how to reduce a file size more

Forum|Forum|7 years ago
March 24, 2018
3 replies
10861 views

I need to reduce file sizes on 6-10 mb pdf for distribution - pref 500K or less.

Do not need them editable after that...

Has to be a way... ? Reduced File Size and Optimized Save As often leave them 6-8 mb.

Any ideas welcome...

Dan

This topic has been closed for replies.

Correct answer Dov Isaacs

You cannot arbitrarily legislate that a PDF file with particular content be of a particular size.

Yes, there are numerous parameters that can be specified for reducing the size of a PDF files via Optimize PDF, but which if any of these parameters can in fact reduce a particular PDF file's size depends (1) on the actual content of the PDF file and (2) to what degree you are willing to accept degradation of viewing and/or printing quality from the resultant PDF file.

For example, if a PDF file is strictly text and vector data and multiple pages, it is very unlikely that any of the Optimize PDF parameters or Reduced Size PDF will in fact reduce the file's size in any significant manner. If the original PDF file is mostly raster images at very high resolution, you might be able to significant reduce the file's size by setting optimization parameters to a lower resolution such as 150dpi (instead of 300 or 600) and compression to JPEG with a quality other than maximum. Just remember that even for screen display, many mobile and even desktop computers now have displays at or exceeding 300dpi; in other words, it isn't just printing quality loss you need to worry about when downsampling images.

Ultimately you just may not be able to reduce file sizes to 500K or less. You either must accept that fact or redo the documents to be less graphically-complex.

And NO, on behalf of Adobe, we urge you not to use the hack of printing to the Adobe PDF PostScript printer driver instance. That can be an exceptionally lossy process that makes your existing PDF non-searchable, not properly color-managed, and in some cases, actually bigger that the original PDF file.

- Dov

N

Nomadtick

New Participant

I'm definitely trying to understand how on Earth can I reduce size just like you. For whatever reason, I'm doing exactly what everybody's telling us to do and for whatever reason the PDF is increasing in size, almost doubling the size. There's another discussion or a post that somebody saying the same thing and for whatever reason Adobe has restricted anybody to comment.

https://community.adobe.com/t5/acrobat-discussions/file-size-increase-instead-of-decrease/td-p/10870940

Dov IsaacsCorrect answer

Brainiac

You cannot arbitrarily legislate that a PDF file with particular content be of a particular size.

Yes, there are numerous parameters that can be specified for reducing the size of a PDF files via Optimize PDF, but which if any of these parameters can in fact reduce a particular PDF file's size depends (1) on the actual content of the PDF file and (2) to what degree you are willing to accept degradation of viewing and/or printing quality from the resultant PDF file.

For example, if a PDF file is strictly text and vector data and multiple pages, it is very unlikely that any of the Optimize PDF parameters or Reduced Size PDF will in fact reduce the file's size in any significant manner. If the original PDF file is mostly raster images at very high resolution, you might be able to significant reduce the file's size by setting optimization parameters to a lower resolution such as 150dpi (instead of 300 or 600) and compression to JPEG with a quality other than maximum. Just remember that even for screen display, many mobile and even desktop computers now have displays at or exceeding 300dpi; in other words, it isn't just printing quality loss you need to worry about when downsampling images.

Ultimately you just may not be able to reduce file sizes to 500K or less. You either must accept that fact or redo the documents to be less graphically-complex.

And NO, on behalf of Adobe, we urge you not to use the hack of printing to the Adobe PDF PostScript printer driver instance. That can be an exceptionally lossy process that makes your existing PDF non-searchable, not properly color-managed, and in some cases, actually bigger that the original PDF file.

- Dov

- Dov Isaacs, former Adobe Principal Scientist (April 30, 1990 - May 30, 2021)

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__69892881

New Participant

Dov Issacs

Previous versions of adobe acrobat pro allowed the user to adjust the settings, within the 'reduce file size' or 'optimsing process.

So we could so what was happening and actually be able to choose what was important in terms of file quality and file size. I understand we are mere ants in the new age of technology royalty.... but it would be nice to be treated somewhat like a human, with some semblance of choice and input to what 'we want'.