Scanning To .PDF

[Dan Schultz]

I scan a lot of stuff and am looking for ways to keep the size of the files down less than 10 megs so they can be easily emailed. Thirty or so pages usually result in a file much larger than that. I am using the 'cheapo' scanning program that came with an all-in-one printer. I normally scan black & white at a resolution of 200 or 300dpi.

Suggestions? Can .pdf files be compressed? Is there better software I need to be looking at?

[Thomas Maurice Booth]

http://smallpdf.com/" target="_blank" target="_blank

I use that website at work quite frequently to reduce the file size of scanned blueprints. I have had files go from 100+MB to <10MB. It is free and quite handy.

Hope that helps,

TMB

[Uncle Buck]

This may not help your situation, but if you have the documents in a word processing format, you can usually either save it as a PDF, or often there is a print function where you can print to PDF. This results in much smaller PDF files than scanning.

Sorry if that suggestion doesn't help you (if you're only dealing with physical paper stuff that you have to scan).

[bighonkintuba]

In LibreOffice, one can adjust compression when exporting files to .pdf format. I just imported an image into a LibreDraw document and saved it as a .pdf without compression (lossless) and again with 50% compression (called .jpeg compression). The first file was a bit less than twice as large as the second. I don't have my scanner handy, but I have no reason to expect that the image file source would matter.

I use LibreOffice for GNU/Linux and don't have access to Mac or Windows machines to determine if this works in those versions. I also export from open document file formats (no .doc, .docx etc.), so I'm not sure if that matters.

Might be worth a try...

-----

Even better, LibreOffice is free software. Free as in intellectual and consumer freedoms, not just free burgers. :)

[NCSUSousa]

TubaTinker,
I'm not sure what kind of prints you're scanning.
If it's just typed text documents, you can scan them into an OCR (Optical Character Recognition) software that likely also came with the all-in-one printer software. (I have an all-in-one laser printer/scanner at home that came with OCR software.)
If your printer didn't come with the software, you can find good, free software on CNet that will do the job.
Once you scan to an OCR, you can create a word document format (.doc or .docx file type) file. Printing to PDF from that will result in a MUCH smaller file size. You may need to proofread the word file before saving and converting to pdf.

If you're scanning music pages, I think you'll have to pay for the software that can convert it to a digital music score file. As before, printing that file to pdf from the music scoring software will be much smaller than the scanned image saved as a pdf.

[Rick F]

I've been using CutePDF writer for years. It installs as a printer on your PC. It's free and you can print anything that's on your computer to a PDF file. Just select CutePDF as your printer when printing.

Link:
http://www.cutepdf.com/products/cutepdf/writer.asp

[runelk]

Are you printing just text or are there pictures? Sometimes a picture may look B&W but it really isn't. In Adobe Acrobat you can actually decrease the size of the PDF to a point. In Acrobat, to positively make sure everything is in B&W go to the Tool Bar ADVANCE scrol down to Preflight, click on "covert to grayscale" Acrobat will convert everything in the file to B&W which will decrease the file size. If that dosen't work you always copy a quarter to a half of the text and send it in 2-4 emails to your email address. Gmail works fine because it'll take up to a 10 MG email.

Just trying to help,
Albert

[Dan Schultz]

Are you printing just text or are there pictures? ....

I've been scanning a lot of music (public domain, of course!) and normally do it in three files to keep the file size under 10 megs: 1) the score, 2) woodwind parts, 3) brass and percussion parts.

Scanning in black and white at 200pdi will usually produce manageable file sizes. However... I've been encountering some files that approach 20 megs and most email servers don't like 'em that large.

Like I mentioned.... I use the 'cheapo' program that came with my scanner. I haven't tried spending the bucks for the 'real deal' yet because I'm not sure it you buy anything more than what I already have.

[bisontuba]

Hi-
No need to scan or copy music with a machine--use your phone.
The app 'TurboScan' can scan sheet music from your phone or tablet--and then I usually send the finished product to myself or others as a pdf file and print it out. One of the best phone apps out there!
Mark

[Biggs]

It's not as if the snare drum part to "The Purple Carnival March" is confidential.

shhh! they'll hear you!

[Dan Schultz]

I have .pdf files in my library that are as small as 250KB per page and as large as a meg per page. I did some tests today using different modes (color, greyscale, and black & white) with 200 and 300dpi and there just doesn't seem to be that much difference in what I create. The files seem to 'hover' around 750KB per page.

Is there anyone on The Forum who can run several thousand files to sort of make them standard?

[Dan Schultz]

I just made a fairly startling discovery about the size of scanned .pdf files generated by the utility included with HP all-in-one scanners:

The size of the scan is almost 400KB as opposed to about 80KB .pdf files created by a utility such as 'novapdf' that functions as a printer.

I think I figured out where the problem lies.... HEWLETT-PACKARD!

[Mark]

Set up an AOL email account, and give EVERYONE IN THE BAND the password.

(Ab-)use it as a "file-sharing" system. The "emails" won't even have to be "sent"...
They can just be stored in "drafts".

Or use the free DropBox account.

[Rick F]

I think a real easy way to share pdf files is through 'Box.com'. You can get 10 gig of storage for FREE and upload pdf files, mp3 files, images, etc. You don't need to share authority over these files, but can share a link so anyone who has the link can view, download or stream (in the case of mp3 files). I do this with Symphonic Band and section mates. It's been working well for many years for us.

I just created a folder today as an example and put one pdf file there (public domain). You can preview it, download it or print it from there.

Example:
https://app.box.com/s/ndci03b7armk8z4rsd18lva7e0801gz9



10 gig is a lot of room for pdf files. You should never run out and it's FREE.

[Mark]

I thought your per-page size seemed large, so I just scanned 6,617 PDF files, all sheet music, using PDF Explorer. Here are the stats:

Files: 6,617
Average number of pages: 24
Average size per page: 83,019 bytes (about 82K)
Largest file has 925 pages and is 46,803,773 bytes for an average of 50,599 bytes per page.
Smallest file is 1 page and 3,364 bytes.

I used Adobe Acrobat to scan most of these files at either 300 ppi or 600 ppi. Most are black and white, but a few of these files are grayscale or color. And a few of them also have sound (mostly WAV files) embedded in them. I didn't analyze the page size, but I'd say the majority are 9 x 12 inches, with some larger and some smaller.

I'd say the software you are using is a large part of the problem. Acrobat is pricey but good. I also highly recommend PDF Explorer (http://www.rttsoftware.com/) if you are working with a lot of PDF files.

[Dan Schultz]

Downloaded 'softi scan wiz' this afternoon. Good resolution yields a page of music that's only about 80kb instead of 300kb.

Here's a comparison of file size using the HP 3050 scan software and the softi Scanwiz. Both were configured for black and while at 300dpi.

For one page of music:
HP at low res (smallest file size) - 316kb
HP at high res (largest file size) - 2.83MB

softi scanwiz low res (smallest file size) - 70.5kb
softi scanwiz high res (largest file size) - 71.6kb

The softi scanwiz license is $59. Seems to me to be a small price to pay for something that actually works.

SHAME ON YOU, HEWLETT-PACKARD The scanning software you supply with your all-in-one printers SUCKS!

[joh_tuba]

I never emails pdfs or mp3s anymore. It's much easier to upload into a google drive(or similar file sharing service) and email the link.

The file sharing services don't care as much that your files are huge.

[Dan Schultz]

Though I'm sure google knows everything about me, I'm not particularly interested in handing them all of my information via their main entrance......

I don't do file sharing via any of the sites like Google or Dropbox. I much prefer to keep my stuff to myself and those I choose to share it with.

[joh_tuba]

Of course.. do as you feel comfortable..

The idea that an email is a secure closed loop is an illusion.. it passes through many servers on the way to the destination.. many of which are owned by google, amazon, etc.

From a practical standpoint no more(or less) people have access to the file either way. You can choose in settings WHO has access to the file and how and what they can do with that file. It is uploaded ONCE on your end and downloaded ONCE on their end and sits on a server until you choose to delete it.

File sharing services are arguably a more 'secure' and elegant solution.

IF this is really true:

Though I'm sure google knows everything about me, I'm not particularly interested in handing them all of my information via their main entrance......

I don't do file sharing via any of the sites like Google or Dropbox. I much prefer to keep my stuff to myself and those I choose to share it with.

The correct solution would be to establish an FTP server at your home that ONLY you control. Have those that want that file FTP into your secure server in your home and access the file directly.

[pgym]

The idea that an email is a secure closed loop is an illusion.. it passes through many servers on the way to the destination.. many of which are owned by google, amazon, etc.

[snip]

The correct solution would be to establish an FTP server at your home that ONLY you control. Have those that want that file FTP into your secure server in your home and access the file directly.

The idea that FTP is a secure closed loop is also an illusion. In fact, if anything, FTP is LESS secure than email since ALL transactions and data, including login credentials, are sent as cleartext, which passes through many servers on the way to the destination … many of which are owned by google, amazon, etc.