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Same report, variable PDF output size

edited March 2011 in General
Hi all,

This thing "puzzles" me a little:
I have an end user report (built with D7 with RB 11.05 enterprise)
which uses several jpeg images as a background.
Exporting this report to pdf (using the embedded driver) gives, on
different machines, very different file sizes:
for example, 15,498 pages are exported, at a customer's site, to a PDF
of almost 22 mb.
The same report on my pc gets exported to a 134 mb pdf, six times
larger.
Pdf settings are obviously the same in both cases
(compression = max, scaleimages = false) since the application is
always the same.
Images are the same, only data are slighty different
but not so much in size.
Which are factors that impact the pdf size ?
Perhaps the screen resolution could matter (since I do a preview
and then print to file) ?
This customer works in terminal server environment with a slow
resolution setting on the server screen.
At first I suspected the default printer resolution (higher in my pc,
slower at the customer) but lowering it doesn't change things...
Any tips/idea ?
Thanks in advance
Bye
Nicola

Comments

  • edited March 2011
    Hi Nicola,

    The only items that can alter the size of the generated PDF are, Images
    (ScaleImages property), Fonts (Embedded fonts), and compression level.
    Is it possible that you are embedding fonts into your PDF file and your
    customer is not. Note that if the fonts are not available, default
    fonts are used.

    1. On your machine try setting ScaleImages to True and see the size
    difference.

    2. On your machine try turning font embedding off and see the size
    difference.


    Regards,

    Nico Cizik
    Digital Metaphors
    http://www.digital-metaphors.com

    Best Regards,

    Nico Cizik
    Digital Metaphors
    http://www.digital-metaphors.com
  • edited March 2011

    Hi Nico,

    Thanks for the (so quick) reply.
    Font embedding seems disabled to me (efAllFonts = false,
    efFontList = false).
    I've tried ScaleImages = true on my pc and size reduces (quality
    lowers too but it's not a problem in this context, obviously).
    But at my customer site the app runs with scaleimages=false
    (it's the very same application).
    Now I am trying with a smaller pages set
    50 pages generated at the customer site give 1,451 kb pdf
    51 pages at my pc give 4,291 kb pdf,
    both cases with scaleimages = false and no font embedded.
    If I set scaleImages = true I get a 699 kb file.
    This report has few textual data and almost ten quite big images.
    They are 24 bit jpeg, nearly all larger and higher than the print
    size, with stretch enabled.
    Are you sure that system palette doesn't matter ?


  • edited March 2011
    Hi Nicola,

    Hmm, this is very interesting. Try exporting the report on your
    computer and your customer's computer with the CompressionLevel set to
    clNone and see if the file is of a different size. If so, please send
    the two files zipped up to support@digital-metaphors.com and I'll take a
    look.


    Regards,

    Nico Cizik
    Digital Metaphors
    http://www.digital-metaphors.com

    Best Regards,

    Nico Cizik
    Digital Metaphors
    http://www.digital-metaphors.com
  • edited March 2011
    Hi Nico,

    I've sent the email.
    Thanks in advance.
    Bye
    Nicola

This discussion has been closed.