Best workflow for exporting / saving a high quality PDF for email from Photoshop

First, we’ll assume that the pixel dimensions of the document are appropriate for reading on email clients on mobile devices, not for example a huge US Letter or A4 print-sized page.

To get to 500-800K in size might require settings that don’t exactly match any of the available Adobe PDF Presets. In that case you’ll have to work out the right settings yourself. You can either start from a high-quality Adobe PDF Preset and work down, or start from a low-quality preset and work up. Whichever way you go, the picture below suggests some of the options that might be most likely to get you where you want for email (see first picture below):

Preserve Photoshop Editing Capabilities must be deselected. If it’s selected, a copy of the Photoshop document with layers will be embedded in the PDF. You definitely don’t need all that in there.

In the Compression panel, adjust the Downsampling value. If 300 ppi makes the PDF too large for email, reduce it.

For Image Quality, Maximum creates the largest file, so reduce it.

You’ll probably need to play with different combinations of Downsampling and Image Quality settings to hit the balance you want between low file size and acceptable quality. For example, maybe you’ll find that downsampling to 150 ppi and Medium image quality gets you there, or maybe it will be a different combination.

If you want even more control, and your subscription includes Acrobat (the one that edits, not just the free reader), you can use its Advanced Optimization feature to strip the PDF of specific kinds of data and metadata, shown in the picture below. But Photoshop doesn’t put a lot of that stuff in a PDF (such as JavaScript and form fields) in the first place, so I don’t know how much more that will reduce the file size. I think downsampling and image quality will be the two variables that make the most difference.

You can change the settings and save your own preset. maybe look at changing the Compression settings. As for file size, that can vary widely depending on the PDF content. Follow the 3 S principle- short, sweet, simple.