Expert: Kevin Stohlmeyer - 6/12/2008

Question
QUESTION: Hi Kevin,
I am having trouble saving scanned articles from a magazine to PDF with <1.5 - 2MB file size but still keeping a good resolution.
My method so far is to scan in the article at 300dpi, (comes out at around <500kB) then placing this into a border template (illustrator file at 232kB)

I have tried many different compression variations (automatic, JPEG, ZIP, dpi compression etc) but all I seem to be getting are files below 1MB but awful quality or acceptable quality but files are 3MB or over.

The saved illustrator file of the template AND scan is often just below 10MB. Why is it so big considering the file sizes of the scan and the template?

Im a bit stumped really. How can I get a PDF of reasonable quality with a smallish file size?

hope you can shed some light.
Thanks

ANSWER: Hi Tom,


First, you should be doing this in InDesign or at least Photoshop, but if you have to do this in Illustrator here's some things you need to know:

1. You should NEVER mess with the compression rates if you are trying to keep some semblance of quality in your file. The more you compress, the worse it gets.

2. You do not need to scan these at 300 dpi unless you are going to a high quality printer to replicate photos. 150 dpi will suffice. That will help even before you place.

3. After you place them in your IL doc and are ready to save, use the high quality print preset if these are going to be printed. If these are for onscreen viewing only or e-mails, use the smallest file size preset. Do not change any of the settings.

This should allow you to get your file size a little more reasonable. Anything 1 MB or less is acceptable. The problem is you have to sacrifice quality to reduce file size.

Let me know what size file you get after you try this.


Thanks

Kevin

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

QUESTION: Hey,

Thanks for the quick response. I scanned in at 150dpi and it reduced the file size but not by as much as I hoped. I have photoshop but I use illustrator because of the variable title text on the template comes out better quality. I have started to use OCR on the scanner as well, this seems to be a good option. However only about 95% of the words are recocnised.

Not really an illustrator question, but do you know any tricks on how to get up to nearly 100% recocnition...?

cheers

Tom

Answer
Hey Tom,

OCR is a tricky business. 100% readability/recognition is almost impossible without scanning it at a very high resolution. 600 dpi+ but the main issue is having a clean source file. If you have that and scan it high enough it may get you close enough. 95% is still admirable and you only have to edit a bit. However, always ALWAYS check the OCR results. Its not a flawless process and some words may be changed after the fact.

Thanks

Kevin