Microsoft Print to PDF on Word 2007 does not support 6 in. x 9 in. size and does not support Grayscale PDF printing; Foxit Reader PDF Printer solves the problems.
Recently I had to provide a book inner contents PDF file of 6 in. x 9 in. size to a self-publisher website.
I used to use Microsoft Print to PDF on Word 2007 to produce my PDF printouts as that does not compress 300 DPI images. An around 22 MB Word document with 300 DPI images produces an around 40 MB PDF file with Microsoft Print to PDF and the PDF document on zooming the images in it shows good quality images.
In contrast Save As PDF for Word 2007, creates an around 5 MB PDF file for the same around 22 MB Word document! But on zooming the images in the PDF and comparing with Print to PDF created PDF file, one can easily see that the Save As PDF generated PDF's image quality is poorer than Microsoft Print to PDF image quality.
The problem for the 6 in. x 9 in. size PDF was that Microsoft Print to PDF did not provide that size as a choice in its Properties->Advanced dialog. It had standard sizes like A4, A5 and Letter but not 6x9 in. So I could not generate the PDF using Microsoft Print to PDF. Therefore I used Save As PDF which saves it as a 6x9 in. PDF file but compresses the images thereby losing out on image print quality.
The solution was to use Foxit Reader PDF Printer instead of Microsoft Print to PDF. The Foxit Reader PDF Printer provides 6x9 selection corresponding to 6 in. x 9 in. size for output PDF file. If the 6x9 in selection is not available in the Windows installation, one can add it through Control Panel -> Settings. I am not getting into details of that addition as I think that info. can be easily obtained from the Internet.
Another issue with Microsoft Print to PDF is that it does not give an option to print a grayscale PDF. So even if I took the precautions to use black text colour and grayscale images in the Microsoft Word 2007 document, the output PDF is viewed as a colour PDF, I think, and which requires conversion to grayscale by self-publisher websites (for inner content that is NOT colour) and which comes into play on submission of PDF.
Foxit Reader PDF Printer provides a setting of printing the PDF as color, gray or black & white. It also has a default Image Resolution of 600 (which I presume means that it will only compress images greater than 600 DPI to 600 DPI in the PDF). The 600 value is safe for my images which are 300 DPI.
I checked the image quality in the output PDF file (which is around 72 MB in size for an around 22 MB Word document) and found it to be good.
I used to use Microsoft Print to PDF on Word 2007 to produce my PDF printouts as that does not compress 300 DPI images. An around 22 MB Word document with 300 DPI images produces an around 40 MB PDF file with Microsoft Print to PDF and the PDF document on zooming the images in it shows good quality images.
In contrast Save As PDF for Word 2007, creates an around 5 MB PDF file for the same around 22 MB Word document! But on zooming the images in the PDF and comparing with Print to PDF created PDF file, one can easily see that the Save As PDF generated PDF's image quality is poorer than Microsoft Print to PDF image quality.
The problem for the 6 in. x 9 in. size PDF was that Microsoft Print to PDF did not provide that size as a choice in its Properties->Advanced dialog. It had standard sizes like A4, A5 and Letter but not 6x9 in. So I could not generate the PDF using Microsoft Print to PDF. Therefore I used Save As PDF which saves it as a 6x9 in. PDF file but compresses the images thereby losing out on image print quality.
The solution was to use Foxit Reader PDF Printer instead of Microsoft Print to PDF. The Foxit Reader PDF Printer provides 6x9 selection corresponding to 6 in. x 9 in. size for output PDF file. If the 6x9 in selection is not available in the Windows installation, one can add it through Control Panel -> Settings. I am not getting into details of that addition as I think that info. can be easily obtained from the Internet.
Another issue with Microsoft Print to PDF is that it does not give an option to print a grayscale PDF. So even if I took the precautions to use black text colour and grayscale images in the Microsoft Word 2007 document, the output PDF is viewed as a colour PDF, I think, and which requires conversion to grayscale by self-publisher websites (for inner content that is NOT colour) and which comes into play on submission of PDF.
Foxit Reader PDF Printer provides a setting of printing the PDF as color, gray or black & white. It also has a default Image Resolution of 600 (which I presume means that it will only compress images greater than 600 DPI to 600 DPI in the PDF). The 600 value is safe for my images which are 300 DPI.
I checked the image quality in the output PDF file (which is around 72 MB in size for an around 22 MB Word document) and found it to be good.
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