PDF Tips and Troubleshooting

Resources

Image Size

If your PDF file is very large in size (multiple MBs), you may not be able to upload it to the thesis registration system. The image size in a document is often a primary reason that PDF files are very large. The ITS Helpdesk link below provides several good resources for reducing image sizes.

ITS Helpdesk Links for Thesis Writers
  • ITS Technical Tips - The ITS Helpdesk has created the following links to assist thesis writers with issues such as PDF conversion, file size reduction, and image size.

Another tip: "Generally speaking an image of 640 x 480 or, at the largest, 1024 x 768, is a good size for the web. Anything larger won't fit on most viewers' screens at 100%, and just makes the file size bigger. Of course it may be that you want them to zoom in, which is fine. But keep in mind that the larger the image the more more likely someone will use it for commercial purposes. Smaller images help to protect your intellectual property. To keep the file size down when you save it in Photoshop, the JPEG quality setting should not be any higher than 10, and probably fine at 8. Before deciding, save the same image in both settings and see if you can tell the difference."

Supplemental Material

If you have a supplemental file (images, sound, video) you may upload it for library archiving in WesScholar where it says "Upload sound or video files for library archiving here (Optional) in the thesis registration system. There is a 2 MB limit on these files. Please note that your advisor/readers will not have access to this material until it is published on WesScholar in late May; therefore, you will need to make arrangements to get this material to your advisor/readers if it needs to be evaluated with your thesis.

Troubleshooting

If you created your thesis using DOCX and then converted it to a PDF file and see the error message "Invalid PDF File" when you upload your thesis, please do the following: Open the original PDF file, save it as a new PDF file, and then upload the new PDF file in the Thesis Management System.