Re: [amsat-bb] Membership Drive Idea

[Emily Clarke <emily@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

[ Used to work on Acrobat when I was with Adobe, so I know a bit about 
these things...]

There are three factors that control the the size of a PDF file.
1) Graphic resolution
2) Font Embedding
3) Compression

Depending on the version of Pagemaker you are using these things are 
controlled in different ways.  But I'll try to go the most generic route.

They also control how takes to "make" a PDF from Pagemaker (which actually 
includes background printing to a postscript driver).  So the place to 
start optimizing is at the postscript driver layer.  I can give you a list 
of the complete settings, but basically you lower the resolution to 150 dpi 
or lower, and use binary mode instead of compatibility mode.  However, you 
only want to RLE compress the graphics at this point. I'll explain why in a 
bit.

The Acrobat Distiller will convert the Postscript to PDF.  It's settings 
are a bit cryptic, but here are the basic things to control.

a) Looking at the Journal it appears the fonts are minimal.  This is good. 
So you should turn off font embedding.  Acrobat will "faux" or synthesize 
the fonts anyway.
b) Document resolution should be 72 DPI - this is for viewing on screen, so 
match screen resolution.  You can go up to 96dpi but I'd stick to 72.
c) Downsampling should also be 72 DPI.  Acrobat's setting for line art and 
graphics is usually much higher, so turn them all down.
d) Compression - the maximum compression should be used.  JPEG Low for 
graphics, RLE for line art.

At this point you should achieve the smallest document.

Two additional comments:
1) I wouldn't mail it out via email, especially since it may go overseas to 
people with slower than US internet connections.  Post it on the web site 
and email a link to it.  People can download it or read it online.
2) WRT Pagemaker - I believe Adobe has EOL'd (End of Lifed) it.  This also 
means they will terminate support for it as well.  So you may want to 
consider how you will produce the Journal down the road.

73,

Emily






At 06:52 PM 8/7/2003 -0500, you wrote:
>Maggie mentioned ...
> > A typical issue of the Blurb in PDF format ... runs somewhere between 1.3
>and 2.5
> > megabytes... My current AMSAT News is three times as many pages.
>
>I'm not fully versed on how a PDF file is created but the 32 page AMSAT
>Journal
>PDF file is generally 2.5 - 3.3 MB.  The "raw" PageMaker files that contain
>the
>original layout range in size between 75 - 100 MB depending upon the
>graphics
>content.
>
>Now, at about $30 per ink jet cartridge, you'll be paying a lot per page if
>you
>decided you wanted hard copy.  Then, on the other hand, you could just print
>the
>selected pages that got your attention.
>
>The BoD and officers are weighing all the other costs for electronic
>publishing.
>I just put it together.
>
>73 de JoAnne WB9JEJ
>Editor, AMSAT Journal
>
>----
>Sent via amsat-bb@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author.
>Not an AMSAT member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program!
>To unsubscribe, send "unsubscribe amsat-bb" to Majordomo@amsat.org

----
Sent via amsat-bb@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author.
Not an AMSAT member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program!
To unsubscribe, send "unsubscribe amsat-bb" to Majordomo@amsat.org