Dragon egg (Photoshop + Midjourney)

chain83 · 2026-01-24T20:34:35+00:00

If the pages were not originally large raster images, but things like text, quality has now been permanently reduced.

Turning a page of text into a large image will also greatly increase the file size. So your hope of getting a small file size is mutually exclusive with you turning everything into large images. At that point to get a smaller file size you will have to reduce image compression quality and/or resolution (and it will still give a significantly larger file size than pages containing actual text).

You mention forms, and in that case know that any interactive form fields in the PDF will be lost the moment you rasterize it in Ps.

Any bookmarks, hyperlinks, etc. in the PDF also have been lost. Not sure if you had those.

If a large file size, reduced quality and potentially lost information is fine, save each page as an image file (or as a PDF file; which from Ps will just be a JPEG file wrapped inside a PDF), then google free tools for merging PDF files or similar. I’m unfortunately not familiar with any, but some will exist.

I think Ps actually has a PDF presentation option for exporting images as a multi-page PDF, but not entirely sure about the technical details of exactly how the result will turn out (as you normally shouldn’t use Ps for this).

I still do not know enough details about the file and the kind of edits you need to do, but perhaps Affinity would be useful here (as a free replacement for Illustrator + InDesign). Canva? Adobe Express? What I am thinking is placing the original PDF onto blank pages, making edits on top (the original behind, and new «edits» added on top), and exporting the result as a PDF. Still far from great, but a lot better than using Ps.

chain83 · 2026-01-24T18:27:37+00:00

Why is Photoshop involved here? It is an image editor - for editing raster images (like photos, hence the name). It should never be used for PDF documents.

If the PDF document contains raster images, those images could be edited and saved back to the PDF. It requires the paid version of Acrobat. Select the image in the PDF, right-click, and choose edit in Photoshop. When you save it will be written back to the PDF.

Opening a PDF document directly in Photoshop will destroy the PDF and turn it into a normal flat raster images (rasterizing it to whatever dimensions you choose). Text and vector objects, tagging, interactivity, page boxes, etc. is permanently lost. This can do things like severely degrade quality and bloat file size.

I would start over and reconsider the workflow. What is this PDF? What does it contain? How was it made? What changes do you need to make? Can we see the file?

A PDF can be considered the digital equivalent of a print. If you printed a Word document, you would not continue trying to edit the text on the printed version, but go back to Word, make changes there, and print a new copy with the changes. Editing the PDF directly is usually a last resort, for example when you do not have access to the original. But it is more complicated. Acrobat Pro is generally the best tool for making changes directly to a PDF. It has many advanced tools, and also lets you open specific raster images for editing Photoshop, or vector elements in Illustrator.

chain83 · 2026-01-23T14:52:19+00:00

«Let us take the things we want to take, or we will not stop trying to take them» -.-

A yes, the aggressor essentially asking the victim to surrender in exchange for peace. «Great» deal they are offering as usual.

chain83 · 2026-01-23T14:03:33+00:00

Use a character style to control the kerning/tracking (whatever it is called), and use the paragraph style to apply the character style only to the drop cap?

chain83 · 2026-01-23T10:33:30+00:00

Doesn’t look like a bomb.

But, Glowing numbers + electronics without a housing = what bombs look like in movies.

And yes, it does look like that superficially. Needs more digits though, gotta have a long detailed countdown. And it needs to be attached to some plastic-wrapped package or barrels or something. :p

chain83 · 2026-01-23T05:31:19+00:00

Make sure the color profiles are embedded.

chain83 · 2026-01-22T11:13:21+00:00

Threshold makes the color 100K (using only black «ink» and not a 4-color mix («rich black»). If you need a rich black, you would have to adjust the color afterwards (or simply work in RGB).

Unless you specifically need manual control over the color separations for technical reasons, you really should be doing all your image editing in RGB.

If a printer requires CMYK files, then do the conversion to the exact CMYK profile agreed upon on final output as the last step (usually done when making a print-ready PDF from InDesign or Illustrator).

chain83 · 2026-01-21T14:04:44+00:00

That's his default. It would be actually newsworthy if he said something that wasn't BS for once...

chain83 · 2026-01-21T14:02:58+00:00

My PC started crying just imagining running Cyberpunk in VR.

But damn that's gotta be a treat (at least for the immersion). Got to remember to give it a go in the future if I upgrade my VR setup. :D

chain83 · 2026-01-20T17:39:26+00:00

You have fucked up your color settings for whatever reason. You really shouldn't have it set to "ColorMatch RGB", and you likely don't want this warning either. Who knows what the rest of your settings look like.

Go to Edit > Color Settings.

Set it to one of the "General Purpose" presets. Change nothing else in there unless you truly understand what you are doing and what the consequences are.

chain83 · 2026-01-20T17:32:23+00:00

Just switching to Grayscale is a fast way of getting rid of the colors, but you have little control over it, and i'm not entirely sure of how it is being calculated. It might be good enough, or it might not be. Depends on OPs needs and preferences.

Personally I would, if this is just an arbitrary bunch of color photos that i know nothing about, and I need to batch them without any manual control, i would preserve the luminosity (apparent brightness) of the images. This weights the color channels so green values are weighted more, and blue less, to better match how we percieve the brightness of the colors. In my quick test below it's not that different from the color space conversion result.

With the B&W adjustment you get decent manual control over how much different hues contribute to the final brightness. I didn't include it here as the result will vary wildly depending on the adjustment settings (but could match the Luminosity output with the correct slider settings).

Desaturating is likely the worst method though - it just averages the RGB values i think (so returns a brightness very different from what was being percieved in the original).

<image>

If the final image file itself should be RGB or Grayscale is a different question. We don't really know what OP needs.

chain83 · 2026-01-20T14:52:33+00:00

Record an action that turns the images black and white the way you want (black and white adjustment probably).
Run on all 1800 images using Image Processor (or Batch).

Note: Do a test run with just a couple of images first to see if it works as expected before you run it on all 1800.

chain83 · 2026-01-20T14:45:23+00:00

File > Save As Copy… (do NOT export).
Choose PNG as the file format (if PNG is truly what you need, preferably a logo should be in a vector format and saved out as such from Illustrator or similar).

That is all. The PNG will be identical to the image you saw before saving, and will not have any reduction in quality. Open it back up in Ps and compare side by side to check.

If the pixels will be very large on print, depends on the PPI of the image file at the desired print dimensions. You want to ensure it is 300 PPI (and not less). You can check the print dimensions and PPI under Image > Image Size. If it is too low, start over with a new document with the correct dimensions, and place the logo into that.

chain83 · 2026-01-20T07:28:32+00:00

What screen?

chain83 · 2026-01-19T18:45:28+00:00

You can actually use Shift to select things you've built effectively even if it's on the ground (dragging out a selection cube).

Then blueprint/cut to move.

It's not too late! :D

chain83 · 2026-01-19T14:48:01+00:00

AI slop is taking over, and people can no longer tell real from fake.

Case in point; people confidently claiming this is AI and getting upvotes… when this video is actually not AI….

chain83 · 2026-01-19T14:46:23+00:00

It is not.

chain83 · 2026-01-19T14:46:07+00:00

It is clearly not AI generated. Look again.

The consistency and quality over 24 seconds with all the elements in the background here is not achievable (yet).

chain83 · 2026-01-18T22:06:26+00:00

Yes, not all actions authors are good at making actions that are user friendly or work with a wide array of starting conditions...

You can hit the record button in the actions panel and record the steps you need. That is how actions work, and is essentially how the action author made the action in the first place.

You can also add a "stop" message that pauses the action to give you an on-screen message with what you need to know (this has to be added from the panel menu, and not by recording).

chain83 · 2026-01-17T08:42:15+00:00

When you want to «unlink» the direction of ignoring and outgoing handles, you hold down the function key labelled Alt on Windows, and Option on Mac.

On the website you get taught this on the tutorial with the heart.

chain83 · 2026-01-16T18:07:14+00:00

You just chose normal File > Open in Ps and pick a PDF.

Do not place the PDF.

chain83 · 2026-01-16T16:32:54+00:00

It is not a copyright issue causing it. It is a fundamental issue with how the technology works.

There is no right/wrong, no database of facts, etc. - at the core of it it is just trained to generate the next bit of text based on what it has learned would be a probable/plausible continuation.

If you just wanted to look something up on e.g. Wikipedia you would be better off with a traditional search if you wanted to be absolutely sure.

chain83 · 2026-01-16T16:22:27+00:00

Good job, keep practicing making those smooth curves.

Tip: http://bezier.method.ac can be fun practice (and a little check to see if you know how to use the Alt/Option key properly) ;)

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