PDF conspiracy! :0)

[vladimir]

Did you know/notice, that "Save as pdf" option everywhere (well, not exactly "everywhere" - but everywhere outside of Adobe software) will soften the images (e.g. embedded photos) in your documents to the point that only low quality printing makes sense?
And that to get "high resolution" PDF's you have to buy Adobe Acrobat pro subscription for $15/mo ?
Any idea why that is?
I suspect conspiracy!
It's Adobe's ploy to get us buy the Acrobat!..
Just wanted to share this fine thought with the nice people of this forum, which I haven't visited for a while, but happy to see it's still alive and well...
BTW, if you know of a way to "get there" without Acrobat pro, please let me know?

[xpatUSA]

Did you know/notice, that "Save as pdf" option everywhere (well, not exactly "everywhere" - but everywhere outside of Adobe software) will soften the images (e.g. embedded photos) in your documents to the point that only low quality printing makes sense?
And that to get "high resolution" PDF's you have to buy Adobe Acrobat pro subscription for $15/mo ?
Any idea why that is?
I suspect conspiracy!
It's Adobe's ploy to get us buy the Acrobat!..
Just wanted to share this fine thought with the nice people of this forum, which I haven't visited for a while, but happy to see it's still alive and well...
BTW, if you know of a way to "get there" without Acrobat pro, please let me know?

On my Adobe-free computer, I use FoxIt to read PDFs. Today I found that it can save a JPEG as a PDF.

I put the result up temporarily on my website here:

http://kronometric.org/phot/post/CiC/temp/compJPG-PDF/

The JPEG was downloaded from a website - processing unknown - maybe it still has some EXIF in it.

FoxIt also has a Pro version that does more ...

[DanK]

Are you sure this is because of Acrobat Pro (or its absence) vs. embedding?

I have acrobat pro on my computers. I just took a 5572 x 3475 JPEG and embedded it in a Word document. I then created a PDF from that, which is on the word menus if you have acrobat pro or the equivalent. The image embedded in the Word document was 576 x 359, when I copied it from the document and pasted it into Irfanview. When I did the same from the PDF, oddly enough, it was 1320 x 823. It must be that the image is less compressed in the PDF; perhaps the PDF format allows more dots per inch. In any event, both were greatly reduced from the original, and the absence of Acrobat Pro was not the culprit.

[vladimir]

Ah! Foxit! I kind of expected that to come up... Tried that, and uninstalled it right away. Be careful with that thing!
Yes, you can get Foxit Reader (for free!), and print to pdf with desired resolution, but...
It's buggy, and in the most unpleasant way.
It shifted a row of pixels in the output relative to the previous row, and it was "almost" unnoticeable, but it was there. Maybe the non-integer size of the image made that happen - I don't know. But to me this is completely unacceptable, when SW does that.
BTW, printing/converting one jpeg to pdf is not a problem for me. Photoshop (in my case CS4) does that just fine. But that's Adobe too, so it doesn't disprove my conspiracy theory
What I need is a multi-page PDF, produced from, say, powerpoint slides, or some other app like that. Basically, it's a multi-page wall calendar that I am trying to print.

[xpatUSA]

I put the result up temporarily on my website here:

http://kronometric.org/phot/post/CiC/temp/compJPG-PDF/

Ah! Foxit! I kind of expected that to come up... Tried that, and uninstalled it right away. Be careful with that thing!

Result removed.

[Manfred M]

A pdf is a proprietary format and nothing more that is owned by Adobe. I can write files out of a number of different pieces software; some owned by Adobe and others from third parties.I've never had a quality issue with any, but would suspect that if you are seeing a loss of resolution, I would look at the settings of the software you are using to produce the file.

Unless you are writing full-size files based on a 300 dpi print resolution at the full size of the file you are printing, the output will appear soft as the printer software will have to upsample to the appropriate size. This has everything to do with your workflow, settings and the tools you are using and nothing to do with the output file format.

I just tried using Serif Affinity Photo and was able to produce a very high resolution image output as a pdf. Dimensions 39" wide x 28" wide at 300 ppi.

[DanK]

What I need is a multi-page PDF, produced from, say, powerpoint slides, or some other app like that. Basically, it's a multi-page wall calendar that I am trying to print.

I may be wrong, but I really think your problem is that you are dealing with low-resolution files. If you are embedding in a file like pptx, the embedding reduces the resolution even before you produce a pdf from it. If you are working in Windows, you can set Photoshop to print directly to the adobe acrobat printer. The dialogs for that allow you to change the quality of the image. I haven't played with the settings, but those might allow you to get closer.

[vladimir]

... you can set Photoshop to print directly to the adobe acrobat printer. The dialogs for that allow you to change the quality of the image. I haven't played with the settings, but those might allow you to get closer.

Dan, that's the thing - you have the Adobe Acrobat printer, because you have the Acrobat pro. I am sure it works fine, but that's my point - you need that printer, and you need Acrobat pro to get it.
And photoshop works fine for me too. That doesn't need a pdf printer. Save to pdf works fine. But save as pdf doesn't produce multi-page documents.

[vladimir]

This has everything to do with your workflow, settings and the tools you are using and nothing to do with the output file format.

Agree with the "everything to do" part of that statement. I shouldn't generalize, because I don't know what happens beyond the things that I try. And what I am trying is Microsoft - mostly Powerpoint, but tried Publisher too.
But, when it comes to MS Powerpoint - the output file format does matter. So, I have to disagree with the "nothing to do" part. There are ways to increase the resolution of output images saved from Powerpoint (e.g. described here ) and they affect many file formats, but they do not affect pdf's. I tested that - the same slide saved as jpeg looks much sharper, than if saved as pdf.
...And it's much more fun to assume that it's a conspiracy, rather than just a Powerpoint deficiency.

[DanK]

It seems that you can print a calendar from Lightroom. I just glanced at search results, but this is the first: https://digital-photography-school.c...-print-module/

[vladimir]

It seems that you can print a calendar from Lightroom. I just glanced at search results, but this is the first: https://digital-photography-school.c...-print-module/

Thank you Dan! I did not suspect Lightroom in being able to do something like that! It maybe exactly what I need! Still wonder if I'll need the Acrobat pdf printer to get the muli-page pdf output... Will try later today.

[Shadowman]

I often use FastStone Image Viewer to create contact sheets of my images as PDFs and it saves at the highest quality, I wonder if the issue you are having is when you imbed into say a Word document?

[vladimir]

I often use FastStone Image Viewer to create contact sheets of my images as PDFs and it saves at the highest quality, I wonder if the issue you are having is when you imbed into say a Word document?

My problem is not with embedding of the images. I can export each page with images in high resolution into a jpeg, or a tiff without a problem. Those will look great. My problem is how to get those images into one multi-page pdf, and not lose any resolution in the process. I know one way to do it - that would be to get the Acrobat printer (and I'll do that if I have to). But for now I am looking for some other way
In FastStone - can you specify exactly the page size of the output pdf (e.g. I need it to be 8.79" x 11.29") , and have exactly one image (of the same exact size) per page?

[Shadowman]

My problem is not with embedding of the images. I can export each page with images in high resolution into a jpeg, or a tiff without a problem. Those will look great. My problem is how to get those images into one multi-page pdf, and not lose any resolution in the process. I know one way to do it - that would be to get the Acrobat printer (and I'll do that if I have to). But for now I am looking for some other way
In FastStone - can you specify exactly the page size of the output pdf (e.g. I need it to be 8.79" x 11.29") , and have exactly one image (of the same exact size) per page?

See image, you can specify image size and at lower right image quality.

[vladimir]

It concerns me a little - what I see in that screenshot... Looks like it wants to draw some borders, and print some captions, and stuff... I can't have any of that... Is it possible to have none of that?
And I assume, for the pdf output I'd have to select "Create - Format - PDF"?
Or would I have to do "print" in the lower right, and select pdf printer?

[Shadowman]

It concerns me a little - what I see in that screenshot... Looks like it wants to draw some borders, and print some captions, and stuff... I can't have any of that... Is it possible to have none of that?
And I assume, for the pdf output I'd have to select "Create - Format - PDF"?
Or would I have to do "print" in the lower right, and select pdf printer?

You can minimize the borders so they are not noticeable and you can save as PDF and print on any printer that you have. I usually save as PDF and will often open up in Photoshop Elements to print to whatever size I like.

[Round Tuit]

You have CS4 so I assume that you also have Bridge. Use the web/pdf module of bridge to create your calendar. Simply select all your photos and create the multipage pdf. You have full control over the layout and the resolution of the output.

[vladimir]

You have full control over the layout and the resolution of the output.

In my version of Bridge - you don't. No way to enter DPI.
BTW - wanted to post the screenshot but couldn't figure out how to do that.

Tried Lightroom's similar feature in print module. That does have DPI, but doesn't have pdf as an output! Only printer and JPEG!

Tried PDFCreator as a printer (to print from Lightroom) - result atrocious (and rotated 90 degrees for whatever reason)!


This attempt not to pay for Acrobat pro is not worth my time... I'll just go get it...

[xpatUSA]

In my version of Bridge - you don't. No way to enter DPI.
BTW - wanted to post the screenshot but couldn't figure out how to do that.

If you have Windows O/S:

Shift-PrtScn puts the screen into the Clipboard. Then open an image editor and paste the clipboard into a new image file. Then post that image here like you do for any other image.

[Manfred M]

If you have Windows O/S:

Shift-PrtScn puts the screen into the Clipboard. Then open an image editor and paste the clipboard into a new image file. Then post that image here like you do for any other image.

True, but the resolution is the same as screen resolution which is quite pitiful for printing.