advice about making a pdf

[Macky-Mac]

I've been drafted by the rest of the family to make a pdf booklet out of a collection of old photos. I need to try to use software that I already have and avoid buying anything just for this project (unless it's really cheap!)

I could use some advice as to how to keep the size of the final PDF as small as reasonably possible.

I'm thinking this will be about 35 pages of 8.5 x 11. Most of the family will just keep the file in digital format, but somebody will certainly want to make a print at some point in the future.

Software I have at hand; photoshop, preview, pdflab, pages, word

Anybody have any advice?

 

[S.B.G]

Preview and/or Pages I think would be your easiest bet.

 

[Designer Dale]

PhotoShop will do this for you, but small file size and printing just don't go together. You can choose one or the other.

In PhotoShop, go to File/Automate/PDF Presentation. Select your images in the browser window that comes up and select Multi-Page Document. Add anything else you want from the choices here and hit Save. Title it and hit Save again in the following dialogue box. The Adobe PDF Quality selection panel will come up. The same one you see when you create any PDF in PhotoShop or any other Adobe product. Select your chosen quality setting and hit Save PDF. The resulting PDF will look like the test I did below. It's in my google docs folder at the link after this post. It started life as 150 MB of tiff. files and the resulting PDF (Smallest File Size) is 770 KB. Download it to see the best result.

Some photos from the Nisqually Delta

Dale

 

[telecomm]

If it's just an image on a single page, Photoshop can do it, but it's also easy using Automator. The action sequence below would work. Also, there's a Compress Images in PDF file action that you could throw in there too.

Otherwise (if you want text too), Pages.

 

[Nostromo]

PhotoShop will do this for you, but small file size and printing just don't go together. You can choose one or the other.

In PhotoShop, go to File/Automate/PDF Presentation. Select your images in the browser window that comes up and select Multi-Page Document. Add anything else you want from the choices here and hit Save. Title it and hit Save again in the following dialogue box. The Adobe PDF Quality selection panel will come up. The same one you see when you create any PDF in PhotoShop or any other Adobe product. Select your chosen quality setting and hit Save PDF. The resulting PDF will look like the test I did below. It's in my google docs folder at the link after this post. It started life as 150 MB of tiff. files and the resulting PDF (Smallest File Size) is 770 KB. Download it to see the best result.

Some photos from the Nisqually Delta

Dale

Only until CS 3. Adobe has removed pdf creation from Photoshop.

There is a pathetic pdf possibility in Bridge that makes it impossible to get a pdf to prepare printing.

Adobe tries to force people to pay for their overpriced pdf creation software.

 

[Designer Dale]

Only until CS 3. Adobe has removed pdf creation from Photoshop.

There is a pathetic pdf possibility in Bridge that makes it impossible to get a pdf to prepare printing.

Adobe tries to force people to pay for their overpriced pdf creation software.

Thanks for the heads-up. Another reason to not feel behind the times even though I am...

Dale

 

[MisterMe]

...

Anybody have any advice?

You may print to PDF from virtually any MacOS X application. For example, you may create a multipage document in Pages with the photographs arranged as you like. Print to PDF and your are done. You may do the same with with Keynote, Word, or which favorite application you prefer.

 

[Macky-Mac]

You may print to PDF from virtually any MacOS X application. For example, you may create a multipage document in Pages with the photographs arranged as you like. Print to PDF and your are done. You may do the same with with Keynote, Word, or which favorite application you prefer.

yes, I've done that in the past but have found it tends to produce fairly large files so I was hoping to find a way to end up with PDF files that weren't so big.

I hadn't thought of using Automator and I do have an older version of photoshop, so I'll try experimenting with those to see what I can come up with.

Thanks to all for the suggestions!

 

[mkjj]

Use iPhoto and create a book as if your wanted to get it printed by Apple.
You have the option to save as a PDF which I do for proofing before I send it off.

Simples!

 

[mofunk]

I was gonna say the same thing iPhoto. The book is basically PDF format. That's how I backup all my books. I have several Books saved on iDisk. Its easy to move back to iPhoto when I update the App.

 

[EMKoper]

Color Sync..

You can use the Mac OSX Utility called "ColorSync Utility" to reduce the size of graphics and .pdfs... it is in your Utilities folder under applications.

Go to the ColorSync "Filters" and there are two options to reduce file size. I can't vouch for the quality of the size reduction quality of ColorSync, though.

 

[Macky-Mac]

Use iPhoto and create a book as if your wanted to get it printed by Apple.
You have the option to save as a PDF which I do for proofing before I send it off.

Simples!

interesting suggestion, however the problem isn't making the pdf but controlling the size of the final file. Does iphoto have some way to control that?

You can use the Mac OSX Utility called "ColorSync Utility" to reduce the size of graphics and .pdfs... it is in your Utilities folder under applications.

Go to the ColorSync "Filters" and there are two options to reduce file size. I can't vouch for the quality of the size reduction quality of ColorSync, though.

I'm experimenting based on all the suggestions so I'll give it a try and see how it turns out

 

[MisterMe]

interesting suggestion, however the problem isn't making the pdf but controlling the size of the final file. Does iphoto have some way to control that?

...

There is exactly one way to reduce the file size of your PDF file. That is to increase the compression and thus to decrease the resolution of photographs included in the PDF. This is not an iPhoto function, but Compress PDF is a function of the MacOS X print to PDF facility. However, it is a one-trick pony. Adobe Acrobat X Pro gives options in this regard.

 

[DesignerOnMac]

interesting suggestion, however the problem isn't making the pdf but controlling the size of the final file. Does iphoto have some way to control that?



I'm experimenting based on all the suggestions so I'll give it a try and see how it turns out

You do not mention what format your doing the pictures in, or whether your scanning them, etc.

You say you have photoshop, and I was doing a booklet, I would import all the pictures and reduce then in size and dpi. Since this family album will be viewed only as digital files you can make save the pics in a jpg format with a low DPI. Then bring the pictures in iPhoto and make your booklet as you wish and save as a pdf.

Hope this helps.