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Best way to export digital portfolio for school application

FD47

Hello everyone,

I am finalizing my portfolio for schools and there are some concerns I have regarding the exported PDF from Indesign. 

If I directly print or export my portfolio to PDF, my vector drawings are likely to stay vectors. However, Adobe often takes 'Enhance thin line' under 'Preferences' as a default setting. This feature makes many of my vector drawings appear to be awkward as it disorganizes the line weights. 

On the other hand, when I export the file into PNG images and assemble them to make a PDF, the texts are not very clear.

Since there is no guarantee that the admission committees would manually uncheck the 'Enhance thin lines' option (I asked one of the schools and they said it depends), is there a best way to make PDF portfolio that looks good regardless of the reviewer's Adobe settings? Or is there way to program the file and embed an 'uncheck enhance thin lines' command?

Thank you.

 
Dec 6, 17 3:14 pm
Non Sequitur

Thanks, I was just looking over a document and wondering why the text looked fuzzy.  I unchecked thin lines and voila, all good.


Dec 6, 17 4:57 pm  · 
 · 
archietechie

You're on the right track here. Have you tried publishing images via png while typing texts separately via pdf?


Hint: InDesign

Dec 6, 17 5:07 pm  · 
 · 
archinine
Typically with complicated linework drawings I convert to png first then drop 300dpi images into indesign. It seems to look ok in PDF and print. 150-300ppi is good for screen viewing. I've found that vector drawings don't always load well in older versions of acrobat - layers can get funky or take a long time to generate. There is a check box in the export dialog about flattening linework but that never seems to do it quite right either.
Dec 6, 17 11:44 pm  · 
 · 
FlameAura

I do text & images separately as well. When your portfolio is in its final form, place your text on separate layer, export everything (but text) as jpgs, high resolution (I find jpg better than png in showing correct line thickness), then place those jpgs instead of your images (use layes as well) Turn text layer on and export everything as pdf in your desired resolution. Voila!

Dec 7, 17 3:14 am  · 
 · 
randomised

Yep, that's how I keep file size and crisp text under control too...

Dec 7, 17 3:24 am  · 
 · 
FD47

Thank you so much guys! I will try text & images separately, it sounds likely to solve the problem.

Dec 7, 17 9:48 am  · 
 · 
No-thing

I do the majority of the text in InDesign.  It's specifically suited for that since it's a publication software.  Text will be crisp and clear.  And I import line drawings in high quality jpg.  Sometimes I label the line drawings in InDesign as well.  That's for screen and digital submissions.

However, for a print shop, majority of the line drawings are pdfs exported from illustrator.

Dec 13, 17 10:23 am  · 
 · 

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