Updated: Tuesday, 27 April 2021 at 09:31PM
Author: Eric Vasbinder
One of the best practices that customers should adhere to when using any system that stores attachments is to keep those attachment files as small as possible while still retaining fidelity and readability. Efficiency can save on disk space, improve performance, and more.
Vista is no exception. Vista has a limit of 30 MB in size for files uploaded to Vista via our VRL (Vista Remote Link) method. However, even beyond this size limit, it is critical for our users to keep files added to Vista as small as possible while still keeping them readable.
Some key elements to consider for our cloud hosted Vista customers include:
Your cloud environment includes 500GB of included free storage; storage above that amount will be billed to you in accordance with our standard storage rates.
This 500GB of free storage is used not just by the attachments database, but by Vista's records database, Vista's application, the operating system, SQL server, and more.
As the VPAttachments database grows, performance will begin to slow. This is not normally noticeable with our fast SSDs and Vista’s performance optimizations, but as you increase your attachment database size to 1.5TB+, this may become a factor.
As it grows beyond this size limit, eventually Vista will begin to perform more slowly.
NOTE: Many of the below recommendations for optimizing file size are only applicable if you scan to Adobe Acrobat Pro or another dedicated scanning package and may not available in Vista's built-in scanning form.
If using another package to scan, please scan to your local hard drive, then either drag the file into Vista, or (if a PDF) use Vista's Page Splitter form in the Document Management Module to split the PDF into smaller chunks and drag those into the appropriate records in Vista
Given these factors, it is important for our customers to keep the size of their PDF and image attachments to be as small as possible while still preserving fidelity. Ideally, we should try to keep individual files to below 20mb each. Here are a few optimization techniques to use when saving any image file type, including JPG, PDF, PNG, BMP, and more:
When scanning the image, keep the resolution to 150dpi or below
300dpi is only really necessary for print shop use (e.g. print layout, brochures, datasheets, etc.)
Choose “lossy” compression for your images where possible
Convert the images to black and white by default, grayscale if necessary, and color only as a last resort
Crop the image if possible to eliminate any extraneously scanned parts of the image (e.g. a business card that was scanned on a blank letter size background can be cropped to show only the business card.
Here are a few recommendations that are specific to PDF files:
When processing the image please choose the highest PDF compatibility level possible
This will allow you to have additional optimization options
Please choose “ClearScan” as the PDF format instead of full image where possible
This replaces the raster image format of parts of the page with vector images, which can be compressed upon save to a much smaller format.