File Size - Exported PDF's

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Derek Ashby on August 23, 2010 at 11:22pm

Hi Vanessa,

Have you looked at www.yousendit.com which will enable you to send large files. Also you can look at what's in your files and use the purge tool to remove un-used items within that file to reduce the size. Also I haven't done it but you can export directly as an image file rather than covert your PDF to an image file. I hope that gives you some other options/ideas.

Regards

Derek

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by David J. Barici on August 24, 2010 at 1:06pm

Hello Vanessa, one note, when printing to pdf vectorworks uses a print driver from your computer, check the settings for dpi. It may be set to 600 or 300 which is way too much, simply reduce it to no less than 72 and see what your file size is.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Gerard Jonker on August 25, 2010 at 6:18pm

Hi Vanessa,

Sorry to notice your post so lately.

There are four ways to create a PDF and they all differ in outcome.
-Print and then Safe as PDF using a standard Printer driver
-Export to PDF (Quarz only) Only available on Apple Macintosh, if Quarz is switched on in the Preferences
-Export to PDF / Export to PDF Batch Only available in Industry Series (Architect, SpotLight etc.)
-Print to PDF using an 3rd party driver (Acrobat or Jaws, etc.)

The advantage of the Industries Series' Export is that it translates the file directly into a PDF without the interference of a standard driver. NNA had to pay dearly for this feature to Adobe, hence it is only available in the more expensive Industry Series. What I hope, but never tested, is that this Export function would be able to export a vector oriented file + the individual jpg's each at their own resolution and file size. If it can't, you would have to export the file to either PDF or epsf without the images and add the images in another program like Indesign or Quark.

I'm sorry I don't have a direct solution.

Success,
Gerard

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Gabriel da Silva on August 25, 2010 at 6:24pm

Hi there Vanessa,
I do a lot of PDF printing directly to 'CutePDF' printer. The final size is not big enough the trouble me, although the quality stays at recommended levels.

In other cases, when the final size becomes a trouble, I usually use ‘Adobe Acrobat (editor)’.
Open the PDF (big) file,
Save As *.ps (Post Script File)
Open the *.ps file with ‘Acrobat Distiller’, choosing ‘eBook’ option.

Works all the time, at least for me.
I hope you can achieve the solution fast.

Sorry for the bad English.
Regards
Gabriel da Silva

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Gerard Jonker on August 25, 2010 at 6:34pm

Hi Gabriel,

Very true, that is yet another way to create a PDF.
You reminded me of one more thing to say: Open the PDF you created using any of the above methods in Acrobat Professional and choose Save as... it will reduce the file size by removing unused or even double objects.

Gerard

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Vanessa Picone on August 27, 2010 at 7:02pm

Hi Everyone,
Thanks for you replys and advice. I will take on all of these options when i am back on this project after it goes for public review etc.
I managed to reduce the file size by re pdf'ing from acrobat and printing it in cutepdf. I got it down to under 10mb which was workable for this stage of the project and it went out that day. Which is pretty much like what Gerard said in his last post.

Derek- yousendit is great, yeah i purged it all before i pdf'd it, it helped with vectworks file quite abit but pdf only a little.
David - Yeah the dpi was 50
Gerard - I did do direct export to pdf, i am trying to get away from working every job in an external program like indesign. I have to do lots anyway.
Gabriel- I will check this option out.
Peter - thanks for the email, I will let you know how i go when i am back on that project. I am still on Autocad most of the time, but i am making the transition !!

thanks again

Vanessa : )

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Ian Hutt on September 28, 2010 at 8:09am

Sorry for picking this up so late.

If you have not already discovered, PDF's cover both vector (line) and raster (image/photo) formats and a combination of both.

If you are using vector only data, such as plans, then dpi should make little or no difference, neither should the page size. The pdf file will increase in size depending on the amount of information on it, but won't generally get massive.

If you are using raster data, then dpi and page size can have a dramatic effect on the pdf size. This is where compression comes in. Think of the pdf like a photo image such as a jpeg, that you can alter the quality to change the compression. What you need to control is the size of the raster data, so reducing image size and quality will make the image smaller in data, but at the trade off of quality. Different pdf writers handle this differently.

What you appear to have is a mix of both and this is where it gets complicated. But you must not make the mistake of outputting as a raster only file. I suspect this is why you have such a massive pdf file. Never use photoshop to create a pdf as this will create a raster only file.

As a rough guide of where you should be aiming, add up the sizes of all the image files that you have composited into the pdf, then add an overhead for the vector data depending on its complexity. It is the raster images that will be the killer in size. As I mentioned earlier, different pdf writers have different ways of handling this. If you cannot optimise/compress images when creating the pdf, as an alternative use lower quality raster files optimised for the print size. No point importing a 3MB image file into VW when 200-300KB may suffice. Know what size you want to pint at, and scale the images to that size - typically 150-300dpi is good, so an image to print at 6x4" should be no larger than 1800x1200 pixels at 300dpi then compressed. Half the resolution of this to 150dpi, and you have make image 25% of the size.

Often it all comes down to a tradeoff between size and quality. A 40" square image for example, will yield (rough estimate as I do not work at this size) over 500MB file in raster format, as vector format, maybe only a few hundred KB. Sound like you need to ensure that you are working on a mixed vector/raster file rather than raster only file, then work on getting your raster images optimised.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Bob Holtzmann on September 30, 2010 at 10:37am

The viewport resolution of the plan could be high. I usually keep it at 144dpi. Also, it's always good to use at least screen resolution, which is 72 dpi. Also, when exporting PDFs in Vectorworks, leave the "Export Design Layers (and Classes) as PDF Layers" unchecked. You could be exporting a 3D model or something.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Matt Hobbs on November 21, 2011 at 5:00pm

Go to pdf995 web site

You need to download the printer

and the converter.

It will ask every time where you want to save the new pdf file.

The program is free with a few pop up windows

Always use the free converter and close the second small window.

I have been using this for many years a great way to convert VW to PDF for emailing

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Michael Pearce on March 1, 2012 at 9:01pm

This often happens when you include jpegs in a pdf export.  The conversion process from jpeg to pdf significantly increases the file size.  High resolution .jpeg are typically larger in file size than a vector file such .vwx

Screen resolution is 72 dpi, printing resolution for text and photos is typically 300 dpi or greater for finely detailed images.  I suggest that you email the file as a high resolution jpeg or Tiff file.  It should print as well as a pdf.  If you need to email the 500mb pdf file go online and sign up for YouSendIt at   https://www.yousendit.com/ 

Try the free trial version of YouSendIt Pro which allows file sizes up to 2GB.

• ▶ Reply