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Participating Frequently
November 30, 2021
Question

Big struggles with PDF's

  • November 30, 2021
  • 3 replies
  • 1856 views

Hello everyone,

I have become painfully aware that using photoshop for the type of document I have been creating for PDF purposes is not very ideal. However, I am really hoping that someone out there can help me with my 2 remaining issues.

1) The document must contain my logo, which I unfortunately cannot successfully export without it looking pixelated and compressed. I have tried everything I can think of by now.

The original file is an EPS file of 6946 pixels. Exporting this does not look good. So I have tried a number of other solutions, without any success. I attempted the EPS file as both CMYK and RGB - same results. I have exported the logo into PNG, both original size and the exact size needed for the document. I have tried exporting it as PNG for web, exported it to SVG (also as CMYK and RGB).

I believe I am using the correct PDF export settings. All intents are on preserving quality and not downsampling or using compression and remain the highest quality.

Attached to this thread are 2 files. In both files you can see that the lines are not straight and smooth, which is the common issue both the logo and images experience in the result of exporting my PDF's.

Moving on to the second issue

2) In exporting my documents my images again does not look well. I have the idea that my images experience the same issue as the logo in export, but I really am lost as to what I can do to fix this. The photos as well as the logo are of high quality. This is not a problem of the source files not being of good enough quality, which results in less desired quality in export.

My documents are created for my photography website, and they contain a lot of images so it is very important for me to find a solution to this.

Thank you kindly in advance, for anyone taking the time to read this and or possibly try to help.



This topic has been closed for replies.

3 replies

Grant H
Community Expert
Community Expert
November 30, 2021

can you send me (upload) 1 pic and the logo in vector format. Maybe I can work out a decent workflow.

 

Participating Frequently
December 2, 2021

Thank you, that is so very kind of you to offer! Above someone had a suggestion that is in the works right now. If that does not work out (don't want to make you have to put in effort if it is not needed), I will take you up on this kind offer.

Grant H
Community Expert
Community Expert
November 30, 2021

Also, your logo has angles that lower res just loves (not) so you will need to export at a good resolution to minimise the staircase effect, but you already know the real answer here. To combine vector and raster PS is not the proper tool.

Participating Frequently
November 30, 2021

Thank you kindly for your response Grant H

When the original PSD file is created in 1920 x 4616 pixels 300 dpi, what do you consider to be a good resolution?
I have indeed learned the hard way that creating a text document in photoshop with the purpose of it becoming a PDF is not desireable. However, I have created 20 documents before I knew this (I also dont know InDesign or own it unfortunately) and I am now trying to make the best out of this situation.

c.pfaffenbichler
Community Expert
Community Expert
November 30, 2021

Could you please post screenshots with the pertinent Panels (Toolbar, Layers, Options Bar, …) visible? 

How did you place the logo-eps? As a Smart Object, pixel layer, …? 

Does the eps truly contain vector data? 

 

What are the psd-files pixel dimensions and resolution? 

How do you place the photographies? 

What pdf settings do you use on export? 

Participating Frequently
November 30, 2021

Thank you kindly for this response,
Below I have tried to answer your questions as detailed as possible.

Logo placement


Place embedded - resize to 200px - pixelated
Place embedded - convert to smart object - resize to 200 px = pixelated
Place linked - convert to smart object resize to 200 px = pixelated

This is only for the EPS file.
For all other versions (PNG, SVG, JPEG conversions I have tried to just place and resize the pixels. For PNG I have attempted to resize the file on forehand and place as embedded I believe).

Additionally I want to mention that the logo must not remain EPS. I merely received it like this from the creator and it has until now, always worked well to just place it as such. If another file format is preferred I can attempt to change this.

EPS file

Honestly I am not sure. Someone I know opened the file in Illustrator to check. I believe it is, but see screenshot for further details

PSD file size

1920 x 4616 pixels 300 dpi

Photography placement

Original files: 5760 x 3840 pixels 300 dpi
Placed and resized to: 3 small ones: 570 x 380 pixels & 2 big ones: 860 x 573 pixels

Tried to resize the 3 small images to 570 pixels each, and place them as embedded.
(Process is Save as - Filename - JPEG options quality 12 / Format options Baseline optimized

Resizing resulted in same unfortunate look

It is worth mentioning that it is not only the look of the logo in the images I am trying to resolve. The edges of the white box in question is also not displayed straight but also has (what I believe you refer to when you say) staircase effect.

Save Adobe PDF settings

Adobe PDF Preset: HIgh quality print modified
Standard: None / Compatibility: Acrobat 5 (PDF 1.4)
General - nothing ticked in
Compression - Do not downsample / Compression: None
Output - Color converstion: No conversion / Don't include profile

I may be doing something wrong somewhere, but hopefully either of you can spot it if that is the case.

c.pfaffenbichler
Community Expert
Community Expert
December 1, 2021

The logo seems simple enough to work as Shape Layers in Photoshop, so try copsing it in Illustrator and pasting it as »Layers«, that way Paths can be output as Vector content in a pdf.