Director of Sales
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This is NOT a question about how to extract images from my new pdf. I simply want to decrease the file size so it performs better on searches, scrolling, etc. To change Decrease File Size, I need to change the security setting. To do that, I need a password. Do you provide these passwords?
Unfortunately, no. In order to prevent unauthorized changes of the PDF, such as removal of the watermark, we have to secure it in ways that also prevent more reasonable changes such as this.
Thanks,
cos
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Chief Technical Officer
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This is NOT a question about how to extract images from my new pdf. I simply want to decrease the file size so it performs better on searches, scrolling, etc. To change Decrease File Size, I need to change the security setting. To do that, I need a password. Do you provide these passwords?Unfortunately, no. In order to prevent unauthorized changes of the PDF, such as removal of the watermark, we have to secure it in ways that also prevent more reasonable changes such as this.
Thanks,
cos
Honestly, even if you did that, you wouldn't see a lot of benefit. In fact, running the default "Decrease File Size" operation on many of our PDFs can actually result in *larger* files.
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Chief Technical Officer
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Unfortunately, no. In order to prevent unauthorized changes of the PDF, such as removal of the watermark, we have to secure it in ways that also prevent more reasonable changes such as this.
I strongly hope you improve PDF security settings immediately, or to distribute an author original file.
I purchased some models of Dave graffam for textures exchange between another his models.
However, because of the your security settings, I was not able to misappropriate many surface textures and external features for other models.These PDF Files distributed in websites of auther and other retailers, but the security settings were not set.
I paid money only to enjoy personal use.
Please do not let I regret that you should have purchased those models from other retailers.
If you're talking about extracting images from PDFs, so long as you have the correct tools, you can do that. (Avoid Adobe Reader version 9, as they disabled image extraction in that version; it was present in Reader 8 and returned in Reader 10.)
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Chief Technical Officer
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If you're talking about extracting images from PDFs, so long as you have the correct tools, you can do that. (Avoid Adobe Reader version 9, as they disabled image extraction in that version; it was present in Reader 8 and returned in Reader 10.)Thank you for an answer.
I know the method that you suggested.
However, I take unnecessary effort without being able to read files by other software (e.g., Photoshop) directly.
We who are customers does not notice the thing until we download files.A redistribution hedge of the files is that an author performs it.
It loses the convenience of the customer that only an authorized retailer changes the setting of the file.
It's a bit hard to understand your English, but pubslihers who sell PDFs through paizo.com may choose whether or not we secure their PDFs—it's completely and solely up to them.
Honestly, even if you did that, you wouldn't see a lot of benefit. In fact, running the default "Decrease File Size" operation on many of our PDFs can actually result in *larger* files.This is NOT a question about how to extract images from my new pdf. I simply want to decrease the file size so it performs better on searches, scrolling, etc. To change Decrease File Size, I need to change the security setting. To do that, I need a password. Do you provide these passwords?Unfortunately, no. In order to prevent unauthorized changes of the PDF, such as removal of the watermark, we have to secure it in ways that also prevent more reasonable changes such as this.
Thanks,
cos
I'd guess that you're already optimising the files, right?
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Chief Technical Officer
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I'd guess that you're already optimising the files, right?Honestly, even if you did that, you wouldn't see a lot of benefit. In fact, running the default "Decrease File Size" operation on many of our PDFs can actually result in *larger* files.This is NOT a question about how to extract images from my new pdf. I simply want to decrease the file size so it performs better on searches, scrolling, etc. To change Decrease File Size, I need to change the security setting. To do that, I need a password. Do you provide these passwords?Unfortunately, no. In order to prevent unauthorized changes of the PDF, such as removal of the watermark, we have to secure it in ways that also prevent more reasonable changes such as this.
Thanks,
cos
As best we can. Acrobat actually adds a lot of cruft to the file that doesn't need to be there, but so far, the only utility I've found that can strip that out causes other issues.
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Wow! This sort of nuts....these things are really unusable as is. To bad I guess this will be the last PDF I buy here. You know the more I think about this the less I like it....I could have went out and looked for a OCR copy...I could have saved my self 9.99 plus tax. But instead I did the right thing...crap I even own the fricken hardcover book which I guess I have right to make a copy of it!!! But still I am treated like a thief....sorry but this is unacceptable...I understand your concern about security but creating a crappy PDF with my name in it does not stop piracy...in my mind it sort of encourages it.
Edited after the initial post
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Director of Sales
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Wow! This sort of nuts....these things are really unusable as is. To bad I guess this will be the last PDF I buy here.
How are they unusable, exactly? By which I mean, what exactly are you trying to do that you cannot do with the security settings set as they are?
I'm honestly curious, as we can perhaps provide some guidance that will make them usable.
Thanks,
cos
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They are really slow.....on my laptop it continually loads ever single page starting with the background image first and then the text. it takes time to render each page and layer....It is like using a 2400 baud modem on the internet. When you zoom in it is out of focus and takes several seconds to refocus the fonts. Because it is slow it is jumpy and it is hard to find anything. I defaulted back to my book because it was taken to long to find anything. I also have a Xoom table on there it takes 15 to 30 to bring up each page.
Maybe you feel I have little to no patience but during a game I do not need to waiting for me laptop or tablet to refresh.
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They are really slow.....on my laptop it continually loads ever single page starting with the background image first and then the text. it takes time to render each page and layer....It is like using a 2400 baud modem on the internet. When you zoom in it is out of focus and takes several seconds to refocus the fonts. Because it is slow it is jumpy and it is hard to find anything. I defaulted back to my book because it was taken to long to find anything. I also have a Xoom table on there it takes 15 to 30 to bring up each page.
Maybe you feel I have little to no patience but during a game I do not need to waiting for me laptop or tablet to refresh.
What are the specs on your laptop? Also, what PDF software are you using? Sounds more like a hardware/software issue than a PDF issue from you description (at least I've never noticed the PDFs being that slow to load on any of the 4 computers/laptops I've used, or the iPad).
-Skeld
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My Machine
System Manufacturer: Hewlett-Packard
System Model: HP Pavilion dv7 Notebook PC
BIOS: Default System BIOS
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU P8600 @ 2.40GHz (2 CPUs), ~2.4GHz
Memory: 6110MB RAM
Page File: 2723MB used, 9713MB available
Windows Dir: C:\Windows
DirectX Version: DirectX 11
DX Setup Parameters: Not found
DxDiag Version: 7.00.6002.18107 32bit Unicode
ADOBE READER 9
Version 9.4.5
I also have a stock xoom.....I have tried all the apps on that also but the default that comes with it Quick Office is waht I use know since the rest did the same thing
I do have lots of other PDFs that work just fine....
FWIW, at Paizocon I brought my (I thought) reasonably fast laptop, loaded with all the PDFs to save space/weight, then at the last minute stuffed my backpack with six hardbacks just because I could.
I was glad I did.
The books were quick and easy for reference, as were the printouts of the notes for the two games I created myself. The one PFS scenario I was running with the adventure there on the laptop rather than printed out? 3-4 hours into play, the scrolling got basically "sticky," not letting me flip around pages with any reasonable speed--and this is a small PFS adventure we're talking here, not a full-on 400-page book. Acrobat Reader, I'll note, was the only program I was running.
The next week, one of my players was looking at the Advanced Players Guide on his laptop. The pages fairly flew by. I asked how fast his machine was to get that sort of performance, and he explained that his machine was super-high power so it could deal with extremely graphic intensive games.
I nodded and resolved to wait until tablet computers are fast enough that they suit my needs and cheap enough that they warrant the expense relative to the amount of time I'd use one.
Adobe Reader is really quite pathetic in terms of rendering speed. For example, on my core i5-2400 desktop (quad core, 3.2GHZ) with 8 GB of RAM and a Radeon 6850, I can still watch layers slowly render. If nothing else, Adobe Reader should offer a "flatten" feature to convert a document from vector-based to raster-based. Sure, you'd be stuck at a specific resolution (not an issue on, say, a tablet), but the books would render tens (or hundreds) of times faster...
Many of the issues brought up plus a recent copy/paste problem (for some reason not enough memory to perform the function [8Gb RAM not enough?]) is why I have switched from Acrobat to Easy PDF Reader. The difference between the two is like night and day.
Adobe Reader is really quite pathetic in terms of rendering speed. For example, on my core i5-2400 desktop (quad core, 3.2GHZ) with 8 GB of RAM and a Radeon 6850, I can still watch layers slowly render. If nothing else, Adobe Reader should offer a "flatten" feature to convert a document from vector-based to raster-based. Sure, you'd be stuck at a specific resolution (not an issue on, say, a tablet), but the books would render tens (or hundreds) of times faster...
Actually I was using Adobe Digital Editions so I could have it organize the PDF library since (unfortunately) the names for the various Paizo pdfs are various number and letter codes that are not immediately obvious and need some sort of indexing to make sense of them.
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hmmm I tried Easy PDF Reader and it is a better experience then Adobe..there is a little lag time but not the slow rendering of each layer like Adobe. The weird thing is it is only with the Paizo PDFs...I have other PDFs that fly right by in both Adobe and Easy PDF Reader. Other PDF's that I can not see the rendering when I scroll at all. The other PDF are even larger size..that is what makes me think there is something else going on here....I have been using the skills pathfinder PDF as try and figure out what the issue is....it is 10 meg. I have another PDF that is 16 meg that when I scroll I do not see any rendering at all. lol I have one that is 245 meg that I see a little bit of rendering but not the white screens I get for the 10 meg skills pdf. So not sure but it is definitely not right..........
My Machine
System Manufacturer: Hewlett-Packard
System Model: HP Pavilion dv7 Notebook PC
BIOS: Default System BIOS
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU P8600 @ 2.40GHz (2 CPUs), ~2.4GHz
Memory: 6110MB RAM
Page File: 2723MB used, 9713MB available
Windows Dir: C:\Windows
DirectX Version: DirectX 11
DX Setup Parameters: Not found
DxDiag Version: 7.00.6002.18107 32bit UnicodeADOBE READER 9
Version 9.4.5I also have a stock xoom.....I have tried all the apps on that also but the default that comes with it Quick Office is waht I use know since the rest did the same thing
I do have lots of other PDFs that work just fine....
What's your graphics hardware? A discreet graphics card or integrated? If it's integrated it's slow (in comparison to a seperate card) and tends to draw on your system ram (although at 6 gigs you seem to have more than enough). Paizo PDFs are beautiful (like the dead tree versions) but that comes at a price. My hardware is fairly good, if not new (It's a two year old Alienware M-17 with twin Radeon 4870M video cards -- 512 megs of video ram each), and it loads up pages about as fast as I can click on them and scrolls nicely. Generally I buy the deadtree version for reading use the PDFs to print out the odd pages. Some of the non core stuff I just pick up the PDF.
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hmmm I tried Easy PDF Reader and it is a better experience then Adobe..there is a little lag time but not the slow rendering of each layer like Adobe. The weird thing is it is only with the Paizo PDFs...I have other PDFs that fly right by in both Adobe and Easy PDF Reader. Other PDF's that I can not see the rendering when I scroll at all. The other PDF are even larger size..that is what makes me think there is something else going on here....I have been using the skills pathfinder PDF as try and figure out what the issue is....it is 10 meg. I have another PDF that is 16 meg that when I scroll I do not see any rendering at all. lol I have one that is 245 meg that I see a little bit of rendering but not the white screens I get for the 10 meg skills pdf. So not sure but it is definitely not right..........
I think you've got a couple issues. Adobe is slow for starters. You need alot of horsepower to overcome its issues. I looked up your model and (assuming it's stock) it has an integrated graphics unit (like most laptops). Integrated video cards are slow and they also tend to eat away at your system RAM during use. Based on your model number, the particular graphics unit you have isn't very fast (it's more optimized toward low power usage) and users have reported problems with scrolling under Windows OSs.
I think you're hitting a wall with what your laptop can handle. Paizo's PDFs are complex and layered (and look really nice) which is why they take longer than other PDFs you use. You probably need to use something other than Adobe because I don't think you have the processing (dual-core 2.4Ghz) power to overcome Adobe's slowness. Also, your particular graphics unit has some issues.
I have a beefy computer at home (at least it was beefy when I built it 6 months ago) and Paizo PDFs are noticeably slower than other vendors, but still not to the extent that they are problematic.
-Skeld
I highly recommend Foxit PDF reader over Adobe for general PDF browsing. Files load more quickly and the transition between pages is nearly seamless, even on older machines with outdated processors and lower amounts of RAM.
+1 internet for you
I use foxit as well and don't have any slowness issues.
I'll third Foxit. It's noticeably faster than Adobe, even on the exact same hardware.
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My machine is too slow for PDF reading???? Really...I play games like Champions Online and Age of Conan with little to no issues. It seems strange that a PDF would tax the graphic card on my machine. Either way I think that would be my issue....so I need I a high end gaming computer to effectively use the Paizo PDFs...that seems wrong to me. Very wrong...I guess I go back to first statement...I just will not be able to buy PDFs since they are really unusable during the gaming sessions. I am not about to go spend $1000.00 dollars or more to read PDFs effectively.
Doing a little reading on the subject it seems that there are several different ways to optimize the PDF...actually it seems there are several companies that have software just for that...stuff that goes above and beyond Acrobat. I also read that flattening (combining to a single) layer also speeds up the veiwing. I think the issue is a flattened PDF is not searchable or secure...but I would definitely give up searching and some of the high res graphics for a usable pdf. But it seems that those are not options due to the security...basically putting your name and email in the PDF. Sorry but the idea that my machine is not fast enough to run the PDF seems really strange......
Crap software is crap. Two completely different pieces of code can do the exact same thing, but one may take a dozen times as long or worse. I've seen things go from two and a half minutes to 1.2 seconds with simple code improvements.
Doing a little reading on the subject it seems that there are several different ways to optimize the PDF...actually it seems there are several companies that have software just for that...stuff that goes above and beyond Acrobat. I also read that flattening (combining to a single) layer also speeds up the veiwing. I think the issue is a flattened PDF is not searchable or secure...but I would definitely give up searching and some of the high res graphics for a usable pdf. But it seems that those are not options due to the security...basically putting your name and email in the PDF. Sorry but the idea that my machine is not fast enough to run the PDF seems really strange......
Unfortunately, flattening is not really an option for our PDF products, as some of our customers have varied uses for PDFs (printing, projecting, et cetera). Also, the reason they're not searchable is that the fonts can be rasterized. Again, not ideal when you're zooming for some reason or attempting to print. We are taking a good look at PDFs, so rest assured we are aware of problems that occur with large file sizes.
hmmm I tried Easy PDF Reader and it is a better experience then Adobe..there is a little lag time but not the slow rendering of each layer like Adobe. The weird thing is it is only with the Paizo PDFs...I have other PDFs that fly right by in both Adobe and Easy PDF Reader. Other PDF's that I can not see the rendering when I scroll at all. The other PDF are even larger size..that is what makes me think there is something else going on here....I have been using the skills pathfinder PDF as try and figure out what the issue is....it is 10 meg. I have another PDF that is 16 meg that when I scroll I do not see any rendering at all. lol I have one that is 245 meg that I see a little bit of rendering but not the white screens I get for the 10 meg skills pdf. So not sure but it is definitely not right..........
Could you point out which 10 MB file you're trying to open? Knowing what file you're trying to use is helpful to figuring out what's going on.
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wow I will admit Foxit is awesome! Thank you for the tip, it is now my default PDF viewer. It made all the difference...I can not believe Adobe is that bad or that heavy. Thank you thank you thank you!!! I think I may be able to use the PDFs again!!!!!!! I will try next game session..I only wish they had an Android version of the Foxit for my Xoom.
The file I was using as my test file was 078-103 PZO1110 Skills.pdf
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This is NOT a question about how to extract images from my new pdf. I simply want to decrease the file size so it performs better on searches, scrolling, etc. To change Decrease File Size, I need to change the security setting. To do that, I need a password. Do you provide these passwords?
If you live outside the US, it's most likely legal to just run a DRM removal tool on the PDF you bought. Many countries have consumer rights that prevent the kind of arbitrary restrictions that corporations try to enforce on digital goods you paid for.
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My machine is too slow for PDF reading???? Really...I play games like Champions Online and Age of Conan with little to no issues. It seems strange that a PDF would tax the graphic card on my machine.
The video gaming industry is a multi-bajillion dollar industry and the companies that design/produce graphics cards have invested multi-bajillions of dollars into creating the best graphics cards for video gaming that they can. The better their graphics card is over the competition, the more of the market share they can grab. Over the years, graphics card firmware has become extremely specialized toward fast, efficient processing of 3D images and environments because no video gamer wants a low frame rate when playing their favorite shooter.
Also video cards use entirely different processes for rendering 2D images as opposed to 3D images. So, yes, it is entirely possible (even common) to have a computer that works fine for gaming and sucks for browsing complex, layered PDFs.
-Skeld
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Director of Sales
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| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
This is NOT a question about how to extract images from my new pdf. I simply want to decrease the file size so it performs better on searches, scrolling, etc. To change Decrease File Size, I need to change the security setting. To do that, I need a password. Do you provide these passwords?If you live outside the US, it's most likely legal to just run a DRM removal tool on the PDF you bought. Many countries have consumer rights that prevent the kind of arbitrary restrictions that corporations try to enforce on digital goods you paid for.
Our restrictions are not arbitrary, nor are we a corporation.
nor are we a corporationAnd this is why Cosmo shouldn't post to the messageboards while on the bus. ** spoiler omitted **
Actually, I believe that Cosmo is correct, as the C in LLC stands for company, not corporation. If I remember my undergrad years, an LLC is kinda a hybrid, offering many of the benefits of incorporation without (necessarily) incurring the "double" tax liability. Of course, IANAL.
Not that any of this has to do with anything... :)
Edit: Looks like Wikipedia agrees.
And this is why I shouldn't post until my third coffee!
No offense, but we have to stay on Cosmo's good side! ;-)
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Chief Technical Officer
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Unfortunately, flattening is not really an option for our PDF products, as some of our customers have varied uses for PDFs (printing, projecting, et cetera). Also, the reason they're not searchable is that the fonts can be rasterized.
For the sake of clarity, our PDFs are searchable; Chris is saying that if the text were flattened—that is, converted from text to an image of text—the PDF would no longer be searchable, and the text would also no longer scale correctly as you zoom in.
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If you live outside the US, it's most likely legal to just run a DRM removal tool on the PDF you bought. Many countries have consumer rights that prevent the kind of arbitrary restrictions that corporations try to enforce on digital goods you paid for.Our restrictions are not arbitrary, nor are we a corporation.
Oh, you're right.
Here's a better version:
If you live outside the US, it's most likely legal to just run a DRM removal tool on the PDF you bought. Many countries have consumer rights that prevent the kind of misguided restrictions that companies try to enforce on digital goods you paid for.
The restrictions are misguided because anyone with the intent to steal your content can do so easily anyway, as there are torrents with the complete pathfinder collection available to anyone who can use a search engine. The only thing you achieve with your DRM is to punish the honest customers, your fans.
Its always sad if the product one can legally buy is inferior in quality to the illegally pirated one, and especially so because the decision to make it inferior is only based on unfounded fears.
consumer rights that prevent the kind of misguided nerdrage that adolescents trying to get attention don't want to pay for
*YAWN*
If you live outside the US, it's most likely legal to just run a DRM removal tool on the PDF you bought. Many countries have consumer rights that prevent the kind of misguided restrictions that companies try to enforce on digital goods you paid for.
Wrong.
World Intellectual Property Organization Copyright Treaty
The DMCA is the US implementation of the WCT, for reference.
Sure, there's countries that aren't signatories of the WCT or that haven't enacted it, but it's nowhere near as cut and dry as "outside the US".
RPG Superstar 2014 Top 16
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I'd just like to chime in and say that I think Paizo's PDF strategy is actually pretty good. Their security model discourages "casual" piracy, while still not imposing onerous restrictions on the end user. I can still read, print, search, and extract images from Paizo PDFs, which covers basically everything I would want to do. And the ability to re-download anything I've purchased through Paizo is a *huge* plus, and means it's the first place I go to buy PDF gaming products.
I will admit that the files are sometimes larger and slower to navigate than many other PDFs, but I attribute that both to the page count of the materials presented (for a 600-page, full color book, the 78MB Core Rulebook file doesn't do that badly) and the quality of the art inside.
This thread (and others like it) have had a fair bit of vitriol, and I just wanted to chime in and say, "good job, people!" You have a lot of fans, and many of us appreciate the work you are doing, on PDFs and everything else.
Thanks!
I'd agree with your assessment of the PDF security.
I'd definitely prefer it not to be there, to enable me to reflow documents (extractions and compilations), but it's not hugely detrimental to my overall usage.
The whole piracy issue has been done before, so I'm steering clear of that.
I'd just like to chime in and say that I think Paizo's PDF strategy is actually pretty good. Their security model discourages "casual" piracy, while still not imposing onerous restrictions on the end user. I can still read, print, search, and extract images from Paizo PDFs, which covers basically everything I would want to do. And the ability to re-download anything I've purchased through Paizo is a *huge* plus, and means it's the first place I go to buy PDF gaming products.
Seconded. It's the best compromise available in an imperfect world imho. At least there are no special applications or "activation" schemes involved.
I do wish the PDF prices were a bit lower, because for me the PDF is a supplement to print. However, I admit that (1)I may not represent the norm, and (2)tablets are coming ever closer to changing my usage model.
The whole piracy issue has been done before, so I'm steering clear of that.
Yup...best to just toss that one in the "agree to disagree" file.