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How do I prevent raterization of inserted PDF images?

Anonymous
2013-09-25T14:08:40+00:00

Hi guys, I'm having roughly the same problem that John has. I've got Mac Word 14.3.7.

I'm trying to insert vector graphics into a Word document by exporting PDFs from my drawing program (Keynote / Omnigraffle Pro) and placing them in my .docx. However, I'm having problems as most of them rasterize as soon as the .docx is saved (I'm picking this up by printing the .docx to a final output PDF).

What is weird, is that not all the PDFs do this... the ones in the footers never rasterize, and I've also found a few in the document body that stay nice and crisp in the output. I'm however using the exact same workflow to generate and insert these PDFs, so I'm stumped!

There needs to be some pretty fine text in the diagrams, but I can't let the output file size get too large, hence the need for vector graphics rather than tiff, etc.

I've taken a look at the Reduce File Size command in the File menu, but that looks like a command, not a setting. I can't 'disable' rasterization of the PDFs by doing anything there, but that command was probably never meant to deal with my issue in any case.

I'm thinking it's more an issue with some PDFs being converted to some other format and some not... which is bordering on alchemy IMHO! :)

Any ideas on this?

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Anonymous
2013-11-08T00:00:45+00:00

I had this same problem. It's ridiculous and obnoxious that Word 2011 for Mac cannot handle PDFs. However, I found a solution that works for me and seems to be straightforward: open the PDF in Illustrator and save it as an EPS. Then, inserting into a docx results in a crisp, vector image that persists when you close and re-open the document, or when you save it out to PDF. 

Hope it works for you too.

Nick

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  1. Anonymous
    2013-09-27T08:11:23+00:00

    Hi Jim,

    Thanks for getting back to me.

    I'm afraid the test user account has the same problem.

    Any ideas?

    Just to make sure: do you think it should be possible to use PDFs as a way to place vector-based graphics in .docx files and have Word print/export those graphics without it getting rasterized?

    I'm working on a dissertation that will ultimately include 60-80 diagrams that unfortunately have to have pretty fine text, so I need vector graphics... too much quality is lost in the rasterization process. I've tried using .eps files as well, but 1) they result in a larger .docx file and 2) even they get rasterized, though at much higher dpi.

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  2. Jim G 134K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2013-09-26T16:40:06+00:00

    Hi Henno,

    I haven't seen this complaint in the past. It makes me wonder if there's something about your installation of Office that might be the root of the problem in your particular case.

    You have 14.3.7, which is good because it indicates you have been deligent in your updates. Did this just start happening with 14.3.7 or is this a lingering problem?

    Try going to System Preferences and create a new user account. Then open Word in the new user account and start fresh to see if the problem persists there. A new user account has default preferences and a default Normal template. If everything is OK in the new user account, we can focus on fixing preferences nad/or the Normal template ion your regular account. If the problem persists, we can focus on other troubleshooting steps.

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  3. Anonymous
    2013-09-21T13:24:04+00:00

    Thanks John. I've also noted that printing immediately after inserting the vector image outputs the proper vector graphics. But for a 150+ page dissertation this isn't really an option.

    Definitely sticking to .docx and I don't think any foreign colour standards are in play here.

    I'm considering editing the final PDF and adding the correct vector graphics to that document, replacing any images that did rather print the bitmap.

    Any better suggestions?

    Weird that all the vector graphics in the footers are printing correctly... it obviously has no issues with displaying the bitmaps and retrieving the vectors for printing in those cases.

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  4. Anonymous
    2013-09-21T12:05:21+00:00

    There's a few things that do this: the main one is a bug in Word's graphics handling.

    Word is limited to RGB images at 24-bit colour depth.  If you have any other colour standard in use, Word will try to cope by making a bitmap.

    Word frequently has a "layers" problem.  What is "supposed" to happen is that Word converts the vector into a placable bitmap it can display in the document, saving processing time and speeding things up.  When it prints, it should print from the vector.

    Sometimes it loses the vector image information, so falls back to printing the bitmap.

    Word 2011 works internally in the .docx format.  Downgrading the file to .doc format will tear the heart out of the vector images every time.  I seem to recall that PDF is not supported as an image format in .doc.

    But sometimes this "just happens" and we have nothing sensible to suggest.

    Try creating a new blank document, then adding the vector images to it.  "Editing" the document will often produce this problem, so adding the text, then adding the pictures immediately before printing may help.

    Hope this is useful.

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