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I'm using the Powerdot class to make a presentation. Powerdot uses eps pictures and thus on compiling, I'm using the normal route:

Latex > dvi > ps > pdf. 

In Ghostscript, we have the ps2pdf tool. I normally use


for all usage. I read somewhere that setting the /screen option instead of /prepress creates a smaller pdf file. For the presentation that I'm working on, I see that both settings give the same file size.

In any case, what's the best option to put for a presentation?

Am I right to think that setting the option to /prepress will create a file of high resolution that will make the presentation appear very well on a projector?

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1 Answer 1

up vote 1 down vote accepted

You can find all options of ps2pdf here. The PDFsettings part is below:


        * /screen selects low-resolution output similar to the Acrobat Distiller "Screen Optimized" setting.
        * /ebook selects medium-resolution output similar to the Acrobat Distiller "eBook" setting.
        * /printer selects output similar to the Acrobat Distiller "Print Optimized" setting.
        * /prepress selects output similar to Acrobat Distiller "Prepress Optimized" setting.
        * /default selects output intended to be useful across a wide variety of uses, possibly at the expense of a larger output file. 

So in principle /screen will give the smallest output. It's already enough for a projector.

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Thanks. Yes I have seen this from ps2pdf.htm. So u mean that /prepress will appear better than /screen on a projector? 1 vote up. –  yCalleecharan Nov 29 '10 at 8:52
Because the typical resolution of a projector is 1024x768, the improvement on the file quality above this level is usually meaningless. –  gerry Nov 29 '10 at 10:03
Thanks for your comment. –  yCalleecharan Nov 29 '10 at 18:51

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