I'm crap at saving pdf's. Please help.

[The Fresh Prince]

I'm really crap at saving pdf's when I'm using photoshop or illustrator. I always have this problem. It's because I've got no idea what I'm clicking in the 'Save Adobe PDF' dialog box.

I can make files really small and loose all the quality, or really big so that I can't email them.

Today's example:

I was sent a wedding invitation that just needed the Thai writing put on to it, to match the existing design. It came to me as a 2mb pdf file with good quality image lines.

So i opened it in photoshop, added the Thai text, merged the layers and tried to save as a pdf.

First i tried the 'High quality print' preset and it came out at 26mb.

Then I tried the 'Press quality' preset and it came out at 29mb.

Then I tried the 'Smallest file size' preset and it came out at 278kb.

Then i tried playing with the settings and they all came out above 30mb.

What I need is a few tips on the settings that I can save as my own presets that will keep the quality but keep the size under 10mb.

Can anybody help?

[kingwilly]

Can anybody help?

I can make files really small and loose

well, small and loose files sounds dangerous, were they flapping in the breeze ?

[Marmite the Dog]

Have you tried printing it to PDF?

[Fondles]

Fucks me how your turning a 2mb PDF into a 26mb one ??

Send me a pm for my email addy if you want me to have a look at it...

I usually do what I need to do and "print" it with Cute PDF (Free download)....then print/email the PDF.

[Marmite the Dog]

Fucks me how your turning a 2mb PDF into a 26mb one ??

He's probably got the PSD editing feature turned on when making the PDF.

[slackula]

Does it need to be saved as a PDF? If not open with Preview.app and save as a jpeg.

[The Fresh Prince]

Fucks me how your turning a 2mb PDF into a 26mb one ??

Thats what I want to know!

He's probably got the PSD editing feature turned on when making the PDF.

Yep I think I did. Ok thats one of the check boxes sorted. What do the rest do? Whats Bicubic Resampling? and how will it effect the quality?

Does it need to be saved as a PDF? If not open with Preview.app and save as a jpeg.

It doesn't have to be saved as a pdf, its just I've never got my head around how it works and I think its about time.

[Humbert]

I suppose that when you choose the print quality options it automatically increases the resolution and overall file size. Better to save as the size and resolution you want in PS and then flatten the image. Save it as a jpeg and print rather than printing as a pdf file.