PDF file size

[wkrasl]

I have an HP Officejet 6500 E710n-z (Network) that I use at home to scan into PDFs, and I know exactly how to move the slider from "Smallest size" to "Best quality" 

However the size of the PDFs are unacceptably large when image quality is acceptable, and if I move the slider to reduce the size then the image becomes unacceptable.  It is impossible to scan a legal document of more than a few legible pages without producing a file size too large to email .  I am forced to break these scanned documents into 3-4 page bite-sized chunks.

A simple one page HOA Disclosure form, at 200 DPI and the slider in the middle for balance, produces a 699K PDF.  I have used other printer scanners at work (different brands) at the same 200 DPI that results in very clear documents at less than 100K per page. 

I believe there is something wrong with HP's scan-to-PDF algorithm.  The problem must be due to some unskilled (or flawed) software design.  What will it take to have HP or third party developer (and developer staff supervision) take this seriously -- compare HP vs other brand scanners PDF files -- and update the HP drivers to fix this?

[Kyle_W]

More than likely it has to do with the OCR software.

If you are scanning into PDF, the software is using the OCR character recognition software when creating the PDF, which is adding to the file size. 

With my experience in PDF's, the file size does tend to be large for what it is. I just looked on my computer and my simple one page resume is 114KB and that was just a file converted to PDF through Microsoft Word.

What are you using to email these PDF's? Nothing in KB's should be too large, it should at least be a MB limit. For example, Gmail has a 25 MB file attachment limit.  

[wkrasl · Accepted solution]

Thanks for the reply.  My problem was scanning and emailing legal documents of 10 or more pages, which were coming out of the scanner at about 700KB per page with the most recent previous compromise settings.  The 10-page document was an unacceptable 7 MB.

However, after posting the problem I went about a more throrough trial and error process with 200 vs 300 dpi, 0% to 100% in slider increments, and bw / color / grey.  I got an acceptable 200 KB per page using greyscale 200 dpi, and 90%-10% weighting in favor of smaller size.  That got my 10-page document down to an acceptable 2 MB. 

But I'll still have problems with 30-50 page contracts where every page has to be initialed by four parties, scanning and resending back and forth multiple times.

Regards.

[wglacombe]

I still get large file sizes on my Officejet 6700 using greyscale 1708 KB/page.  Problem is not solved for me.

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@wkrasl wrote:

Thanks for the reply.  My problem was scanning and emailing legal documents of 10 or more pages, which were coming out of the scanner at about 700KB per page with the most recent previous compromise settings.  The 10-page document was an unacceptable 7 MB.

However, after posting the problem I went about a more throrough trial and error process with 200 vs 300 dpi, 0% to 100% in slider increments, and bw / color / grey.  I got an acceptable 200 KB per page using greyscale 200 dpi, and 90%-10% weighting in favor of smaller size.  That got my 10-page document down to an acceptable 2 MB. 

But I'll still have problems with 30-50 page contracts where every page has to be initialed by four parties, scanning and resending back and forth multiple times.

Regards.

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[Grandpa_M]

Is it possible that the size of scanned PDF files from HP 7520 are large because they are saved as 256 (8-BPP) color even when specified as black & white?  I have another printer HP F4280 that I bought in Europe and scans from that printer create very small PDF files.  Probably the printer software was produced by different HP group and they did much better job than their American counterparts.   Is there a chance that someone form HP will look into it and eliminate the bugs?

A way around it that works for me is to scan in TIF black and white format and then to use PDF printer to create PDF file.

[wglacombe]

HP uses an old version (3 I think) of Adobe Acrobat to create its pdf files.  This was probably not as efficient as the current Adobe Acrobat 11 version.  I found lhis out with my copy of Adobe Acrobat and looking at the Properties of one of my scanned files with my HP 6700 printer/scanner.   HP probably didn't want to pay the licensing fees for a more current version of Acrobat to incorporate into its scanner software.  It's been a great disappointment to me to see the large file sizes.

[wkrasl]

This was an old thread, but not much has changed with PDF file sizes.  The documents that cause me grief are 20-30 page real estate contracts.  At best, every page is faxed or scanned and rescanned into a PDF twice, first for the offer and second for the acceptance.  At worst, the same page can be faxed or scanned three or more times with counter offers and haggling.  Image quality deteriorates with each pass, so this is a big problem.

Since I upgraded my printer from a 6500 to an 8610, I reran my quality tests at the default 200 DPI and deefault image quality (about 75%) producing a file size of 584KB for a single sample page.  I then tested at 0%, 15%, 20%, 25%, and 100% quality producing file sizes of 146KB, 243KB, 281KB, 320KB, and 1741KB.  Based on visual comparison of the resulting image quality, 0% was totally unacceptable, and 15% was poor.  20% was actually not bad -- I had to look close to see any substatial difference from 100%.  I then found that changing from color at 281KB to greyscale actually increased the file size to 288KB, and changing to black & white increased it to 338KB.

Bottom line, I have chosen Color, 200 DPI, 20% Image Quality as my default.  However, I also discovered a feature I never saw before, being able to create a Seachable PDF.  While I would not use it for contracts, it would be quite useful at other times.  The image quality was the same, increasing the 20% file size from 281KB to 411KB.

[wkrasl]

Just a follow up.  I went into chat mode with some low-level tech named Nathan, giving him the link to this thread.  After reading it, he suggested I can improve file size by using greyscale and 200 DPI.  DUH!!!!  I complained he was just humoring me, so he said I should call the tech support number.

I did that next and spoke with a very nice young lady who actually DID take me seriously.  I could hear her typing away vigorously in the background, capturing every detail of my plea for this to be forwarded up the chain of command for serious consideration.  It was clear she understood and captured from me that there are many forum complaints that can be found with a search term "PDF File Size" that are getting weak or unacceptable "solutions" to push the slider left or use lower DPI etc.  She also captured my assurances that some competitor brands produce PDF file sizes 20 times smaller for the same image quality.

I believe that this might actually be opened up at a higher level for consideration of an improvement in the compression algorithm.  My fingers are crossed.  Since I have about 11 months left for warranty support, I plan to contact them once or twice again before it expires, using the same case number to see if there is any progress.

Bottom line:  At my default of 200 DPI and 20% image quality, with an average file size for a single sample page producing a file size of 281KB, a 25-page document creates a PDF file that is 7MB!  That will just barely make it past the file size limit for my email provider, but might be too large for the recipient.  That is still unacceptable, and is forcing me to consider products other than HP for this business purpose.

[ldougher]

I'm also scanning large Real Estate files and have the same issue.  I've finally had time to sit down and take a look at trying to reduce the file size of the .pdf file and maintain a reasonable quality.  Thanks to this thread i will be researching another compeitior to purchase my device from.  Sad to say i've been a HP customer for years.  Time to move on if they haven't fixed this problem by now.

[Leo2016]

This is a bug in the HP scanning software.   I also spend over an hour with HP support with the advisor stating they were going to escallate to engineering.  Months later still no response and from the forum this issue has been around for a while.

I posted details of the issue here.....

http://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Scanning-Faxing-and-Copying/Scan-to-PDF-files-too-large-Why-Solution-fo...

The solution until HP fixes their software is to use other software.  Nuance Paperport and a number of other products produce correct B&W pdf scans