. We are running it on HTC X7500's with a nice 5" display, but you have to zoom in +5x to read the text on our parts manuals, where as LE renders the same manual crisply and sharply and you don't have to zoom in at all to read the text. Unfortunately we use a lot of hyperlinks, forms and annotations in our documents which are only available with AR2.0PPC and not LE or indeed any of the other 3rd party readers (FoxitReader, PocketXPDF or Clearvue).
I'm assuming that this is down to anti-aliasing methods used, and that AR2.0PPC has not been updated for four years!
Are we likely to see a version of Adobe Reader for Pocket PC with the quality of LE? or have Adobe given up on developing this platform?

>>> Our techs have been using the HTC Blueangel (Same as the I-Mate pictured on your site), and although the image rendered by Adobe Reader was quite sharp, the size of the screen meant you were continually zooming in and out of pages to find the appropriate parts. So weve chosen the HTC X7500 as a replacement because of its 5 screen (amongst other reasons). <<
Ho Kay... have looked at the file and, based on the general layout (drawings with part# references) don't think you can get there from here.
Back to the basic goal, a couple of thoughts based on the assumption that your company is generating these pdf's and needs pda access to them.
Perhaps the part# references can be hyperlinked so the tech could tap the part# on the image and go to a table entry with all of the info on that specific part.
In that case, html would be a better format for navigation since, afaik, there does not seem to be a <back> button in reader.
Beverly Howard [MS MVP-Mobile Devices]

A mystery of PDF quality degradation in indd

Ok, so this is a strange phenomenon that has occured. I have created an InDesign portfolio, which includes pdfs, jpegs, tiffs, and photoshop files. I made the document for print, exported to pdf, and have some beautiful pdfs that I have used. These files are very large, which will not work for sending emailed versions, so I went back into the Indd file and exported at a smaller setting. I noticed that the images in the new exported pdf were still good quality, but all the files that were placed pdfs looked smeared, aka garbage. After fiddling with the settings, I deduced that the placed files themselves in the indd doc were of degraded quality. (*note not the original files used to placed that are in a folder on my comp). When I attempted to change the view settings to high quality, nothing changed. The files seemed to be stuck in a blurry mode. I went through and re-placed all the pdf files, which seemed to fix the problem. I am not sure how this could have happened, since all the other placed files were still of good quality. Only the pdfs turned "bad" and this happened after about a month. A month ago, the same exact indd files, without any changes, could be changed to high quality viewing and they exported correctly. How could these "bad" pdfs export well, and then a month later not export well and need to be replaced into the indd doc? This really baffles my mind, and I wonder if anyone else has experienced this or has any clue as to what is going on. I am using indd CS 5.5 on a MacBook Pro 2011 with Lion.
Thanks!

Unfortunately there is not much to go on here. Could be the links were modified or missing -- could you have moved the originals?-- or it might corruption in either your prefs, see Replace Your Preferences or in the file itself, see Remove minor corruption by exporting

PDF quality problems exporting from InDesign and Photoshop

Hi There.
I'm having big problems exporting my InDesign files to PDFs and retaining the res. And it's not just the images (I understand about the dpi) it's the type on there too.
I have been exporting as the preset High Quality Print - is this wrong. Are there other settings to ensure the PDF I export retains the high-res quality and clarity?
At the moment it comes out high-res when I export it as a jpeg or eps but not PDF.
I have also noticed the same problem when I export to a PDF from Photoshop.
I really need to create interactive and high quality print PDFs from my InDesign files.
Please can you advise.
Thanks
Karen

I am also having problems with pdfs exported from Illustrator and Indesign recently. I didn't have these problems before, so I don't kno if something has changed in my settings that I am unaware of.
When I use the 'japanese dots' border in Indesign, it shows on the pdf as a kind of dotted line. I'm exporting as 'High Quality Print'. I switched to Illustrator and drew a line with the pen tool, and converted it to a dotted line; it looked just how I wanted in in Illustrator, but as soon as I exported it, the same thing happened.
I have used the 'japanese dots' border in the past, exporting as 'High Quality Print', and not had this problem.
Does anyone have any suggestions?

Book Module Export PDF Quality Poor - any solutions?

Hello,
I am trying to figure out a solid solution / workflow for making PDF porfolio's for clients.
The commercial studio where I work needs to send pdf portfolio's to potential clients quite often.
So far we have not been able to find a perfect solution on how to do this with any adobe product (including ACROBAT!)
one of 2 things seem to continually happen.
1. Gigantic file sizes for decent quality PDF's (75 mb +)
2. Horrible color shifts and degraded picture quality for usably sized (3-7mb) portfolio's.
I was hopeful that the new Book Module in LR4 would solve this issue.
admitedly the quality is better IF I save it at jpeg quality 100 and a dpi of 240 but this resulted in a 74 MB file (for 31 images on a 8x10 page)
I clearly can not send a file that large with email....
as soon as I make the dpi or jpeg quality lower they look like total garbage...
Further more the colors shift greatly (on the lower res versions) when opened in something other then Acrobat reader (ie Mac Preview)
Could someone please share a workflow that will result in profesional quality PDF's at a screen resolution.
We have / use the CS5 suite / LR4 / Acrobat Pro
In short as a PRO studio I want PRO quality our of my PRO software...
I would like to keep it as simple and streamlined as possible.
and if at all possible do it all within LR4.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
thanks.

Thanks, I haven't used the LR4 Book module that much and only saw the 'Export Book to PDF' button at the left-bottom of the screen. I tried a Book module 'PDF' Export using 7x7 size, Quality 80, sRGB, 150 dpi, and Standard Glossy sharpening. Here are the results:
1) PDF file size = 3.3 MB
2) Standard Optimized PDF (Acrobat 9 compatibility) = 3.2 MB
I next tried the 'Export Book to PDF' button:
3) PDF file size = 4.8 MB
4) Standard Optimized PDF (Acrobat 9 compatibility) = 975 KB
When viewed on my 25" 1920 x1080 monitor on Windows 7 64bit in Acrobat 9 Pro at 'Fit to Page' zoom size all four PDF files look identical in color and sharpness. When viewed in 'Full Screen' mode only the largest file size PDF (#3 above) created using the 'Export Book to PDF' button exhibits good sharpness. This is probably due to the size of the exported JPEG image having insufficient resolution to fill the screen at 100% (1:1 pixel mapping):
7" x 7" Book at 150 dpi = 6.88" x 150 = 1032x 1032 (Mapped to my 1920 x 1080 monitor)
Requires 1080/6.88" = 157 dpi minimum
7" x 7" Book at 170dpi = 6.88” x 170= 1170 x 1170 (Mapped to your 2560 x 1440 monitor)
Requires 1440/6.88" = 210 dpi minimum
I next created a Book PDF file (3.7 MB) with the above calculated 157 dpi for my 1920 x1080 monitor viewing in Full Screen mode. The results are as sharp as the full-size ‘Export Book to PDF’ file (4.8 MB). I then tried a PDF optimization of the 4.8 MB file using Acrobat Optimization downsample setting of 157 dpi for images above 235 dpi and obtained an equally sharp file 1.0 MB in size. So this method still seems to produce a smaller file than obtainable direct from the LR Book module.
For your NEC MultiSync PA271w monitor with higher 2560 x1440 resolution try using 210 dpi, 80 quality and Standard Glossy Sharpening. When I used Matte High settings the image was clearly over-sharpened for screen viewing. Next try the ‘Export to PDF’ button and then ‘PDF Optimization’ in Acrobat Pro using 210 dpi downsample setting. It shouldn’t hurt to go slightly higher in dpi, but you don’t want to go lower than ‘Full Screen’ 1:1 pixel mapping.

Photo to PDF - Quality of PDF colour output

Hi!
Does anyone know of an photo to PDF app where you can alter the quality colour output of images converted? Like if you have an image of 2 MB for example, can you choose the output PDF-page to be of 0,5 MB, but still with colour?

The only method I am aware of to reduce the size of a photo and still retain color is to reduce the size (pixels) of the photo with a photo handling software. As in change a 1024x768 photo to 600x800. That will reduce the size. You can also change it to a jpeg, which will compress it, and then run it through whatever software you are using to convert to a pdf.

Can i improve pdf quality output in keynote?

guys n gals -
does anybody know how we can get a better quality pdf out of keynote? the "best" setting is really not so good - pixellation, nasty color rendering.
keynote is a pretty genius basic program for laying things out, but when the pdf output is ugly, what do you do?
thanks!

Hey, I also have this problem. It was never this poor quality before! Everything looks really pixellated and the text is almost a parody. I have tried different settings but the exported version to pdf is simply awful.
What to do?
(OSX 10.9 and Keynote 6.01)

JPG-Quality Articles vs. PDF-Quality Articles

What are the pros and cons of using one vs. the other? I know that PDF supports pinch and zoom. Is the file size significantly smaller? If so, why is JPG Quality still supported?

The portfolio is strictly for e-mailing. Sometimes in response to a request and often unsolicited. I do not have a gallery site or an ftp capability. As an email attachment, size is important, hence the "save for web" process.
The current versions are 1.5 and 6 megabytes. Obviously the 6 meg version is sharper, the color truer. But 6 megs is a bit much attached to an email...
Any insight you may have would be much appreciated.
Thank you for your response.

Adjusting PDF Quality?

In Pages, I have a file that I want to save as a low-quality PDF, since its current file size exceeds the maximum of what I want. What I'm doing now is going to File -> Print and then choosing Save as PDF. Is there anyway to do this another way so I can adjust the quality of the PDF to low?

Oh sorry, I didn't see the article a few below mine. That solves it.

PDF Quality using PDF Print driver on Mac v FMP on PC

We’re having an issue that I hope you can help us resolve. When creating the same PDF document on a MAC v PC using Adobe PDF driver built into the Filemaker Pro we are getting a drastically different quality of document. Originally I assumed it was the original PDF driver installed on the PC itself since it was an off brand “LITE” version so I had the user remove all other PDF software and start from scratch with acrobat. Still getting the same results. I have no idea if and where quality settings would be found on the PC or in FMP to check those…
Any ideas?

Thanks for the quick response, Karl.
The client downloaded the trial version of Pro X, to verify that the form works before buying. Would the trial version impose restrictions?
The client does not want to store data on a server. He wants the form to function as a template that he can save-as to customize. The completed forms will be shown on the computer as a part of a presentation, sometimes without Internet access.
I tried using the Advanced > Extend Form Features options to enable to ability to save form data, but when I tested the PDF on my PC (Vista, latest version of Reader) I got an error message along the lines of "this document has been modified from previous version, please get a copy of the original" and all form fields are gone.
I'm currently downloading the trial of Pro X so I can test the PDF.
I am also using a Javascript to allow the client to place photos in the document. This is achieved using a button with a Javascript attached to it: event.target.buttonImportIcon();
This works correctly in my environment, but could it be screwing up the file as it's opened on a PC?

PDF quality for print

Can someone explain to me if saving a file from photoshop or illustrator to PDF and sending it to press will lower the printing quality. Should I use native file format and avoid saving artwork to PDF, or it does not matter?
Thanks

The retention of your original quality depends on what settings you use. There are presets you can use in all the Adobe Apps you mentioned. For print use the presets
High Quality Print
PDF-X 1A
Both will not compress your images or changes colors. PDF-X is commonly requested by online print services.
"Smallest file size" preset will make your images RGB and compress them, this is good for emailing proofs for design approval.
As to whether to send print ready PDFs or submit .ai files along with fonts & images, depends on you and the print service you are going to use. If you have full confidence in the print service then send .ai files as your printer can make necessary edits (DMAX adjustment, thicken or thin up lines) . If you are sending to print in China for example, there are communications and quality/software version issues that can drive you nuts so you may want to just send them print readyPDFs.

Print PDF vs Save as PDF - Quality Difference?

I know there's other posts about PDF vs Save but I didn't see my issue answered, so here it goes:
I print a lot of large-format (24"x36" and larger) Illustrator files that contain both vector drawings and raster images. The guys at my print center insist that we do a print to PDF and not a save as PDF. So my questions are:
Is there a quality difference between printing and saving?
Does one have better vector quality?
Does one have better raster quality?
Thanks!

An important oversite is accessibility. Apparently screen readers, like JAWS, used by visually-impared students, can NOT interpret PDFs created via printing. However, PDFs created by "Saving As" CAN be read by JAWS.
Since colleges, like where I work, are required by law to be accessible ("508 compliant"), this becomes a huge issue. Therefore I'll be recommending that all faculty create PDFs using the "Save As" function, large file or not.
BTW, I suspect the problem with reading "print" PDFs may have something to do with JAWS inability to interpret Postscript.
Any ideas anyone?
If so, feel free to e-mail me at [email protected]
Thanks.

PDF quality

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