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FIXING CRIPPLED PDFS |
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FIXING
CRIPPLED PDFS Some publishers offer only
a low resolution “Web quality” PDF to authors, while others (e.g. Allen
Press) charge a premium price for a full resolution PDF. The low resolution PDFs are commonly only 72 dpi, and are only suitable for
“eBook” use in that they look fine on a screen but
print poorly. The printed type is fuzzy, and can sometimes be fixed by
setting your printer to 1200 dpi. The first page prints fine on a Postscript
printer, but each succeeding page must be printed separately. I have found that the
obvious solution of using the crippled PDF to create a PS or EPS file using
Adobe Acrobat then recreating a high-resolution PDF from the PS or EPS file
is apparently impossible (at least to me). On the other hand, a PDF suitable
for immediate desktop printing can be created from the crippled “eBook” PDF using easily available free software. That PDF
can be placed on the Web as a “reprint” that is entirely adequate for
distribution. The idea for this was from an article on the Web that indicated
that one can make decent print copies of crippled PDFs
using GSView and Ghostscript. How-To Steps: 1. Install (or have
installed, or find someone with these installed) GSView
and Ghostscript (free programs available on the
Web). 2. Use GSView
File menu to “Select” the crippled PDF file. 3. “Convert” the file
using “pdfwrite” device and “600 dpi” resolution
(or 720 dpi). 4. Save as Filename.pdf because GSView
does not automatically attach the “.pdf”. This may not increase
resolution of illustrations of low eBook
resolution, but the type will print well. Make sure the page size is correct
for the original publication. --- Thanks to Neal Evenhuis
for pointing out that this only works for Windows, OS/2 and Linux
platforms. No solution yet for Mac
users who might pursue the option of saving to PS or EPS and making a new PDF
with Acrobat, or some different brand of PDF software from the PS or EPS file.
- October 26, 2007. |
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