How can I compress 8.5mb to 1mb?

14 years ago

Before I talk about compression, I realized a more important thing...

Don't email attachments to your list!

Unless they have specifically requested it as an attachment, you are FAR better off to email them a download link. In which case, 8 MB is a perfectly reasonable file size.

... now back to our regularly scheduled topic ....

There are limits to compression, and 8 into 1 is a heckuva lot to ask!

With images, smaller file sizes can be achieved in three ways:

Smaller pictures.
Less colours. (black and white is smaller than full colour)
Decreased quality. (pictures may start to look a bit "muddy")

All of the above impact the appeal of your eBook so you have to be careful.

When you save your PDF make sure that you are including all images at 72 DPI (good for reading on screen)... if you are saving thinngs at print quality that is wasted megabytes.

-Ryan

Thanks
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amujtabaa

14 years ago

A very important point made. You should never email attachments to a list, because it is more likely to be marked as spam. When you link the email to a page containing a direct link, you also get the option to place advertising or another of your products in the vicinity.

Originally Posted by RJP

Before I talk about compression, I realized a more important thing...

Don't email attachments to your list!

Unless they have specifically requested it as an attachment, you are FAR better off to email them a download link. In which case, 8 MB is a perfectly reasonable file size.

... now back to our regularly scheduled topic ....

There are limits to compression, and 8 into 1 is a heckuva lot to ask!

With images, smaller file sizes can be achieved in three ways:

Smaller pictures.
Less colours. (black and white is smaller than full colour)
Decreased quality. (pictures may start to look a bit "muddy")

All of the above impact the appeal of your eBook so you have to be careful.

When you save your PDF make sure that you are including all images at 72 DPI (good for reading on screen)... if you are saving thinngs at print quality that is wasted megabytes.

-Ryan

Thanks

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waloosh

14 years ago

For the images, you could make them .png, it compresses the image to at LEAST half of it's original file size and keeps the images with the same quality.

I redesigned my entire site, which uses vBulletin, and the default images are .gif, which don't compress as much and can have horrible quality. I switched over to using .png and now my site loads at least 50% faster and looks a lot better.

Another idea would be to split the pdf. Send half on one day, send the other half another day.

However, your best choice would be to do as RJP said, give them a download link. That's the best method if you don't want to change anything.

Thanks

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mywebwork

14 years ago

Sheryl, listen to Ryan - never mail an attachment to your list! Aside from looking unprofessional it could also either be completely ignored or perhaps even trigger suspicion from your readers. I only open attachments when I'm expecting to get one.

Give them a link to your book and those who want it will eagerly download it.

Bill

Thanks

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sherwood55

14 years ago

Thanks, everyone. I will look into this. I have an autoresponder set up and will send only opted in requests for this free ebook. I am setting it up on Aweber, but only saw an attachment option.

Obviously, I have to learn more about this and will work on it!
Sheryl