I finally created the Vector graphics for the Quest Book Parchment image.
In my adventures, I also discovered that the Mac default PDF viewer does not follow the PDF standard like just about every other PDF viewer and you cannot use alpha channel / gradients. Much the coolness that is the 5kb and 23kb image file replacements is lost on Mac users. You can view the image properly in Adobe PDF Viewer, but I do not recommend installing it, it is an absolutely terrible app on the Mac!
I recently switched back to Linux, so I'm quite happy with theses. Windows users will similarly have no issues.
Here is the Black and White version:
HQBannerBW.pdf
Here is the Color version with a gradient (solid color for mac users):
HQBanner.pdf
And here is my final attempt at a parchment texture without using any rasterizing (23kb):
HQBannerParchment.pdf
In conclusion, we may be better served by the ~230kb scan of the original. What do you think?