Re: Exported PDFs are too big in file size.
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg90983] Re: Exported PDFs are too big in file size.
- From: Jean-Marc Gulliet <jeanmarc.gulliet at gmail.com>
- Date: Sat, 2 Aug 2008 03:24:46 -0400 (EDT)
- Organization: The Open University, Milton Keynes, UK
- References: <g6uch9$pda$1@smc.vnet.net>
Mahn-Soo Choi wrote:
> I usually export Mathematica plots to PDF format. I don't like bitmap
> formats.
>
> The problem is the file size. Most of the 3D graphics on Mathematica 6
> are exported to PDF files as large as several megabytes
> (even several tens MB sometimes).
>
> For example, this simple 3D graphics
>
> ContourPlot3D[
> Exp[-(x^2 + y^2 + z^2)/2], {x, 0, 2}, {y, 0, 2}, {z, 0, 2},
> Mesh -> None]
>
> generates a PDF as large as 3.7 MB!!
>
> With Mathematica 5, the file size was reasonable.
>
> Is there something I'm missing with Mathematica 6?
> Thanks in advance for any help.
On my system (Mac OS X Leopard 1.5.4) I would select the plot, then use
menu "Print Selection" and choose "PDF". The Mac built-in PDF rendering
engine produces a file of only 628 KB (rather than the 3.6 MB file
produce by Mathematica), file that is rendered virtually instantaneously
within Preview (built-in PDF viewer) rather than showing a animation of
the polygons being drawn.
Having say that, if you need an even smaller size, setting a lower value
for the option *MaxRecursion* might dramatically decrease the size of
the PDF file generated by Mathematica. For instance,
ContourPlot3D[
Exp[-(x^2 + y^2 + z^2)/2], {x, 0, 2}, {y, 0, 2}, {z, 0, 2},
Mesh -> None, MaxRecursion -> 0]
yields a 68 KB PDF file when the plot is exported by Mathematica.
Regards,
-- Jean-Marc