User Guide
PrimoPDF Version 4.0 User Manual
Copyright 2008, activePDF, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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• Don’t downsample. With this option selected, PrimoPDF does not downsample the images in
your PDF file. This option produces the highest quality of output, and should be used if you
are creating PDF files for printing to a commercial quality printer.
• Average. When average downsampling is selected, PrimoPDF averages neighboring pixels,
replacing pixels of similar value with the average pixel color. Averaging generally produces
good quality results and is suitable for printing to most desktop printers.
• Subsample. Subsampling means that PrimoPDF takes a pixel from a sampled area and replaces
the entire area with the selected pixel. Subsampling results in smaller file sizes and faster PDF
creation, but you may notice a decrease in visual quality.
• Bicubic. When bicubic downsampling is applied, PrimoPDF uses bicubic interpolation to
generate new pixel values. In plain language, PrimoPDF applies a special averaging method to
the image to create the highest quality possible. The bicubic option can create more pleasing
results than other subsampling methods, although the PDF file is slower to generate.
Downsampling Threshold. Reduces image resolution to assist in reducing the PDF file size. You can
establish a monochrome image resolution threshold. Any images having a resolution above the value
specified will be downsampled to the resolution specified.
Compression. Set the compression filter for monochrome images:
• CCITT (International Coordinating Committee for Telephony and Telegraphy) Fax Encoding.
This is a lossless compression method that uses standard fax compression and only applies to
black and white bitmap images.
• Flate Encode. Uses the ZIP compression method to reduce image size without affecting the
image’s quality.
• Run Length Encode. A form of compression that is particularly effective on files that contain
many long runs of the same byte, value, or character. It is primarily used on binary files.