PDF app

[milsky]

Im looking for a decent PDF writer, the standard version under save as... does not handle pages that switch between landscape and portrait (creates separate pdf files at each change) and there is no ability to compress or restrict access... any suggestions would be very welcome

 

[chas_m]

Preview

 

[milsky]

Not sure if I understand your response...opening in preview is not saving as a pdf ????

... if I save as PDF (in Word or other app) the pdf is broken up at each change in the page orientation (as i have indicated, and reported in other threads)
... If I save as PDF you can neither password protect or compress the file (as I have indicated)

If anyone can suggest a good PDF editor/authoring program other than adobe acrobat (a few hundred dollars) that is reasonably priced I would appreciate the relevant input

 

[g.george]

You don't need a new application to do what you are asking–if I understood correctly. you can still use a word processor to create the document (I assume you are using Microsoft Word, since you mention you created the PDF file through the "Save to…" command), and then use Preview.

Here's how you can do it:
After you create the document in Word, go to the "File" menu in Word and select "Print". Then, at the bottom of the Print panel select "PDF" and then "Save as PDF". It's probably best that you select your desktop to save it for now (in the "Where" field).

As you said, this will create 2 or more PDF files because you used section breaks in Word to change the orientation of some pages within the document. Let's say your original document is 8 pages long and you have changed the orientation of pages 4 and 8 to landscape; that means you'll end up with 4 separate PDF files: the first one containing pages 1, 2, 3, the second PDF file with page 4, the third one with pages 5 & 6, and the last one with page 8.

Now use Preview to open the first PDF file that you generated (the one with pages 1-3 in this example). make sure you can see the page thumbnails in the sidebar in Preview. Now, select the next PDF file (page 4) and drag it into the sidebar hovering over the thumbnails of the first 3 pages - don't let go. You'll notice that Preview highlights all 3 thumbnails showing you that they are all part of the same file. Now, move this 2nd PDF file down to the end of the highlighted section in the sidebar, right below the thumbnail of page 3 (since you want to add page 4); a horizontal bar shows you where new file will go when you drop it in. Make sure you drop it WITHIN the highlighted region, not outside, since you want it to be part of the same file.

Continue in the same way with the third PDF file (pages 5, 6, 7) and then the fourth PDF file (page 8), making sure you drop them within the highlighted region and right below the last thumbnail each time.

After you've dropped them all in, select "File" in Preview, then "Save As". Here you can reduce the file size (Quartz filter) and/or password-protect your new PDF (Encrypt). Now you have a single PDF file that retains the different page orientations.

I hope that's what you want to do with your file.
Cheers!

PS: By the way, the Print panel in Mac OS X is the standard way to create PDF files on Mac OS X from any application that can print.

If this is not really what you want to do, and you still need a PDF editor, you can take a look at these two applications:
PDFPen Pro
PDFpenPro: Advanced PDF Editing Software for Mac OS X
or PDF Clerk
Mac PDF Editor | PDF Manipulation for Mac OS X

 

[milsky]

George

First off thanks for the excellent and thorough input, forums are all to often frequented by the sarcastic only on the hunt for the next flame, definitely not in your case.

I am quite impressed with Prieveiw's ability to modify what I initially thought were static pages, thanks for this hint as I will definitely use it in the future.

This has all worked really well and I was able to render the final PDF as I wanted and all in good quality, the only issue is that it went from 25meg to over 50 even using the quartz compression filter, a problem with pdf's clearly. I have a number of full page full color images which is obviously what is throwing things out. I will reduce the file size in word to see if I can get the email version smaller before running this else I will try one of the apps you have mentioned.

Once again thanks for the constructive input, will have to play it forward ..

Regards

D

 

[g.george]

@milsky

I'm glad I could help!

Regarding PDF compression, there's something else you can try–I should have mentioned this in my previous post. I suggest you take a look at this Apple Community thread. All credit goes to their member Jerome Colas, who took the time to experiment with Apple's ColorSync utility creating a few compression filters you can add to Preview.

Here's the link to that thread:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/1292868?start=0&tstart=0

In a nutshell, just go to the first post (by Jerome Colas) and download the filters from the link he provides. Instead of clicking on the link, though, copy it and paste it into the address bar in your browser; then delete the asterisk at the very end or you'll get an error (at least I did, while checking whether it still worked!). Then, decompress and move the filters to the specified folder following the instructions (if you're on Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard or 10.6 Snow Leopard).

If you're on 10.7 Lion you should put the filters in:
Macintosh HD/Library/Filters
(you might have to create the Filters folder if it's not there already)

That's it. Now, you'll have more options in the Quartz Filter drop-down menu in Preview, which give better results compared to the default one in Preview.

If you're a Dropbox user you could also try putting the PDF file in your Public folder and simply sending the download link in an email–if all else fails! That way you won't have to worry about the file size.

Hope it all works out!

Regards

George

(I hope I'm making sense–it's really late here!)

 

[milsky]

George

Your assistance is rare and really awesome... thanks again

So Im still having some truly bizarre results here... all sorted with installing these quartz libraries but having a strange outcomes..

I am starting with a reduced Word doc of 9.7meg (used the compression option in word to get the file size down from around 20meg)

I then print/save to PDF and it is chopped up at MS Word section breaks into the following file sizes
7.4 meg
1.5meg
1.5meg
1.5meg
2.9meg

Total of 14.8 meg... when I drag and drop the subsequent files into the first one (as you showed me) I end up with a file of 41.5meg... then if I run the filter (150 dpi on standard compression) I end up with 98.4 meg !!!!

Off the original thread admittedly but this is bizarre as it is now it has become quite a monster.... this is an document that will be emailled out to a number of stakeholders so needs to be universal, dropbox would have been great but sadly will not work in this situation.

Once again your input is hugely appreciated and any solution would be welcome.

I do suspect that there are some large graphics (full size A4) as well as imbedded graphs and quite a few smaller images imbedded in the document but it is strange as it is usually microsoft that ends up being the issue not Adobe...

I will give the software you mentioned a bash and see how I go there

Thanks again

Duncan

 

[g.george]

Duncan

I'm sorry to hear about all these issues you're still having with the file. It must be really frustrating. I wish I could help more.

Apparently, what throws everything out is joining the individual PDF files. From what you said this seems to create a huge file. On top of that, I found out that this process doesn't allow any further compression, which is probably why you got even larger files after trying to compress again.

I hope someone more knowledgeable on the subject will chime in eventually. In the meantime I had a crazy idea. I know what I'm about to propose is not the most elegant solution, but it might work (especially if the pages in landscape contain mostly images and graphs). It's a little complicated though. The idea is to avoid the process of joining the PDF files altogether, since that alone adds quite a bit to the size of the file.

So, what I thought was you can print to PDF only the pages that are in landscape and then save them all on the desktop (one page per file). Then open each new file in Preview and go to "Save As" and select JPEG (150 pixels/inch). Save them on the desktop as well. Then open each JPEG file in Preview and rotate once, either left or right; save.

Now, make a copy of the Word file you've been working on (just to be safe) and open it. Delete all images/graphs etc in landscape (i.e. leave all landscape pages blank), then change their orientation back to portrait and delete all section breaks as well. This way you have portrait orientation throughout the document and no breaks.

Now, start placing the respective JPEG files in the blank pages of the Word document; they will take the place of the images/graphs etc you deleted (you might have to select the "Top to Bottom" option in Wrap Text for each JPEG file to cover the page (Picture format menu). Make sure each image properly covers the entire page.

After you're done, print to PDF. Open in Preview and select the thumbnails of the pages that you want in landscape (you can even rearrange the order if you missed something; save. Now you should have a PDF file that is much smaller in size. You can use the Quartz filters (I would try the "Reduce to 150 dpi low quality" option as well. I couldn't really tell the difference, and it gives a smaller output.)

By the way, I suggest you only compress once, preferably in the end, to avoid unnecessary quality loss.

If no other solution comes along, give this a try and see how it goes.

Regards

George

 

[LexLife]

Creating PDFs from MS Word Files with Multiple Sections and Page Orientations

This responds to the problem of creating a PDF file from Word document in which there are multiple sections, some of which may also have different page orientations (i.e. landscape and portrait). I was having many problems with this before coming up with the following workaround, the idea for which came out of some of the discussions in this thread. The workaround assumes that you have Adobe Pro or some other application that allows you to merge multiple PDF files into one.

1. Within the first section of your Word document, select File, Print, then in the Page Range window, type s1. This is the instruction for printing section 1. Click on the PDF down arrow, select Save as PDF ... and save the file with a name that will allow you to recognize this as section 1 (e.g., your file name followed by s1). You will now have a PDF file for section 1 of the Word document.

2. Repeat step 1 for every section of your document, substituting s2, s3, and so on.

3. Open your first PDF file in Adobe Pro. Select Document, Insert Pages and then double-click on the second file in the Finder window that comes up. Adobe will prompt you with some choices as to where to place the file. Select After Last. Scroll down and you will see the new file added immediately after the first.

4. Repeat step 3 until you have added all the files.

5. Save the new combined PDF file with a new name. After doing that, you can also use the Reduce File Size feature to compress the file if you want.

6. Once you are satisfied that the merged PDF file looks the way it should, you can delete the intermediate files.