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Nagittar · Feb 25, 2003, 11:30 PM

I'm currently working on a quark file that i need to export to PDF so I can print but so far i have only managed to export it to about 500-600k size. It is 30 pages.

At this size the resoluton is not good enough and i need to get it to betweeen 20-30MB.

Is there any way to increase the resolution size when exporting?

In playing around with the options i have accidently (!?) exported it to about 20MB once but i tupidly forgot what i did to get it that large.

BTW: I use the print to file option via the Adobe PS plug-in in the OS9 chooser.

Thanks for any tips!

Mac Guru · Feb 25, 2003, 11:43 PM

Sorry if this is off topic but what's with all the Graphic Application questions not in the Art and Graphics area? Yeah it IS software but then what goes into the Art and Graphics forums, next to nothing? Or just Photoshop Tennis?

Mac Guru

Don Pickett · Feb 26, 2003, 12:35 AM

I can't tell what you mean by resolution size, as it seems you are talking about file size, which is not resolution size.

If you print the Quark file as a postscript file from Quark and throw it into Distiller, you can adjust Distiller's Job Options to any resolution/quality you like.

Nagittar · Feb 26, 2003, 01:11 AM

Mac Guru - sorry 'bout that. I was actually contemplating between the two, 'spose i took the wrong turn!

Don Pickett - sorry for the confusion. i'm talking about the quality of the resultion in the PDF. I'm a bit new to this so bare with me ... as the Quark file is 30 odd pages and the PDF is coming out at 600k, the resolution of the text is terrible. There are a few illustrations and they are pretty bad as well.

I have been saving it as a .ps file and then dropping it into distiller. What would you recommend i adjust the DPI to in distillers job options?

thanks

godzookie2k · Feb 26, 2003, 01:12 AM

quark will export at the resolution that your files are at. please clarify your questions, i have no clue what you are saying. (or clarify in the art/design forum)

Nagittar · Feb 26, 2003, 01:46 AM

Originally posted by godzookie2k:
quark will export at the resolution that your files are at. please clarify your questions, i have no clue what you are saying. (or clarify in the art/design forum)

i'm really not that familiar with quark. where can i check the resolution before i distill it?

can't i just change the DPI in distiller?

gorickey · Feb 26, 2003, 01:57 AM

It sounds like your Distiller prefs are a little whacky, I would adjust those accordingly yes.

Man, this makes me really like the "Save as PDF..." option built into OS X even more!

voodoo · Feb 26, 2003, 08:08 AM

Originally posted by Nagittar:
i'm really not that familiar with quark. where can i check the resolution before i distill it?

can't i just change the DPI in distiller?

This has nothing to do with XPress, and everything to do with Adobe Distiller.
That is why it should be in the Software forum Mac Guru.

When you print from XPress to a .ps file (postscript) then the entire document is still in vector form, so your text is fine there. Your problem sounds like Distiller related.

godzookie2k · Feb 26, 2003, 08:40 AM

Originally posted by gorickey:
It sounds like your Distiller prefs are a little whacky, I would adjust those accordingly yes.

Man, this makes me really like the "Save as PDF..." option built into OS X even more!

::snicker:: are you kidding? Print to PDF in X has nothing on Distiller.

Nagittar · Feb 26, 2003, 10:53 AM

Originally posted by voodoo:
This has nothing to do with XPress, and everything to do with Adobe Distiller.
That is why it should be in the Software forum Mac Guru.

When you print from XPress to a .ps file (postscript) then the entire document is still in vector form, so your text is fine there. Your problem sounds like Distiller related.

I have checked the .ps file and it 's 56.9MB. I have played around with some of the prefs in distiller but i cannot get it to convert to a PDF over 600K.

Are there any obvious things in the distiller job options that i should be looking for?

thanks again

voodoo · Feb 26, 2003, 01:26 PM

Originally posted by godzookie2k:
::snicker:: are you kidding? Print to PDF in X has nothing on Distiller.

Sadly, you are very right.

For some reason "print to PDF" gives silly or downright wrong results. Is Distiller for X too much to ask Adobe???!

::maroma:: · Feb 26, 2003, 01:31 PM

Originally posted by Nagittar:
I have checked the .ps file and it 's 56.9MB. I have played around with some of the prefs in distiller but i cannot get it to convert to a PDF over 600K.

Are there any obvious things in the distiller job options that i should be looking for?

thanks again

Hmm..getting 57MB down to 600k is pretty tough. I'm not sure that it will be possible to get a decent looking PDF at around 600k from that .ps file. If you've set all of you Distiller Job settings to the lowest, and you still don't get what you need, then I think you're going to either have to break up the pages into different PDFs, or settle on a larger file size.

Don Pickett · Feb 26, 2003, 03:38 PM

Don Pickett - sorry for the confusion. i'm talking about the quality of the resultion in the PDF. I'm a bit new to this so bare with me ... as the Quark file is 30 odd pages and the PDF is coming out at 600k, the resolution of the text is terrible. There are a few illustrations and they are pretty bad as well. [/B]

Something weird is going on.

In Distiller, under Job Options, you will find a multi-tabbed menu which controls all aspects of the job. One of the tabs is labelled "Compression" or something similar. Check this and make sure that Distiller is not set to compress things unreasonably.

voodoo · Feb 26, 2003, 03:55 PM

Originally posted by ::maroma:::
Hmm..getting 57MB down to 600k is pretty tough. I'm not sure that it will be possible to get a decent looking PDF at around 600k from that .ps file. If you've set all of you Distiller Job settings to the lowest, and you still don't get what you need, then I think you're going to either have to break up the pages into different PDFs, or settle on a larger file size.

I think you are misunderstanding the problem, see a bigger PDF is what he wants.

::maroma:: · Feb 26, 2003, 06:27 PM

Originally posted by voodoo:
I think you are misunderstanding the problem, see a bigger PDF is what he wants.

Ahh, you are correct sir. I misread the whole thing. Damn. Oh well, my post wouldn't have been that helpful anyways.

[where is the ::embarassed:: emoticon?]

Nagittar · Feb 26, 2003, 09:13 PM

Originally posted by Don Pickett:
Something weird is going on.

In Distiller, under Job Options, you will find a multi-tabbed menu which controls all aspects of the job. One of the tabs is labelled "Compression" or something similar. Check this and make sure that Distiller is not set to compress things unreasonably.

ah ha ...

i have unchecked all the spots under the compression tab and have got the PDF to 24.5MB .... getting there.

Surely, as the .ps file is 56MB I should be getting a PDF that is uncompressed to about the same size???

Macola · Feb 26, 2003, 09:39 PM

Originally posted by Nagittar:

Surely, as the .ps file is 56MB I should be getting a PDF that is uncompressed to about the same size???

No, there's a lot of other optimization that PDF offers. If you've created the PDF at the resolution and compression settings that you need, why worry about getting a larger file?

Don Pickett · Feb 27, 2003, 12:38 AM

Originally posted by Nagittar:
ah ha ...

i have unchecked all the spots under the compression tab and have got the PDF to 24.5MB .... getting there.

Surely, as the .ps file is 56MB I should be getting a PDF that is uncompressed to about the same size???

Why do you want the PDF to be large? One of the reasons for having PDFs is smaller, transportable files with adequate resolution for its intended purpose.

Simon Mundy · Feb 27, 2003, 05:42 AM

The defaults that come with Distiller aren't too bad - press optimised gives you a file with lossless compression that doesn't convert colour spaces (i.e. CMYK->RGB), print optimised gives you an adequate compression but retains a good deal of detail, and screen optimised PDF's are - funnily enough - optimised for the screen but are heavily downsampled/compressed.

Give 'em a whirl.