Why Do the PDFs I Export From QuarkXPress Have Such a Huge File Size?

Answered by Jay Nelson, Editor and Publisher, Design Tools Monthly

Question:
Why do the PDFs I export from QuarkXPress have such a huge file size? The PDFs I export from Adobe products are much smaller.

Answer:
I think Quark made a mistake by not including PDF presets with either QuarkXPress 6 or 7. Apparently, they believed that users had a higher level of knowledge for producing PDFs than was true. By default, QuarkXPress assumes that you want to include all the data from every asset in your document. This means that images are not resampled to a lower resolution, are not cropped, and are not compressed. (By the way, PDF-making ability built into the Print dialog box in Mac OS X behaves the same way -- which is why those PDFs also have large file sizes.)

Fortunately, earlier this year Quark posted some free PDF Output Styles (presets) for QuarkXPress 7 on their website, and built them into the installer for QuarkXPress 7.3 and above. Now, when you want a PDF to send to a client for on-screen viewing or desktop printing, you just choose the appropriate PDF Output Style to create one that's just right. Output Styles are also included for Press, PDF/X-1a and PDF/X-3.

This question was answered by Jay Nelson, Publisher & Editor, Design Tools Monthly. We love DTM's tips and advice and think you will, too. For a free sample PRINTED issue, contact Design Tools Monthly at 303-543-8400, e-mail info@design-tools.com, or go to their website: www.design-tools.com.


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