RE: Convert Paper Documentation to Web Format

["Brierley, Sean" <Sean -at- Quodata -dot- Com>]

Valuable points, thanks Dan, I think I agree with your reasoning behind them
all:

> -----Original Message-----
> From:	Dan Emory [SMTP:danemory -at- primenet -dot- com]
> 
> Your suggestions for reducing the size of PDF files are dangerous, to say
> the least, particularly for someone new to the rocket science of producing
> good PDFs
> 
I consider that a company looking to convert a large volume of paper
documents to online, if PDF be chosen as the output format, would use
someone who either knows about PDFs or learns very quickly <vbg>.

> For example:
> 
> 1. Turning off bookmarks, particularly when the bookmarks serve as a table
> of contents, takes away Acrobat's most valuable navigation feature.
> 
Yes, but without knowing the whereas and whys, all we know is file size is
an issue, not navigation. It might possibly be that they desire is only to
distribute docs so they can be printed. For example, do we care if these can
be searched? Dunno.

> 2. Compressing graphics (other than vector graphics) is almost always a
> bad
> idea that adversely affects not only the printed output but also on-line
> readability.
> 
Again, what's the goal? We don't know. Certainly, turning on all compression
ameliorates the problem of file size, which is the only issue we know of.
Experimentation, knowledge, training, and experience can lead to more
efficient use of the compression settings.

> 3. Failure to embed fonts will produce completely uncontrollable font
> substitutions on platforms that do not have all the fonts used in the PDF
> document. Such substitutions can produce garbled text. Subsetting of
> embedded fonts is the way to go, because only the characters that are
> actually used are embedded.
> 
If the audience uses Wintel and the fonts used are only Arial and TNR, this
is not an issue. Again, we only have information that file size is a
problem. It would be up to the PDF expert doing the conversion to tweak
these settings. It might be that the MS Word docs use thousands of fonts for
no reason other than they were installed on the author's computer, I grant
you.

> Finally, you omitted the most effective waysto reduce PDF size: Saving the
> file out of Acrobat with Optimize turned on. In many cases this action can
> reduce file size almost as much as zipping does.
> 
True, or batch optimizing later. Using binary instead of ASCII and
optimizing for portability (if not by default) will certainly help, too. I
also did not say avoid PDFwriter like the plague <vbg>.

> If, after optimizing the saved PDF document, file size is still considered
> too large, zipping it may help.
> 
Zipping might. If a lot of PDF compression has been used, Zipping might not
be worth the effort. However, if navigation, fonts, and Linotronic quality
of graphics were preserved, zipping will do a great job.

Remember, I wrote:

		Why do you want to convert the documents to post them on the
web, what is
		your budget, staff, and time frame?

All the best and thanks for the reminders!!

Sean
sean -at- quodata -dot- com