PDF export via Print (printer) in .js is 4 ~ 5 times bigger than by hand exported PDF.

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GnrlSchnavy
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PDF export via Print (printer) in .js is 4 ~ 5 times bigger than by hand exported PDF.

Post by GnrlSchnavy » Mon Sep 04, 2017 1:38 pm

Hi,

So to save myself a lot of work I created a script that takes in an x amount of .DWG's, applies some very elementary operations on it and then exports it to .PDF. It works near perfect but there is one thing that I keep running into, namely the fact that the exported PDF's via the script are 4 ~ 5 times larger in size than when I would do a PDF export with exactly the same offsets, sizes etc, by hand. Example a .dwg of around size 2.6MB exports to around a 2.9MB PDF when I do it via the QCAD interface but when I do it via my script it exports to a 16 MB (!!) PDF. This is soo big compared to the other PDF.
I have the offsets, paper hieght, width and scale exactly the same in both exports.

Are there other things that can make a significant difference in the filesize of the exported PDF? As far as I can tell here now the exports are besides one being done via GUI and the other via script identical.

Thanks in advance,

Yvan

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andrew
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Re: PDF export via Print (printer) in .js is 4 ~ 5 times bigger than by hand exported PDF.

Post by andrew » Mon Sep 04, 2017 1:43 pm

When exporting using the QCAD GUI, are you using File > PDF Export or File > Print > Save as PDF or similar? In the latter case, the PDF export is done by the operating system (macOS) or an installed PDF printer driver (Windows / Linux) which could yield a different result than using the PDF export of QCAD.

GnrlSchnavy
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Posts: 8
Joined: Fri Aug 18, 2017 2:58 pm

Re: PDF export via Print (printer) in .js is 4 ~ 5 times bigger than by hand exported PDF.

Post by GnrlSchnavy » Mon Sep 04, 2017 2:31 pm

Hmm, both ways of printing via the GUI you mention yield the same filesize pdf. Both way smaller than the pdf file created using the script :shock:. Even with very few layers on while printing from the script vs. all layers on while printing in the GUI, the GUI pdf is still way smaller :shock:.

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andrew
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Re: PDF export via Print (printer) in .js is 4 ~ 5 times bigger than by hand exported PDF.

Post by andrew » Mon Sep 04, 2017 2:39 pm

OK.

Unfortunately, I cannot reproduce this problem here with local files (using QCAD vs. dwg2pdf).

If you can provide a DXF/DWG file, I can try to reproduce with these, or you can try that locally using QCAD vs. dwg2pdf.

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