Acrobat Pro: Best Way to Reduce PDF File Size Without Losing Quality?

[finlay_7586]

Hi everyone,

I’ve been working with a lot of scanned documents and exporting them as PDFs using Acrobat Pro, but I’m running into issues with file sizes being way too large for easy sharing or archiving.

I’ve tried the “Reduce File Size” option and even optimized some settings manually, but I’m still not getting the results I need—either the file is still too large or the quality drops too much.

Does anyone have a go-to method or best practices for compressing PDFs effectively in Acrobat Pro? Are there specific settings or techniques that balance size and quality well?

Appreciate any advice or tips—thanks in advance!

Best regards

[Bernd Alheit · Accepted solution]

Use the optimizer and try different options.

[Bernd Alheit · Accepted solution]

Use the optimizer and try different options.

[JR Boulay · Accepted solution]

Compressing a document, PDF or otherwise, is always a compromise between quality and file size.
You should try this instead of PDF Optimizer:

https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/using/enhance-camera-images.html

[finlay_7586]

Thanks for the helpful tip—appreciate you sharing that link!

By the way, what’s with all the references to kilts lately?