Screenshots to PDF
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- session
Ive been putting together my portfolio in Illustrator and started to take screenshots of each page to import into a PDF that I can send to clients. The screenshots look good, but when i import them into acrobat they turn blurry. What gives? What are the best files for PDF's? Anybody?
- johndiggity0
you do know you can save illustrator files as pdf's, right?
- session0
I know, but the using screenshots keeps the size of the PDF file way down. I cant seem to achieve that thru saving as PDF's. Make sense?
- ukit0
So are your screenshots jpegs? That should work fine as long as they are big enough. The PDF viewer might be scaling them to the size of your screen, making them look blurry.
- session0
At first I was using png but then converted them in photoshop to jpeg's. There better but still not as clear as my original screeshots! Frustrated!
- ribit0
this just sounds wrong (I'm sure Adobe wouldn't recommend using screenshots to do what you are trying to do...) Isn't there any rasterization/size controls when exporting to PDF?
- sureshot0
I use this very often. dunno if it works with screenshot tho. you might give it a swing. http://www.softinterface.com/Con…
- monoboy0
Your PDF settings are compressing the jpg image. Make sure your exports are RGB, 72dpi, with all the jpg compression settings set to maximum.
Illy exports big PDF's because it retains all the data in your file. Try deleting unused layers, switching off the editing capabilities and tweaking the compression settings.
(I take it you prefer the screenshot option because exported as PDF rasterises your text a bit funny).
There's more info on the Adobe forums.
- session0
Your right monoboy the type is fuzzy! Ive messed with the compression and still each page comes out to over 1mb and I have 20 pages! Ill figure it out something. I might just use indesign:) Thanks for your help guys!
- horton0
you should be able to compress the original AI art within Acrobat to something much smaller, comparable or smaller than jpegs without rasterizing all... use the PDF optimizer.
- or if you want images.. rasterize your art in AI and save as PDFs tweaking with image downsizing and jpeg or zip compression.horton
- ninjasavant0
I do this a lot, here's what I've found to be the best process.
When you take the screen capture, take it into Photoshop and open up image size, uncheck the resample image box, and adjust the print size to what your target will be. You'll notice the resolution changes. This is what keeps your image crisp at whatever size.
Once you have your images, use InDesign to layout multiple pages. Do not resize in whatever layout program you use, only in pshop as above. Then use the high quality print pdf export option.
One thing to keep in mind is that when Acrobat Reader zooms in or out of the actual pdf you'll get poor results on the screen. There's not much you can do about this unfortunately. You can test the quality of the pdf by zooming in 400% or more. On the plus side they'll print out pixel sharp.