Posted: Tue May 03, 2005 1:52 pm Post subject: Print PDF export better quality than NeoOffice/J PDF export
I downloaded NeoOffice/J today to test it out. I've earlier used OpenOffice.org but I hated the way it looked, yet I loved the idea. Then I found out about NeoOffice/J . I'm quite pleased with it. I've decided to use it instead of Microsoft Office now.
I was testing the PDF export function and I noticed that the pdf files I get when I press the "Export directly as PDF" button are quite low quality. The problem is that some of the letters almost overlapp, there seems to be no regularity as to the space between each letter. Then I tried exporting to PDF using the Mac's built in PDF function from the print menu. The result was perfect and only slightly larger. The NeoOffice/J pdf was 24 kbites while the Mac generated pdf was 28. The ekstra 4 kbites were well worth it as I could clearly see a big difference in the text it generated. Therefore I was wondering if the PDF export function in NeoOffice/J is going to be improved any time soon. I would like to be able to just press the "Export directly as PDF" button and get a perfect PDF instead of what I'm getting now.
The difference is that the "Export As PDF" button always creates a PDF file with 72 DPI resolution whereas the PDF created using the native print dialog is 300 DPI.
While the difference in file size is trivial in your case, the difference is huge when there are images in the PDF file. As a result, the current behavior won't change as the "Export As PDF" button is designed to create low-resolution PDF files that are small enough to be mailed whereas the files created using the native print dialog are designed to print at high-quality.
The difference is that the "Export As PDF" button always creates a PDF file with 72 DPI resolution whereas the PDF created using the native print dialog is 300 DPI.
The PDF button in the menu bar does indeed generate 72dpi; no good for printing of course. However, if you go to the File menu and select Export as PDF, you get the option for 'Screen Optimised', 'Print Optimised' and 'Press Optimised' output. The last of these generates really excellent PDF for printing - and huge files.
The difference is that the "Export As PDF" button always creates a PDF file with 72 DPI resolution whereas the PDF created using the native print dialog is 300 DPI.
The PDF button in the menu bar does indeed generate 72dpi; no good for printing of course. However, if you go to the File menu and select Export as PDF, you get the option for 'Screen Optimised', 'Print Optimised' and 'Press Optimised' output. The last of these generates really excellent PDF for printing - and huge files.
Do these options also use Patrick's optimized export routines? _________________ "What do you think of Western Civilization?"
"I think it would be a good idea!"
- Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi
The PDF button in the menu bar does indeed generate 72dpi; no good for printing of course. However, if you go to the File menu and select Export as PDF, you get the option for 'Screen Optimised', 'Print Optimised' and 'Press Optimised' output. The last of these generates really excellent PDF for printing - and huge files.
Do these options also use Patrick's optimized export routines?
Two points here.
First, the toolbar button always uses the last settings from the File: Export as PDF menu item, and the default value is Screen Optimized. If you use the menu to save a Press Optimized PDF of pages 3-5, the next time you use the toolbar button, you'll get another Press Optimized PDF of pages 3-5 of your new document.
Secondly, AFAIK, there are two distinct codepaths here, the OOo codepath and the Mac OS X codepath; Patrick has optimized the latter (sending large chunks to print at once, because that's the way OS X lays out text most efficiently).
Apologies to Ray, who was updating the Methods of Exporting PDF compared article at the same time I was, and I'm not sure my merging sounds as good as some of his original....
Smokey _________________ "[...] whether the duck drinks hot chocolate or coffee is irrelevant." -- ovvldc and sardisson in the NeoWiki
My experience in "real-life" suggests that, with few exceptions, NeoOffice/J's "Print optimized" quality generally offers the best compromise between print quality and file size, often producing smaller file sizes than Mac OS X's native Print dialogue while producing comparable print quality from most office printers.
In order to select this option, you must first follow the steps in this article in the wiki at:
(Smokey's recent additions to the notes has produced a much more comprehensive explanation of the various options available for PDF production. I worry that it is now a bit 'heavy' on the technical side. My text had been intentionally lighter, aimed at giving just enough knowledge to 'sort' the perceived problem of NeoJ outputing 'only' screen-optimised PDFs. I'm not a technical writer though, so maybe others would like to review the text and add their comments here?)
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