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U
Under S.
Inspiring
September 4, 2018
Answered

InDesign better at downsampling PDFs than Actobat + a question

  • September 4, 2018
  • 1 reply
  • 527 views

I have a folder containing 10 high res uncompressed PDF files, each representing a booklet page.

Combining these pages in Acrobat works fine, but downsampling the final export causes text display issues in Safari on certain models of iPad (I troubleshot this thing with autistic obsession all weekend).

However, downsampling the individual pages during the first Photoshop export (rather than doing it in Acrobat after combining uncompressed pages) DID work - since Acrobat didn't need to touch the pixel data, only bind the pages - but the final result was a few MB larger at equal quality than it was when I let Acrobat do the downsampling (11mb v. 7mb).

As a final hail-mary, I took Acrobat completely out of the equation and fired up InDesign for the first time ever, since I'd heard so much positivity about its handling of PDF files. I created a document, placed the uncompressed PDF pages where they belong (edge to edge) and in less than 2 minutes, I was ready to export.

Amazing results, especially with regards to quality vs file size. You just can't get these numbers downsampling individual pages from Photoshop and combining with Acrobat; apparently, whatever's doing the combining needs to be doing the downsampling too. But more importantly, the fonts appear perfectly on 100% of the devices tested when it's InDesign - rather than Acrobat - processing the images.

The only question I have left with regards to this specific project now is... can I edit the (placed) PDF file from InDesign to add a link? If I could add links in Photoshop, I would; but as far as I know that's not possible, and I don't see any obvious ways to edit the pages after I 'place' them in ID. (I'd also be fine with just placing a rectangle link box over the text, like I used to do in Acrobat).

Thanks!

    This topic has been closed for replies.
    Correct answer winterm

    Nope, there's no way to edit (or reach/select in whatever manner) content of placed PDF file directly in InDesign, if this is what you're asking. Never was, and hardly ever be. If your memories are different, they must come from some another reality…

    Edit:

    You can control background transparency and layers visibility, if there is any. That's all.

    1 reply

    winterm
    winterm
    Legend
    September 4, 2018

    Yes, using InDesign for downsampling during export is OK. Regarding the links, do you mean hyperlinks?

    How to add a hyperlink

    U
    Under S.Author
    Inspiring
    September 4, 2018

    winterm  wrote

    Yes, using InDesign for downsampling during export is OK. Regarding the links, do you mean hyperlinks?

    How to add a hyperlink

    Yes, a hyperlink... except my first obstacle is that I cannot edit the PDF file I placed on my page (as described in the original posting).

    I'm sure once I'm past that hurdle and can actually SELECT text (or at the very least, highlight the entire text layer so I can hyperlink it as a single object) then the rest should work itself out.

    PS: I suppose I could go straight to Googling how to add an invisible hyperlink box over the text like I did in Acrobat, but first I wanted to know if I could do it by SELECTING the text (that was imported w/ the PDF page I placed).

    winterm
    wintermCorrect answer
    Legend
    September 4, 2018

    Nope, there's no way to edit (or reach/select in whatever manner) content of placed PDF file directly in InDesign, if this is what you're asking. Never was, and hardly ever be. If your memories are different, they must come from some another reality…

    Edit:

    You can control background transparency and layers visibility, if there is any. That's all.

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