How to insert a pdf without compressing it?

You can almost certainly get a better result if you open the .pdf file and then use Snagit (you can get a free 30 day trial from www.techsmith.com, but the program is well worth what it costs) to print the pdf and save the Snagit output as a .pdf file and then insert that.

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Doug Robbins - Word MVP, Posted via the NNTP Bridge

"tjodrik" wrote in message news:*** Email address is removed for privacy ***...

I am trying to insert a pdf image into word 2007, through Insert>Object>Object>Create from file>Browse>'My pdf file'.

When it's inserted however, the quality is terrible. I've tried to prevent the compression by right-clicking the object>Format Object>Picture>Compress, and checking 'No Change' and unchecking 'Compress pictures', but nothing changes. In fact, when I right-click and go to the Compress options again, it has gone back to the default settings (a check on 'Print' and 'Compress pictures').

I tried the same in Word 2003, but the exact same thing happened. So how can I prevent Word from compressing the pdf?

Sorry, I meant to say save the Snagit output as a .jpg file.

-- Hope this helps.

Please reply to the newsgroup unless you wish to avail yourself of my
services on a paid consulting basis.

Doug Robbins - Word MVP, Posted via the NNTP Bridge

"tjodrik" wrote in message news:*** Email address is removed for privacy ***...

Sorry, I don't understand. The problem is that Word automatically compresses the pdf you insert, and I can't find a way of turning that off. How will creating a pdf of the pdf change that? It will still be a pdf I'm inserting into Word, and Word will still automatically compress it.

Sorry, maybe I should have been more precise. I appreciate your suggestion, but suggesting to insert a jpeg rather than a pdf doesn't address the question of how to prevent Word from automatically compressing an inserted pdf.

I have googled around for similar issues, and the vast majority of replies are along those lines (i.e. make a screen capture, save the file as png, jpeg etc.), but they are just work-around solutions. Similar to when you have a problem writing a certain command in C, suggesting to use Perl instead wouldn't address the actual question ...

I do not think it has anything to do with file compression (inserting a 21 KB pdf file into a 20 KB document causes the size of the document to increase to 125 KB)

You may have to accept that in this case, all you can do is make use a of work around.

-- Hope this helps.

Doug Robbins - Word MVP,
dkr[atsymbol]mvps[dot]org
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"tjodrik" wrote in message news:*** Email address is removed for privacy ***...

Sorry, maybe I should have been more precise. I appreciate your suggestion, but suggesting to insert a jpeg rather than a pdf doesn't address the question of how to prevent Word from automatically compressing an inserted pdf.

I have googled around for similar issues, and the vast majority of replies are along those lines (i.e. make a screen capture, save the file as png, jpeg etc.), but they are just work-around solutions. Similar to when you have a problem writing a certain command in C, suggesting to use Perl instead wouldn't address the actual question ...

No, I'm just inserting a small pdf image. In fact, "work-around" solutions aren't solutions, because the whole point of inserting a pdf is that pdf is a vector image, whereas regular picture formats are not. The problem is that Word automatically pixelates an inserted pdf, so that it isn't a vector image anymore. Whether you call that "compression" or not is another issue (I said "compress" because that's what Word itself says it does - see my first post).

Since vector images are vastly superior to pixel images, it's very disappointing that Word 2007 isn't able to handle vector images. Incidentally, I've tried to insert pdfs in Word 2008 (Mac), and there it works just fine. The vector image properties are retained there. One reason I always preferred 2007 to 2008 is that 2008 distorts the text font in the document somewhat, and makes it look uglier. But I prefer the somewhat uglier font (2008) to pixel images (2007).

It's sad, but this is probably going to push me to learn LaTeX. Having pixelated graphs in a document looks very amateurish, and people in my field would expect something better. I can't understand why Word 2007 doesn't support vector images. I can only hope Word 2010 does, but I have my doubts.