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kristinaplasgard
kristinaplasgard
Participating Frequently
July 31, 2025
Answered

File sizes from Photoshop PDF

  • July 31, 2025
  • 1 reply
  • 301 views

Hi! 

I often apply for art grants, and in these application I struggle with photos and sizes of files. 
I have photos in JPG format, often very large, high quality (could be 10-30 MB). 
The application for a grant often require things such as: 
"Text + application PDF form + your photos must all be in 1 (one) PDF file, which is maximum 10 MB or 20 MB"

 

I have the basic plan with Photoshop (not adobe acrobat PDF). 
It is so hard to put together perhaps 10 photos of artworks that are large, high quality JPG files, and make it all fit in one PDF to be under 10 or 20 MB. 
What I do, is to go into photoshop and reduce the size (pixels) and resolution PPI in photoshop, to make the JPG photo smaller. 

How can I do this better in photoshop without loosing quality in the photos of the artworks? 

Thank you so much in advance 🙂 

Correct answer Kevin Stohlmeyer

Hi @kristinaplasgard Image Size automatic should handle most reducing just fine. You could switch to Bicubic Sharper but automatic would choose that anyway. 

PDF is where is gets trickier - especially if Im assuming you are combining all your images into one larger sized page in Photoshop. Normally for quality the lowest preset I would use is High Quality Print. Smallest File Size will reduce the resolution further than you may want. 

I would encourage you to look into a subscription to Acrobat Standard. You could be creating smaller individual PDF pages and then combining using Acrobat into one multipage document. It may prove to be a much more effective method for submission and gives you larger image sizes than combining your work onto one page. 

1 reply

Kevin Stohlmeyer
Community Expert
Kevin StohlmeyerCommunity Expert
Community Expert
July 31, 2025

@kristinaplasgard there really isn't a magic solution - math is math. If you reduce the overall size of the file, quality will be reduced as well. You can mitigate by using proper resampling (automatic should be fine) but also when you save your PDF make sure you are using the correct version - that will also reduce quality and compress image files. 

In cases like this not having Acrobat puts you at a disadvantage - you could be creating multiple PDF files from your images, then combining into one multipage PDF file instead of trying to fit all of these onto one page. 

    kristinaplasgard
    kristinaplasgardAuthor
    Participating Frequently
    August 1, 2025

    Hello Kevin! 
    Thank you so much for your reply. I'm a bit new to photoshop.. 🙂 What do you mean with "proper" resampling? Is there a proper way to reduce the size of a photo? If I understand correctly. 
    How do I know I use the correct version when saving a PDF? 😛 🙂 
    Thank you!!! 😄 

    Kevin Stohlmeyer
    Community Expert
    Kevin StohlmeyerCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
    Community Expert
    August 1, 2025

    Hi @kristinaplasgard Image Size automatic should handle most reducing just fine. You could switch to Bicubic Sharper but automatic would choose that anyway. 

    PDF is where is gets trickier - especially if Im assuming you are combining all your images into one larger sized page in Photoshop. Normally for quality the lowest preset I would use is High Quality Print. Smallest File Size will reduce the resolution further than you may want. 

    I would encourage you to look into a subscription to Acrobat Standard. You could be creating smaller individual PDF pages and then combining using Acrobat into one multipage document. It may prove to be a much more effective method for submission and gives you larger image sizes than combining your work onto one page. 

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