Compressing 7.8MB newsletter for email

Kerry,

I think the best way to send out a Pages document (the way that everyone can read it, regardless of which platform they're on and which word processor they use) is to save it as a PDF file. But I wouldn't just use Pages' export feature. The way to both save it as PDF and compress it substantially is like this: From Pages' File menu, select Print (I know that seems counter-intuitive). In the Copy & Pages drop-down menu, select ColorSync. In the Quartz Filter menu, select Reduce File Size. Then click the Print button.

Odd, I answered this question, but my post isn't showing up, even after a screen refresh. Oh well. I'll try it again:

Welcome to Apple Discussions, Kerry.

The best way to accomplish what you want is to save it as a PDF, so people can read it regardless of their platform or word processor. Here's how to save it as PDF and compress it at the same time:

- From the File menu, choose Print
- From the Copies & Pages menu, select ColorSync
- From the Quartz Filter menu, select Reduce File Size
- Click on the PDF button, then Save as PDF

Sorry for these multiple posts. The forum seems to be behaving very strangely today. Anyway, please use my second post since there's a mistake in the first one.

Kerry-

Dennis's advice is good, as usual. It's also simple. I'm not sure how well it reduces file size, though it probably works.

I have another possible solution for reducing file size (more complicated, but I know it works).

If your document is only 3 pages, it probably doesn't contain many photos. If you primarily want to e-mail it and are not concerned about the print quality of the photos, the photos can be quite small and low resolution.

If you can find some way to make your 1.5 megabyte (large!) photos smaller... and perhaps make them only 75 dpi (75 dots per inch = good for viewing on screen, not good for high resolution printing) this will reduce the final document size dramatically. (I use photoshop for this.)

You can export smaller photos from iPhoto this way: click to Share, Export, then specify "Scale images no larger than" and indicate a small size.

Select a current (large - 1.5 meg) photo in your Pages document. Click Format, Advanced, Define as Image Placeholder. Then you can drag the replacement (small) image onto this placeholder. This "placeholder" trick means that your new smaller photo will not cause any layout to change.

This will greatly reduce the filesize of your final document. But remember, it will not print in high resolution. So do this on a copy of the original file if you want to save the original in high resolution.

I just did this trick with all the photos in a 20-page annual report and it went from 9 megs down to 1.3 megs.

It's a sync problem with the servers, DennisG.

To the OP, I would still greatly reduce the size of your photos before including them, because with images that big you still won't get a reasonably emailable file without a lot of quality loss, even using the filters.

You can use Graphic Converter, if you have that, or download the demo version of Photoshop elements and use the Save for Web feature for the smallest file. (I'm assuming you're intending for folks just to read the PDF and not print it out.)

Sometime ago followed Peggy's advice using color synch to reduce size. Also use Photo Shop and .gif, but in the print menu I've found reducing size of final doc with copious images for e-mail is to click on pdf to compress which works wonders. 22 mb 4-page pages newsletter doc compressed to less than 1 mb for e-mail. Ol' Jim.

Late to chime in, but I have yet another solution.

If your photos currently reside in iPhoto, choose the ones you want and email them.

They will show up in a blank email, and can be drug out of there, one at a time, to Pages (dragging can be finiky, since sometimes the mail programs thinks you are highlighting them and it won't drag'ndrop if they are highlighted)

You have the option as to how wide you want the photo to be. If it will be shrunk, use the 200 setting. If it will be used larger, use one of the larger settings. A large photo will be renderred down to about 60-150k, depending on the image and size chosen.

Gerry.

I'm even later to chime in. I usually use GraphicConverter to shrink graphics first before inserting into Pages. A lot of the time I also change the colors from millions to thousands in Graphic Converter. Then I usually use the Print/ColorSync/Save As PDF method, but will often, if I'm not in a hurry, try Pages Export > PDF & compare sizes to determine which I want to put on the web. It's funny that the sizes aren't consistent. One month my newsletter will be smaller with one method & the next month it's the other. One think I never do is Print > Save As PDF > Compress PDF. I checked it once & the quality was horrible.

Peggy

I should know better than to get back into this, but my experience is the opposite of Peggy's. Compressing thru print menu with pdf has worked fine for me. Just e-mailed three images 1.0 meg compressed to 176 kb, e-mailed test to myself before send, quality fine.

My cam is Kodak Easy Share and use that program, but USB adapter on the way so hope to use iPhoto that came with iLife. Anxious to try and compare. To be safe, stick with Peggy. Her church newsletter is a work of art.

However I've had good feedback on image quality in my monthly newsletter using pdf compress. Lucky I guess. Ol' Jim.

One more word of advice in addition to all of the other good suggestions in this thread:

To make your original Pages document as small as possible, do not use copy and paste to place your images. If you do this the images are incorporated into the Pages "file" (really a package that is a folder made to look like a single file) as PICT or TIFF images, neither of which are compressed.

Instead, after you make whatever changes you want to your image in Graphic Converter, iPhoto, iView, or whatever save the image as a .jpg or .png file. In Pages, select "Choose..." from the Insert Menu and then select the file you just saved. The image will then be incorporated into the Pages package with the .jpg or .png compression, making it as much as ten times smaller than if you had copy and pasted it into Pages.

As others have pointed out, Windows users will not be able to read your pages file directly so you will have to Export to a different format for them. PDF is the best as it will assure your layout.