Reduce 30mb file down to about 2mb?

[recacer]

Hey Gurus...

I need some help as soon as you can help me figure this out. My company used to put out a monthly "sales flier". It has been 6 or 7 months since that has actually happened. Previously, the fliers were done up in Publisher by the boss and to be quite honest the end result was very blah looking. I was asked to get this project going again and decided to ditch Publisher for Photoshop.

I created a 2 files (Page 1 and Page 2). Each file is 8-1/2" x 11" with a resolution of 300px. Each file contains 6 large images reduced in size via smart object along with text. As you can imagine this produced a file size of nearly 30mb each. This is too big for us to email out to our customer base which consists of about 100 customers.

What are my options to get these files down to 2mb or below but still keep the integrity of the work? I've tried reducing the resolution, saving as pdf with jpg compression down to low, converting to greyscale (this is something I don't really want to do as the look and feel of the flier is centered all around the colors).

I suppose I could also use some sort of zip/rar program to reduce a bit smaller.

Am I dreaming to big? Or is this possible?

Thanks in advance.

 

[66stang66]

Just my thoughts (no expert)....

If you are emailing it out, is it an image that your clients will be just viewing on their PC? If it is, convert it to 72ppi and use "Save for web and devices". Save it as a jpg and send away. Most, if not all, PCs are not capable of showing the user more than 72ppi anyway.

If it is going to be printed by them (on something other than your run of the mill printer), then say so and someone with more experience in that field can help you out.

Hope it helps

 

[recacer]

thanks for the reply stang.

i would more than willing to send out in any format. whether it be jpg or pdf. more than likely our customer would print it possibly for the sake of pinning/taping up for reference.

when i converted it to 72ppi then saved as pdf, the text was really bad. i'll give your suggestion a go in the morning.

thanks again for replying.

 

[MarkBorg]

Yep, your best bet would be a 72 DPI PDF, and then maybe zip it up? Do you have to use an attachment? Could you instead host it online on one of the free file sharing sites like box.net?

 

[recacer]

mark

i'll give that a try. i think the attachment option is probably best for our customer base. but no, it's not necessary. i have given the online option a thought as we have used them in the past. i might even extend to my boss the option of using my rapidshare prem account enabling trafficshare so our customers can get the file quicker.

thansk for the suggestion.

 

[Pulsar]

i would more than willing to send out in any format. whether it be jpg or pdf. more than likely our customer would print it possibly for the sake of pinning/taping up for reference.

Then why don't you do that? I don't understand your problem, unless your Jpeg also turns out to be 30MB and if that's the case it's a humongous file and makes me wonder what makes it so (unnecessary) big.

Take for example an 8 MegaPixel camera, an average Jpeg of good quality would be about 2 to 3MB for such camera, so if your Jpeg is indeed 30MB, then what did you do to make it so big, why make it bigger than what even a 20 MegaPixel would produce?

 

[recacer]

pulsar

not sure why it excessivly big. the first thing i did was to create a new file with the specs of 8.5" x 11", 300ppi, cmyk 8bit, transparent background... that's it. that alone gave me a 32.1mb file to start with. then naturally i began working, adding 300ppi photographed images and text. the end result was still a large file size. something too large for us to email to our customers.

i am obviously missing something in the settings. perhaps i was wrong with using ps to begin with. should have stuck with what they used prior... publisher. oh well, live and learn. i'm still open to suggestions to get what i have already done down to a reasonable size.

thanks for the help guys!

 

[recacer]

hey guys... i wanted to say thanks for the all of the suggestions. the info i lead off this post with was a bit incorrect.

i have 2 files for the flier, page 1 and page 2. each file is roughly 55mb in size. i played around a bit this morning with trying to get the file exported pdf file size down to a reasonable level and still some integrity to the overall look.

i ended up printing to pdf and saving the file that way. the end result of the file size for both was 1.5mb. the viewable pdf as well as the printed pdf was suitable for my boss, although i would have rather had no compression with high quality output.

thanks again.

 

[Pulsar]

that alone gave me a 32.1mb file to start with. then naturally i began working, adding 300ppi photographed images and text. the end result was still a large file size. something too large for us to email to our customers.

I still don't get it. If you started with a 32MB file, then you can never end up with something bigger, because the end product will always be flattened, since you told earlier that a flattended version would be ok.

Compression (since you didn't mind JPG) would then make that 32MB rather small.

the viewable pdf as well as the printed pdf was suitable for my boss, although i would have rather had no compression with high quality output.

The negative effects of compression are often extremely exaggerated. You can save a 25MB photo easily with a Jpeg setting of 100 (best quality) to 3MB and it's almost impossible to see a difference. The output device is often more limiting in such a case. I also don't understand why you used 300DPI? Often that's not needed and you can get away with lower.

Read this article: Inkjet Printers - DPI, PPI, Digital Cameras

I quote:


How DPI Relates to Inkjet Printers

DPI does not correspond directly with PPI because a printer may put down several dots to reproduce one pixel. This is because printers use a limited number of colored inks to reproduce an image consisting of millions of colors. The higher a printer's DPI, the smoother your printed image will appear, provided you have a suitable amount of image resolution (PPI).

Basically the term DPI refers to the resolution of the printing device, where PPI refers to the resolution of the image itself. . How can you remember this? Monitors display pixels, and printers produce dots.

Today's photo-quality ink jet printers have DPI resolution in the thousands (1200 to 4800dpi). They will give you acceptable quality photo prints of images with 140-200ppi resolution, and high quality prints of images with 200-300ppi resolution. Typically inkjet printers have three standard output settings:
- normal: 300 x 300 or 320 x 320 dpi
- high quality: 600 x 600 or 720 x 720 dpi, 1440 x 720
- photo quality: 1200 x 1200, 1440 x 1440 dpi, 2880 x 1440 and up
You might also have a draft or economy setting for printing text and rough drafts.


At one time, a good general rule for inkjet printing was that you needed half to one-third of the PPI of the printer's DPI setting that you intend to use. So if you're using your printer's "normal" setting (300dpi), your image needed to have at least 150ppi. When using the higher quality printer settings (720dpi and up), you can bring the PPI down to about 1/3 of the output resolution. That would be 240ppi for your printer's 720dpi setting.

Summary: You rarely need your image resolution to be higher than 240-300ppi for inkjet printing.

 

[recacer]

I also don't understand why you used 300DPI? Often that's not needed and you can get away with lower.

clearly a mistake on my part. in the past 4 months with this company i have been designing quite a few product tags for the items we manufacture. for these items, i was told by the previous designer that i should always use 300ppi. i guess i sort of got into a habit of using that setting.

in no way am i a 'professional' designer or advanced photoshop user. also, i was not hired to specifically do these tasks. my boss noticed some vinyl/cd artwork i have done for friends and asked if i wanted to give the product tag a try. it's a learning process for me. so far so good (when it comes to the tags)... not so good when it comes to creating something a simple as a flier. go figure.

thanks for the help guys... any and all feedback is appreciated. especially if it help understand your world better.