Expert: Ken Black - 10/8/2009

Question
QUESTION: i have the follow-up information including screen shots but i need to email it  can that be done?

ANSWER: Hi Gregory,

You can attach images to your post when you preview your question. There should be an attach image button at the bottom before you submit.

You should be able to follow-up to this answer from the list of options at the bottom.

This would be the preferred method, as I am not comfortable throwing my email address out to a public forum such as this that is searchable through Google and such.

Thanks,

Ken Black

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: We design our publications with Indesign. CS4
We have defined several setting in the PDF presets...
and yes we have found that smaller files deteriorate and compromise legibility.
Is there a happy medium?
What we have done with our press version is defined settings for the press, in which the printer has given me the proper settings.
Another issue is the fact that our advetisers submit their ad in pdf fromat and then we take , place in the layout(Indesign) and save that layout as a pdf.
pdf in a pdf in a pdf....???????
I am attaching the small version settings (4 screen shots)
see attached pdf    BAH  it wont let me attach a pdf and it's 4 images and it will only let me attach one!!!

Answer
Hi Gregory,

I can only see the first screen shot. I know it is a pain that you can only upload 1 image. A way around it is to combine all of your shots into 1 jpeg image using Photoshop or an equivalent.

From what I can see, it looks like you are using a modified PDF-X1a setting. This likely is keeping the resolution higher than needs be for the web, and is also the likely cause of things looking less than crisp in your current magazine online. Screen resolution is typically 150 dpi or less, usually less. PCs typically are at or around 96 dpi with Macs at about 72 dpi.

I use the default "smallest size" pdf preset in Indesign for my clients who wish to use pdfs online or email and any other situation that requires a smaller file size. Everything stays legible on screen as far as I can tell and no one has complained otherwise thus far.

Try using the "smallest size" pdf preset. Unless you have other circumstances that prevent it. If so,
keep the Optimize for fast web view checked on the General tab and try setting the Bicubic Downsampling to 100 and the resolution to 150 under the compression tab.

That should give you a pdf that is only a couple megabytes at the most. Typically, I create pdfs using these settings that are less than a megabyte, and that is with documents that are large with a lot of high res images and text alike.

Let me know how it works out for you.

Thanks,

Ken Black

www.bestprintingonline.com