File Size of PDFs in Preview

I scan a lot of documents for record keeping purposes. I set the scanner to 300 dpi, black and white. This keeps the file size down and the document is readable and printable (close to the original), and the scanning is quick. I scanned three sets of documents (about 15 pages each) this way and saved them as PDFs. The file sizes were 3.1 MB, 3.2 MB, and 1.8 MB. I used Preview to combine the three documents into one PDF. The resulting file was 19.3 MB. Why so large? 3.1 + 3.2 + 1.8 = 8.1 What is going on here? How do I keep the file size down when using Preview? I don't want to buy PDF Studio (or some tool like it) if I can avoid it (they all seem so mediocre).

Try Combine PDFs
<http://www.monkeybreadsoftware.info/Freeware/CombinePDFs.shtml>
I scan at 600 bpi into TIFF, then use Graphics Converter to save with the CCITT 4 compression. I get about 12:1 compression, with no loss of quality. The result is still TIFF, so you don't have to uncompress to use them.

Similar Messages

  • Reducing file size #2...Preview, Quartz Filter vs Adobe Pro Optimize

    Questions on reducing a pages to pdf file…I will post each question seperatly.
    2) I read that you can reduce file size of a pdf in preview with a quartz filter. I created my own filer and it worked as expected. But, I also have Adobe Acrobat Pro, with save as PDF Optimized. The pro seems to have much more capability than the quartz filters.
    Is one better that the other to use? The adobe optimize (standard settings) took it from 20 to 6 megs.
    THanks, Bob

    The Adobe Acrobat settings you chose are probably using .jpeg to reduce the file size.
    .jpegs are lossy. ie You lose detail and sharpness the more you compress the image.
    The Quartz filters are usually of very high quality, but they are a black box and you need to understand what the settings are in each one. Quartz filters are extremely powerful, fast and as I said usually high quality but I suggest you experiment and see if they meet your needs.
    Peter

  • How can I reduce the file size when PDF Optimizer does not do much?

    I have a PDF form that exists of 48 pages. 44 pages are forms / have form fields, the other 4 are just informative. Each form-page has approx. 80 fields (checkboxes, text fields).
    When I started setting up the PDF form the file size was 12 MB and I had placed fields on 21 pages. Then with 34 pages the file size was 19 MB. And with 40 pages it was 35 MB big! Finally with 44 pages the file size is 34 MB.
    So I searched with Google and found some tips. Using the "PDF Optimizer" option inside Acrobat for example. So I did, and the file was reduced only with 3 MB... 31 MB was the file. Also used the option "Save as.... Optimized".... no difference. I also found a suggestion about removing embedded fonts. Using the "Audit Space Usage" option I noticed the fonts taking many MegaBytes:
    * Content Streams: 5.287.000     15,09 %
    * Fonts:                24.556.810     70,08 %  !!
    * Acrobat forms:      3.349.164    12,05 %
    In the older PDF version (I saved and kept this one too) with just 21 pages with form-fields, the  "Audit Space Usage" shows:
    * Content Streams: 5.292.000     40,14 %
    * Fonts:                 1.290.224     9,79 %
    * Acrobat forms:      1.588.758    12,05 %
    So I could save many many MegaBytes by -UnEmbedding- fonts. But if I do this (unembed ALL fonts), the file size stays almost the same!?!?!? Why? What can I do to reduce the file size? I would like it to be 8 MB if possible (32 MB -  24 MB = 8 MB)?
    Thank you for your help!

    If you have authored the form, reduce the number of different fonts for the content and form fields.
    Any font used in a form field will cause that font to be embedded into the PDF.
    If you are going to Optimize the PDF be very careful with forms. Optimization does a lot of removal of items and rearranging of items which can really mess up forms.

  • File size in pdf export

    Hi community,
    I have a question about reduction of file size when exporting to interactive pdf.
    I am working with an InDesign (CS6, Win) document with about 70 pages and about 100 links included.
    The links consist of Illustrator files with up to 15 layers, which I am using to show some step-by-step instructions.
    Because of the layered architecture of the included Illustrator files, the exported pdf becomes quite big (>50MB).
    I wonder if InDesign has a way of flattening the figures in the exported pdf, in order to show only visible layers?
    When I browse through the exported pdf, I see deeper layers being rendered, which finally are covered with an opaque layer.
    Of course I could use Illustrator to flatten each figure and link to separate files, showing the final view of the figure.
    Or I could export every view of the figure as png and link to that.
    However, with both these methods I lose the advantage of linking to one file and choosing the visible layers for the figure - thereby making it not easier for maintenance, besides creating a lot of work for saving the separate figures.
    When exporting from InDesign, I already unchecked the "Create Acrobat Layers", however this does not solve my issue.
    I also unsuccessfully tried to reduce the pdf file size using the "Save As Optimized pdf" feature of Adobe Acrobat Pro.
    Any ideas?
    Thanks in advance!
    Chris

    There has been some progress with the topic:
    As Dave Blatner pointed out, adding transparency to a figure and exporting to pdf using the PDF/X-1a preset will remove all hidden information from the Illustrator vector graphic included.
    However, this preset does not support interactivity:
    InDesign produces a warning, stating that all interactivity will be lost and one should use PDF 1.5 or higher to support interactivity.
    Unfortunately, these PDF versions do not support "Transparency Flattener" anymore - putting me back to start.
    But maybe I can form my question a bit more specific now:
    How can I drop all information on an exported pdf page that is not visible (while still having interactivity)?
    Any hints are gratefully acknowledged.
    Chris

  • Cannot reduce file size with PDF X

    Hi, have created a 1 page document in pages that has some hi-res digital SLR shots, so 5pics has pushed file size to 21mb. I cannot email this around, so went help hunting and determined that pdfx was the answer to my dreams. It all works in principle, except the vital bit, i.e. after pdfx'ing, my new file, it was still around 21mb......managed to then use GRABIT as a bodge to get the file out the door. Any clues? Mac Help indicates that this should work or am I missing something? The aperture brochure is over 700 pages and full of images and that weighs in at only 20.4mb !!!!!
    Hopefully its me missing something obvious, or do I need Adobe writer !!!!

    I kinda figured that as an option, but I just want to be able to slot items in and then decompress on mass to minimum file size. The pro tip of the week eludes to opening text edit but I cannot open a pages doc or pdf with text edit. Just looking for the least number of key strokes and things not to have to remember when I am banging a document together. There must be a faster way. It also shows the quartz settings on line, but cannot see this anywhere in Leopard......

  • Maximum Number of Pages and File Size for PDFs

    Assuming that your computer has ample CPU, memory,and storage, how many pages and what file size does Adobe recommend that you limit a single PDF to using Acrobat Pro XI in order to avoid any issues.

    I don't know whether there's a limit on number of pictures you can add to a book
    as long as they are contained in 100 pages, which is the maximum photo pages on a book.

  • Reducing AI file sizes for PDF distribution

    Greetings all,
    Using CS2 Illustrator, I have a file that is approximately 14.5M large. It's completely black and white, with a b/w photo. I was thinking that when I saved it as a pdf file, the size of the pdf document would be considerably smaller so people could send it by email. It came down to 1.9, but I'd like to get it smaller than that. I'm guessing I have to reduce the size of the embedded photo?
    I also have a version of the file with a color photo. It's AI size is 34.1M, it's converted pdf file size is 32.5. I'm desparate for a method that will get these two documents down below 1M size so that members of my Barbershop Chorus can send the pdf files out announcing our upcoming show.
    Any help GREATLY appreciated.
    Thanks,
    Bond

    When you save the PDF, Illustrator will downsample images according to the settings you chose. Downsampling the source images won't help for file size. Usually the biggest source of bloat is leaving "Preserve Illustrator Editing Capabilities" on. This adds the entire Illustrator file to the PDF.
    I suggest you start with Smallest File Size and adjust the downsample options under Compression. Reduce image resolution if sizes are still too big or increase resolution or image quality if sizes can be increased and quality is unacceptable.

  • How to reduce file size of pdf documents from 12 mb to 4 mb

    i am trying to reduce file size at adobe reader original document size is 12 mb i need to get it down to 4 mb , please help how

    You might be asking for the impossible or the easy. Acrobat Pro can reduce the size of PDF files, but nobody can promise any particular PDF can shrink.

  • Letters disappear when reducing file size of PDF.

    I have a multi-page PDF file that contains bitmap images and vector text. It was originally created in InDesign and exported to PDF. When I exported the PDF at 300 dpi, everything rendered beautifully. However, when I reduced  the image quality through the PDF optimizer (set all images to 80 dpi at high quality), random letters disappered from my text. Weird, since these are vectors and should not be affected by lowered dpi settings anyway.
    The gaps are there where the letters should be, and I can even use my text cursor to copy and paste those missing letters into a text file, for example. So basically, all the data is still there, the letters just aren't showing up. This is not resolved by zooming in, and most unfortunately, the letters also do not show up when the document is printed. I have all my fonts embedded. Could this be due to the fact that I am using a lightweight font? (Verlag Extra Light). The letters that go missing seem to be completely at random. I have Acrobat Professional 8.

    Thanks for your suggestions. Yes, they all say embedded subset. I will try to replace the fonts just to see what happens, though Verlag is pretty central to the design of this project. I can't see it being a quality issue since it's a high-end font from Hoefler & Frere Jones (not to mention specially purchased for the project!)
    I will note that I was able to make some progress by using the Advanced Editing -> Touch Up Text tool to manually retype the missing letters. I did get them to show up that way. Unfortunately this is very time consuming and tends to mess up the text formatting. Still curious what causes this.

  • A simple and free way of reducing PDF file size using Preview

    Note: this is a copy and update of a 5 year old discussion in the Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard discussions which you can find here: https://discussions.apple.com/message/6109398#6109398
    This is a simple and free solution I found to reduce the file size of PDFs in OS X, without the high cost and awful UI of Acrobat Pro, and with acceptable quality. I still use it every day, although I have Acrobat Pro as part of Adove Creative Cloud subscription.
    Since quite a few people have found it useful and keep asking questions about the download location and destination of the filters, which have changed since 2007, I decided to write this update, and put it in this more current forum.
    Here is how to install it:
    Download the filters here: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/41548940/PDF%20compression%20filters%20%28Un zip%20and%20put%20in%20your%20Library%20folder%29.zip
    Unzip the downloaded file and copy the filters in the appropriate location (see below).
    Here is the appropriate location for the filters:
    This assumes that your startup disk's name is "Macintosh HD". If it is different, just replace "Macintosh HD" with the name of your startup disk.
    If you are running Lion or Mountain Lion (OS X 10.7.x or 10.8.x) then you should put the downloaded filters in "Macintosh HD/Library/PDF Services". This folder should already exist and contain files. Once you put the downloaded filters there, you should have for example one file with the following path:
    "Macintosh HD/Library/PDF Services/Reduce to 150 dpi average quality - STANDARD COMPRESSION.qfilter"
    If you are running an earlier vesion of OS X (10.6.x or earlier), then you should put the downloaded filters in "Macintosh HD/Library/Filters" and you should have for example one file with the following path:
    "Macintosh HD/Library/Filters/Reduce to 150 dpi average quality - STANDARD COMPRESSION.qfilter"
    Here is how to use it:
    Open a PDF file using Apple's Preview app,
    Choose Export (or Save As if you have on older version of Mac OS X) in the File menu,
    Choose PDF as a format
    In the "Quartz Filter" drop-down menu, choose a filter "Reduce to xxx dpi yyy quality"; "Reduce to 150 dpi average quality - STANDARD COMPRESSION" is a good trade-off between quality and file size
    Here is how it works:
    These are Quartz filters made with Apple Colorsinc Utility.
    They do two things:
    downsample images contained in a PDF to a target density such as 150 dpi,
    enable JPEG compression for those images with a low or medium setting.
    Which files does it work with?
    It works with most PDF files. However:
    It will generally work very well on unoptimized files such as scans made with the OS X scanning utility or PDFs produced via OS X printing dialog.
    It will not further compress well-optimized (comrpessed) files and might create bigger files than the originals,
    For some files it will create larger files than the originals. This can happen in particular when a PDF file contains other optomizations than image compression. There also seems to be a bug (reported to Apple) where in certain circumstances images in the target PDF are not JPEG compressed.
    What to do if it does not work for a file (target PDF is too big or even larger than the original PDF)?
    First,a good news: since you used a Save As or Export command, the original PDF is untouched.
    You can try another filter for a smaller size at the expense of quality.
    The year being 2013, it is now quite easy to send large files through the internet using Dropbox, yousendit.com, wetransfer.com etc. and you can use these services to send your original PDF file.
    There are other ways of reducing the size of a PDF file, such as apps in the Mac App store, or online services such as the free and simple http://smallpdf.com
    What else?
    Feel free to use/distribute/package in any way you like.

    Thanks ioscar.
    The original link should be back online soon.
    I believe this is a Dropbox error about the traffic generated by my Dropbox shared links.
    I use Dropbox mainly for my business and I am pretty upset by this situation.
    Since the filters themsemves are about 5KB, I doubt they are the cause for this Dropbox misbehavior!
    Anyway, I submitted a support ticket to Dropbox, and hope everything will be back to normal very soon.
    In the meantime, if you get the same error as ioscar when trying to download them, you can use the link in the blog posting he mentions.
    This is out of topic, but for those interested, here is my understanding of what happened with Dropbox.
    I did a few tests yesterday with large (up to 4GB) files and Dropbox shared links, trying to find the best way to send a 3 hour recording from French TV - French version of The Voice- to a friend's 5 year old son currently on vacation in Florida, and without access to French live or catch up TV services. One nice thing I found is that you can directly send the Dropbox download URL (the one from the Download button on the shared link page) to an AppleTV using AirFlick and it works well even for files with a large bitrate (except of course for the Dropbox maximum bandwidth per day limit!). Sadly, my Dropbox shared links were disabled before I could send anything to my friend.
    I may have used  a significant amount of bandwidth but nowhere near the 200GB/day limit of my Dropbox Pro account.
    I see 2 possible reasons to Dropbox freaking out:
    - My Dropbox Pro account is wronngly identified as a free account by Dropbox. Free Dropbox accounts have a 20GB/day limit, and it is possible that I reached this limit with my testing, I have a fast 200Mb/s internet access.
    - Or Dropbox miscalculates used bandwidth, counting the total size of the file for every download begun, and I started a lot of downloads, and skipped to the end of the video a lot of times on my Apple TV.

  • Tips on reducing PDF file size?

    I can't seem to export PDFs smaller than 5 MB from Pages. The docs I'm exporting are only one or two pages in length with one small raster image and a few vectors. Exporting to PDF even at loweset "Good" quality produces a 5 MB file.
    Things I've tried:
    The "Reduce File Size" option in Pages before exporting doesn't work––it sits forever at "Calculating file savings..." and never does anything.
    Using the Compress PDF Workflow: http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/automator/compresspdfworkflow.html
    This takes a 5 MB file and "compresses" it to 5.5 MB. Fail.
    Using the "Compress PDF" Quartz filter when saving from Preview. Again, it actually makes the files larger, not smaller.
    These files should be, at most, 1 MB. Any tips you have on shrinking PDF size from Pages would be greatly appreciated! Thanks.
    -i-

    All,
    I came across these instructions:
    Reduce File Size makes PDF unreadable
    at http://macmanus.nl/2014/06/23/fixed-reduce-file-size-makes-pdf-unreadable/#comme nt-11149
    it is the best way to make your own filters, and it worked perfectly for me the first attempt

  • Reduce PDF File Size - any ideas?

    Hi all,
    I have a C++/C# programs that generates PDF's in Adobe Reader using Infragistics.  This is a recent change from using VS View as our old method of illustrating - we now use Infragistics.  This has resulted in our PDF File sizes almost doubling due to us now using Bookmarks within the PDFs and also having to embed the fonts.  There are some pictures used but these are already very small so they are not the issue.  I was wondering does anyone have any ideas of how we could possibly reduce the size again or any possible work arounds.
    Any help would be great.
    Colly (Ireland)

    Where do these EPS files come from Photoshop or Illustrator?
    Illustrator
    There may be nothing wrong with EPS files technically, they are considered archaic in a modern workflow. Best to save as a .ai with pdf compatible file - or to save them as  PDF x4a with Illustrator Editing Capabilities enabled.
    But I don't think there's any need to run out and convert all your files - perhaps keep it in mind going forward.
    Photoshop
    EPS is really not the best format. If it's pure raster then PSD or TIFF would be preferred format, if it's Raster + Vector Shapes, Vector Masks, Text Layers then PDF is preferred over EPS (with photoshop editing capabilities enabled).
    File sizes react differently depending on the content on the choice of compression. Heavy Vector files from Illustrator can cause Huge file sizes in PDFs.
    See this article (and more importantly the comments!)
    http://indesignsecrets.com/creating-smaller-pdfs-from-a-vector-dense-book.php
    If you can provide a bit more info  on your workflow and what settings you are using to save it would be great.

  • Reduce .PDF file size in Acrobat 5.0

    Hi. Seems like there are plenty of ways to reduce the file size of .pdfs in later versions of Acrobat than in 5.0. Does anyone know of any I could try in the 5.0 version?
    The doc is 122 pages, all in black & white & has some images.
    I do not have the original doc. I did not make it. I am just trying to reduce the size to put it on the web.
    ps-I did try using Distiller, but the images got a little too sketchy looking.
    Thank you.
    Jules

    I tried it at home & I used the optimize pdf thing. It went from 17MB to 12MB so I re-optimized it & got it down to 3MB. It's as good as it is going to get. The big problem is that the .pdf that I have was scanned on a copier machine.
    I printed the 3MB pdf on the color printer & it came out okay, but then I printed it on the black & white printer & it barely had any ink on the page....
    I am just going to not bother with it anymore. Not much I can do with a scanned document & it's not even my job to begin with!
    Thanks Bill.
    Jules

  • Large PDF file sizes when exporting from InDesign

    Hi,
    I was wondering if anyone knew why some PDF file sizes are so large when exporting from ID.
    I create black and white user manuals with ID CS3. We post these online, so I try to get the file size down as much as possible.
    There is only one .psd image in each manual. The content does not have any photographs, just Illustrator .eps diagrams and line drawings. I am trying to figure out why some PDF file sizes are so large.
    Also, why the file sizes are so different.
    For example, I have one ID document that is 3MB.
    Exporting it at the smallest file size, the PDF file comes out at 2MB.
    Then I have another ID document that is 10MB.
    Exporting to PDF is 2MB (the same size as the smaller ID document)... this one has many more .eps's in it and a lot more pages.
    Then I have another one that the ID size is 8MB and the PDF is 6MBwhy is this one so much larger than the 10MB ID document?
    Any ideas on why this is happening and/or how I can reduce the file size.
    I've tried adjusting the export compression and other settings but that didn't work.
    I also tried to reduce them after the fact in Acrobat to see what would happen, but it doesn't reduce it all that much.
    Thanks for any help,
    Cathy

    > Though, the sizes of the .eps's are only about 100K to 200K in size and they are linked, not embedded.
    But they're embedded in the PDF.
    > It's just strange though because our marketing department as an 80 page full color catalog that, when exported it is only 5MB. Their ID document uses many very large .tif files. So, I am leaning toward it being an .eps/.ai issue??
    Issue implies there's something wrong, but I think this is just the way
    it's supposed to work.
    Line drawings, while usually fairly compact, cannot be lossy compressed.
    The marketing department, though, may compress their very large TIFF
    files as much as they like (with a corresponding loss of quality). It's
    entirely possible to compress bitmaps to a smaller size than the
    drawings those bitmaps were made from. You could test this yourself.
    Just open a few of your EPS drawings in Photoshop, save as TIFF, place
    in ID, and try various downsampling schemes. If you downsample enough,
    you'll get the size of the PDF below a PDF that uses the same graphics
    as line drawing EPS files. But you may have to downsample them beyond
    recognition...
    Kenneth Benson
    Pegasus Type, Inc.
    www.pegtype.com

  • Automator pdf reduce file size action

    I have a saved action to reduce file size  for pdfs and want to change the resolution, but it's grayed out. Can someone tell me how I can do this?
    Thank you!

    Cathy,
    You have posted your question in a forum dedicated to the Final Cut Studio application Color. It is a very specialized program to grade (adjust) the color in video/film images. We know nothing regarding PDFs.
    Have you tried posting this on an Adobe support site?
    Good luck,
    x

Maybe you are looking for