Image Compression Method

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24Peter

I am creating a photobook for printing on CreateSpace. They have a maximum file size limitation of 400MB. Scribus has four quality settings when compressing images for output to .PDF.  I guess I will have to see when I proof the book itself, but in order to meet the max file size, it looks like I will have to use "Medium" as my quality setting. Anyone have experience printing a 8.5x11 photos in a book at that setting? I am using very high resolution original photos (24MP-36MP) from my DSLR's and all are at least 300 dpi in my Scribus document. But I am noticing drastic differences in file sizes based on choosing different image compression quality settings and am not sure how that affects the printed output.

I will check the output .pdf in Photoshop later tonight at actual print size with the Medium compression setting but am wondering if anyone has any thoughts on this.

GarryP

The compression functions of Scribus can be confusing.

I've just done a quick test on a single-page document containing two images that both have an actual DPI - according to Scribus - of greater than 144.
Exporting without any compression settings checked gives a PDF of 827KB.
Exporting the exact same document with compression of Automatic / Maximum / 144DPI gives a PDF of 2.74MB (more than three times the size of the "noncompressed" document).
However, exporting using Lossy / Medium / 144DPI gives a PDF of only 189KB, which is much better size-wise but I don't know about output quality.

I think you just have to do some experimenting with different settings. Of course, that doesn't tell you what things will be like when they are printed.