How to configure jobs in the Bluebeam Stapler | Revu 21

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Applies to:

  • Basics
  • Core
  • Complete

The Bluebeam Stapler allows you to combine files to create a single, multi-page PDF out of several source files. To configure certain aspects of a Stapler job before running it, select Configure. This dialog also appears as a Save As dialog when you disable “Prompt for file name” in Stapler settings.

With a Basics subscription, you can only create PDFs from Microsoft Office using the Stapler, but you can still create PDFs from any CAD application (i.e., AutoCAD, Revit, Navisworks, etc.) via the Bluebeam PDF printer.

In the Configure Job dialog box, you can set the following:

File Name: The name of the file you’ll create.

Save as type: Select from ten file types in addition to PDF. Supported formats include PostScript, TIFF, Bitmap, JPEG, PNG, and GIF.

Color Setting: Different file formats support different color depths. The color depth determines how many colors are used when images are saved. To select a different color depth, use the Color Setting menu.

For color images, use True Color, 256 Color, or 16 Color. True Color uses more colors than the human eye can distinguish (and more than any monitor/printer can display/print), so use it for the highest quality images. 256 Color and 16 Color will produce smaller files with less color precision. Monochrome is black-and-white, and Grayscale supports many different shades of gray. The file type you choose determines which options appear under Color Setting.

If the Color Setting is set to fewer colors than what the source file contains, the Stapler will replace the unsupported colors with their closest approximation. Photographs and rendered images should generally use True Color, while schematics and drawings with fewer colors can be represented well with 256 Color or 16 Color.

Append Mode: Allows you to add the new PDF to the beginning or end of an existing PDF, or to overwrite the existing PDF. Append mode only works with PDF files. The options are:

  • Overwrite: replaces the existing file.
  • Append: adds the new content to the end of the existing PDF.
  • Prepend: adds the new content to the beginning of the existing PDF.

Application: The source of the file you’re converting.

To edit the following configurations, select Advanced in the Configure Job dialog.

Image Compression

The image compression setting has two parts: the compression type and the JPEG Quality menu. Choose either Photographics (JPEG) or Graphics (ZIP) when creating the file. Choosing Default will use whichever option is set up as default on your computer.

If the drawing you’re converting to PDF is comprised mostly of photographs, the Photographicss (JPEG) option will produce better results. If your drawing contains mostly graphics or monochrome images, then Graphics (ZIP) will produce the best results.

Using the incorrect compression can significantly increase the size of the PDF file, making it difficult to share.

The JPEG Quality menu is only available when creating a JPEG image file. Note that a PDF file using the JPEG compression option does not constitute a JPEG image. The menu allows you to customize how precise the resulting images will be. There are five options: Minimum, Low, Medium, High, and Maximum.

Minimum will produce the smallest file size but the lowest image fidelity. Maximum will create the largest file size with the highest image fidelity. The options between Minimum and Maximum will produce images between those two extremes.

Resolution

This setting controls image resolution. The Line setting controls how precisely the software will transfer the line vectors from the original file to the image. Print will produce a higher quality, larger file. Draft will create a lower quality, smaller file.

The Image menu controls the image resolution by adjusting the dots-per-inch (dpi) the image will have. A higher dpi setting will create a better image, but will increase the file size.

Image Anti-Aliasing

Image Anti-Aliasing smooths out an image. Aliasing is the effect that causes jagged lines in diagonal or curved objects due to the square pixels on computer screens and printers. Anti-Aliasing attempts to correct this by using intermediate colors between the line color and background color.

The Text menu sets how much anti-aliasing to use on text, while the Graphics menu sets how much anti-aliasing to use with vector graphics.

These settings do not affect photographs or other pre-rendered images.

Line Merge

The final advanced setting is Line Merge. Select Line Merge for solid colored lines to appear transparent when overlapping other colored lines and text beneath shaded areas to be visible.

The Blend Mode menu controls how to blend the lines together, and the Opacity menu controls how opaque the top line will be. There are 12 different blend modes you can use to control the transparency settings with line merge.

Post Processing

Select Enable to activate a post processing operation as part of the PDF creation process. A second pass is performed on the PDF to correct certain conditions that may create less-than-optimal PDFs. Select Manage to display the PDF Post Processing Settings dialog.

Choose the PDF version to save using the PDF Version menu.

  • 1.4 Standard is the default.
  • 1.5 Compressed will compress any data streams that are not already compressed.
  • PDF/A-1b will create a PDF file that is compatible with the PDF/A-1b archival standard.

Select Process Wipeouts, Text Masks and OLE objects when creating PDFs from AutoCAD drawings that have text masks or wipeouts. This option is on by default for making PDFs from AutoCAD.

  • Fix Striped Images minimizes where lines or stripes appear in images.
  • Combine Adjacent Images stores images more efficiently in the PDF. This will also help to display certain images in PDFs created from AutoCAD correctly.
  • Optimize Solid Color Image converts any solid color raster images to vector.
  • Remove Text Clipping for those situations where text near the upper margins of a drawing appears clipped.

Page Rotation

Select a page rotation to rotate the orientation of the PDF file. Select 0 degrees for documents and most situations. Auto will use the last value saved.

More Information

How-To

Studio

Integrations & Plugins

You can configure certain aspects of the Stapler job before running it by clicking Configure.

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