PDF or TIFF

[mviscetto]

PDF? or TIFF?

What is your preference? And why? 
In regard to setting up standard ADA Note sheets, I developed PDF's out of individual word documents.

I then used PDF Attach to place the PDF's into the drawing file. 
I am very pleased with the result. The text (which was copied/pasted from sourced documents) looks crisp and clear in the final document and the images (ADA Figures) look fine. (still a little fuzzy). 
A colleague of mine suggested that I use TIFF opposed to PDF and he was very insistent about it which has me concerned. It has been my experience that PDF's work well, small file size, provide a clear print/image and are pretty much trouble free. However I am open to suggestions.

Thank you in advance for your comments.

Michael

[dmfrazier]

"A colleague of mine suggested that I use TIFF opposed to PDF and he was very insistent about it which has me concerned."

What reasons did your colleague give for the suggestion?

[mviscetto]

He stated that the Tiff files are smaller and easier to manipulate in AutoCAD. However I did a quick test and the Tiff was over 3x larger and the clarity was unacceptable.

[paullimapa]

For me, TIFFs were really the only way to go until AutoCAD added the feature to attach PDFs.  Then why bother with attaching huge TIFF files when the same can be done using smaller but just as good of a quality PDFs?  

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[M_Hensley]

I have noticed there is a huge difference in the amount of time it takes to plot a drawing with a PDF attached as compared to a TIFF attached. We had a job that was taking over 10 minutes to plot each drawing with a PDF attached. We converted them to TIFF and the same drawings would plot almost instantly. This is with AutoCAD 2011 and 2014. Don't know if it's like this in the newer versions.

[mviscetto]

Thank you so much for your input. I have not noticed any delay in plotting but I will test it out.

Thanks again

Michael

[mviscetto]

Hello and thank you all for taking the time to reply.

The results I found were a bit different then I expected.

My original goal was to create a sheet that will print clear and sharp that we can use as "Standard" sheets in our drawing sets.

I created the documents using PDF's and the results are exactly what I wanted, a crisp clean sheet when printed on our plotter.

However......

I did some tests and it does take more time to print the sheet opposed to Tiffs. The additional time is less than a minute so that is not a concern.

The PDF's are smaller file sizes, (almost a third smaller than a Tiff).

This one got me..... When I tried to generate a PDF from that document the images were unacceptable. I ended up printing the sheets then scanning them on our large format printer/scanner to create an acceptible PDF of the entire sheet.

I will need to obtain higher resolution images when creating the word doc. Then I will need to up the resolution of the PDF as I create it. That should help.

Thanks again for your comments.

Michael

[RockyBrown4134]

For what it's worth......

To respond to you question, PDF. The most preferred form of documents that I have seen passed between vendor and client, is PDF format. Everybody is familiar with the file format, to be able to open and view it. You can add comments and not interfere with the original geometry. And since Autodesk has added features to make publishing to a PDF easier, it's simple to do. Explore AUTOMATICPUB.

With that said, please look at a response I posted in the following post http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/autocad-2010-2011-2012/dwg-to-pdf/m-p/5388359/highlight/true#M116004.

I don't know that if it is what you are looking for, but maybe it will help reduce publishing time. Also explore the AUTOPUBLISH command while in a drawing file. I have used these to techniques with very good success.

For graphics in Word documents, I have used Techsmith Snagit to accomplish my goals. I use it when making tutorial type documents, or presentation documents, shen i need "snip-its" from my drawings.

Hopes this helps.

[hsarchitype1]

Based on a 2010-2013 post  heading 'External Reference - pdf really slow' that I read, that older link just worked for me in 2021 using AutoCAD 2015. My cover sheets in particular with building renderings and Google map PDFs has been a major issue for years with opening drawings both in AutoCAD and in Acrobat and loading extremely slow or even trying to move across a sheet.

I just converted both my PDF rendering and Google maps into JPG in Photoshop and re-saved with '0' Quality option. Then I replaced all 3 In my AutoCAD drawing with PDF images and there is absolutely no loss in quality. Speed in opening and moving across my drawing in  both AutoCAD And Acrobat is instantaneous. My blessings to Scott in the old post  for all the time this will save both myself and my clients. Hope this helps. Harry

[JMC-RVE]

Tiffs are the only files I have found that you can merge linework and remove parts of the scan cleanly. I have never been able to modify a PDF the same way. With a PDF what you insert is what you have, no rubbing out a ling or doing a despectle, stuff like that.