Do scanners create different PDF sizes with same output setting?

**JyotiT** · 03-09-2011

Right now I own a Lexmark 8300 MFP scanner in order to scan documents into pdf but it seems to me that the generated pdf is way excessively huge. My scan setting is - B&W text, 300 dpi, 8.5" x 11" scan area, output pdf. By the use of Lexmark 8300 (multifunction) - 1.06 MB (single page PDF). However by the use of older scanners, identical one-page doc, identical settings as above:

Agfa SnapScan Touch - 22 kb
Canon CanoScan N340P - 62 kb
Brother MFC 4420C (multifunction) - 144 kb

I utilized each one scanner's personal scanning software. What makes the produced pdf files different still while the selected settings are the similar?

**Amma-Watson** · 03-09-2011

The size of a scan depends on the image size in cooperation with the type (stroke, grayscale, color) and the resolution. If a witness is to be scanned in grayscale, and I'd choose for a small file 72dpi. Then it should work.

**Victorious mind** · 03-09-2011

An interesting question, I'm not sure if I have understood correctly. I've tried it myself. So I scan a document and not save it as PDF, but as a JPG photo under a program. Then I open Word and paste the file. Here I can then reduce to a full page quarter page and place it so 4 pages of testimony onto one A4 page. How much KB is needed but does not really matter. With today's broadband connections, such a document will be sent soon, but the recipient will not be a lot of paper. Would that be a solution?

**Ransom** · 07-09-2011

I noticed that when you scan a text document as a PDF, that then the KB size is completely different. This ranges from 55 KB - what is optimal, moreover, in color - and extends to 574 MB even though it is black and white.

I was once in a company that had a multi-functional copier, who had also "compact PDF" as your scan option, but unfortunately I no longer have access. Who do I turn what I have to say, so I get all my references in this small-KB boundary. Yesterday, I scanned the two pages here at home by the new witness, while preserving more than 1 MB for 2 pages. This is unacceptable for an application.