scanning to pdf vs opening tiff and saving as pdf

[Sossity]

I have a bunch of documents in letter size that I scanned as 300dpi tiffs with my epson perfection 4490 scanner, I would also like some pdfs of these, but taking them out of their frames and files to scan again for pdfs is a hassel, so I thought I could open the tiffs in photoshop or adobe acrobat and do a save as pdf, would this be as good as scanning again? it would be easier and save me time.

also, which would be better to use save as? save as pdf in photoshop or adobe acrobat?

 

[MisterMe]

TIFF is the gold standard for scanned images. If you already have your documents in TIFF format, then there is no need to rescan them. If you want to share your TIFF files with a recipient who does not have the software to handle TIFF files, then it is prudent to convert those specific files to PDF. For this, either Photoshop or Adobe Acrobat Pro will do the job and do it well. However, they are both overkill. Preview will do the job.

 

[Sossity]

thank you I forgot about preview, did not realize it could do this, can it or will it save it as the same resolution as the tiff? is 300dpi a good resoultion for certificates?

 

[tomnavratil]

300dpi is enough for printing and for the text so it can be easily read. If you're planning to use these certificates only anywhere, 150dpi should be enough for web (if there's a lot of detail / text), even standard 72dpi might do the trick.

 

[MarkCollette]

Converting a TIFF to a PDF just means that the PDF container format will embed within itself the TIFF image in TIFF format. PDF natively supports wrapping TIFF, JPEG, JPEG 2000 and PNG. Also, the TIFF format already supports storing metadata and multiples pages in one file.

 

[dwig]

Converting a TIFF to a PDF just means that the PDF container format will embed within itself the TIFF image in TIFF format. PDF natively supports wrapping TIFF, JPEG, JPEG 2000 and PNG. Also, the TIFF format already supports storing metadata and multiples pages in one file.

Depending on the software used and the options set, the TIFF may be downsampled to a different PPI and may also be compressed using various compressions algorithms, converted to JPEG or, if a 1-bit "monochrome" image, CCITT Group 4 (compression standard for FAX) compressed image.

 

[Sossity]

Depending on the software used and the options set, the TIFF may be downsampled to a different PPI and may also be compressed using various compressions algorithms, converted to JPEG or, if a 1-bit "monochrome" image, CCITT Group 4 (compression standard for FAX) compressed image.

what software would be best to avoid compression degradation? I would lke to keep the same quality as the tiff file, I have adobe acrobat, photoshop.

 

[tomnavratil]

what software would be best to avoid compression degradation? I would lke to keep the same quality as the tiff file, I have adobe acrobat, photoshop.

Both will do the trick. When you are saving the file as PDF you will have options to downsample images / text over certain PPI, just make sure it's not selected, choose zero compression and you should be sorted.

 

[dwig]

what software would be best to avoid compression degradation? I would lke to keep the same quality as the tiff file, I have adobe acrobat, photoshop.

As tomnavratil correctly stated, both with do the trick.

Photoshop does not offer any options during the "Save As... Photoshop PDF". It merely embeds the current image as a TIFF at the resolution it exists in Ps. To adjust the image in the PDF you simply change the image in Ps prior to the Save as... .

In Acrobat, you have various options during the save that let you choose the downsampling, if any, and the compression. If you have the full Acrobat installed then some other programs will leverage Acrobat to do their PDF save "dirty work" and thus allow you the same options.