MetaServer > Help > Convert to PDF MRC
160-070 MetaServer Convert – Convert to PDF MRC
With MetaServer’s Convert to PDF MRC action, you can reduce the size of a 300 DPI JPG image to about 90 to 95%.
PDF MRC stands for “Multi Raster Content”. It’s a sophisticated color compression technology to considerably reduce the file size of document images without affecting the image quality.
We also made it possible to compress images using JPEG 2000 (J2K). This results in excellent image quality with a file that is about 70% smaller than a traditional JPG compressed image.
Close-up of a page from original PDF (1308 KB)
Close-up of a page after compressing PDF using MRC (low) (175 KB)
To output your converted document:
Step 1: Add the Convert to PDF MRC action just before the Export action(s) used to output your converted document.
Make sure that any OCR processing (Extract actions or Convert to Searchable PDF actions) occur before compression.
If you also apply a Convert to PDF/A action in the same workflow, make sure this action is set after the Convert to PDF/MRC action.
Step 2: In your Export action(s), select “Processed PDF” as the File source. More about that later.
To add the Convert to PDF MRC action, select the action after which you want to insert the Convert to PDF MRC action and press Add -> Convert -> to PDF MRC. The Setup window will automatically open.
You can also open the setup window of an existing Convert to PDF MRC action by double clicking it or pressing the “…” button on the right side of the action, as shown below.
TIP: The thumbnail on the right will follow you, so you can easily refer to the Setup window. Click on the thumbnail to make the image larger.
First, add a description to your action.
01 – Test Folder: to test your compression settings, you need some test documents.
Just press the Test Folder button to browse to the folder containing your test documents or select one of your recently used test folders using the drop-down arrow. The last selected Test Folder is memorized per workflow.
02 – Document buttons: use the blue arrow buttons to navigate through the documents in the current test folder.
Use the Go to document button to directly navigate to a specific document.
Note: If you don’t see thumbnails in this window, you need to install a Windows PDF plugin to display PDF thumbnails. Please refer to these instructions for more details.
You can also use the drop-down arrow to browse in the test folder’s subfolders:
03 – Page buttons: if a document has more than one page, use the green arrow buttons to navigate through the pages of the document.
Use the Go to page button to directly navigate to a specific page of the current document:
04 – Mixed Raster Content: Mixed raster content (MRC) is a method for compressing images that contain both text and images using segmentation methods. You can choose between 3 different levels:
Low: Produces compact PDFs with good image quality.
Medium: Produces very compact PDFs with normal image quality.
High: Produces ultra compact PDFs with lower image quality.
It’s recommended to use MRC compression if the text on your documents has good contrast.
For low-contrast text (e.g. gradient backgrounds, dark backgrounds with dark text, etc.), we suggest using the JPEG 2000 compression method. The file size may not be as small, but the text and image will be of better quality.
05 – JPEG 2000: JPEG 2000 compression is the modern version of standard JPEG compression. It produces better image quality with smaller file size. You can choose between 3 different levels:
Low: Produces compact PDFs with superb image quality.
Medium: Produces compact PDFs with excellent image quality.
High: Produces very compact PDFs with good image quality.
It’s recommended to use JPEG 2000 compression if the text on your documents have low contrast (e.g. gradient backgrounds, dark backgrounds with dark text, etc.)
If the text has high contrast, we suggest using the Mixed Raster Content compression method. The file size will be even smaller and, using the Low compression level, the image quality will be more than adequate.
06 – Convert Text Based PDF: You can skip text-based PDFs by switching OFF this option.
By default, this option is switched OFF. When the option is switched ON, the conversion will only take place if the compressed version of the page is smaller than the original.
07 – Cores: MetaServer provides the option to support up to 6 cores to speed up the conversion to PDF MRC.
The recommended number of cores that you can use for this, depends on the hardware’s CPU specifications. You can find this information under Task Manager -> Performance -> CPU
You can calculate an estimation of the total process time and recommended number of extra cores to increase your conversion speed / page using our online Core Calculator.
08 – Test button / Auto Test Mode: press the Test button to show the converted version of the current page. You can see the original and new file size in the left and right upper corner of the page preview.
Auto test: press the drop-down arrow next to the Test button to enable Auto Testing. With this you can automatically test each document as you browse through them using the blue document navigation buttons.
TIP: you can copy the current settings and paste it in another setup window of the same type. Do this by pressing the Settings button in the bottom left of the Setup window and by selecting Copy. Then open another setup window of the same type and select Paste.
To export the converted documents, expand the File Source(s) list in your export action(s) and select “Processed PDF”.
File source selection in Export to Folder
File source selection in Export to Email, if you want to attach the edited document to the email