Acrobat Pro Compression Fails for PDFs Exported from Keynote

[PHLSKT]

Hi everyone,

I’m experiencing an issue with Adobe Acrobat Pro’s “Compress a PDF” tool. When I try to compress PDFs exported from Apple Keynote, I get a conversion warning with the error:
“An error was encountered while processing images.”

What’s Odd:

1. PDFs exported from older Keynote files that worked fine before no longer compress successfully in Acrobat Pro.
2. I’m wondering if this could be an issue with Acrobat Pro, possibly related to recent updates or compatibility changes.
3. If I export the Keynote file as a PPTX and then use PowerPoint to create the PDF, the compression works fine in Acrobat Pro.

What I’ve Tried:

• Re-exporting from Keynote with different quality settings.
• Testing older files that previously compressed fine.
• Using both Compress a PDF and Save as Other > Reduced Size PDF options in Acrobat Pro.

Current Setup:

• MacOS: Sequoia 15.1.1
• Adobe Acrobat Pro: Build 24.4.20272.0
• Keynote: Version 14.2 (7041.0.109)

My Questions:

1. Has anyone encountered similar issues with Acrobat Pro and PDFs from Keynote?
2. Could this be related to Acrobat Pro updates or compatibility with macOS Sequoia?
3. Are there any settings or troubleshooting steps I should try to resolve this?

Thanks so much for any insights or suggestions!

PHLSKT

[Surah Al36571526zjtc]

It sounds like the issue might be related to recent updates or compatibility between Keynote, Acrobat Pro, and macOS. Try updating Acrobat Pro or exporting with different settings to troubleshoot.

[PHLSKT]

All software is up to date, and I’ve tried various settings and methods to troubleshoot this issue. Here’s what I found:

1. Export to PDF and Print/Save as PDF directly from Keynote both create PDFs that cause issues with Acrobat Pro’s compression tool.
2. However, Acrobat successfully compressed a PDF after I exported it from Keynote, opened it in Preview, and applied the Quartz Filter “Reduce File Size.”

The trick is adding this intermediate step, using Preview to reprocess the PDF before attempting compression in Acrobat.

This is only a workaround, though. I hope Adobe or Apple addresses this issue soon to make the workflow seamless again.

[JR Boulay]

2. Obviously.

I always wait at least 6 months before updating MacOS!

[PHLSKT]

That's a smart rule!

[dave_1862]

I am currently running into this exact issue. I'm assuming it's the latest OS update too.