images pixelating going from PPT 2003 to PDF

[Christina Crane]

Hello

I am trying to convert a PowerPoint 2003 document to PDF using Acrobat 6.0.1
(Standard) so that the presentation can be used for web. I'm new to Acrobat,
so I'm not sure if I've just done the settings wrong.

Right now, all of my images in PowerPoint are at 200dpi and my background in
Powerpoint is at 96dpi. When I print to PDF, the images get very pixelated.
The background seems to be fine, although sometimes there is a little white
square that is cut out in the corner. I've tried the images at higher
resolution (300) and at lower (96), but no difference.

I've tried setting the Adobe printer to High Quality, to Low Quality, to
Standard... nothing makes a difference.

I know that Acrobat 6.0 wasn't really compatible with Office 2003, so I've
downloaded the upgrade, but no good.

I've posted this on the Adobe forum, but haven't had any replies.

I'm using Prep4PDF, but I have the same issue whether I use it or not.

please help!

thanks
Christina

 

[PPTMagician]

Hi Christina,

Are you using Adobe Acrobat 6.0? When you convert your
presentation, do so by clicking on the Adobe Icon on the
toolbar or by clicking on Adobe PDF, Convert to PDF. Your
results will be much better than printing to Adobe PDF.
You can also specify conversion settings by clicking on
Adobe PDF, Change conversion settings, Advanced settings.

Also, what upgrade are you talking about?

Do let us know if this helps. I'll keep trying things on
my side as well. Transparency appears to be totally lost
on conversion.

Glenna

 

[Troy @ TLC]

What type of images are pixelating? JPG, PNG, EPS.. etc.
And is the pixelization visible onscreen or when printed out (or both)?

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

Right now, all of my images in PowerPoint are at 200dpi and my background in
Powerpoint is at 96dpi.

DPI isn't a measurement of image size, so it's not very useful in this
situation. How large are the images in pixels? Or what's the value you get
when you multiply DPI by Inches? (same difference)

When I print to PDF, the images get very pixelated.
The background seems to be fine, although sometimes there is a little white
square that is cut out in the corner. I've tried the images at higher
resolution (300) and at lower (96), but no difference.

I've tried setting the Adobe printer to High Quality, to Low Quality, to
Standard... nothing makes a difference.

I know that Acrobat 6.0 wasn't really compatible with Office 2003, so I've
downloaded the upgrade, but no good.

Acrobat 6 works ok with Office - it's just the PDFMaker macros that don't fly
quite right, as I recall. In any case, downloading and installing the 6.0.1
update seems to be A Good Thing either way.

I'm using Prep4PDF, but I have the same issue whether I use it or not.

I know the addin fairly well. ;-)

Prep4PDF, assuming it's set to use the Adobe PDF Printer, will use the same
settings as when you print directly from PowerPoint to the PDF Printer, so I'd
expect the results to be the same. Actually, it would worry me if they were
different. ;-)

Most probably it's a matter of changing your downsampling and/or compression
settings. Have you got a small file you could shoot me to test here? Email's
ok up to a meg or two, steve at-sign steverindsberg dot com and remind me
which versions of PPT, Windows and Acrobat you're using. I'll be happy to have
a look.

 

[Christina Crane]

I am using Adobe 6.0 (the .1 after is for the upgrade)

There's no difference if I print to Adobe, click on the adobe button or on
the Prep4PDF button...

The upgrade is at this link:

http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/detail.jsp?ftpID=2365

and it describes it as this: The Adobe® Acrobat® 6.0.1 Standard update
addresses multiple known issues in Acrobat 6.0, including Adobe PDF file
creation, Acrobat commenting, accessibility, and support for multimedia. It
also improves compatibility with Microsoft Office 2003.

cheers
Christina

 

[Christina Crane]

Hi Troy

PNG and JPGs are pixelating.... but it seems to only be ones with the
transparency tool applied.

The problem seems to be becoming clearer... is there a way around that do
you think?

Christina

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

PNG and JPGs are pixelating.... but it seems to only be ones with the

transparency tool applied.

Ah. Here's the thing with transparency ... PostScript doesn't support it, and
in order to make a PDF, you first make a PostScript (PS) file (the PDF driver
does it for you behind the scenes).

Because it can't really DO transparency in PS, PowerPoint has to fake it. It
breaks a single image up into bazillions of 1-pixel high strips. This produces
big files but it can work reasonably well for print output because cleverly
written PS can match the size of the strips to the resolution of the output.

There are two problems with this in PPT:

1) The PS that PPT or Windows generates isn't clever. It breaks the images up,
brute force, at a default assumed output device resolution rather than letting
PS itself do the calculations. But even if it did this part right ....

2) With PDFs there's no way for even PS to get it right because there's no way
to know in advance what the display resolution will be. Are you viewing the
PDF at half-screen size on a small laptop or full screen, zoomed way in on an
extremely high-rez monitor? That makes a big difference.

Try zooming way in on your problem images. See what you learn from that.

But I'm afraid the ultimate answer may be not to use transparency.

 

[Christina Crane]

Hi Steve -

Thanks for this. It also explains why someone in our studio on a Mac could
make better PDFs from the same files that I could.

I think we'll have to make the PDFs on the Mac and forget about the
transitions & animations (they don't all work with Microsoft X, and Prep4PDF
(Mac-friendly?) is only on my PC)

cheers
Christina

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

Thanks for this. It also explains why someone in our studio on a Mac could

make better PDFs from the same files that I could.

How so? There's nothing magic about Macs that changes the limitations of
PostScript and PDFs. ;-)

I think we'll have to make the PDFs on the Mac and forget about the
transitions & animations (they don't all work with Microsoft X, and Prep4PDF
(Mac-friendly?) is only on my PC)

Animations go away in PDF no matter how you make them; PDF doesn't support
animations whatever. Prep4PDF will preserve the transitions (map them to the
closest available PDF transition actually - PDF supports fewer transitions than
PowerPoint does).

Again, if you want to send me a few slides worth of sample presentation and the
specifics about which version of PPT/Windows you've got, I'd be happy to have a
look.

Prep4PDF only works on Windows, but the PDFs should be as cross-platform as
anything can be.