How do I change page size of an existing .pdf?

You can't resize the page of an existing document within Adobe Acrobat on a Mac, as you have stated. I have found the following procedure works with PDFs I have created from large sized images created by scanners (which result in large sized pages).

1. Open the document with Mac Preview, then File > Export as PDF

The default page size is letter size, or you can choose another page size.

2. Then open the resulting document with Adobe Acrobat.

3. File > Save as other... > Optimized PDF

4. The open the resulting document with Adobe Acrobat.

5. Tools > Text Recognition > In this file

6. Finally, you get to save the reduced page size, and reduced file size document!

The trick is to open the PDF in Preview app by dragging the PDF onto the Preview application icon. It doesn't work if you have the PDF selected and hit the spacebar.

This seems to open a different version of Preview. Once you've opened the doc in Preview, you can use all the regular PRINT options including select the option to scale and save as a new PDF.

I had a similar problem. I needed to resize a multi-page PDF from 11x17 to 8.5x11. I couldn't figure out how to do it easily in Acrobat, but it's a snap in CutePDF -- which can be had for free on a trial basis or only costs $49.95. You load the pdf, click on "page tool," then "resize pages," then you have a menu of choices. In my case "letter" was already highlighed. I changed the orientation to "landscape," clicked "OK" and it was done in seconds.

The best workaround I've found is to open the pdf in Preview (the app) instead of in Acrobat. Then print to pdf at the desired paper size.

Don't mean to sound dim, but why can't you just set the output page size to letter/A4 and choose Shrink To Printable Area/Fit To Printable Area in the Print dialogue box? Or just choose a percentage to print it to and adjust up or down until you get the best result?

Thank you Gilad D, Steve and Bill for your answers. Unfortunately, they don't solve my problem.

Acrobat does not have a virtual printer option for a Mac operation 10.6. The only way you can "print" to a .pdf is by opening up any application and using File -> Print -> PDF -> Save as PDF.

Any application, that is, except Acrobat.

The Acrobat print dialog box gives the user a robust number of options to manipulate the printing of a document. Sadly, there is no "print to PDF" option. When you choose "Printer" (lower left corner), you get the printer's default dialog box that gives making a PDF an option. However if you choose this, another dialog box pops up stating "Saving a PDF file when printing is not supported. Instead, choose File > Save." When you go to File > Save, it is greyed out (since you are using an existing saved PDF file). If you try Save As, you are not given the option to resize the page.

Alternatively, when you open the existing PDF file in Macintosh's Preview or Skim applications, you are given the option in the print dialog boxes to scale the image. However when you print to a PDF, the file size does not change (which is one of the driving motivations for changing the page size).

I can't believe that Adobe doesn't have an option in Acrobat to address this issue. While I appreciate the suggestions regarding InDesign (or even PhotoShop for that matter), I'd rather not drop $400 +/- for a program to solve a problem that a reasonable person would expect Acrobat to do itself.

Please... are there any other options?

Thank you,

Bob

Alternate method (if you have Adobe InDesign): Place the large PDF in InDesign. Scale it to the desired size. Choose File > Export > Print and create a new PDF.

Print it to a new PDF file with that page size...