Making combined pdf pages the same size... without doubling the size of the PDF

You have a few options to make all pages the same size;

1. Place all pdf pages into a new 8.5 x 11 InDesign file using the place multipage PDF script, fit content to frame, export to a new PDF.

2. Run an Acrobat preflight profile to change all pages to a desired size. Here is a link to related discussion (see the last post): https://community.adobe.com/t5/acrobat-discussions/how-to-turn-all-different-pdf-pages-sizes-into-the-same-portrait-size/m-p/12218605#M322981

"I think one of the providers even typed "comments" to fill in the blanks before getting it signed and notarized (not sure how they managed to do that...) "

I don't think you can notarize a PDF, but you can scan a notarized document and add comments, I'm not a lawer, but it seems like that might send up a red flag.  https://www.theverge.com/tldr/2018/2/23/17044992/paul-manafort-trump-indictment-mueller-russia-probe-word-docs-to-pdf

Pardon me, off topic.

Comments can be added using Acrobat (Tools> Comment), or they may have added form fields to create an interactive PDF and added type to the fields, either way, you want to be careful to not loose them, as they may not always print (depending on your print settings) and they might not show up when placed into another file. To insure they don't get lost, you can move the comments to the page contents layer by using a preflight fixup- "Flatten all annotations into page contents". Form fields can be flattened when the PDF is optimized for size, if needed.

I know you requested detailed instructions, however, there are many flavors of PDFs, and it's hard to avoid every possible thing that can go wrong. I would use the InDesign method, and check the new PDF for correct content page by page and use the Acrobat preflight profiles on the pages where the comments have been lost.

Hi Patrick

Hope you are doing well and sorry for the trouble. As described you want to combine the PDF and at the same time dont want the size of the PDF file to be increased.

Once you combine the PDF file, you may try to reduce the file size. Acrobat reduces the size of a PDF file without compromising quality. The Acrobat PDF compression tool balances an optimized file size against the expected quality of images, fonts, and other file content.

For more information and to know how, please go through the help page https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/using/optimizing-pdfs-acrobat-pro.html and see if that works for you.

Regards

Amal

Hi Patrick,

What is the source of the original PDFs. 

One of the things you cannot do is to PDF a PDF from the Print menu — just can't be done.

Also, are you working with PDFs of images or are the files being OCRed into searchable documents. The size of PDF images can easily be ginourmos because every pixel in the file must be accounted for. After OCRing, the text of the image is what's creating any "size," or better stated "storage size." 

Also, piece of trivia for you: I always designate size (the width and height of a document) from the storage size (the amount of kilobytes) of the document. This is important because if you double the width of the "size" of a pixel document, you increase the (storage) "size" four times. 

Let me know what you are actually referring to and I'll do what I can to help.