Image Compression Method

[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.