Tech Blog / Photos / Mac Tips

After a little digging into Preview I stumbled across two options which allow you to shrink the size of a PDF. Most of the time these two methods may not produce useful result, they may be as tiny as possible. However if you have used a program which isn’t designed for PDF (Word for some reason springs to mind) this trick might be useful. There are two options which you can use, both offer different results.

Both of the compression options are found in the Save As menu. First find a large PDF file that you want to shrink, any will do for this example. Go to File > Save As. In the save box there will be two drop down items. The second one is what we are interested in, Quartz Filter. From the drop down menu select none. This may be counter intuitive at first, however it allows the PDF engine to run and reduce any parts that it can. It doesn’t run any other filters. For the most part on an uncompressed PDF this will produce pleasing results. The image below show the drop down box on the Save As menu.

how to compress PDF files on a Mac

The option of having no Quartz Filter for the most part is sufficient. This can reduce the file size. This option is known as loss less, so it wont remove anything at all and keep things in high quality. This is needed for PDF’s with images. However for PDF’s with only text or simple geometric shapes to may be better to reduce the file size even more.

To apply a reduction in quality (however it still stays pretty good) in the drop down select “Reduce File Size”, I never notice it at first. This option will crunch images and remove parts of the PDF that are not needed, in a similar method of a jpeg images. There are slight problems with this method. Images turn out horrible and lose all quality. However for text and simple bands of colour it is perfect, and the reduction in file size can be massive.

Hopefully these two option apply to you. The first one, for the most part, doesn’t produce any decent results (one files size was larger) if the original PDF is made in Preview. However the second option always reduces the files size, usually by half.

Mihai Tech stuff apple, compress PDF, compress pdf file, how to compress pdf, mac os x, pdf preview, pdf resize, reduce pdf file size, snow leopard

Everyone shares the basic need to connect, but we see that our collective ability to truly live our connections is in flux. We create things that nurture and instigate living connections in both the digital and physical world.

Mihai Uncategorized connections, digital world, living

Park Plaza Amsterdam - room

The Tamron 17-50 mm on the Nikon D300 @ ParkPlaza Hotel / Amsterdam.

Mihai Photography, Social life amsterdam, boeing 737, d300, nikon, photos, tamron 17 50 mm, tarom

Just came back after some Siemens training in Birmingham - UK. Made some new friends (Allan @ ATS  / Laura @ G.Elliot Pub) and almost … 10 horrible pictures taken. Maybe next time… I’ll do better.

Mihai Photography, Social life, Tech stuff Birmingham, technology, training, UK

Hopefully you can forget about the recession and drink a glass of wine ! Skipper does…

Mihai Social life happy new year, skipper

I believe it was February or March I have purchased for only $30 the Pro edition of Panda Anti-virus with a bonus of 3 PC licenses included in the pack. However I don’t recomment it anymore, huge memory load (in XP went up instantly from 309MB to 745MB), lazy updates , not the best AV for sure.

Today I have started the trial for Kastersky AV , highly recommended by a lot of IT guys these days. See you back in a month with a short review.

kaspersky av 2010

Mihai Uncategorized antivirus, kaspersky vs panda, panda vs kaspersky, windows xp

For all of you who need waxing services over the weekend, here’s a good spot.

Mihai Uncategorized ads, chicken, waxing

Mihai Uncategorized bed, great, sleeping

Usually IT guys like me aren’t stuck with just one domain name (like this blog). I decided a few months ago to use Hostgator for my other domains…done! Account set-up in a few minutes aftery online payment, the old good CPanel -latest version , a lot of scripts easy to install using Fantastico. The Baby Croc plan is their best seller. I’m not advertising for these guys but initially I had a lot of bad experiences hosting companies from Romania ( Webfactor.ro - WBF / Gazduire.ro - I don’t recommend them at all ! ).

Mihai Uncategorized gazduire.ro, good review, hostgator, hosting romania, review, webfactor

Sometimes it’s impossible to get to work using the boat due to bad weather , this is the time when I put my ass in the helicopter.

No more than 25 minutes of good music coming from the rotor. If you have ever wondered how this looks like here are some photos taken @ Tuzla - Constanta a few seconds after departure.

Mihai Photography, Social life helicopter, offshore

I’m watching relaxed a podcast using iTunes right now. I had the opportunity today to get the Windows 7 upgrade for only 30 GBP using my student membership with Northumbria University. For now I have to say no…my current Snow Leopard upgrade seems to be just fine and while I was sharing experiences today with one of my co-workers I decided to wait until my Lenovo X60 with running XP now will get the Win 7 upgrade. The price Microsoft offers to UK students (30 GBP) it’s great I can say, however I’m not sure about how great Windows 7 is. I’m still waiting for proper documented reviews to show up online, not just comments and firefighting between Apple and Microsoft users.

Rent a movie , download it , get some popcorn and adopt my position….I don’t give a f**k about all this SL vs W7 prizefight. If you do go here

Mihai Tech stuff apple, mac, microsoft, relax, snow leopard vs windows 7, windows 7

I really love this photo. I just don’t know why but it’s cool enough to make me happy. Waiting for my lunch to show up after I’ll prepare my Lavazza espresso. It’s just an ordinary day …. by the way just got Snow Leopard installed 4 days ago ! No big differences from it’s younger brother but I have noticed a speed increase and I’m a really big fan of 64 bit applications.

Mihai Photography, Social life acapulco, constanta, eforie, espresso, nikon d80, snow leopard

I was comparing the two versions  Leopard and the newly arrived Snow Leopard…. decided to upgrade this week or so, gotta take a walk to our small Apple shop. Here are some reasons to upgrade:

10. It’s Leopard Done Right
The release of Mac OS X Leopard was fraught with peril. It was late, it ran a bit slow, and it offered amazing new features — some of which weren’t fully ready for prime time. Snow Leopard is all about performance, optimizing features to deliver a great experience. It takes what you know today and makes it perfect.

9. It’s only $30
Recognizing that it has an evolution, not a revolution, on its hands, Apple’s keeping Snow Leopard incredibly cheap for existing Leopard users. At $30, it’s more than we paid to move from 10.0 to 10.1 (which was free), but it’s still one heck of a bargain. And it’s only $50 for a family pack.

8. You’ll add six gigs to your hard drive
This is a no-brainer. If you install Snow Leopard, your hard drive gets bigger — it takes up six or seven fewer gigabytes than Leopard. It’s less bloated in more ways than one.

7. Smarter Stacks and Expose
The OS X Finder already contains some of the most innovative UI elements ever. Snow Leopard makes them smarter. Stacks allows scrolling and advanced support for multiple folders now. And Expose allows you to just click on an app’s icon, thereby allowing you to select between that app’s windows.

6. It’s fully 64-bit, so buy 17.2 billion gigs of RAM!
If you own a recent Mac (anything with a Core 2 Duo), you’ve got a 64-bit processor. And with a fully rewritten Finder and under-the-hood code, Snow Leopard will let you manipulate absolutely gigantic files, up to 17.2 billion gigabytes at a time. Basically, if you’re doing high-end photo or video work, this will be the best platform ever.

5. Killer Multiprocessing with Grand Central
Apple’s been pushing multiprocessing since at least 2000, but the promise has never really paid off for most users. Snow Leopard aims to change that with Grand Central Dispatch, a powerful API for creating multicore-optimized code. Some apps will run faster right away, and it will only get better over time as other developers get caught up. It will be the gift that keeps on giving.

4. Unleash the Power of Your GPU With OpenCL
Time was, Windows lovers could (justifiably) deride the 3-D graphics power being packed by Macs. Anyone who tried to run Quake III Arena on a first-gen iMac can remember the pain we all shared. That’s changed now. The integrated NVIDIA graphics in even Apple’s low-end machines are totally respectable, and the dedicated cards in the MacBook Pro and Mac Pro are downright brawny. Unfortunately, unless you’re a gamer, an architect or an industrial designer, that probably doesn’t matter much to you. That’s why OpenCL is so great — it’s a coding framework that allows ordinary applications to tap into the extra power in your graphics card for all tasks, from web browsing to iPhoto. Snow Leopard’s all about power, and OpenCL’s a big part of it.

3. Native Exchange Support
A lot of factors have kept Macs out of the office over the years, but none has been more significant than the lack of MS Exchange e-mail, address book and calendar support. Outlook is as close to a standard as a proprietary format ever comes, and Apple’s taking its experiments with Exchange on the iPhone to the desktop. From now on, anyone with a Mac can make appointments, view contacts, and send e-mail via Exchange. I don’t know if I’ll ever bring my work computer home again.

2. QuickTime X Restores What the Tech Was Meant to Be
One of the great disappointments of long-time Mac users has been watching the slow decline of QuickTime. Once a legendary consumer multimedia player and editor, it increasingly became over-shadowed by iLife and iMovie. Charging for the Pro version meant that most people steered clear of it entirely (I couldn’t tell you the last time I played a video in QuickTime Player). QuickTime X fixes all of that. A ground-up rewrite, X integrates all former Pro versions into a free version for the rest of us. It’s two-and-a-half times faster than previous versions, plus built-in authoring capabilities, including recording via iSight and microphone, YouTube and Mobile Me uploads, and export to iPhone. Basically, it’s finally Apple giving some love to the multimedia technology that started it all.

1. Because You, Like Me, Are a Gigantic Apple Fanboy or -girl
It’s OK. We have a cult for that. Think it’ll make it here by Saturday?

Some text copied from http://www.cultofmac.com/10-reasons-why-snow-leopard-is-an-essential-upgrade/15010

Mihai Tech stuff apple, macbook, snow leopard, upgrade

Recently I tought I was upgrading my wireless network at home by switching from my old Trendnet wireless router (bought 3 years ago) to a new D-Link DI-524 . Bad decision , even if 3 out of 4 persons confirm D-Link’s product quality and their competition with Linksys , this router is so bad that not I have to take it back to the store and buy something else.

If you’re using it as a standalone router without the wireless function it might be okay, but the wireless coverage is bad , 3m from the unit you get disconnected every 10 mins and you will not download with more than 1.9 MB/s . The download speed is random , I had moments when I was downloading with less than 1 KB/s.

The admin interface ( 192.168.0.1 in your webbrowser by default) is primitive, without any advanced options that today’s wrl routers come with. It’s needless to say that D-LINK DI 524 is a waste of money and time. Don’t buy this !

Mihai Tech stuff bad review, d-link, di-524, dlink, review, wireless router

Honestly … I prefer the SB-600 over the SB-800. The SB-600 is smaller, lighter, less expensive and does everything I need.

Here is Ken Rockwell’s comparison between SB 600 and SB 800.
There is no need for the SB-800 or SB-900 unless you shoot with it all day long. You will like the size of the SB-600. The SB-600 works with every Nikon camera made for the past 40 years.

Pay attention you might screw it up if you remove the batteries while it’s ON.

You can dial in up to +3 to -3 stops flash exposure compensation on the flash. That’s more than you usually can dial in on the camera.Also it takes four AA cells of any kind, you might wanna try rechargeable AA for this.
Wireless slave mode works GREAT with few to no misfires due to misalignment.

Power ON and OFF follows my D80 and my D300 perfectly. For instance, turn off your Nikon DSLR camera and the flash turns off.  Don’t wait buy it !

Mihai Uncategorized flash, nikon sb600, sb 600, speedlight, wireless flash

Steve Jobs announced the new iPod nano a few days ago. A video camera, built-in microphone, and buffered FM radio make this iPod nano far more functional, flexible, and entertaining. It won’t replace your full-sized camcorder. It’s not Tivo for radio nor a field recorder. It’s a compelling upgrade to an already solid and affordable media player.

Mihai Tech stuff ipod nano camera, mac, nano, nano camera, new . ipod, new ipod nano

I just got the Nikon D300 ! Amazing camera…however requires amazing lens , and at this time I don’t have cash for new lens link 24-70mm Nikkor. I will use my 17-50mm Tamron and the Nikkor 50mm. My 6 months old D80 will get back to it’s 18-135mm lens. I gotta take some shots now…..so stop reading this!

Mihai Uncategorized d300, nikon D300, nikon d80

Here are the results of the pool (still live) on TechRepublic:

What is the most useful keyboard shortcut command of all time?

Cut, Copy, and Paste (77%)
Undo and Redo (12%)
Other - Please specify in the discussion thread below. (5%)
Select All (4%)
Find (2%)
Total Votes: 1,309

Mihai Uncategorized cut copy paste, keyboard shortcut, most used

Kodak received a massive boost in sales following the release of the Vanity Kodak in 1928. Fast forward 76 years and Apple did similar with the release of the iPod Mini.

Mihai Photography, Tech stuff apple, ipod, ipod mini, kodak, kodak vs ipod

Nikon calls this the Nikon AF Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 D. I’m using this lens for almost one year. Yet I never had the opportunity to see it’s impressive performance for it’s small price. If you’re a Nikonian you need one…here is why:

This is a very sharp lens even at f/1.8. At f/1.8 the DOF is very shallow so nailing the focus is very important. As a traditional AF lens it works with every Nikon ever made, digital and film, auto and manual focus.

It’s a full-coverage FX lens, so it works great on FX digital, DX digital and film. It works especially well on the Nikon D3 , Nikon D3X, Nikon D200 and D300. Like all of Nikon’s 50mm f/1.8 lenses, this has almost no distortion. Its distortion is so low that it was never visible in film days, and I only can see it today in digital by blowing up images to the equivalent of 6 feet (2m) wide on a computer screen and dropping an electronic straight edge on them, and then only if I deliberately shot a test.

Mihai Photography f/1.8, nikkor 50mm, nikkor lens, nikon 50mm, sharp lens