Help Needed: Acrobat Pro XI - Reduced Sized PDF vs. Optimized PDF

[wsritchie]

Hopefully some of you folks can help me, as I cannot get in touch with Adobe customer service.  I recently upgraded to Acrobat Pro XI.  In my old version of Acrobat Pro, I used to be able to take a PDF file of large size (let's say 10 MB) and shrink it down considerably with relative ease (down to less than 1 MB).  The file could then be easily emailed, shared, read, and most importantly wouldn't take up tons of hard drive space.  With this new version of Acrobat Pro XI, that same 10 MB file barely reduces down to 7 or 8 MB.  I have played with the various settings in both the File -> Save As Other -> Reduced Sized PDF and File -> Save As Other -> Optimized PDF.  Regardless of what I try, I cannot achieve anywhere near the same compression results as what I used to be able to achieve with my old version of Pro.  I can get the file size reduced, but the reduced file quality is trash.

Has anyone else encountered this problem as well?  Do any of you have any suggestions on what to do to fix??  I primarily scan a document as a PDF file with my HP OfficeJet Pro, and then reduce the PDF file size after the scan.  I could scan the document with lower DPI to begin with (currently scan 300 dpi typically grayscale), but then I don't have the scanned image quality that I need to reduce the file down so that it can be reprinted later at a good enough quality. 

[Bill12]

Check the audit in the PDF Optimize to see where the bloat exists. You can used a variety of options in PDF Optimize to remove things. If you have cropping, you have to go to the Protection>Remove Hidden Information. You should get a selection of items you can remove and may help.

[leonie61]

Hi wsrichie, I have just downloaded Acrobat Pro XI also and am having the same issues - mostly with black and white documents that I have scanned.  Sometimes they reduce slightly and sometimes they are even bigger!  Most of these are not documents I have created, so I can't change them.  Help please!!  I feel like I have wasted my money

[Bill12]

When you scan there are all sorts of issues you can run into. There are scan settings to provide options for dpi for instance (depending on your system, you may get the software for the scanner to set the resolution and in other cases, it seems that Acrobat controls the software directly). You can use PDF Optimize to run an audit and determine where the bloat is in the file. If you do OCR with the intent of making the file smaller, you have to use ClearScan. The Searchable formats simply add text behind the graphics that is there.

Another option is to scan to tiff files and set the dpi and color depth appropriately (for instance, millions of colors takes a lot more space). The JPeg format is not recommended in most cases, but can be used to reduce the color resolution without substantially reducing the intensity resolution (this is related to the JPeg definition). If the document is B&W, then B&W or grayscale scanning can save a lot of space.

These are just some ideas to consider. The other options to try are part of PDF Optimize. Hope this helps.

[wsritchie]

I had previously ran the audit, and 99% + of my bloat is in the image.  All of the other possibilities for bloat do not even add up to 1%.  For my purposes as a Financial Advisor, I print out blank applications & account forms, fill out the paperwork by hand, and then scan copies of the completed paperwork back into my computer for electronic filing.  Some of these completed client documents can be 50 to 75 pages long ... so the PDF scanned at 300 dpi obviously starts out as a substantially sized document that can take up 25, 35, or 45 MB per scan.  The crazy thing is that the old version of Acrobat Pro (I believe it was version 7 or 8) would take a 45 MB file and compress it down almost to 1/10th of the oiginal size.  As a result, a 45 MB file would end up as a 4.5 MB file.  This significant reduction was always accomplished using the one button selection "Reduce PDF" command ... had nothing to do with optimizing the PDF with the old version.  Once I ended up with the 4.5 MB file, I could open that file at a later date and print out a page that I needed and you couldn't hardly tell if it was the original or a scanned copy.  There was no loss of quality whatsoever!!  The Reduce PDF size in Acrobat XI just doesn't work well ... will take that 45 MB file and reduce it down to 42 MB which defeats the whole purpose of the Reduce PDF command in the first place.  If I play around with the inputs in the Optimze PDF, I can shrink the file size lower but lose way too much image quality.  The only variable that has changed from my old scanning results vs. my new scanning results is the upgrade from Acrobat Pro 7 to Acrobat Pro XI ... everything else that I'm doing is the exact same.  Same thing applies when I create a PDF portfolio from multiple PDF documents ... a 150 MB PDF Portfolio will barely reduce in file size. 

[Bill12]

I agree that the functionality of the Reduce File Size and Optimize PDF seem to be a question anymore. However, there are other options to try. Consider looking at TOOLS>Document Processing>Optimize Scanned PDF, TOOLS>Print Production>Convert Colors, and TOOLS>Print Production>Preflight. I the last one, you could try the convert to grayscale option, appropriate for scanned text. In the Convert Colors, you might try changing to a grayscale profile. The Optimize Scanned PDF also has some options. I started with a PDF of pictures. They were at 180 dpi (guess that was what I had my camera set to) and millions of colors (24-bit). The grayscale setting brought it to 8 bits per pixel. I suspect you started with a much higher resolution, and so a reduction in resolution should help. Using the jpeg format with a reduced quality can help. The reduced quality is generally a reduction in color depth. I suspect the scan (even though shown as grayscale) is coming in a millions of colors -- I seem to find this happens a lot on my stuff.

Maybe this small exploring of tools and results may help you both in your process. If you look at grayscale (8-bit) and 300 dpi, 8.5X11 pages, you are looking at 6.7MB per page prior to compression. So there may be an issue of how well the compression is working.I would guess you can get compression from 10-100 times (I don't have a good feel for this). If you have border junk, you might crop or redact that material and then use the Protection>Remove Hidden to remove that stuff from the file. This removal of cropping used to be included in Reduce File Size and is now gone from that option.

[wsritchie]

Leonie ... hopefully we can find an answer.  I've looked around the "community" and I really cannot find any solutions.  The instructions on the Acrobat Tutorials are worthless.  If you haooen to come across a solution, please let me know!!  Thanks for you input.   

[wsritchie · Accepted solution]

Leonie ... I might have figured it out!!  Don't have time to play around with it now, but try this out.  Open a large PDF file that you want to shrink in size.  Go to View -> Tools -> Document Processing.  There should be a toolbar that opens up on the right hand side of the screen beside the document.  One of the selections will be to Optimize PDF.  When I did that, I had a 12 MB document shrink down to less than 1 MB!!  You can play around with the slider to choose a smaller / lower quality vs a bigger / better quality.  I don't know why they hid this feature there, but I think that is what we are looking for.  I highlighted the command and dragged it up to my main toolbar so that it is easier to access next time. 

Hope this helps!!  Let me know how it works for you.

[leonie61]

Thank you both for your advice, I haven't got time to check it all out right now, but will do on the weekend.  Thanks again

[Bill12]

If you reach some conclusions, please post them here. It is helpful for all to see what seems to work for others.

[sirthomas]

I have tried each of the possible solutions offered hear and found no relief including dropping to the lowest possible qualities and checking every possible option.  Thanks for posting though.  My load in most of my files seems to be in the fonts, but I have done everything possible to reduce it and it won't budge.  I miss the days of simple save as reduced file, or print as an image.  Even worse, my work is restricting my per file upload size so I am having to break files into 1 of, 2 of, 3 of just to upload my work.  It's damn embarrassing actually and I am pretty good at figuring things out normally.  I used to get great couple hundred k files at the most no matter what I was working on that held clarity, but simply flattened the heck out of a file.  It has gotten so bad I have started trying to use open source, which takes some learning, but may be productive at least over the long run.

I am sure there are some benefits to the newer version of adobe, but so far with my usage I am not seeing it.  The new one still crashes easily when I open too many files also, but I was used to that with my old version and expected it.

Does anyone have a paid account with adobe that can ask them directly how to accomplish the same as what used to be simply save as reduced file or print to image file?

Thank you.

[Bill12]

One option I don't think I mentioned that might improve things for basic documents that are B&W is the use Preflight with the script convert to gray-scale. Sometimes in the past I have found that just printing to a new PDF may help as another alternative, though not normally recommended. The gray-scale conversion might improve things. Just trying to throw out some other ideas. Sometimes, we find the solution the same way by trying all the different options we can come up with.

[drasahershoff]

YES! Using the View, Tools, Optimize worked!  Thanks for that!

Too bad the Save As, and Reduce File Size options are totally broken in Acrobat XI compared to their previous function.

The interesting point is, the PDF I was trying to shrink was NOT scanned, but was a PDF created from an epub file (which had been a kindle file). Apparently Calibre processes the files in such a way, that if there are any graphics/photos, the file becomes huge (a 100 page ebook became 40 MG).

And I agree.. Acrobats new design and shifting of menus seems utterly without logic or value.. possibly to keep Adobe employees occupited?

[Bill12]

As far as the menu structure and such, Adobe does have a logic -- but it does not seem to jive with the views of many users that don't like the retraining required with all the changes. It took me over a year to discover that I could delete the cropped portions of a file permanently with the private/protect features that allow removal of hidden information. I tend to be one of those who complains about the changes. They are well known for changing the location of menu items with each version.

In terms of trying to help with the reduction issue, if either of you (or both) could post an example some place (like acrobat.com or dropbox.com) to share, we can take a look. Let us know your expectations and such. We may not be able to help that much, but we will all be working on the same page. Some of us may also be able to try the reduction features on previous versions we still have installed on other machines. Be sure to redact any private information or just post an example that demonstrates the problem and is no problem to share.

[leonie61]

wsritchie - Thank you so much for your tip - View -> Tools -> Document Processing. It worked like a gem!! Reduced my 5+ MB PDF's down to 700kb.  So why do they hide it??? Thanks. Leonie

[wsritchie]

Glad I could be of some help, leonie61.    I looked and looked and looked for a solution to that problem!! 

[kylesmom2]

Thank you so much, wsritchie.  The view-tools-document processing worked perfectly!  I've been searching for an answer to this problem for months and have wasted so much time.  Thanks for taking the time to post an answer.

[wsritchie]

I am very glad I could help, kylesmom2!!  I tried to figure that problem out for quite a while before I finally stumbled upon the answer.  I still haven't figured out how to "batch process" and reduce the size of a number of files all at the same time, but maybe I'll figure that one out someday by accident as well.    

[Nicholas_Avallone]

I realize this thread is a few months old, but had to comment for posterity. Tools > Print Production > Preflight has a plethora of options for handling file sizes.  (The file I was working with wasn't scanned -- just a huge PowerPoint output or something --  so the Tools > Document Processing > Optimize Scanned PDF option didn't want to help me. )

[casinclaire]

@ wsritchie -- Whoo-hoo!  Great answer! I found the Optimize command under the Tools and Document processing, and it did exactly what I needed. I have a 40-meg thesis to post.  It's now all total less than 1 meg.  Amazing!  Thanks so much!

[wsritchie]

So glad to hear that I was able to help!!     

[moogsynth]

I suppose one option could be to save the acrobat file as a post script file (.ps) Then generate a new PDF using Adobe Distiller. In Distiller you have resolution settings to that go from the smallest file size to the highest. I use this method when I print-to-file (PDF) from programs like Powerpoint.

[Dov Isaacs]

Don't do this. We do not recommend “refrying” a PDF file. Acrobat has an optimization function which allows for resampling and changing of compression modes without ruining the PDF file by subjecting it to conversion to PostScript and back to PDF, an inherently lossy and dangerous process!

       - Dov

[ph17il]

I've wasted hours of my life on this problem that worked fine in the last version.  The post script suggestion is the only method I've found that actually reduces the files size of the documents I'm working with to a size that will allow them to be posted by our website content managers.  Thank you moogsynth for providing a workable solution, good practice or not.

I've tried every combination of  optimization (none of these reduce the size to any appreciable difference) and save as reduced versions (totally destroyed the quality) that I can think of.  I was able to reduce a file of 24Mb to 11.5Mb ultimately, after somehow turning into an 80Mb file (don't get that one at all).   In any case, none of the versions were small enough and I never had a problem until this version of Adobe.  Totally disappointed and frustrated with the product.