Convert JPEG Photographs Into PDF Documents

Author: Adrian Nelson


If you already know what JPEGs and PDFs are then skip to the
"Why should you convert JPEG images into PDF documents" section
to learn about some of the benefits and advantages of converting
your JPEG photographs into PDF documents.

What is a
JPEG?

JPEG (pronounced "jay-peg") is a royalty free
image format that was created by a committee known as the Joint
Photographics Expert Group. It was designed to compress
photographic images so that they take up much less space.


However, the JPEG format is a "lossy" one. This means that
when a JPEG image is decompressed it is not quite the same as
the original image. But don't worry as this is not a big issue
because it is possible to set the quality level that should be
used for an image.

At a high quality level the human
eye will not be able to distinguish the differences and you will
still get a very useful space saving with about a 10:1
compression ratio - ie an image will be compressed to one tenth
of their original size.

At medium quality levels you
will be able to spot slight differences (known as "compression
artifacts") but these should not normally detract from the image
and you will get a compression ratio of around 20:1.

Of
course lower quality levels are available that allow a
compression ratio of 100:1 to be achieved but the resultant
images will look very "blocky".

JPEG is probably the
most popular image format in use thanks to its high image
quality and low space requirements. It is widely used on the
Internet and as the storage format for photographs taken with
most digital cameras.

What is a PDF?


PDF is a royalty free general purpose Portable Document Format
created by Adobe Systems. It is ideal for storing and displaying
fixed layout documents in a device and resolution independent
way.

What this means is that a PDF document will be
displayed in the same way no matter what device it is viewed on
- whether it is on a PC with a large screen or on a small
personal organizer.

It is also important to note that a
PDF document can be printed to any printer and the printed
output should look exactly the same (or at least as close as
possible subject to any limitations that the printer might
have).

Because of the benefits outlined above, PDF is
widely used on the Internet and is extensively used within the
print industry where printing accuracy is a must.


Why should you convert JPEG images into PDF
documents?

While JPEG images are easy to use there
are some limitations with them that make PDF documents a more
attractive way of distributing images.

First of all if
you want to display and print a JPEG image then what you see on
screen is not necessarily what you get printed! This is because
the screen resolution is likely to be very different to the
printer resolution and the application that is used to display
the image on screen cannot always take this into account.


However, using a PDF document that contains the same image,
not only is the image displayed at the correct size on screen
but you get a perfect printed copy.

If you want to
store or distribute a number of images together then it makes
more sense to put them into a single PDF file. Especially if you
want to send them via email (you only have to include one file
attachment and the recipient can open the PDF document and
scroll through all of the images straight away) or display them
on a web site (you only need to link to one file not lots of
them).

With a PDF document you can also restrict what
can be done with it - you may only want authorised users to be
able to view the document in which case you can password protect
it. Or you can prevent a user from editing or printing the
document if you only want them to be able to view it on
screen.

You can of course do much more with a PDF
document, for example, you could create a simple PDF photo album
of your images with a built-in slideshow using some fancy page
transitions between each image.

How can you convert
JPEG images into PDF documents?

While you could use
the fully featured and relatively expensive Adobe Acrobat
application to convert JPEG images into PDF documents, this can
be both time consuming to learn and overly complex if all you
want to do is to convert some JPEG images.

There are
some free applications available, such as Open Office, but these
do not generally allow you the same level of control or
automation as dedicated third party tools.

A better
solution could be to use a dedicated tool such as one of the
"Image to PDF" range of products from Utility Warrior.


There are some other advantages to using a tool that is
dedicated to the job of just converting JPEG images into PDF
documents - it will probably be cheaper for a start!


Also, these tools will often be much smaller in size as there is
no unnecessary code bloat, and this can also mean that they are
faster in operation - which can be very important if you have
thousands of JPEG images to convert!

Hopefully this
brief article will have given you enough grounding to evaluate
the solutions that are available to convert your JPEG images
into PDF documents to best find one that matches your needs.
Happy converting!

Copyright © 2007 Adrian Nelson

About the author:
Adrian Nelson is the lead software developer behind the range of
low cost PDF utilities from Utility Warrior which can be found
at <a href="http://www.UtilityWarrior.com">www.UtilityWarrior.com</a>