13 replies to this topic

[Terry Walker]

I now have "Fast Tracks" in a PDF format which is essentially the same presentation as the printed book itself. (It's a circuit map book of Australian racing circuits 1904-1994, plus narrative for each.)

 

Unfortunately, it is a 10 meg file!  I think it is possible to compress it, as my pdf is generated by Microsoft Word, not Adobe's program itself, which allows compression at various levels. Trouble is, it is either done on-line free (with what hidden catches, such as sprinkling it with ads, or watermarks, I don't know) or download a specific bit of software. 

 

The size is due to some 90 images, B+W line drawings, 1500 pixels wide, in jpg.

 

TNFer Oscar Plada contacted me direct to check some of his wonderful maps, and I hastily knocked up a pdf of the book for him using the 600 pixel maps from the exiting epub. I then discovered that one circuit seemed to have fallen out (Port Wakefield), so yesterday I spent all day tidying up the format and replacing 600 px with 1500 pix maps and re-inserting Port Wakefield, creating a cover, and so on. 

 

If anyone's interested, it's free but I would like to reduce the size a tad as 10 meg is a bit of a push for my email system. One possibility is to simply put it on my website terrywalkersplace and anyone can download it, the way I have done with the Australian race results. Any thoughts most welcome.

[cooper997]

A generous offer Terry.

 

No doubt there's a few computer experts here on TNF that might be able to help sort out file size. 

 

Either way though, it's still worth putting up on your own website for download purposes.

 

Direct link to the site...

http://www.terrywalkersplace.com/

 

Stephen

[Allen Brown]

That is indeed very generous of you Terry.  Putting it on your website sounds the easiest solution.  10Mb is nothing really - I would not worry about compressing it if I were you.  I host a lot of web sites that contain legal documents, booklets, brochures etc, and 10Mb is not a concern.  I would just add a message next to it warning people of the size of the download.

[PiperPa42]

I would be afraid to downsize the PDF, most generic downsizers do so with a visible loss of quality. Another option is to upload to dropbox, that way you can share the file with who you want if you don't want to give free access to all.

[Terry Walker]

I never thought of drop box. Many thanks for that suggestion. I'll chew on it for a while before I leap. My 50 meg website already has 47.5 meg aboard, so I'd have to rehash that site again. Problems, problems!

[bradbury west]

Terry, my copy works very well as a simple i book, as an option

Roger Lund

[Terry Walker]

Another look at the file showed that it is 20 megabytes, not ten. Back to the drawing board, I suspect. I will try a smaller scale jpeg: 1000 to 1100 pixels across in portrait should suffice, and I can see several other possible avenues to bring the pdf down to manageable size without compression.

 

The epub or kindle version is readily available from me on request, free. 

[Peter Morley]

Dropbox works well for such things or you can use a service like wetransfer to send the file - the free version handles files upto 2 GB

You upload it and they send the recipient a link to download it.

 

p.s. I'd like a copy...

[alansart]

Another look at the file showed that it is 20 megabytes, not ten. Back to the drawing board, I suspect. I will try a smaller scale jpeg: 1000 to 1100 pixels across in portrait should suffice, and I can see several other possible avenues to bring the pdf down to manageable size without compression.

 

The epub or kindle version is readily available from me on request, free. 

When you compress the pdf to make the file smaller it drops the resolution of the images. This is ok if you just want to look at on a computer screen but is not good enough for print. I do it all the time in my work.

Edited by alansart, 02 May 2017 - 15:57.

[Terry Walker]

This is what a 600 pixel illustration from Fast Tracks looks like. I think that it is a high enough resolution for anything but print publication. So perhaps, apart from format, the epub / kindle edition is fine. Anyone with a pc or mac tablet can read them using an app such as Calibre (freeware), and copy the images into a grahics program.  If I settle for the 600 images I can produce a much smaller pdf for those without e-book facilities. Any opinions welcome.

 

 

 

Damn! Loaded a thumbnail! Try again.

Edited by Terry Walker, 03 May 2017 - 05:39.

[Terry Walker]

See if this works. It's been a long time since I did this.

 

post image online

[Terry Walker]

By using the 600 pixel images, it is now 6.5 meg. Well within bounds, and not a lot bigger file than the Kindle version.

[E1pix]

A couple PDF tricks worth mentioning:
1). Do not compress text and line art, it barely saves space and degrades legibility immensely;
2). If you wish to send via email, you might note that even a 6.5mb file attached to an email still tends to produce an email greater than 10mb. Most servers tend to reject emails above 10mb... Not sure why but think it's an evil conspiracy driven by gray-hair-reducing products.

I do a fair amount of PDF work and will help if I can.

[Terry Walker]

Many thanks. I have successfully emailed the 6.5 meg pdf file using the 600 pixel artwork as per the above sample. Next time I revise my website I'll simply place the book there. I don't use any email client software, rather I work directly in my ISP account's own email system. I don't know if that makes any difference. The reduction was achieved solely by resizing the jpeg images to 600 pixels by depth, which is what I used in the e-book version anyway, and then creating the pdf. The result looks fine on my pdf reader. The demand for the book is microscopic now (hell, sub-microscopic!) so I doubt it warrants any further work.