Printing PDF on a MAC

[dshall]

File size is dependent on a lot of variables, mostly due to the content of what you are printing.

We know on the MAC that the large size problem is related to font embedding. Files that don't have much text would be much smaller. Files that use primarily pixel data would likely be similar in size on both platforms.

PDF printer drivers have lot's of configuration options, many of which we don't provide in our Save As PDF... option.

If you intend to provide a useful guide to which driver to use it would be good to establish a benchmark using a set of files that have a variety of data.

Establish a set of test parameters that are adhered to on each test. For example:
Test 1: -> Paper Size: 8.5 x11, DPI: 600 -> Ouptut file size: xxxMb.

Make sure you are comparing the size of the files using the same settings. In my internal tests a single file could produce a PDF that varies from 4mb to 80mb using our internal PDF simply by changing print settings.

I printed same plan, sheets 1-16, 300 dpi, that was my benchmark. same exact settings unless there are some hidden setting I do not know about.

Did it twice, pdf994 was 4 times as large as pdf printer supplied by CA.

Give it a play.

[HumbleChief]

Anything without a PDF file in it prints to PDF without any hiccups. Anything with PDF file in it slows and many other problems. This is on a Win machine so sorry for the thread highjack.

[Electromen]

I opened the Sample layout "Riverstone" supplied by CA, which is 19 pages with plenty of 3D graphics.
I used the built pdf printer @ 600DPI, the file size was 60MB.
I opened it in Adobe Acrobat 9.0 and hit > Document > Reduce File Size and specified it to open in Acrobat 7.0 and newer, the file size is now 5.2MB
I opened both the 60MB and 5.2MB in Acrobat. I don't see a difference in the line drawings. There is a difference in the 3D views if you zoom in, but it's not a huge difference.
So that's one option.

Another option for sending a customer drawings would be to use FTP. If you have a web site, you will have FTP (File Transfer Protocol)
With FTP you can transfer a few GB without a problem. You would need a FTP Client like Fetch and your customer can download the file.
You would also need your FTP username and password, this should have been provided to you by your web host company.
I created a download on my photography website too show you what I mean. On the right side of the page, click the PDF to download.
Give it a minute and you'll see all 19 pages of the Riverstone layout. the file size is 60MB.
This download can be password protected if you like. You can also control how it is saved or opened by the customer.
CLICK HERE to see the download page

[dshall]

I opened the Sample layout "Riverstone" supplied by CA, which is 19 pages with plenty of 3D graphics.
I used the built pdf printer @ 600DPI, the file size was 60MB.
I opened it in Adobe Acrobat 9.0 and hit > Document > Reduce File Size and specified it to open in Acrobat 7.0 and newer, the file size is now 5.2MB
I opened both the 60MB and 5.2MB in Acrobat. I don't see a difference in the line drawings. There is a difference in the 3D views if you zoom in, but it's not a huge difference.
So that's one option.

Another option for sending a customer drawings would be to use FTP. If you have a web site, you will have FTP (File Transfer Protocol)
With FTP you can transfer a few GB without a problem. You would need a FTP Client like Fetch and your customer can download the file.
You would also need your FTP username and password, this should have been provided to you by your web host company.
I created a download on my photography website too show you what I mean. On the right side of the page, click the PDF to download.
Give it a minute and you'll see all 19 pages of the Riverstone layout. the file size is 60MB.
This download can be password protected if you like. You can also control how it is saved or opened by the customer.
CLICK HERE to see the download page

I hear you. It seems that I went and looked for an Adobe Program that would run on a mac, and I could not find one..... am I missing something and if so would you mind directing me to the Adobe program that will print pdf's on a mac, thanks.

[Electromen]

I hear you. It seems that I went and looked for an Adobe Program that would run on a mac, and I could not find one..... am I missing something and if so would you mind directing me to the Adobe program that will print pdf's on a mac, thanks.

If you mean physically printing on paper then use Adobe Reader. It's free and can be downloaded HERE
You can create the PDF using CA and physically print it using Adobe Reader.
It that what you mean?
By the way, all Adobe programs are available for Mac. You could buy Adobe Acrobat XI but if all you want to do is read and print I don't see a reason to purchase it.

[HumbleChief]

..but without the full Acrobat program what are the options? And of course we can keep buying programs but it would be nice to have some usable options within Chief and by usable i mean flexible enough to handle larger files sizes without the need of another program.

[Electromen]

I'm getting confused on the terms being used here, print to file vs physically printing on paper.
To physically print look at post #20 above.
To create a PDF, print to file, you can use the one built into CA.
OR
Unlike Windows, you don't need to install something like CutePdf to print to a pdf file, it's a native function of a Mac. When I used this the file came out about 75% of the CA version but still too large to email.
Choose any installed printer and select Print. In the print dialog box, look in the lower left corner and select PDF, see the attached screen shot.
To get to the dialog box select " Open System Print Dialog"



Screen shot 2011-07-08 at 1.57.58 PM.png

[dshall]

Greg, I am trying to print to PDF. that is what this entire thread is about.

[Electromen]

Greg, I am trying to print to PDF. that is what this entire thread is about.

Thank you.

[Electromen]

Try this, Go to the App Store, download PDF Compress Expert, it's free.
It reduced the 60MB Riverstone PDF to as low as 1.3MB
After you drag in the document, Click the settings gear to the right to customize compression.

[dshall]

Try this, Go to the App Store, download PDF Compress Expert, it's free.
It reduced the 60MB Riverstone PDF to as low as 1.3MB
After you drag in the document, Click the settings gear to the right to customize compression.

Greg, appreciate the suggestion. It converted my 90MB file to 30 MB, that is a start, (needs to be less than 20 MB to email).

It converted the file to something I would use with Keynote, a powerpoint presentation format. Could I send that to my print shop?

Do you think I would need to upgrade so the PDF was not converted to a Keynote file?

Final problem is it did not support one of my fonts, but the big problem was my WHITE FILLED FONTS now have a black fill, cannot read the font.

[dshall]

Try this, Go to the App Store, download PDF Compress Expert, it's free.
It reduced the 60MB Riverstone PDF to as low as 1.3MB
After you drag in the document, Click the settings gear to the right to customize compression.

I was not able to customize compression, I had only one choice. Maybe I need to upgrade to pro version. But if it changes my white filled text to black, that will not work for me.

[miked56]

I have the full Adobe X1 on my PC. I can test if you are interested. OK I know it's not a MAC but offering anyway.
If you have a site with FTP I can get the file. Otherwise you can compress the plan using a tool like IZArc into 10 -15 meg sections and send them to me. PM if you want my help and email.

[dshall]

I have the full Adobe X1 on my PC. I can test if you are interested. OK I know it's not a MAC but offering anyway.
If you have a site with FTP I can get the file. Otherwise you can compress the plan using a tool like IZArc into 10 -15 meg sections and send them to me. PM if you want my help and email.

Thanks for the offer Mike. I think it has to be tested on a MAC. I have a PC to test it on.

[HumbleChief]

Scott have you tried this?

http://www.wikihow.com/Compress-a-PDF-File

Method 3 of 4: Compressing a PDF File Using Mac OS

1
Open your PDF in Preview by double-clicking on it in the Finder menu.
By default, PDF files open in Preview unless you have Adobe Reader or a third party PDF viewer. If that is the case, simply locate the PDF, right click it, click “Open With” and choose Preview.
2
Click File → Export. A dialog box will appear.
3
Click the Quartz Filter option and select “Reduce File Size”.
4
Click “Save”. If you do not rename this file, a dialog box will appear asking if you wish to replace the original document. This will overwrite the current document.[2]

Or This?

Compress a PDF file on MAC

If you are a MAC user then compressing the size of the PDF file is really easy and it does not require any software download as MAC has an inbuilt application (Preview.app) which can be used to compress the PDF file in seconds.

The Real Process:

1. The very first process is open the PDF file with Preview application.

2. After opening the file choose “File” at the top of the screen and then click on “Print” or You can also the use the shortcut key (“Command key” + Letter “P”) to print the file, this will pop up a dropdown menu.

3. On the dropdown menu, you can see a button in the bottom left-hand corner labeled as “PDF”. Click the button and another dropdown menu will appear, immediately below the “PDF” button.

4. Click on the “Compress PDF” from this dropdown menu and now you can see a window indicating the compression is taking place.

5. After the compression a Save window will appear, here you need to type the name of the file and location of the file and click on the Save button.

That’s all, now your PDF file is compressed and ready to send over email.