PDF Printing issues in PCadd 9

[lava]

Acrobat Pro which has a function to compress the file size.

FWIW Apple’s Preview can do this as well, and it’s possible to set up presets with different degrees of compression vs quality which you can then choose from the dialog menu for exporting.

[RTCool]

Acrobat Pro which has a function to compress the file size.

FWIW Apple’s Preview can do this as well, and it’s possible to set up presets with different degrees of compression vs quality which you can then choose from the dialog menu for exporting.

Well, that was certainly well hidden. I had to Google it to figure out how ... and Mac's are supposed to be so intuitive that you don't need a manual.

...and it doesn't appear to work, either. A 22.1 MB file that Acrobat reduced to 1.6 MB doesn't compress at all when I tell Preview to Export with "Reduce File Size." I'm also not offered any options or choices for settings.

[DavidScottOrkney]

Hi RT,

The compression filter only works on the bitmap images you have in your document or PDF. It doesn't affect vector graphics at all.
If you're interested, the process to add filters using the ColorSync Utility is explained here: https://support.apple.com/en-lamr/guide ... ync006/mac The ColorSync Utility should be in your Utilities folder in your Applications folder.
I don't use it much for PowerCADD but use it quite a lot if I've written a report with lots of photos and then want to reduce the file size when sending by email. The built-in Reduce File Size filter is very brutal on low dpi images so I created some variations with the compression settings.

By the way, I sometimes get complaints about PowerCADD PDFs that won't print and usually if I re-do the print to PDF but select 'Save as Adobe PDF', which is lower down in the PDF pop-up menu within the Print Dialog, this creates a file that is much more compatible with PC printing.

David

[fred johnson]

David,
That's good to know, I never noticed the "Save As Adobe PDF" option.

[poolvibe]

I use this for all finished pdf files. https://www.witt-software.com/pdfsqueezer/

[Rob]

Hi RT,

The compression filter only works on the bitmap images you have in your document or PDF. It doesn't affect vector graphics at all.
If you're interested, the process to add filters using the ColorSync Utility is explained here: https://support.apple.com/en-lamr/guide ... ync006/mac The ColorSync Utility should be in your Utilities folder in your Applications folder.
I don't use it much for PowerCADD but use it quite a lot if I've written a report with lots of photos and then want to reduce the file size when sending by email. The built-in Reduce File Size filter is very brutal on low dpi images so I created some variations with the compression settings.

By the way, I sometimes get complaints about PowerCADD PDFs that won't print and usually if I re-do the print to PDF but select 'Save as Adobe PDF', which is lower down in the PDF pop-up menu within the Print Dialog, this creates a file that is much more compatible with PC printing.

David

Well that's interesting indeed. But I don't appear to have save as Adobe PDF as an option in my PDF pop-up menu in the print dialog. Is that something that perhaps comes with having a particular Adobe product installed on your Mac machine?

[DavidScottOrkney]

Well that's interesting indeed. But I don't appear to have save as Adobe PDF as an option in my PDF pop-up menu in the print dialog. Is that something that perhaps comes with having a particular Adobe product installed on your Mac machine?

Ah. Ok it must be part of Adobe Acrobat 10 Pro that we bought years ago. It's still working after nearly ten years.

David

[Derek]

I think you're right David.

The "Save as Adobe PDF" option was installed with Acrobat (and possibly other Adobe applications). Way back all Adobe applications used a utility named Adobe Distiller to produce/print PDFs and I suspect that was 'wrapped up' to be accessed through the Save to Adobe PDF option. It seems to hang in there even if you no longer have Adobe applications on your Mac.

BTW, I always found it produced far more reliable PDFs when working across different computer platforms and systems than Apple's Save as PDF.

Derek

[patrickm]

Speaking of PDFs and cross-platform compatibility…
I am running Sierra on a 2015 iMac. Occasionally, I’ll get a PDF from a client, created from Revit or AutoCADD or some other application, and when I open it in Preview, I see rectangles around the text and the PDF is barely readable. If I then “place” that PDF into PowerCADD and use “PDF to objects”, the messed up text/rectangles, etc all come through and it is a pain to sort through. However, if I open the same original PDF in PDF Expert, it looks fine. If I then do a “save as”, and “place” the resulting PDF into PowerCADD and convert it, the converted image is much cleaner, without all the extraneous rectangles, etc. I suspect it has something to do with PDF technology marching on, while I’m using an older Sierra compatible version of Preview.

[PeterKona]

Patrick,

I've experienced this with pdf for some time, probably from ACAD. Thanks for the information on how to solve it. I think there are changes to types of pdfs but I still find many pdfs that behave well, so I don't think it is your system that's at fault. I also see some vector pdfs that will not convert to objects in PCADD at all, and I think there are encryption methods at work as well.

Peter