PDF Problems.

Hey, I hope someone can help.

I have a powerpoint presentation I need to convert to a high quality PDF.

This powerpoint contains some psd mockups in PNG form, which never come out right when I convert to PDF.

The edges look rough, and it just doesn't look good.

Can anybody please recommend the best settings to have for this type of powerpoint when converting to PDF via Acrobat?

Banging my head againt a wall here.

Powerpoint would convert any images placed to a low res version - even PNGs inserted automatically convert to JPEG in the background, although they may act like transparent PNGs upfront.

A PSD mockup in PNG form is not a PSD anymore, you've reduced it to a web format - and depending on the resolution started at - and the size placed - you could be causing it to decrease in resolution the larger you make it in the file.

The short of it is that you will never get a hi-res PDF from a powerpoint file - Powerpoint is an onscreen presentation software.

You'd need to create the slides using professional software like InDesign - using the original PSD files at the correct resolution.

Not sure if this will help or not, never really had a need for this, but on powerpoint 2010 there is a 'high quality' mode under the print layout drop down menu ('full page slides' is default for me) on the print settings page.

Thanks Hank, some good info there.

I actually created the slides using Illustrator. Obviously the mockups were done in Photoshop then converted to PNG and imported into illustrator to create the slides.

I got it sorted in the end. It turned out the problem was that some of the mockups were distorted or had rough edges and missing pieces BUT only when viewed in Acrobat.

They look great when viewed on Microsoft edge, firefox etc. I had friends and family view it on their computers as well, even my sister in Italy got woken up! lol

Being that my client is highly unlikely to have Acrobat, I was pleased with the result in the end because when viewed on any other channel the whole presentation looked great and on numerous devices, on all sides of the continent.

I believe it is a compatability issue between powerpoint and acrobat that was causing me the problems, but when I looked to change the settings so pp would be compatible it didn't give me the option to select the most recent version of acrobat. I think it only went up to acrobat 7.

It would depend on your version of Powerpoint I suppose.

And a client not having Acrobat? Acrobat reader is freely available.

If you have the original in Illustrator - then you could make the PDF from that and it would be hi-res.

Oh B***********

Well I hope she doesn't view it in Acrobat then. I got confused because you need acrobat to produce PDFs from powerpoint but obviously not to view (doh).

Everyone I asked to view it on their computer said it looked fine. These are normal, not at all techy people, so it looked fine on whatever default program they used to view it. I'm hoping it's the same for the client or I'm going to look like a right plank.

Levi said:

Not sure if this will help or not, never really had a need for this, but on powerpoint 2010 there is a 'high quality' mode under the print layout drop down menu ('full page slides' is default for me) on the print settings page.

Click to expand...

Thanks Levi, I think I had a compatability issue with powerpoint and acrobat. I've not got to the bottom of it yet.

I had the latest version of both though, so don't understand why there would be an issue.

Glitchin said:

Oh B***********

Well I hope she doesn't view it in Acrobat then. I got confused because you need acrobat to produce PDFs from powerpoint but obviously not to view (doh).

Everyone I asked to view it on their computer said it looked fine. These are normal, not at all techy people, so it looked fine on whatever default program they used to view it. I'm hoping it's the same for the client or I'm going to look like a right plank.

Click to expand...

You don't need acrobat to make PDFs from Powerpoint either - there's an option to Save as pdf - and there's free (not as good) alternatives, like CutePDF.

I'm aware that you can produce PDFs from powerpoint without acrobat, but I wanted to produce a good quality PDF with acrobat.

The process is the same whether it's made from Powerpoint or from Acrobat.

It's the quality of the content in the source file that dictates the quality of the PDF.

The quality of the content was optimised. High quality mockups, high quality PNGs.

The PDF looks great in anything but acrobat and on multiple devices.

I have created numerous PDFs in the past and with mostly good results, however this is the first time I have used mockups and its with the mockups that I had problems.

I'm interested to learn though, what is the best way to create good presentations and convert to PDF. If anyone cares to school me, I'm all ears (eyes).

Cheers.

There's content about this here
https://support.office.com/en-ie/ar...DF-files-9b5c786b-9c6e-4fe6-81f6-9372f77c47c8

However, I think I know what's wrong with the Acrobat version.

If you've optimised your images to be low resolution - firstly - that would be problematic for printing anyway.

And secondly - Acrobat has it's own resolution settings, different to Powerpoint - I have mine set to 110 pixels per inch - for some reason.

But typically - the resolution display for acrobat is 108 pixels per inch - if you have images at 72 pixels per inch - then then won't display correctly.

Glitchin said:

Oh B***********

Well I hope she doesn't view it in Acrobat then. I got confused because you need acrobat to produce PDFs from powerpoint but obviously not to view (doh).

Click to expand...

windows 10 has a built in viewer for pdf too, it used to be reader but it's now been bundled in edge browser, and office 2010 (I think) and upwards have been able to produce pdf's natively (hit and miss but it's there). Pretty sure os-x has native too.

PDF viewers in internet browsers are generally terrible - like Firefox PDF viewer won't display transparent PNGs correctly (at least it didn't last time I looked which is a while ago).

The only PDF viewers that accurately render PDFs is Acrobat - other 3rd party PDF viewers do not accept all modules of the PDF files. Meaning things like transparency, colour profiles and plenty of other things can be ignored if not supported by the 3rd party viewers.

For that reason - PDFs are not great for sharing in general, as you never know how someone will open the PDF - what programme they are using, and plenty of other things.

hankscorpio said:

PDF viewers in internet browsers are generally terrible - like Firefox PDF viewer won't display transparent PNGs correctly (at least it didn't last time I looked which is a while ago).

Click to expand...

Never said it was any good lol... Having said that reader was/is pretty good for a lightweight viewer for people who don't really 'need' 100% compatibility etc like we do

hankscorpio said:

There's content about this here
https://support.office.com/en-ie/ar...DF-files-9b5c786b-9c6e-4fe6-81f6-9372f77c47c8

However, I think I know what's wrong with the Acrobat version.

If you've optimised your images to be low resolution - firstly - that would be problematic for printing anyway.

And secondly - Acrobat has it's own resolution settings, different to Powerpoint - I have mine set to 110 pixels per inch - for some reason.

But typically - the resolution display for acrobat is 108 pixels per inch - if you have images at 72 pixels per inch - then then won't display correctly.



View attachment 5519

Click to expand...

Thanks Hank, I'll look into that.

I've heard back from the client already, and she is very pleased (thank beep) so looks like I got away with it.

I think my presentation looks great in the browsers, firefox and edge. No change in the appearence of the mockup effect, shadow, textures, gradients etc. Barely any difference between the PDF and the powerpoint, which is what I was going for.

Also looks good in preview which I believe is the default for viewing PDF on apple computers.

I really need to get this sorted though for future projects. Can't be going through this every time.