PDF Embedded Thumbnails

[SA]

Dont know if this is even possible.. but thought I would take a chance and ask..

We are using Artpro/Powerstepper for the stepping of jobs. If the cad data is linked to a PDF it gets its on-screen preview from the Embedded page thumbnail within the PDF. As standard this is totally crap and looks like a couple pixels pasted together to form the preview. So is there a way to up the resolution of the embedded thumbnail?

Now we have been able to setup a hot folder on our rip (trueflow) to create outline PDF's with a decent quality embedded thumbnail which does show up nicely within Artpro. So I know it is possible for a PDF to have a decent quality thumbnail embedded, but is there a way to do this through acrobat with pitstop or even at the printing stage of the PDF?

[Joe]

It looks like you can resize them in Acrobat although I don't think it is upping the res any. From the Acrobat 9 Help file:

Create page thumbnails

Because page thumbnails increase file size, they are not automatically created. After you create page thumbnails, you can embed them in the PDF. Embedding prevents the page thumbnails from redrawing each time you click the Pages button, often a time-consuming process. Embedded page thumbnails won't reflect changes that you make to document pages until you unembed the page thumbnails.

Both Acrobat Distiller® and the batch processing feature in Acrobat provide alternate methods of embedding page thumbnails.
Create page thumbnails
 Click the Pages button on the left.

Page thumbnails appear in the navigation pane. This process may require several seconds, particularly in larger documents. The drawing of page thumbnails may pause if you interact with the application during this process.
Resize page thumbnails
 In the Pages panel, choose Reduce Page Thumbnails or Enlarge Page Thumbnails from the options menu .
View full size graphic

Embed or unembed page thumbnails in a PDF
 In the Pages panel, choose Embed All Page Thumbnails or Remove Embedded Page Thumbnails from the options menu .
Embed or unembed page thumbnails in a PDF Portfolio

   1. Choose Advanced > Document Processing > Batch Processing.
   2. Do one of the following:
          *

            To embed page thumbnails, click Embed Page Thumbnails, and then click Run Sequence. Follow the instructions provided.
          *

            To unembed page thumbnails, click New Sequence, and set up a new batch processing operation to remove the embedded page thumbnails.