Exporting images: jpeg or LayOut to PDF ? What's best?

RonanR

Hi all,

Can't thank all of you enough for all the help i've found & been given in this forum...

I regularly create Keynote (mac equivalent of PowerPoint) presentations that I share online with clients on iWork.com.
This makes for a very convenient document sharing platform to view online, with a downloadable PDF created too.

In terms of quality of images for A4 slides (destined to be printed) what is best:

a) Export 2D images of my scenes from SU (at a suitably large size) as Jpeg or other to insert into my presentation, or

b) Send SU file to LayOut, then render each scene within LO at most suitable setting (raster sometimes, hybrid mostly or vector if possible), then Export to PDF at the end (High Quality), to insert into my presentation?

Your comments / ideas / views appreciated.

Gaieus

Well, pdf has one great advantage over simple raster images - that is if you set it to hybrid or vector in LO, it will retain the vector information and will be quite good quality when viewing.

But if you print those slides rather than view the presentation on screen, why not work completely in LO and work with PDF files? With SimLab's 3D PDF plugin you could even add a page at the end, containing an interactive 3D view of the model. RenderPlus also have a 3D PDF plugin but I don't know if that can "attach" itself to an existing document.

RonanR

Thanks G for your answer.

I'll look into this to see if it is workable for me.
But at this stage my question is really about exporting quality, and you imply that PDF, through LO, is best...

Howard leslie

Ronan,
If you are doing this sort of thing regularly, a few ideas for you ..........
Purchase a copy of Scene Exporter Pro (SketchUp Plug-in) from Smustard. ($10 well spent).
(Thank you Rick Wilson - great plug-in)
They also have a free version.
http://www.smustard.com/scripts/
...........
Set your scenes up in SU then run SceneExporterPro.
eg 2048 pixels wide x 1307 tall or a much higher resolution if you want to.
Desired scenes are exported out as jpg's / several other file formats.
Very quick and works like a dream.
.............
To create a presentation from these images you can merge them together into a single file eg

using Adobe Acrobat (Full version not reader) - creates a PDF of all jpgs or
Adobe Photoshop - creates a pdf slideshow of all images or
Irfan View / other raster editing programs - creates a slideshow *.exe file
..............
You could create any text slides as jpgs also eg by using Photoshop / any Graphics Package / Powerpoint etc and merge these in with your Sketchup jpg scenes.
................
Good luck
Howard L'

RonanR

Hi HL,

Thanks for your response. Interesting plugins.

The Smustard one looks promising, assuming that a jpeg at 2048 x 1307 px prints better at A4 than the equivalent view rendered in LayOut (Hybrid or Vector if possible) and then Exported to PDF.

And that is my main question: jpeg export straight out of SU, or use LO and export to PDF...

I suppose it depends on the final destination of the image (jpeg or PDF)...