Re Acrobat Std: PDF compression

Forum|Forum|25 days ago
April 7, 2026
2 replies
101 views

When I compress a PDF file in Acrobat Std, the file is auto compressed to half the size, i.e. a 5 mb file is compressed to 2.5 mb. Question 1: assuming 2.5 is an acceptable size to send to a receiver, am I correct in saying that the receiver will be able to read the 2.5 mb file as clearly as he would the 5 mb file? Question 2: Is there away to create a variable compression with Acrobat Std, or possibly with a tool?

a-jimjks

JR Boulay

Community Expert

We’re no longer in the 20th century; nowadays, a single click is all it takes to share a document and send a link to the person you’re writing to.

Acrobate du PDF, InDesigner et Photoshopographe

J

jamess40245837Author

Participating Frequently

Hi JR Boulay,

I’m one of those old timers who’s still stuck in the 20th century. I prefer making attachments to the email I’m writing because there are often revisions & delays to what I’m writing. There have also been times when I have decided not to make the attachment. But thanks for the comment.

a-jimjks

leo.r

Community Expert

The resulting size after compression depends on both the contents of the file AND the compression settings. It’s not a constant and can be much higher or much lower than half the size.

am I correct in saying that the receiver will be able to read the 2.5 mb file as clearly as he would the 5 mb file?

If by “read” you mean the text of the file, then it normally should not be changed by the compression.

Question 2: Is there away to create a variable compression with Acrobat Std, or possibly with a tool?

Can you please elaborate on what exactly you mean by that?

J

jamess40245837Author

Participating Frequently

Hi Leo,

Question 1: If the clarity of the text will not be affected by compression, that’s the answer I wanted. If the auto compression could at times be greater or smaller that’s o.k. too, as long as the text clarity remains.

Question 2: Acrobat Std does not give the user any options on what the compression size will be, i.e. ½ or greater/smaller. When I said variable compression, I meant that there is other PDF software on the market in which you could control the compression, e.g. instead of having the file auto compressed from 5 mb to 2.5 mg, one could manually control the compression to set the value from 5 mb to 4 mb or to 3 mb. This could be done by adjusting a bar scale or by inputting a number.

a-jimjks

leo.r

Community Expert

There’s no way to control the resulting file size of PDF after compression. Like I mentioned, it depends on both the contents of the file AND the compression settings. PDF can contain a mix of raster and vector elements, each of which can be affected by the compression differently and often in an unpredictable way.

Frankly, I’m not sure what “Acrobat Std” is. Is it Acrobat Reader or the full version of Acrobat?

In the full version you can control various compression settings, some of which require advanced knowledge of PDF structure. I don’t know if they’re offered by Reader:

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