Word – Poor quality PNG image when printing to PDF in Word 2010

adobe-acrobatmicrosoft wordmicrosoft-word-2010printing

I have a transparent PNG:

Transparent PNG

The PNG file above was created from an EPS file to a high-resolution PNG, then resized using Photoshop.

I am placing this image into a Word file on a cover page. The cover page has a background color that was added using a text box (which is a work around for another issue involving the transparency of the PNG above). The text box has a background with a square 50×50 gray image used only to make the cover page gray.

I am attempting to PDF this Word file; however, the quality of the PNG image is substandard and I have run out of ways to work around it:

  • Replaced original image that was 85% resized with an image of exact dimensions
  • Print to PDF from Word
  • Create PDF from Acrobat 9.4.6
  • (would have tried to print through Acrobat add-in, but it's not available for some reason)
  • Copy-n-paste PNG (transparency "disappears")
  • Drag-n-drop PNG to add
  • Add PNG through dialog

The below is a good representation of the result, no matter what I do (minor differences depending on what I've done from the list above):

The poor result

Note the crispness of the text. Also note this image was captured with the PDF at 100% using the Windows 7 Snipping Tool.

When I print the cover page of the Word file to a regular printer, the image prints of decent quality (there's a slight blur to the image). It's not quite what I would like, but it's not nearly as bad as the PDF version. And when I print the PDF cover page, the image still looks bad…

Is this fixable? Is there something I need to do differently? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Best Answer

The PNG format is not suitable for what you are trying to acheive.

You mention that you have an EPS version of the logo.

I would insert the EPS directly into the Word file for the best results. The EPS file is a vector graphic format that will allow you to resize it without getting the scaling artifacts you get with bitmap formats.

The only issue with doing it this way is that Word will display and most likely print a bitmap preview image instead of the actual vector information. But, when you print the Word file to PDF the vector information will be embedded in the PDF.

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