Large PDF Document

If you cannot reduce the size of the PDF to your 1 MB target size, then you can share the PDF through a link to a sharing service like Google Drive, DropBox, MS OneDrive, etc. or split the PDF into smaller files each less than 1 MB in size.

Amanda, with Adobe Acrobat Pro, you have two was to reduce the size of a PDF file:

1. Reduced Size PDF
2. Optimized PDF

The first one will apply a set of changes that will reduce the quality of e.g. images in your PDF file. This is a "one size fits most" approach, and as long as you are happy with the output, there is nothing wrong with it.

If you however need to know exactly what goes on during the file size reduction, you need to use the "Optimized PDF" method (only available in Pro, "Reduced Size PDF" is also available in Standard). Here you can pick and choose what gets removed or reduced in your PDF file. The first thing you should do is to run a file size audit (there is a button on the dialog to do that). This will tell you how much space is used up by what features, and you can then target your selections to the areas that can be removed or reduced.