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S
Smetacube
Participant
September 15, 2011
Answered

How do I make the images look clear in PDF when converted from MS Word?

  • September 15, 2011
  • 3 replies
  • 233082 views

Hi

When I convert an MS Word-2010 file (which  contains  images also) to PDF through Acrobat X Pro, some images which are of bigger size do  not look very clear. Is there any workaround for this problem? Please  reply. It's quite urgent.

Thanks

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Correct answer

Hi Kelly

Thanks for your response. I am not copying and pasting the images in word, I am importing them using Insert->Picture->File. It seems the problem is with Word only which scales down the images.

I believe I am taking the pictures on the highest resolution on my system which is 1280 by 720. Will taking the screens on a higher resolution than this, make the images look better when converted to PDF? If you are sure about this, please let me know.

Thanks


Bill,

Thank you for the very detailed research and some great technical notes. I think I've found the culprit, see below.

Smetacube,

You are using the proper method to get the images into Word.

If you are working with images that are 1280 x 720, is that at 72 ppi? The width & height are only the dimensions of the image there is a 3rd number of Resolution for the image. Working with higher res, such as 150 ppi or 300 ppi should produce a better result, but it sounds like Word is doing more behind the scenes here, that may be fighting your best efforts. I believe the steps in this article will fix your issue:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2002066

Quoted from the article:

"This issue occurs because PowerPoint, Excel, and Word perform a basic compression of images on save. It is not possible to recover pictures that have already been compressed."

"For future saves, compression can be disabled on a per-file basis using the following steps:"

  1. Click the Office Button, and then click Save As.
  2. Click Tools, and then click Compress Pictures.
  3. Click Options.
  4. Click to clear the Automatically perform basic compression on save check box.
  5. Click OK.
  6. In the Compress Pictures dialog box, click Cancel.
    Note:  Clicking OK on this dialog will not prevent the issue from occurring.

"You can also modify the following registry setting to prevent basic compression from occurring by default."

3 replies

S
SmetacubeAuthor
Participant
September 16, 2011

Hi

Thanks for the responses I tried Print to PDF. In that images look better although they are little distorted. However, I cannot use print because the Table of Contents prepared in Word does not work when we use Print. Secondly, the PDF file size becomes too large when using Print to PDF.

While directly creating PDF from word using Acrobat, I changed settings for Images (in Preferences) turning downsampling off after changing it to 1800 pixels but that did not help either. Is there anything I am missing out or  Is there any other resolution?

Else is there any setting in PDF so that after conversion we can show the images more clearly, maybe if someone hovers over the image it becomes big or clicking on it makes it look bigger.

Looking forward to make this problem resolve.

Thanks

A
Anonymous
September 19, 2011

Smetacube,

You are correct. TOC entries with links are not preserved when printing to the Adobe PDF Printer. You do need to use Create PDF from the Adobe PDF Ribbon bar in Word or through the Adobe PDF menu in Word (depending on your version). If you have disabled downsampling of images all together, when creating the PDF file, then your resolution problem is in the original placed images. The only fix for that is to re-place (or re-import) higher resolution versions of those images.

B
Bill12
Inspiring
September 30, 2011

Bill,

Thank you for the very detailed research and some great technical notes. I think I've found the culprit, see below.

Smetacube,

You are using the proper method to get the images into Word.

If you are working with images that are 1280 x 720, is that at 72 ppi? The width & height are only the dimensions of the image there is a 3rd number of Resolution for the image. Working with higher res, such as 150 ppi or 300 ppi should produce a better result, but it sounds like Word is doing more behind the scenes here, that may be fighting your best efforts. I believe the steps in this article will fix your issue:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2002066

Quoted from the article:

"This issue occurs because PowerPoint, Excel, and Word perform a basic compression of images on save. It is not possible to recover pictures that have already been compressed."

"For future saves, compression can be disabled on a per-file basis using the following steps:"

  1. Click the Office Button, and then click Save As.
  2. Click Tools, and then click Compress Pictures.
  3. Click Options.
  4. Click to clear the Automatically perform basic compression on save check box.
  5. Click OK.
  6. In the Compress Pictures dialog box, click Cancel.
    Note:  Clicking OK on this dialog will not prevent the issue from occurring.

"You can also modify the following registry setting to prevent basic compression from occurring by default."


But compression should not be an issue unless it is lossy (like with JPegs). Compression like used in TIFF files is not lossy and such compression should still retain all of the image content. I had given some observations, but that does not mean I really know what is happening. I do believe a lot of the problem is in WORD itself and maybe the link you gave addresses that adequately. I will try to look at the link later.

A
Anonymous
September 15, 2011

The images may have lost resolution if you scaled them up in Word, or it could be your Adobe PDF Settings. Depending on how you are creating the PDF you can change the PDF settings, the Standard (default) settings might be applying too much compression. Try changing your PDF Settings (joboptions) to High Quality Print:

If using PDF Maker in Word

  • (Office 2007 & 2010) In the Acrobat ribbon, click Preferences.
  • (Earlier versions of Office) Choose Adobe PDF > Change Conversion Settings.

Choose High Quality Print

If Printing to the Adobe PDF Printer

  • Open Printers from the Start menu (typically in Control Panels).
  • Right-click the Adobe PDF printer, and choose Printing Preferences.

Choose High Quality Print

W
willyjp
Participating Frequently
September 15, 2011

Hi,

How do you convert word into pdf?

using acrobat robbon or using print to pdf?

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