Main Area and Open Discussion > General Software Discussion
PDF's
Target:
I realize the thread is not about what desktop application one can use, but more about what application one can talk the company into purchasing a license for? In such case the target should more likely be a PROfessional bulk program like PdfCompressor, or such. But then he prices #begins# at $500 (for no more than a 1.000 files per month)! Additional PRO features include "creating a watched folder that PdfCompressor Professional (OCR) can monitor for new files to compress and OCR automatically." They have desktop versions for individual file handling, one at a time, without OCR for merely $200, and with OCR for $300, but they will not handle files over a 100 pages.
-Curt (November 10, 2009, 05:14 PM)
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the problem here is that the files aren't produced by a desktop app at all, they are generated by our multifunction devices (ie scanned to PDF and sent via email). If they were I'm sure we could probably do something about it...
Given that this is a corporate environment (and that they can't afford to have users fiddling with stuff :eusa_naughty:) the settings are preconfigured and locked down so even if the users were interested AND knew what they needed to do, they can't, which means we end users get stuck with something that is badly bloated and unwieldy...
superboyac:
Sounds to me like the only plausible solutions would have to address the creation of the pdf's. Since there's no way for the company to do that without fiddling with those settings, then I'm afraid there really isn't a solution to your problem.
Our company here has tried solutions like Bluebeam's network printer where users drop files into a folder and then they get automatically converted to pdf's and spit out into another folder. but most people still went straight to the copy machine/scanner for most of their needs. So, in the end, it doesn't matter. If you scan, you get an image, and it's going to be a bigger file than it needs to be. In my opinion, we're still a good 5-10 years away from moving away from heavily relying upon copy machines for large corporations.
yksyks:
I probably missed something, but why Adobe Acrobat Pro can't be a solution? In the case of converting scanned documents I'm regularly using the ClearScan option, which can reduce file size dramatically, and at the same time you have documents with relatively reliable OCR'd text that can be searched and indexed.
If somebody is interested, I can elaborate on this, just recently I managed to convert 260 MB scanned color pages to 13 MB PDF file with text, but I admit this is an extreme case--the document cosisted of small pictures with captions on white background, usually the compression is 1/3 of the original size.
katykaty:
OWhat problems do these bloated pdfs cause you?-katykaty (November 10, 2009, 04:35 PM)
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If you work with 1000's of them, they hog disc space. More frustratingly, though, if you need to e-mail them to others, you can quickly run into attachment size limits >:(-Darwin (November 10, 2009, 04:40 PM)
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hit the nail on the head there, we have to distribute them to several different places via email, so size is an issue...
quite apart from that the bloat just is ridiculous - why should anyone have to work with a 10M version of a 2M word document
-Target (November 10, 2009, 04:52 PM)
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I'm not being deliberately stupid here, honestly ;) But again, so what is the problem exactly? Is it that you have to spend x minutes longer than necessary sending the mail in several parts, is it that the emails take y minutes longer to reach their destinations waiting for the security team to release the oversized attachment, is it that you have to pay $/£/€/ z more in internet bandwidth? You say that these are causing you PITA - just how does that P manifest itself?
The reason for asking is that it seems clear that you need other people in your company to take action. And to get those people on board you're going to have to justify what real benefit the company will get by solving the problem.
These bloated pdfs are costing us £ a year! People listen.
These bloated pdfs are stopping me from working on the Widget project! People listen.
These bloated pdfs are bigger than they could otherwise be! No one cares.
I'd say there are two solutions to your problem. Technological and psychological.
The technological solution means persuading the person who can make the decision that rolling out the necessary changes to the mfp settings.
The psychological solution is to make it in people's interests to send you efficiently sized pdfs. How much control do you have over what you do? Can you politely reject any pdf that comes in above a certain size - with a link to a quick guide on how to scan pdfs efficiently? Can you bump anything less than 2Mb to the top of the queue?
Target:
I'm not being deliberately stupid here, honestly ;) But again, so what is the problem exactly? Is it that you have to spend x minutes longer than necessary sending the mail in several parts, is it that the emails take y minutes longer to reach their destinations waiting for the security team to release the oversized attachment, is it that you have to pay $/£/€/ z more in internet bandwidth? You say that these are causing you PITA - just how does that P manifest itself?
The reason for asking is that it seems clear that you need other people in your company to take action. And to get those people on board you're going to have to justify what real benefit the company will get by solving the problem.
These bloated pdfs are costing us £ a year! People listen.
These bloated pdfs are stopping me from working on the Widget project! People listen.
These bloated pdfs are bigger than they could otherwise be! No one cares.
I'd say there are two solutions to your problem. Technological and psychological.
The technological solution means persuading the person who can make the decision that rolling out the necessary changes to the mfp settings.
The psychological solution is to make it in people's interests to send you efficiently sized pdfs. How much control do you have over what you do? Can you politely reject any pdf that comes in above a certain size - with a link to a quick guide on how to scan pdfs efficiently? Can you bump anything less than 2Mb to the top of the queue?-katykaty (November 11, 2009, 12:29 PM)
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the problem here is that I have a tolerate/hate relationship with PDF's.
I understand what it's for and why it can be 'a good thing'
What I don't like is that there are a lot of people that don't understand or don't consider their end users when producing the damn things which results in wildly bloated documents that are a pain to deal with if you are in a situation where you then have to redistribute said documents (there are limits to what we can send through our internal email system).
I've stated elsewhere that I am operating inside a corporate environment, and that the sources for these documents are manifold.
It is inconcievalbe that the company would spring for anything like the requisite Acrobat licenses, things like this aren't even a blip on their radar and the lieklyhood of them making even small changes like this are remote (I am a very very small cog here so my level of influence is pretty close to zero... hell, this is a corporate environment, so even the people that should be, aren't...)
having said all that I'm a little concerned that this thread might be veering a little off topic - my original request was a request for some means of dealing with oversized documents (eg a 40 page file containing text only that was over 10M). I have experimented with various tools over the years but with little success, however per my above post I've just discovered a PDF printer setting which appears to have given me the result I was looking for (hopefully this will be of benefit to others)
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