Another top tip for PDF optimisation

Question: What do you do when you’ve got a PDF that’s too big?

Answer: Open in Acrobat, go File > Reduce File Size.

Correct, that usually does the trick. But I had a particularly cumbersome PDF and a client that really couldn’t handle files of more than 1Mb and it steadfastly refused to reduce down further than 5Mb.

What did I do?

Answer: Go: Advanced > PDF Optimiser.

You then have more ways to downsize. Hints: Make compatable with Acrobat 7 – the later the version the smaller the file size. Put all the images down to 72 if you haven’t already. Leave the Scanned Pages unless you have, erm, scanned pages. There maybe some fonts to discard. Leave the Transparency bit alone (I found it increased the size!). Under Discard objects and Clean up – tick everything in sight!

Tags: Acrobat, optimization, PDF

This article was posted on Saturday, September 16th, 2006 at 1:29 pm and is filed under Acrobat, Artwork.
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2 Responses to “Another top tip for PDF optimisation”

sumesh, on December 5th, 2008 at 12:24 pm, said:

look i don’t get the reuce size or advanced option in my adobe reader 7.0 downloaded for free in adobe web. help me
Rob Cubbon, on December 5th, 2008 at 4:22 pm, said:

This article is about Acrobat Professional, you can’t do it in Reader.

Graphic and Web Designer London UK