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Printing Large Files in Paw Prints Labs

Last Update: 8/18/08

One problem we've noted with Paw Prints pay-per-page printing is caused by large documents, not only due to the number of pages but the size of the file. Even a short document can be large in file size. Document size is measured in pages; file size is measured in bytes, typically a number of KB (kilobytes or 1000 bytes). Word documents save each character and typically aren't too large. PDF, photographs, PowerPoint, etc. are saved as graphics which means each pixel or dot must be saved individually and can result in large files. In order to print on a laser printer, all the information on a page must be passed to the printer before it can print. Large files can take too long to process when printing which causes problems in the computer labs, holding up or even stopping the print queues.

If you create a PDF document with Adobe Acrobat, you should use Save As rather than Save. The Save command appends changes to the document. If you edit it several times, the file gets larger each time. Use Save As to rewrite the document as efficiently as possible. You can use the same filename to overwrite the original.

For additional suggestions to keeping PDF documents small, see the following website.

Graphics are another concern. Even a graphic that's small dimensionally (width and height) can be quite large in file size due to the resolution. Resolution is the number of pixels (dots) per inch both horizontally and vertically. More DPI means the graphic looks better when it's enlarged. Small (dimensional) graphics need less DPI.

The easiest way to reduce the size is by using Microsoft Office Picture Manager which comes with Office 2003 or newer. When you open Picture Manager, it opens your My Pictures folder by default. You may use the Locate Pictures command on the right side of the window to find other graphics.

Click on the graphic to edit. Then click on Edit Pictures to the right. The following commands are helpful in reducing size.

  • Crop: Allows you to move the borders inward, leaving only the portion of the graphic you wish to see.
  • Resize: Changes the dimensional size of the graphic.
  • Compress: Changes the resolution. Click Documents, Web Pages, or E-mail Pictures to reduce the resolution. The estimated total size at the bottom shows the changes. A resolution between 30 and 100KB is usually sufficient.

If you have a choice when you create the graphic, try to save it as JPG or JPEG since they use less resolution than TIF, TIFF, PNG, and BMP. Choose Medium resolution if asked.

If you're scanning a text document, choose OCR (optical character reader) format instead of a graphical format. This interprets each character individually. The resulting document can be read by Microsoft Word.

Microsoft PowerPoint presentations can be quite large. See the following website for suggestions such as turning off Fast Save (appends changes like PDFs), compressing images, and shrinking embedded objects)

PowerPoint documents should be printed with several slides to a page to save paper.

Screen Capture
Click the down-arrow to the right of the Print What box and select Handouts. Click the down-arrow to the right of the Color/Grayscale box and select Grayscale. Then to the right under Handouts, select the number of slides per page. Six is recommended.

For additional hints on printing, please see Lab Printing.