pdfs print fuzzy in Word

[greiggy]

I'm using Word X but this problem extends to recent Windows versions. I
submit advertisement pages as .pdfs to a newsletter that (for some
reason) is put together in Word. Sometimes they print OK but often they
appear fuzzy as if low res. Nothing wrong with the .pdf -- they work
fine in other apps.

Is this is known issue, perhaps a bug, and is there a workaround that
anyone knows?

I am finding that my own copy of Word X throws up the same problem. It
just seems that WSord doesn't like pdfs.

 

[Elliott Roper]

I'm using Word X but this problem extends to recent Windows versions. I
submit advertisement pages as .pdfs to a newsletter that (for some
reason) is put together in Word. Sometimes they print OK but often they
appear fuzzy as if low res. Nothing wrong with the .pdf -- they work
fine in other apps.

Is this is known issue, perhaps a bug, and is there a workaround that
anyone knows?

I am finding that my own copy of Word X throws up the same problem. It
just seems that WSord doesn't like pdfs.

You might as well go on to say that WSord's handling of illustrations
that are not in its own proprietary formats is abysmal. You would be
right.

Word will rasterize vector art such as PDF without asking. If you so
much as tweak its size, Word might, and I stress *might* reduce the
resolution of the picture to a fuzzy pulp. As far as I can see, and I
do a lot of this, the only safe and usable way to deal with
illustrations in Word is to create a raster image of the exact finished
size and resolution in another program such as GraphicConverter, then
'insert picture from file' and don't touch it thereafter.

There are baroque procedures for getting Word to leave an eps alone,
but I won't describe that here, since you don't have editorial control
of the newsletter by the sound of things.

I'd rasterize and resize your PDFs before sending both copies to the
newsletter.
Good raster formats that Word might not butcher are TIFF and JPG.

 

[JosypenkoMJ]

You might as well go on to say that WSord's handling of illustrations
that are not in its own proprietary formats is abysmal. You would be
right.

Word will rasterize vector art such as PDF without asking. If you so
much as tweak its size, Word might, and I stress *might* reduce the
resolution of the picture to a fuzzy pulp. As far as I can see, and I
do a lot of this, the only safe and usable way to deal with
illustrations in Word is to create a raster image of the exact finished
size and resolution in another program such as GraphicConverter, then
'insert picture from file' and don't touch it thereafter.

There are baroque procedures for getting Word to leave an eps alone,
but I won't describe that here, since you don't have editorial control
of the newsletter by the sound of things.

I'd rasterize and resize your PDFs before sending both copies to the
newsletter.
Good raster formats that Word might not butcher are TIFF and JPG.

I've had similar problems with high resolution pictures printing at low
resolution :

- graphs drawn as vector .pict files at screen resolution ((11*72) *
(8.5*72) dpi) and printer resolution ((11*300) * (8.5*300) dpi)
inserted into a Word document both print at screen resolution. OS 9.22,
G3.

- high resolution .jpeg pictures of graphs, etc. in a Word document
print at low resolution - text appears fuzzy, even though under 500%
magnification on the screen, they appear fine. This doesn't happen all
the time - if some of these pictures are placed in another document and
printed, there are no problems. OS 10._, G4.

Any ideas ?

 

[greiggy]

Looks like we're agreeing there is a serious failing here . . . what I
expected. I might try the tiff approach as that usually renders type
reasonably sharp, high-res jpg as a second alternative.

The point about Word rasterizing vector art without asking is very
helpful -- explains what I am seeing. I find it hard to imagine a
main-stream app would be so crude but there you go

Thanks to all for insights

 

[Elliott Roper]

Looks like we're agreeing there is a serious failing here . . . what I
expected. I might try the tiff approach as that usually renders type
reasonably sharp, high-res jpg as a second alternative.

The point about Word rasterizing vector art without asking is very
helpful -- explains what I am seeing. I find it hard to imagine a
main-stream app would be so crude but there you go

The nicest thing you can say is that they were forced into some
compromises when OS X was new and all. That excuse is wearing a bit
thin by now.

Try googling the group for all the discussion there has been on this
and related issues. Use tiff, pdf, eps, pixellated, red rectangle as
search terms.

Remember the bit about not re-sizing the image in Word. Sometimes it
will do it nicely, but....