Newbie/Photoshop PDF Printing - Help!

[bluecabochon]

I'mm on an iBook G4 running 10.4.5. I have been on a G3 w/Classic and am used to a little program called Print to PDF that I used before, and am flummoxed as I can not figure out for the life of me how to print a 25 MB document as a PDF and get anything under 7 MB. I've always been able to get them down to under 1 MB.

I've saved it to Photoshop CS2 (using the 30-day trial download, FWIW) as a PDF and when I print to PDF after reducing it 95% and in Page Setup setting it to landscape, get a huge document, no matter what I try. I don't know enough about OSX to figure it out and I'm desperate as I have to attach the PDFs via email ASAP.

It must be stupidly simple but I don't see it. I have searched the forums and haven't seen anyone posting about my exact problem Photoshop documents to PDFs - only other apps.

 

[Blue Velvet]

I'm not quite following, is this a document created in Photoshop? i.e. it's rasterised with possibly some vector work in it? You can export Photoshop PDFs straight from Photoshop without 'printing' it.

Tell us more about the file. What physical dimensions, what colour space, what resolution, is it layered, contain type or vector layers etc?

Rasterised documents can go down to tiny file-sizes if you're prepared to sacrifice resolution and image-quality because after all, you can use JPEG compression within the PDF. Personally, if I was creating artwork in Photoshop and needed to send it out as an attachment, I'd send it as a JPEG anyway.

 

[MacBoobsPro]

If you are using OSX built in 'print to PDF' function it works very well but produces very large files. However if you print the same file through acrobat and distiller the PDF is about 1/4 the filesize. Only thing is you need to buy Acrobat (not just the reader).

As Blue Velvet has said you can just save as a Photoshop PDF but it will not be like a PDF printed through OSX or Acrobat. Its basically a rasterized PDF. Because it is rasterized the filesize is likely to be quite large.

 

[LeviG]

the only reason photoshop produces a large file is because it hasnt been set up to compress images etc and it maintains the layers unless otherwise told.

Take a look at the settings for the pdf within photoshop, then adjust to produce a smaller image size, producing a flat (flatten the layers in photoshop) pdf will also reduce the size.

 

[bluecabochon]

Hi everyone and thanks for replying.

My image was created in Photoshop. It's a promotion of jewelry that I make so I layer color photos, my logo and text on a black background. The dimensions are 8 X 10 and the original size is 26.4 MB. When I compressed it as a JPEG within Photoshop I set it to Medium/Progressive and it's a manageable 744 KB; the maximum size available was 1518 KB - a bit large for this kind of thing, in my experience. I have sent JPEGS in the past but not everyone can open them for some reason; but everyone seems to be able to open a PDF, so I started sending them that way. That little program, Print To PDF, was great - free, easy but works in Classic only!!!

Most people I'm sending to will not have any graphics software so it has to be openable on a PC and Mac.

I have tried to navigate the compression settings within the print PDF function. Can I print a PDF from a JPEG? Never tried that - only from a psd. or .tif.

Thanks!

 

[apfhex]

I have sent JPEGS in the past but not everyone can open them for some reason; but everyone seems to be able to open a PDF, so I started sending them that way. That little program, Print To PDF, was great - free, easy but works in Classic only!!!

Most people I'm sending to will not have any graphics software so it has to be openable on a PC and Mac.

Can't open JPEGs? I don't think there's been a computer on the planet after the mid 90's that couldn't open a JPEG out of the box. But I digress, this is the sort of thing PDFs were made for so that's a good format to use. I suspect it's because you have a Photoshop document that the file is turning out so big, because it's all raster data and it sounds like it's not getting compressed very much.

FYI OS X has a built-in "Print To PDF" function but, seeing as you don't appear to have the rest of the Creative Suit, I'd recommend using Photoshop's built-in PDF exporter instead. You'll get more control over the size and quality. From the "Save As..." dialog select "Photoshop PDF", where you can choose the compression method and quality.

I've never actually used that — I thought Photoshop has the same PDF export options that Illustrator and InDesign have (which are much nicer), but it makes sense that it doesn't since it's a raster program, which makes PDFs not a very likely output method.

Normally I'd recommend against using much compressing if you're going to send it to a printer (where a 25MB file would be just dandy), but I'm guessing it's a fairly low budget job and not a super high quality print, no?

 

[bluecabochon]

>FYI OS X has a built-in "Print To PDF" function but, seeing as you don't appear to have the rest of the Creative Suit, I'd recommend using Photoshop's built-in PDF exporter instead. You'll get more control over the size and quality. From the "Save As..." dialog select "Photoshop PDF", where you can choose the compression method and quality.<

I save as a Photoshop PDF - always have. In the old program I then ran Print to PDF. Still huge, but I'll play with it.

>Can't open JPEGs? I don't think there's been a computer on the planet after the mid 90's that couldn't open a JPEG out of the box.<

I scanned some pictures for friends, corrected them in Photoshop, saved as JPEGS, and the only one who could open them was one on a G5. None of the PC folks could open them - something about MIME format that I don't have access to as I am not on my own computer at the moment.

>Normally I'd recommend against using much compressing if you're going to send it to a printer (where a 25MB file would be just dandy), but I'm guessing it's a fairly low budget job and not a super high quality print, no?<

I'm not printing them, I'm just emailing the document to friends, colleagues, customers to let them know of a sale coming up. I doubt that anyone is printing them out.

EDit: I just got it own to 1.4 MB and will attempt sending this PDF out. Hopefully it will open and look reasonable....

 

[apfhex]

I scanned some pictures for friends, corrected them in Photoshop, saved as JPEGS, and the only one who could open them was one on a G5. None of the PC folks could open them - something about MIME format that I don't have access to as I am not on my own computer at the moment.

I'm not printing them, I'm just emailing the document to friends, colleagues, customers to let them know of a sale coming up. I doubt that anyone is printing them out.

Oh, I assumed this whole time that it was a flyer or something that was going to be printed. Hehe. When you were sending JPEGs, did you make sure they had proper file name extensions (.jpg)? Did you email them? I've never once had a problem opening a JPEG on any computer. MIME shouldn't screw it up like that. I've emailed a fair share of JPEGs without incident.

 

[bluecabochon]

Yes, always labeled them correctly. Very frustrating.

Just bought a 24" Intel iMac (patiently waiting to be unpacked) hoping that it was just a case of being on a mac that was too old.

Won't get to it until Monday - too busy!!!!