Best handling of graphics in PDF to Word

[Mary Lee]

I'm using Word 2002 for manuals. We have a lot of engineering drawings,
schematics, etc. that were originally created in Auto CAD or another CAD
program. We have gotten the best print quality when the CAD operators save
them as PDFs, then I can open them in Acrobat and save them as a Word
document, then insert file. Does anyone know what file format you've got when
you do that?

I'd really like to be able to take that graphic image and do things like
eliminate an old logo, take out the internal drawing references, etc. to make
a cleaner look in the manual. Right now, I only have Paint to work with and
if I change anything and bring it back into Word it is jaggy and doesn't look
good at all.

Does anyone have any experience with this? What programs are you using to
get professional-looking results? I have been told I need Illustrator, but I
don't have enough information right now to sell that to my boss.

 

[robitaille59]

I noticed that my graphics files are automatically converted to jpegs when I
inset them into a word doc.

You can find out what file format the graphics files are by right-clicking
the picture and clicking properties.

Adobe photoshop is the program you want for bitmap type graphics (jpegs).
Illustrator is for vector based graphics, you won't be working with these
unless you need to blow them up to poster size and print a poster.

Photoshop is the tool you want. No matter what those CAD files turn out to
be, you can save them as jpegs.

 

[jeroen]

Hi Mary Lee,

Our pdf2picture software was developed exactly for this. It's a $59
tool that converts PDF file to the WMF (Windows Metafile) file format.
You can import that into Word via Insert > Picture > From File...

This solution preserves your drawings and schematics as scalable and
editable vector graphics (instead of the pixelized bitmaps that your
current process results in). Meaning, you can do your editing in Word,
or for example a standalone shareware tool called Metafile Companion.
Print quality will be the same as the PDF original, since vector
graphics always print at the printer's maximum resolution.

More info at www.pdf2picture.com. For a quick test you can also send me
a sample PDF file via email.

Jeroen Dekker
(e-mail address removed)

 

[Mary Lee]

Thanks! I figured this out, too, in the meantime - I ook the PDF that was
created from the CAD file, saved it as a Word doc, then copied it and pasted
it as a new image in Microsoft Photo Editor. Then I used the graphics pen
feature in the Effects menu (set both bars all the way to the right) and it
took out all the "digital noise" that jpeg puts in there (I just hate jpeg
for line drawings). I then saved it as a PNG file, opened it up in Paint (it
was huge, but that ends up being a good thing as far as resolution back into
Word goes), did what I needed to do, and saved it again, inserting it back
into my document and leaving it as a PNG. It printed out great - no jaggy
lines.

Sometimes we print them in 11 x 17 and fold them up and include them in the
back of a manual - that's nearly poster sized. I have worked quite a bit with
PaintShop Pro to prepare graphics for inserting into Word, and it has limited
vector graphics features. Even on a smaller scale, the results of the vector
graphics make for much better print quality than the bitmap or jpeg. The
thing about jpeg, of course (and some other formats, too) is losing
resolution every time you open it, so I really want to be able to save a good
"original" in a stable file format, even if we end up somewhere along the
line turning it into a jpeg for the sake of file size.

--
Thanks!
Mary Lee

Hi Mary Lee,

Our pdf2picture software was developed exactly for this. It's a $59
tool that converts PDF file to the WMF (Windows Metafile) file format.
You can import that into Word via Insert > Picture > From File...

This solution preserves your drawings and schematics as scalable and
editable vector graphics (instead of the pixelized bitmaps that your
current process results in). Meaning, you can do your editing in Word,
or for example a standalone shareware tool called Metafile Companion.
Print quality will be the same as the PDF original, since vector
graphics always print at the printer's maximum resolution.

More info at www.pdf2picture.com. For a quick test you can also send me
a sample PDF file via email.

Jeroen Dekker
(e-mail address removed)