Profiles
After you add data, Pabaru’s optimizer proposes three layouts. Each one is the smallest number of pages that satisfies the profile’s rules for your printer, scanner and paper; when several layouts need the same number of pages, the one with larger, coarser dots wins, because coarse dots tolerate creases, crumpling and blurry scans much better.
| Profile | Parity (minimum) | Finest dots | Survives losing a page | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Compact | 10 % | 300 dpi | no | Least paper; needs good print and scan quality. |
| Balanced | 25 % | 200 dpi | no | A sensible trade-off between page count and resilience. |
| Archival | 35 % | 150 dpi | yes | Long-term storage. |
Further rules the optimizer always respects:
- the dot density divides the printer resolution evenly (e.g. 600 dpi → 300, 200, 150, 100, … dpi);
- the scanner resolution must be at least 3× the dot density;
- for inkjet printers dots are at most 200 dpi, with a smaller fill;
- for small backups, dots can be as coarse as 50 dpi (0.5 mm) if the data still fits on the same number of pages.
Spare cells on the last page are filled with extra parity, so small backups often end up far more resilient than the minimum.
In the app, pick a profile card under Recommended layout. On the command line, use
pabaru plan to see the proposals and pabaru encode --profile <name> to use one.
pabaru plan ./documents --printer laser600 --scanner-dpi 600 --paper a4