Custom stamp images and print time

[Jay_Beech@adobeforums.com]

I've created a PDF of a page of sheet music output with fonts from a music notation program. From that I'm making a "sample" for my customers to view. I've added a text watermark. Up to this point everything is working well and the print spooling happens quickly.

However, I also want to add an image that looks like the torn corner of a page. To accomplish this, part of the image needs to be transparent so I've created both TIF (196k) and GIF (12k) versions of it in PhotoShop. Initially I tried to also add the image as a watermark but neither of these file formats are permitted with that function. Now I have created a custom stamp with each of these two images and saved files with both of them. They're about the same size ~180k.

My system (details below) is not exactly a rocket by today's standards but I do quite a bit of graphic work with it so I know what to expect in this regard. Sending the file with the TIF to print takes about 2:15 before printing begins. With the GIF it takes about 10 minutes. (I nodded off...)

I'm certainly open to other ideas about how to accomplish this. I could certainly save the file as a JPG, but because I need to keep the resolution quite high for both the text and music, the file sizes get quite a bit bigger.

Thanks - JAY

G4 MDD 1.25ghz MP
OS 10.4.11
2gb RAM
CS3 Design Premium
Acrobat Pro 8.1.2

[Jay_Beech@adobeforums.com]

I forgot to mention that those times reflect printing from within Acrobat. When I printed the TIF version from within Preview it took less than 30 seconds to start, but the transparent portion of the image did not appear completely transparent.