1. Quartz Filter Media
2. Quartz Filter For Mac Os
3. Quartz Filter For Mac Osx

On the Mac: Use Quartz Filters. The default Preview app built into OS X is designed to handle your basic PDF needs, from viewing to annotation to file compression. To compress a PDF, simply click on File → Export → Quartz Filter and select Reduce file size. While Preview can reduce your PDF, it isn't able to preserve image quality. If the Quartz Filter is not correctly written (it's an XML file), then it will not load. The ColorSync Utility should show you all the installed Filters on the system. You can also create and edit them here. As you say, Filters will be loaded from any 'Filters' subfolder of the User or root-level Library. Tag Archives: Quartz Filter How to print in Black and White in OS X. If you need to print in black and white or in grayscale from your Mac, you might be hard-pressed to find an option to do so in the standard print window. OS X supports a number of different printers; however, besides general “quality” sliders, many of the drivers do not. Scott shows you how to wrap the API in C to gain access to the powerful filters and transition effects provided by Core Image. This book is not a complete reference or encyclopedia of the Quartz API, (get 'Programming with Quartz' by Gelphman & Laden for that). Mac programmers will want both. Filters set to Printing will appear in the drop-down menu under the 'Save as PDF.' Button in the standard Mac OS X print dialog box. Filters set to PDF Workflow will appear in the Quartz Filters drop-down menu in the ColorSync section of a print dialog box. The default filters that ship with Mac OS X are: Black & White; Blue Tone.

Thanks a lot!
I've been looking for a way to do this for a while. I scan quite a lot of documents for archival purposes, but when I have to E-Mail one of them, they are usually to large. The included reduce file size PDF option is just crap.

interesting, but definitely not original, this topic is found a lot of times on the web
http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/33702/compress-pdf-with-adjustable-ratio

I scanned through the same topic last week myself, but defaulted to finding an app that does it way better than my ability to futz with libraries. Take a look at PDF Squeezer on the App Store – for $1.99, you cannot beat it. I know it may not be hacky enough, but as a basic user, this program rocks!
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/pdf-squeezer/id504700302?mt=12

You can edit or add new filters using the GUI:
/Applications/Utilities/ColorSync Utility

oh... what an overlook from my side!
best of all, it also puts them in user Library, good when upgrading.

I found that your settings as described didn't yield good results. None of them resulted in a clear pdf. As such I also adjusted the ImageScaleFactor setting in the quartz filter file. With these settings, the high quality filter was indistinguishable from the 'no quartz filter' file.
For this test I used a 1.2 MB jpg file and exported it to pdf. Here's my filter settings and resulting file size:
PDF with no quartz filter file size: 4.4 MB
Name: Reduce File Size_Low Quality
Compression Quality: 0.5
ImageScaleFactor: 0.5
ImageSizeMax: 842
File Size: 250 KB
Name: Reduce File Size_Intermediate Quality
Compression Quality: 0.75
ImageScaleFactor: 0.6
ImageSizeMax: 1684
File Size: 442 KB
Name: Reduce File Size_High Quality
Compression Quality: 0.95
ImageScaleFactor: 0.75
ImageSizeMax: 3508
File Size: 774 KB

Quartz Filter Media

Cannot understand why you edited filters by hand when it's years that there is the ColorSync Utility app in your Mac that makes all this editing definitely easier.

I have tried on several occasions to use Colorsync utility to create reduced file-size output settings like this. However every time I ended up frustrated by the sheer bugginess of the colorsync utility. Settings would revert to the defaults after saving the preset, etc.
I'm definitely going to try the approach outlined in this hint.
Having this facility is great when you are preparing a pdf file to send to a print shop and you want someone to proof-read your work without having to send them a 20 Mb+ file.

'Having this facility is great when you are preparing a pdf file to send to a print shop and you want someone to proof-read your work without having to send them a 20 Mb+ file.'
That's one of the reasons I use Colorsync Utility to create PDF filters. I made three different filters with three different compression results that I use according to the output needs: archiving, proofreading, send to print shop.
I made my filters with Colorsync Utility and I didn't occur in the problems you mentioned. It's real thet C.U. is quirky and you need to know its idiosyncrasies, but it gets its jobs done.

great post.
But does anyone know some way to merge different pdf in same file using export function and reduce size at the same time?
When I need to merge and reduce PDF file size I need to do too many steps.
open pdf 1
open pdf 2
move pages from pdf2 to pdf1
print as PDF (generate new PDF merged)
open PDF Merged
export > reduce file size
Some tip?

There is a major bug in Lion (up to 10.7.4 so far) so that user Quartz Filters created in ColorSync Utility don't work.
So duplicating the system filters and editing in a text editor is your only choice for now.

Is there a way to get these to show up in the Filter Dropdown menu with different names? Despite naming the files with Good, Better and Best in their name, they all have the same name; Reduce Fie Size. Is this file's name determined in the file's code?

Question: How do I calculate ImageSizeMax for US Standard 8.5' x 11' paper size? Great hint. Thank you!

'interesting, but definitely not original, this topic is found a lot of times on the web'
Yes there are other 'versions' of this that can be found on the web but this is a helpful addition! This (PDF file size) can be a frustrating area.
I particularly like the way you can show the different file sizes in Preview -- that is very helpful.
Thank you for the help.
Tony

Are these settings wiped out when updating the OS?

Quartz Filter For Mac Os

Quartz Filter For Mac Osx

Mavericks update: This hint works reasonably well in Mavericks, but all four settings have the same name in the drop down menu in the Export command from Preview.app. I used the names suggested, and of the four identical appearing names for Quartz filters, best is on top, and proceeds decrescendo (downwards) to the default filter.
Mavericks accepted /System/Library/Filters/ as a site for the new files. Reboot did not resolve. I've decided not to care, but if a remedy is proposed, I agree to notice.

Change the string near the end of the file to whatever you prefer:
<key>Name</key>
<string>Reduce File Size Best</string>

In Mavericks 10.9.4 I was able to use the ColorSync Utility to duplicate and modify the filter... however to make it show up in Preview, I had to move the .qfilter files from user/library/filters to system/library/filters.
Dave