Currently, when exporting PDF pages to Google Earth, PDF Manager creates the page images as lossless PNG files. While this does provide the best possible image quality, it can also result in very large KMZ files, especially when working with larger plan sets. It’s not uncommon for these exports to exceed 100 MB, making them more difficult to share and manage.
In my testing, converting the exported PNGs to high-quality JPEGs dramatically reduced the file size while maintaining nearly the same visual quality in Google Earth. The difference was negligible for typical plan sheet review and navigation, but the reduction in file size was substantial.
It would be helpful if PDF Manager offered an option to choose the image format when exporting to Google Earth, such as:
-
PNG (Lossless, maximum quality)
-
JPEG (Compressed, smaller file size)
- Optional quality setting (e.g., 80%, 90%, 95%)
In addition to reducing storage and file transfer times, smaller KMZ files would likely provide a noticeable performance improvement for many end users. We frequently share these files with clients, contractors, and field personnel who may be using older or lower-spec computers. Smaller image files can help KMZs load faster, improve responsiveness in Google Earth, and reduce the overall burden on systems that may already struggle with large datasets.
Adding a JPEG export option would give users the flexibility to balance image quality and file size based on their needs, while eliminating the extra manual step of converting images after export.
Thank you.
