image drastically increases file size

Report · Nov 11, 2009

Hello -

I want to include our company logo image on blank pages in my Frame document. The image itself is only 4KB, but for some reason, when I copy it onto a master page, it increases the Frame doc file size from 98KB to 969KB. Anyone have any idea why this happens, or how to fix the problem?

Thanks for your help!

Amanda

Report · Nov 11, 2009

I suspect you have Save As FrameImage turned on in your preferences.

But when you do this, it embeds the graphic as part of the file. And then it's multiplied to body pages.

If I was going to do it, I think I'd set it up as a graphic in a referenced frame on a Reference Page and call it into the documents by setting up a new tag that was only used to call it -- specify the name of the frame on the Advanced tab of the para designer.

Art

Report · Nov 11, 2009

Hi Art -

I am really unfamiliar with references pages, so bear with me. Here's where I've gotten with this. I placed my image on a reference page in a "reference frame". On the reference page, my image is centered. When I go back to the body page and choose the designated paragraph tag, the image appears, but it's left aligned. I choose Centered in the paragraph designer, but that just moves the cursor to the center, not the image.

I know it's something simple that I'm missing.

Thanks again,

Amanda

Report · Nov 11, 2009

OK, it's hard to do this without seeing it, and things may vary a bit from FM version to version, but:

Select the frame on the reference page. Enlarge it horizontally so that it is as wide as the text container on your pages. Say 6.5" maybe.

Then center the graphic inside the resized frame. That should be all it takes.

What you're doing is calling the referenced frame with your para tag -- it's just bringing along the graphic by happinstance -- it would pull in whatever content happened to be in it. So to make sure the frame is centered, you're enlarging it so that it can't not be centered. When it is invoked, the graphic location should be the same (centered) as it is on the ref page.

Art

Report · Nov 12, 2009

Hi Again -

Here's the next dilema. I'd also like to put this logo on the outside bottom corner of every page. Does that mean I'd have to call in the paragraph format at the bottom of every page?

Thanks.

Report · Nov 12, 2009

The question I have in all this is, why is it that when you copy a 2KB image into a document, the size of the document increases 2000KB?

That's the part that doesn't make any sense.

Report · Nov 12, 2009

And wouldn't that be taken care of by the existing footer tag?Should already exist unless you've deleted it.

All you'd have to do is add the link to a tiny referenced frame containing a tiny graphic.

Outside of looking kinda tacky, it shouldn't be a big deal. ;- )

Report · Nov 12, 2009

I attached a PDF copy of part of my document. Do you think the logos on every page looks tacky? You won't hurt my feelings. 🙂

It's actually a format I copied from an Adobe manual.

Report · Nov 12, 2009

It actually doesn't look too bad -- having a nice clean logo makes it work.

I'd maybe reduce it by 33-50% to reduce the depth of the footer, but it isn't as distracting as I thought it would be.

Report · Nov 12, 2009

Would you mind showing me what you mean? I attached the frame file.

I created a reference page with the small star. I'm not quite getting the whole footnote way of doing it.

Does that mean at the end of every page I'd basically have to tell it to add a star?

Report · Nov 12, 2009

I said "footer," not "footnote."

And your FM file didn't make it through to the server...

But typically, the footer tag would be what you see on the Master page. Usually used to generate the page number or other info.

I assume that your 14077-0000 Rev 3.8 is in a background frame and that the text was formatted by the default Footer paragraph tag....

So based on that assumption, you should be able to call the logo the same way you did the blank page logo.

The other way of doing is is just to draw a graphic frame on the Master page and pop the logo into it, which is what I suspect you did. Nothing at all wrong with that method since it's a static page layout, unlike the blank pages.

At the end of the day, it probably wouldn't make a big difference which way you did it because it's a tiny logo.

Art

Report · Nov 12, 2009

One last thing...I hope.

By making these changes with the images, I reduced each frame file in the book from 8,500KB to 4,500KB (there are 17 files in the book). However, when I make the PDF, the PDF file size is only 1,000KB smaller than the old PDF file size.

I've got to be doing something wrong.

Report · Nov 13, 2009

There isn't usually any kind of direct relationship between Frame file size and PDF size. They're two separate applications that happen to work together, but what happens in one doesn't always cause a change in the other.

If I were you I'd quit worrying about reducing file size in Frame, especially of graphics because in general that's going to reduce the quality of everything that comes out of Frame.

If you're seriously worrying about PDF file size, which may not be important in todays environment of T-byte disks, DVDs, and broad-band connections, you should be adjusting things in your PDF job options used by Distiller, and/or using the Reduce Size tools in the full version of Acrobat.

Cheers,

Art

Report · Nov 13, 2009

The reason I'm so worried about PDF file size is because we can only send 5MB files through our work email. It's annoying, and causing some issues because I can no longer email manuals to our sales team.

Is there an answer available for this:

Why is it that when you copy a 2KB image into a document, the size of the document increases 2000KB?

Thanks very much for all your replies. Do you work for Adobe or are you just a really experienced Frame user?

Report · Nov 13, 2009

The reason I'm so worried about PDF file size is because we can only send
5MB files through our work email. It's annoying, and causing some issues
because I can no longer email manuals to our sales team.

>

You might also want to check out a service like yousendit.com, that lets you

send large files. There is even a free version.

Mike Wickham

Report · Nov 13, 2009

OR, copy your PDFs to a server to which your sales folks have access.

Report · Nov 13, 2009

And in addition to Van's and Mike's suggestions -- the server makes a lot of sense -- you can also set up DropBox, from getdropbox.com.

***

No, I'm not an employee. I don't even play one on TV. ;- )

***

I think the file bloat occurs because of internal coding that converts the file format to something Frame can use, but no idea what they are.

Report · Nov 13, 2009

FM internally stores images in an uncompressed bitmap format (FrameImage; described in the MIF manual). If you import a highly compressed jpg file you can get large changes in the filesizes. If you also use the same image (copy & paste) in multiple locations (instead of on a reference page), FM will store the image data the same number of times also increasing your file size substantially.

You can significantly optimize graphic-rich PDF file sizes by using appropriate joboptions during creation as well using the Advanced > PDF Optimizer... menu option in Acrobat.

Report · Nov 11, 2009

How are you bringing in the image? By reference or by copying it in? If you're just copy & pasting it in, then it will embed the image in the file & bloat it up. Best practice is inserting by reference.