Image quality

[Mark-Gim]

(11-14-2020, 10:08 AM)rich2005 Wrote:

Quote:...But, when I try to save it as a .pdf file, the file size becomes approx. 312K !
How did my friend save it in Photoshop as a 4M .pdf file, and how can I save it in GIMP as a 4M .pdf file?

Too late, go back and start again.

A PDF from PS might contain raster images (images made up of pixels) as well as embedded text and maybe vector objects (arrows, stars..etc)  These open in a PDF viewer and can be viewed in good quality from small to large size...


If you are using Gimp 2.10.22 and added text, it seems to add the text metrics correctly. Earlier 2.10  versions, not so good, flatten the text before exporting.  
Export settings ? For a single page it does not make much difference. I leave everything checked. I have never seen Gimp convert a bitmap to a vector.   Gimp 2.10 Multi-Page is a disaster, text layers export to separate layers, avoid.  
File size ? All depends what that PS PDF contains. They do seem to be large and Gimp might be smaller, as long as you remember the Gimp PDF is now a single bitmap image.

EDIT Just seen Windows XP and Gimp 2.8 - All as above except text is automatically flattened and there is no mult-page option anyway.

Thanks for helping out Rich!
Everything you say sounds fair enough re: importing the .pdf into GIMP, making
small change and then exporting as .pdf.

But how about the other option I tried?
Importing the .tif from PS, making a small change
and then exporting as a .pdf?

Does GIMP actually change the rasters into vectors?
And why does the file size go from 4M to 300K
(.tif to .pdf) when PS maintains the same file size?