Trouble converting pdf into word document (for a letterhead)

[PhoePhoe]

Hi,

I'm not sure this is the most appropriate place for my quandary, still, I'm hoping someone might have some illuminating tips?

I've been asked to put together a letterhead for a law firm, so far so good, the firm will primarily be using Word for their correspondence, so I need to create a word document template that contains the letterhead design. And I'm having a real hard time of it.

I've saved the letterhead as a 300dpi jpg and inserted it into the Word doc and it looks... awful. One blog suggested that even though it looks blurry on screen it will actually print "crisp" - that may be so, but probably the firm will use the word doc digitally too so it needs to look good on screen.

Help

[Monika Gause]

Difficult to say without seeing "awful"

Which version of Word are they using? Won't a PDF work as well?

[PhoePhoe]

I have an older version of Word on my computer (I don't use it) - version 14.7.7

Do newer versions allow you to open PDF's?

[PhoePhoe]

Hi Monika,

I hope you're well, I'm really stuck - I could email you the Word Doc/Pdf if that's helpful?

[Monika Gause]

PhoePhoe  schrieb

Hi Monika,

I hope you're well, I'm really stuck - I could email you the Word Doc/Pdf if that's helpful?

I was just sleeping. World Timezones ...

No, that's not helpful. A screenshot would be helpful. Please upload it to the forum.

[PhoePhoe]

Hi Monika, this is a screenshot of the PDF/Word Doc abomination

[Monika Gause]

It really makes no sense that you work with a different version of Word than they do, because the versions act so differently.

[PhoePhoe]

Sure, but I don't use Word ordinarily, thus this is the first time I've

encountered this problem. I was hoping someone might know a work around, if

you don't have any suggestions that's fine.

[Monika Gause]

The trouble is that the different versions might contribute to the problem.

The trouble also is that the design has rather small and intricate elements so any bad effect on it will we very visible.

Have you already tried PNG? ALso: perhaps Don't make it 300 ppi, but instead 150. If WOrd has to scale down your design the blurring might be as bad as when it has to scale up.

In old versions of Word you might also try EPS, but that only works if your client has a printer capable of PostScript.

You could also try and make the whole thing into a font.

[PhoePhoe]

Thanks Monika, I'm grateful for your help. I managed to sort it out - by downloading the latest version of Word, which I clearly should have done initially, thanks for your patience. All the best.

[Monika Gause]

You're welcome. And thank you for the feedback.

[Jacob Bugge]

Phoe,

There are two different issues.

For screen use, documents often also being read on screens, the best/most tolerable appearance of a raster format image will be obtained if the image is shown at the same pixel x pixel size that it was created at, and PNG is better than JPEG for such use. But have you tried the vector image formats suggested (EMF and WMF, and maybe SVG of which I am unsure for Word), or maybe much better a PDF just using the original vector artwork (the newer Word versions can use PDF)?

The best appearance in print is obtained if you use vector artwork of course, but there is also the difference in the printing between non solid colours (such as tints and mixed colours) printed in (one or more) inks with halftones at a low(er) resolution in DPI especially suitable for woolly photographs, and  solid colours which may be printed as much clearer and crisper line art at a much higher resolution.

We will not even mention stochastic screening here, will we?

[Jacob Bugge]

Phoe,

Why use lossy JPEG (which may be in less than Maximum quality) instead of more crisp/clear oriented PNG24, or even better one of the vector formats that is understood by Word, such as PDF (as I understand newer Word versions can handle, said by someone that never had it) or WMF or EMF? And you may consider SVG at least for web use.

If you must use a raster format for some (or no) reason, (in the possibly specific version) for screen use it should have the exact pixel x pixel size at which it is displayed/used.

And have you used the optimization option(s)?

[PhoePhoe]

Thanks for your reply Jacob, yes, it's tricky because I don't use Word

regularly so my version is slightly older (14.7.7) and I think the latest

Word is 16.something and perhaps the opening PDF's in word without

formatting issues has been resolved in newer versions, it's hard to tell

without the latest version.

I think my client has the latest version of Word because they say they have

been able to open the PDF but seemingly are unable to edit it/ write over

it for correspondence.

The reason I was using a high res Jpeg was because I found a youtube

tutorial who used Jpeg without issue, though you're quite right PNG24 could

work as well or better, it is optimised.

I am surprised at how tricky this has proven, kinda hate Word right now.

[jane-e]

PhoePhoe  wrote

I think my client has the latest version of Word because they say they have

been able to open the PDF but seemingly are unable to edit it/ write over

it for correspondence.

I am surprised at how tricky this has proven, kinda hate Word right now.

• If all you have is the letterhead that you showed us, they need to put it into the Header area of Word so they can type on top of it. In Acrobat, convert it to an image with File > Export > Image and choose tiff or jpeg. The default for jpeg is Medium. Click Settings and change it to Maximum since you have bad quality with medium.
  
• Right click the image in the header and set the text wrap to behind text.
  

• If, instead, it needs to be converted to text, then inside of Acrobat, choose File  > Export to > MS Word. Select the file, then click the Settings button to either make it flowable or to retain the format (put it in frames). Still put it in the Header in Word.