1. Save your original and then save a copy under a new name. 2. Flatten it. Check that your photo is no more than 300 dpi. 3. Do Image > Scale Image and scale it down to the size you will print out at on your home printer i.e. A3. Make the pxi 300. 4. Save to PDF.
5. Print the PDF.

Can someone tell me if the file sizes I am experiencing are to be expected--YES
Should I be able to print a PDF this size out?--NO, NOT AT HOME. Can anyone see anything that I am doing wrong?--FILE IS TOO BIG FOR YOUR HOME PRINTER.
Can anyone suggest how to get my PDF file out--SEE ABOVE and that will be able to be printed when sent to the printer?--SEND YOUR PRINTER A FLAT FILE, AT THE LARGE SIZE. Would a professional printer have some sort of software that will allow them to print a PDF that I can't print?--YES

Rick S.

-----Original Message----- From: big__dav
Sent: Tuesday, January 10, 2017 5:19 PM To: gimp-user-list@gnome.org
Cc: notifications@gimpusers.com
Subject: [Gimp-user] Printing a poster file issues

Please go easy on me as I have not done anything like this before and I am sure
I am making a stupid mistake somewhere.

I need to create a poster that is roughly 1.3m x 2m and the printer requires at
least 300 DPI.

I have created my poster in GIMP and it consists of 7 layers - x1 large picture
that fills the poster and several other small logos/pictures/text. The pixels
per inch setting in GIMP was set as 350.

The GIMP file is roughly 687Mb and when I export it to a PDF the PDF file is roughly 375Mb.

When I try to open the PDF file in Adobe Reader DC I get an error - out of memory and the file does not open.

GIMP version - 2.8.18 Adobe Reader DC version - 2015.020.20042

When I export to PDF from GIMP I ensure that the options to ignore hidden layers
is ticked and also that the option to convert to vector data type if possible is
ticked.

After getting stuck here I removed the hidden layers from the GIMP file ie deleted them - they are used for alignment and information when designing. After this the file size was very slightly smaller and Adobe Reader could open
the file. However when I tried to print it out in A3 sheets to check to see how
it looks Adobe hung up on the flattenning stage. So I then went back to GIMP
and flattened it in GIMP so that everything was combined into one layer. Now
when I go back to Adobe to print I have no hanging up on flattening however it
hangs up on "print 0%". When I check the task manager Adobe is using up plenty
of processing so it is doing something...

Having no experience in doing something like this I dont know if the file sizes
involved are "normal" or not.

Can someone tell me if the file sizes I am experiencing are to be expected - I
would assume they are.
Should I be able to print a PDF this size out? Can anyone see anything that I am doing wrong? Can anyone suggest how to get my PDF file out and that will be able to be printed when sent to the printer? Would a professional printer have some sort
of software that will allow them to print a PDF that I can't print?

big__dav (via www.gimpusers.com/forums)

On 01/10/2017 05:19 PM, big__dav wrote:

Please go easy on me as I have not done anything like this before and I am sure I am making a stupid mistake somewhere.

I need to create a poster that is roughly 1.3m x 2m and the printer requires at least 300 DPI.

That a lot of pixels. But I am confident that the PDF file size can be reduced.

Try exporting your image to PNG, and to JPG format at about 85% quality. This should yield smaller files. PNG is a lossless format, so there will be no loss of resolution; JPG will be smaller than the PNG, at the cost of a slight amount of noise. The slight loss of resolution found in the JPG file will not matter, if your poster will be viewed from more than arm's length away.

You may also find that 150 DPI is sufficient for your purpose, again if the poster will not be viewed at "normal reading distance," which gives a file 1/4 the size of one in the same format at 300 DPI.

To make the PDF file, I would import the JPG into Inkscape, adjust the and export to PDF from there. Do File > Import and select the Embed option. Then do File > Document Properties, and select the resize page to content option (set any necessary margins here). Do File > Save As, and select Portable Document Format. In the dialog, set the resolution to match whatever your image DPI is (i.e., 300 or 150 depending on the image file you exported from the GIMP).

Your PDF files should be about the same size as the PNG and JPG files you made with the GIMP. A poster the size you describe will usually be viewed from far enough away that 300 DPI vs. 150 DPI will not make a visible difference, and if so, that gives you a 75% savings in file size.

Inkscape: https://inkscape.org/en/

Generally speaking, Inkscape is "the" Free tool for making PDF files.

:o)

I need to create a poster that is roughly 1.3m x 2m and the printer requires at least 300 DPI.

......big snip......

Can anyone suggest how to get my PDF file out and that will be able to be printed when sent to the printer? Would a professional printer have some sort of software that will allow them to print a PDF that I can't print?

Lets have a few file sizes for comparison.

A Gimp xcf, not quite as large as yours 14172x23622 px (1.2m x 2.0 @ 300ppi) with a large graphic (a photograph) and some text in layers. Gimp shows this as 3.8 GB in memory.

xcf file size 400 MB exports a pdf 286 MB

Exported as a jpg, file size 21 MB and that exported as a pdf 300 MB

Exported as a png, file size 130 MB, exports as a pdf 325 MB

Conclusion, not much point exporting to jpeg/png for the purpose of creating a PDF. The xcf PDF did contain text in a vector format, otherwise with png/jpeg and everything flattened to a bitmap.

Print resolution: Are you sure the printing company really requires 300 dpi or is that just general figure? A poster can have a reduced dpi depending on distance viewed. Some guidance see:

http://www.northlight-images.co.uk/what-print-resolution-works-for-what-viewing-distance/

Printing process: Do you know how it will be printed? A modern commercial laser printer will print at 100 ppc (pixels per cm) and produce superb quality, but costs a fortune. Send them a jpeg.

If offset printing then a CMYK pdf is often used. The tool for that is not inkscape it is the DP application Scribus.

Want to print full size on A3 sheets to joint together as a check. Split the image up into separate parts.

Set up some guides as A3 sized sections ( 3508x4960 px) Use Image -> Transform -> Guillotine

Plenty how-to's on this if you search.

rich: www.gimp-forum.net