Exporting photoshop PDF boards to make a digital portfolio to email.

[kerrib62688398]

I have tried both Indesign and Acrobat jumping from tutorial to tutorial.

I have not got any experience with Indesign and simply just want to place my boards so I can save them as one main pdf link for web view/email.

Acrobat made my life simpler however the quality seems to be awful..when I zoom in to an image that was sharp in photoshop it has lost so much quality and seems pixelated. Not only that but I have realised you cannot open this pdf file via email if you do not have the program? If Adobe has created a portfolio program that isn't at least close to universally readable, what good is it?

Same with indesign I have made the board sizes the same measurements as were the boards in photoshop and again the images are not great zoomed in the detail is not sharp at all even after I have selceted High Quality Display. What size do I make my boards for them to fit perfectly without being pixelated?

Please help me I really want to get this done quickly something so simple seems so difficult to find the right answers for. Thanks!

[Geоrge]

>> Not only that but I have realised you cannot open this pdf file via email if you do not have the program?

Are you wanna miracle to open some file without program to open it? You drive me bananas. If you want to see images directly in email-soft than use some raster formats such as jpg/png. If you want to see PDF, than use Adobe Reader. All preview in browser, all other readers is an evil, big or small, but evil.

>> What size do I make my boards for them to fit perfectly without being pixelated?

You're can't "unpixelate" pixels by do "more size". That is true for raster graphics.

>> as were the boards in photoshop and again the images are not great zoomed in the detail is not sharp at all even after I have selceted High Quality Display.

And they will not. This is only preview, even you use high-quality display. Control your pdf-export settings and than watch in ready PDF.

Show screenshots of what you need and what you have, and add to some dropbox/etc package of this page.  Without it all your post is a guessing on the coffee grounds.

[rob day]

when I zoom in to an image that was sharp in photoshop it has lost so much quality and seems pixelated.

The PDF settings you use when you save a PDF from Photoshop can affect the exported quality. If you want the pixels exported unchanged use the PDF/X-4 preset with no downsampling:

If Adobe has created a portfolio program that isn't at least close to universally readable, what good is it?

Acrobat Reader is a free PDF reader. Most OSs provide some app that will read a PDF—OSX has Preview, but for the most reliable viewing your clients should use Reader.

[rob day]

Also the reader app's anti aliasing will affect vector art and fine lines. For Acrobat look at Preferences>Page Display>Rendering

[Derek Cross]

Maybe consider starting again using InDesign and exporting your portfolio document with the free Publish Online facility. You can then send a link to your end-users who will be able to view your portfolio on any device without them needing to install anything as the portfolio will open in their browser, and - if you want - you can allow users to download a PDF version of it as well.

This Lynda.com online video tutorial will show you how to produce it (you can get a 30-day free trial):

InDesign: Publish Online

[Barb Binder]

Hi Kerri:

Not only that but I have realised you cannot open this pdf file via email if you do not have the program?

Adobe Reader is the universal application used to view documents created from any application. That's the beauty of Reader. As I mentioned on yesterday's thread, it is already installed on most computers and if it isn't you can give them the link to download it for free. Adobe Acrobat Reader DC Install for all versions​.

Yesterday's thread was in the InDesign forum, so I didn't get into how to create a PDF from Photoshop—there are multiple ways to do it, but Rob is right on the money with his answer above—you determine the resolution of the PDF when you export it.

As a 20 year ACE/ACI (Adobe Certified Expert/Instructor on InDesign, Photoshop and Acrobat), I still think that your best bet is to use the workflow we discussed yesterday. If you need help on the Photoshop export to PDF, please just ask (preferably on that forum but many of us can help here, as well). If you decide to bring InDesign into the equation, a few important thoughts:

• Keep your eye on the Effective PPI in the Links panel—that's the output resolution
• Remember that if you zoom in on an image using any application you will see the pixels and a loss of clarity.
• When you output from InDesign, you still need to understand how to control the resolution of the PDF (again, go back to read Rob's response).

~Barb