Another Fade-In Pro question

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  • Another Fade-In Pro question

    Hello Roland and others,

    I used the Insert Image function of FadeIn to insert 3 images into my screenplay. The images are .jpg and total about 1mg in size (I'm going to resize them). But I did notice that when I converted the partial script into a .pdf file, the script size went from 66KB (without pics) to over 4500KB (with pics).

    That's about 4.5 times larger than the total size of the pics. Yikes.

    Can you tell me how to correct this?

    Thanks,
    Tom
    PuppyTummy.com

  • #2
    Re: Another Fade-In Pro question

    Here is what I think is happening.

    Graphics like .jpg and .png are compressed versions of much larger files. A .jpg of 35K may be 900K in actual size.

    When you save your Fade In file, the graphic remains compressed. Consequently, you can have a Fade In file that is about the same size as the sum of the screenplay text and the graphics.

    But when you create a PDF, the PDF driver takes over, and you may end up with a large file because of how the graphics are handled.

    I ran a quick experiment with one graphic of about 36K and a script of about 37K. The resulting Fade In document was 72K (essentially the sum of the text portion of 37K + the graphic portion of 36K). Bear in mind that a .fadein file is actually a zip file (i.e., compressed).

    However, when I created a PDF with Fade In, the PDF file was 354K. Part of that increase can be attributed to the fact that the .fadein file was decompressed in the conversion to PDF (but the PDF is itself a compressed file, so who knows how all of that stacks up?).

    Anyway, the huge file size that you are getting is entirely too big. It probably has to do with the built-in PDF driver that Fade In uses.

    I printed my test file with a commercial PDF driver (PDF-XChange) and got a PDF of 109K (obviously much better than the 354K with the Fade In driver). The commercial driver that I used had "Optimization" checked to be on. That means that the driver threw out lots of junk. I think it also relates to how graphics are handled.

    I tried the PrimoPDF driver (free) and got a file that was 186K. I did not look to see if I could tinker with optimization in the PrimoPDF driver.

    If you have been using the built-in PDF driver in Fade In, I would suggest the following:
    Reduce the dimensions of the picture to the size that you need on the page.

    Reduce the .jpg "quality" to something lower (I usually use 70 percent).

    See how big your resulting PDF is.

    If the file is still really huge, try using a driver that lets you turn Optimization on. PrimoPDF does pretty well, and it is free. I do not know if it optimizes or not, but I think it must, since I got a file of 186K with it as contrasted to the 354K with the Fade In driver.
    Curiously, the built-in Fade In PDF driver does a great job with text. It produces a small PDF. But it appears to let the graphics balloon a bit.

    Let us know if you still have problems. I think that you can get the size down considerably from 4+ megabytes.

    ADDENDUM: As always, I am assuming Windows, not Mac. If you are using a Mac, the Mac PDF driver may let you get a better PDF.

    "The fact that you have seen professionals write poorly is no reason for you to imitate them." - ComicBent.

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    • #3
      Re: Another Fade-In Pro question

      I'll give it a shot this weekend and let you know how I fared. Thanks.
      PuppyTummy.com

      Comment


      • #4
        Re: Another Fade-In Pro question

        Roland, I got the current script, with pics, down to 352K in size using FadeIn's .pdf. I may mess with it some more to bring down the size, but this is pretty good right now.

        Many thanks for your help.

        Tom
        PuppyTummy.com

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        • #5
          Re: Another Fade-In Pro question

          Any time, my friend.

          "The fact that you have seen professionals write poorly is no reason for you to imitate them." - ComicBent.

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          • #6
            Re: Another Fade-In Pro question

            Roland is right: it comes down to what happens at PDF creation time. Different PDF creators/libraries will handle images (and everything else) differently. There's no standard/prescribed way to handle scaling and storage of images, for instance. Different PDF generators can do it in very different ways.

            PDF files are almost always larger than the Fade In document, because by design they include things like (subsetted) font data in addition to the textual content and all the document layout/formatting. (Not to mention, of course, images.)

            Just curious if you were creating the PDF using File > Create PDF (i.e., Fade In's built-in PDF generator) or File > Print and using the Mac or Windows (10) built-in PDF creation. Normally Fade In's built-in PDF generator creates leaner PDFs.

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            • #7
              Re: Another Fade-In Pro question

              Like Kent (Fade In Pro) above, I would like to know whether you were using the built-in Fade In PDF driver, or a Windows/Mac system PDF driver.

              By the way, I thought I would finish this out by explaining to those using Windows that you can, in fact, use PrimoPDF to accomplish the task of creating a PDF that combines a title page and a screenplay. This issue was brought up in a separate thread, but the subject seems relevant here, too.

              -----

              Here is a task that I carried out as an experiment.

              I took a 94-page «Fade In» screenplay (44K) and used a word processor to create a title page for it. The title page contained a graphic of 401K in size. The title page also had two non-Courier fonts (Algerian and Cambria), which I used for the title and for the contact information, respectively.

              I used PrimoPDF to create a combined PDF. (I will explain how in a moment.) The size of the resulting PDF was 314K. This included the title page with the graphic, the screenplay, and three embedded font subsets (Algerian, Cambria, Courier Screenplay).

              You can further reduce the size if you have a commercial PDF driver that can optimize the PDF. I got it down to 235K with my PDF-XChange driver. However, I think that 314K is a reasonable size. Remember that the «Fade In» screenplay, which appears so small (44K), is really a zip file of a document whose true size, unzipped, is just over 300K. So a PDF of 314K (produced with PrimoPDF) is pretty darned good.

              Here is how to use PrimoPDF to attach a special title page to your script. It is very easy.

              1. Create your title page with a word processor. Use graphics and any fonts that you want in creating it.

              2. Print the file with the PrimoPDF driver. I always use the Prepress tab for the quality level (the best), but I do not know if it really makes any difference for what you are doing here.

              3. Name your PDF anything that you want. You can rename the file later if you want. For this example, let's name it 'MyScript.pdf'. Name it and click 'Create PDF'.

              4. Open your screenplay in «Fade In».

              5. Print your screenplay with the PrimoPDF driver, just as you did with the title page. When PrimoPDF asks you to name the PDF file, give it the SAME NAME that you gave to the title page. I mean, literally the same name, just as if you wanted to overwrite it.

              6. PrimoPDF will then ask you if you want to OVERWRITE the existing PDF with that name, or APPEND a file to it. Of course, you choose APPEND. Create the PDF.

              7. That is all there is too it. You have a PDF that consists of a title page and a script. It includes any graphics and special fonts that you have used. The key to this procedure is that you have to create the title page PDF first and then the screenplay PDF as an appendage to it.

              "The fact that you have seen professionals write poorly is no reason for you to imitate them." - ComicBent.

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              • #8
                Re: Another Fade-In Pro question

                I used Fade-In's .pdf converter.
                PuppyTummy.com

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                • #9
                  Re: Another Fade-In Pro question

                  Thanks, Tom!

                  "The fact that you have seen professionals write poorly is no reason for you to imitate them." - ComicBent.

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