Huge PDF filesizes

When creating the same PDF from indesign CS4 on two different Macs with the same spec, same version of ID and same PDF job options I get vastly different filesizes (one could be under a mb on one mac but in excess of 7mb on the other. Anyone know why this could be happening.
keith

Hi,
Thanks for the replies. I've checked the export options etc.
After looking further it would seem that one mac produces the pdf with a massive amount of raw data in the xmp (you can see this in the file info) but the other mac doesn't.
Does anyone know a) why one would embedd some much data but the other wouldn't and b) if there an option somewhere to enable me to choose whether the raw data is embedded in xmp or not?
keith

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Files with .png images create huge .pdf's

I use .png images in PowerPoint presentations and these seem to create huge .pdf files. (...don't have this problem using .jpg images) For example, I have a 48 slide presentation that has a small .png image in the "slide master" so it will show up on every page. The PowerPoint file is 2.3MB, however the .pdf of it is 33.3MB, making it WAY too big to email, which was my objective.
Any ideas on how to reduce the size of .pdf's which contain .png images?
...note that I "compressed" the .png images inside of PowerPoint prior to creating the .pdf, but this made no impact.
Thanks,
pm

>I have a 48 slide presentation that has a small .png image in the "slide
>master" so it will show up on every page.
PowerPoint only has to store one instance of the image even thought it is
displayed on multiple slides. But Acrobat can't do the same, the image has
to be stored for every page that it appears on, so that would explain the
larger file size.
Acrobat is supposed to be able to optimize the storage of common background
images (at least that's the message I see when I do a "Save as..."), but I
have yet to see it to work. Maybe it depends on the application the orginal
file is created in and the PDF conversion method used.
Adding the image into a PDF file later as a watermark instead may be a way
to keep the size down (then it really only does store the object once),
though I believe that watermark images will appear in front of everything
else on the page (not sure if that's a problem for you, it depends on
whether any text or objects in the presentation ever appear in front of the
image).
What are the dimensions and resolution of the image in PowerPoint? You may
be able to go as low as 75 dpi and not notice a difference, it depends on
whether the image contains any areas of high contrast or text.

Generated PDF Filesize Concerns

Hello,
I have am creating PDFs by generated XDP files from ColdFusion. Each PDF could have different sections that would appear or not based on the XML data passed in with the XDP file. I am concerned that having all of the sections in one file may bloat the generated PDF filesize? Is this true or is the PDF filesize only dependent upon the information that is actually displayed when it is generated (rather than both the displayed and hidden design elements)?
Are there any resources that folks have found useful for PDF file size optimization techniques?
Thanks.
Lisa Backer
The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts

Hi Sergiusz,
Thank you for your reply. I look at what you wrote and try to make some test...
1) For first I download FontForge, which can generate type1 font from true type. So I open FontForge and open my Arial.ttf font and use "Generate Fonts" to save my Arial.ttf font to pfb and pfm (whoch are need to set in uifont.ali). I have to change encoding, because my font has 2byte encoding so I reecondode the font from ISO10646-1 to ISO8859-2 and generate to pfb.
2) Then I navigate REPORTS_PATH from regedit to my *.pfm and *.pfb files.
3) I add these lines to end of my uifont.ali
[ PDF:Embed ]
Arial = "Arial.pfm Arial.pfb"
ArialNarrow = "ArialNarrow.pfm ArialNarrow.pfb"
4) Then I generate my report but nothing change... I check "Font used" in my pdf file, but there were not my fonts embedded I guess..
I also try PDF:Subset, but it doesnt change anything... I try PDF aliasing to see if my uifont is working - this work very well, but I dont need to change font...
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Martin

Batch shrinking of pdf filesize for a lot of files

I have several million pdf files, each about 1MB in size, and need to compress them to save disk space and shorten the download time when viewed through the web.
I've tried many different third party products to compress/shrink/resize them in a batch job without changing the looks (just lowering the visible quality), but most products only reduce the filesize about 15-25% and the few that actually could compress 70-90% took a "long" time for each file (even just a few seconds for each file makes a process time of approximately a year in total running on a normal PC).
Removing all the embedded fonts changes the size from 1MB to about 60kB, but I need the compressed files to look similar to the original files (a certain degree of visual quality degradation is accetable though).
When studying the Adobe SDK it seems like there are methods that could be of use to me, but that they are only accessible through adobe plugin functionality and not externally available using the API.
After searching both these forums and on google I've realized the issue with compression and font embedding isn't a trivial problem, and therefore need some help understanding all this. Any help, code snippets or ideas is greatly appreciated.

There is a script called PDF Processor you can try.
The last one listed is the one you want (most up to date)
http://ps-scripts.com/bb/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=1882&sid=4756172e6aed44b1195bbee6ce4b9367
Put the script in your photoshop>presets>scripts folder and the script should then
be under File>Scripts>Pdf Processor.
MTSTUNER

Saving a PDF - Filesize Massive

Hi,
Whenever I save a file as a PDF using the "Save As PDF" on the print dialog box the resulting PDF file is massive. For example I have a 49kb Word docx document that when saved as a PDF is 8.4Mb, however if I pass it to a college to save as a pdf from Word on a Windows PC the resulting PDF is only 484kb. This seems to happen with any document I save a PDF using the built in PDF generator.
Anyone got any ideas of how to "fix" this issue.
Kind regards,
Andrew.

While the document may be OK, the process appears to be somewhat flawed.
And I was wondering if you could use a different app to convert the document,
and see if it will make a .PDF in less capacity than this enormous file monster.
Also, I'm curious if any system maintenance could help the OS X system do
the correct thing and make a reasonably smaller file .PDF from the Word doc.
As well it should. With older OS X versions, there has been no such problem.
(I've had most OS X systems from 10.0 beta to 10.5.8; and OS 6.0 to 9.2.2.)
Since the creation of .PDFs and the viewing of them is an internal OS X function,
there should be a chance that the usual and someone curious steps performing
ritualistic maintenance on the system may help it render .PDFs correctly.
Since you appear to be running Snow Leopard 10.6 (you posted here) it may
be a matter of finding the which questionable file(s) may be responsible for
the .PDF and discover the correct means of making the OS create a new plist
for that integrated system app's function. Preview displays PDFs, but the
element of their creation appears corrupted, so there's a fault in that part of it.
However, since it's about 3:14AM and I should not be keyboarding asleep,
I will leave now and hope someone knows how to troubleshoot the exact
item causing this pain, and can better explain it here...
Good luck & happy computing!

How to get my .pdf filesize down (I have tried many things!)

Hi everyone. After about an hour and a half of thoroughly searching the web, seeing others suggestions that don't work for me, or trying online resizers, I am now officially pissed off, especially since I consider myself a somewhat computer savvy person.
Ok...So I am trying to upload a transcript of mine onto an application website for a job. The transcript file size is 242 KB. For some reason, the max upload file size on the website is 200 KB, which is ridiculous I think but it's what I have to work with. There are 4 pages in the .pdf file. I can do without one or two of the pages, but I have tried everything. There is no option under Document...extract pages or whatever it was. I tried "printing" it using a document writer and saving only a couple of the pages but then the quality comes out horrible.I have tried "print screen" then saving it in paint and all that but that doesn't work well either. Now I turn here for help cause I feel I am about to break something!
How can I get this file size down?!? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
I am using windows 7 64 bit and Adobe X reader.
Thanks,
David

Hi,
You may try to download: www.pdfsam.org
Spite and merge pdf files. It's free and open source. Good luck.
Rgds,
Know-Little-Bit

Mac OS creates huge PDF file - PDF file size too big

Hi,
I have a 80 K Word file. The file is one page, some text and a 12 KB .jpg file imported in. I then duplicated the jpg graphic 7 times (8 total images).
Here are the resulting sizes when creating PDF's using different methods within Mac OS X print menu:
Save as PDF 550 KB
Compress PDF 5.2 MB !!!!
Save as PDF w/ Quartz reduce file size 2.5 MB !!!!
Compress PDF w/ Quartz reduce file size 2.1 MB !!!!
I recreated (from scratch) the same content using Canvas. I got the following:
Canvas X "Save as:PDF" 56 KB
Mac OS print pdf 550 KB
Mac OS print compress PDF 2.5 MB !!!
Can anyone explain what is going on??? I can make the file available if you with to play with it.
Version Details:
Word 2004 (11.2)
Mac OS X 10.4.7
Thanks much,
Mace
Intel iMac 20", PB15 Alu, iMacG4 17, Sawtooth Mac OS X (10.4.7) Many other Macs from 128k on.

I don't have distiller on my Mac... and the point (which I haven't gotten into) is that this is for a friend who just got a Mac. So, here I was touting the ease of use and she goes and finds a way to turn a 60 kB Word file into this monstrosity. So, the point is to avoid "extra steps" and additional software (which I eventually had to do anyway with Canvas X).
I just don't understand how the Mac OS X PDF maker can take a 60 kB Word document and turn it into a 5 MB behemoth... and this is when set to compress the PDF!
I mean, a 5 MB jpeg is about 40-50 MB uncompressed which, for an 8.5x11" page is 300 dpi at 16 bit RGB color, 400 dpi 8 bit color.
I've just never come accross anything like this and am totally clueless what is going on.
Thanks for any insights.
Mace

Issues regarding huge pdf files.

I have a problem. After i export to pdf my indesign file and try to open it it says: "There was an error opening this document. The root object is missing or invalid." and it does this only if the pdf has more than 1GB. The export is made uncompressed because that is the way the typography wants it. And yes the images are big, becaused are tif. What can i do?

The required size and resolution depend entirely on the size the image will be printed, and the printing method. You can check the "Effective Resolution" for the image in either the Links Panel or the Info Panel. That's the one that counts.
For typical offset litho printing, you want something in the range of 300 ppi effective resolution (but as low as 244 will probably be ok with screen frequency of 150 lpi or less). For digital printing my rule of thumb is 180 -200 ppi effective resolution.
These numbers presume the work will be viewed at arm's length or less. For large prints made to be viewed from a longer distance you need less resolution. Are you printing these images at 100% scale?
You might want to read this thread: Distance-Resolution Formula

I need to split a huge PDF. 136 MB. I paid for the service some months ago. I know it is way over the limit, but I cannot find a way to divide it.

I paid for the service, figured splitting it would be easy. But I cannot seem to do it. How do I save the original "in pieces"???

OK, so no Acrobat 8 after all (so sorry about that hard drive failure, that's no fun at all!). But all hope is not lost.
I think this what needs to happen:
Go to www.adobe.com/products/acrobat.html and click Try It Now.
Click Download Now.
After the file has downloaded, double-click the installer file that you downloaded to install Acrobat XI.
Open your PDF your newly installed copy of Acrobat XI.
Follow the steps in the video that I linked to in a previous post.
Note that Acrobat and Reader offer different functionally, so the copy of Reader that you have won't do what you're after.
Best,
Sara

Huge PDFs

Hi
I have been successfully creating flyers using iStudio for the last 12 months and need to export them as pdfs in order to send it to someone who doesn't have iStudio. The latest document I've been working on produces a massive 53.1 MB pdf! I have tried reducing its size using the recommended filters without success - ie I get a bouncing icon in the dock and no further. Can anyone help please?
In case it matters, I'm using Mavericks on a Mac Book Air.
Thanks

Do you get the same large PDF if instead of "Export to PDF" you ⌘P and then in the lower left of the Print Dialog "Save as PDF"

The pdf filesize is different on another Mac

I saved a pdf from Illustrator on one Mac and the pdf was7.9 Mb
The same file on another Mac in the studio created a Pdf that is 2.5 Mb. Why the difference?
The identical "user created" Acrobat settings are being used. All systems are Mavericks.
Acrobat XI.

figured it out. Didn't have the instruments downloaded on the other machine....
doh.

XFA pdf filesize grows...

Hi all
I have a pdf containing some small jpgs (18pcs 4-20Kb) and some subforms (29pcs). Forms is contracted at the beginning. Its very dynamic, where i can click a header to expand/hide a product view in child subform.
The size of the is very big:
PCordning_form_V3_9.xdp = 378 kb
PCordning_form_V3_9.pdf = 676 kb
when i fill out the pdf and save, I show 2 product subforms with small jpgs, the size grows to 1.544 kb. I do not embed fonts or images, so I think it is strange!!!
- Anyone know why it grows so much??
- Any tricks to make it grow less??
- Why isn't the pdf format more efficient. I know its xml based, but normally the xdp design is (almost) allways bigger than the saved dynamic pdf, so I am a little puzzled.. ideas are very welcome ;)
== setup ==
Designer 7.1, Acrobat 7.0 Pro
/Thomas Groenbaek
Jyske Bank / Denmark

Actually I recommend validating the level of the graphics necessary as the first step to reduce your output file size, that is usually the problem and the place to look first and the smartest solution since you pay a heavy price for over jealous attributes of graphics. As far as the PDF output compression option, I believe it is under the PDF print type group of options but I am sure there is documentation on the PDF print options available either in Documaker Studio help and/or in online documentation.

Why a lot of hyperlinks made in InDesign (Adobe) don't work in Reader (Adobe) when they are OK on Ibooks (Apple)? We are making a huge pdf from Indesign which is perfect except on Reader

We are working on Mac10.9.4, IndesignCC, All hyperlinks are working on acrobat, "aperçu", even when we open them on mail and directly by dropbox, etc., the only which doesn't work properly (a big mess actually) is reader.
Someone has a solution?

Exactly the same thing I am experiencing. Can someone please help?

Huge (14K pages) PDF Export to Excel gives "Save As Failed To Process" Message

Using version 11.0.7.79, running Windows
I have a massive (33.7MB, 13,900 page) PDF that I am trying to convert to HTML or Excel. When I try to export the file to either of these formats the export process will run for a number of minutes and then bomb out with the "Save As Failed To Process" message. I figured that the issue was with the file size, so I extracted a much smaller subset (200 pages) without a problem.
Since it appears that file size is the problem, does anyone have a suggestion on how to approach the exporting of this huge file? What causes this error message? Any way to get around it (maybe online conversion of the file)?
I could manually break it up into smaller files, but I'm hoping that there is 1) an easy way to segment the larger files into smaller files via a 3rd party solution (if needed) or 2) another way to export the huge PDF in one fell swoop. On point 1, I don't know if there is a solution that will automatically segment larger PDF's into 500 page segments per PDF file.
For context, I am brand new to Acrobat Pro, so there could be a practical solution that I am not aware of yet. Thanks in advance for any help you can offer!

Yea, this approach is not going to work. Even when I break these down into 1,000 page, 2MB files I get the same "Save As Failed To Process" error message. What causes this message? Not enough memory? How can I resolve it?
It just doesn't make sense that I can't export basic data to Excel when the actual excel content for 1,000 pages will probably be less that 2MB once it is in Excel. I saved a sample 10 pages and it was 18KB. 100 sample pages was 123KB. I would expect Acrobat to be able to convert these files when I break them down into 1,000 page increments.
Are there any settings within Acrobat that I should be looking at adjusting? It just seems ridiculous that it is this hard to get Acrobat to do a very basic export for what seems to be a reasonable sized file.

Hundreds of Duplicate Embedded Fonts in PDF Makes it HUGE

Hello!
I have a document (word docx file) that is over 150+ pages long. When I print to Adobe Acrobat Pro - it crashes. When I open the document in Preview, it looks fine - but after saving the file as a PDF, the file size is HUGE (over 250+ mb in size). It contains no images, and only a handful of fonts.
The huge PDF file opens fine with Preview and Acrobat after saving it from Preview. So, I uploaded it to my printer's servers (Lulu, the document is a manuscript), and a few days later I get a RIP error during the printing process. Lulu reports they can not print the PDF.
So, I spent many hours trying several other solutions - including saving as a postscript file directly - but the files always end up being huge. Finally, this morning, I thought to inspect the PDF file created by Preview... and I found that there were literally thousands of duplicate embedded fonts in the PDF file. Garamond, for example, was embedded over 15,000 times...
I can't seem to get Adobe's postscript printer to work in OSX 10.5 with this file (it crashes due to a memory overload). Also, the Preview file always includes thousands of duplicate fonts embedded (is this a Quartz Filter issue?)
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Anyone have any clues?
(I've tried ghostscript, PDFshrinker, different quartz filters, etc... can't seem to figure this out...)

I believe I have found the problem. Something from what you wrote made me think about how OS X fonts are really "pretty" -- after looking into it... the tech term is that OSX uses "ligatures" between characters in fonts that have them. Wel... ALL the fonts I use include these so-called ligatures, which can cause problems when the Word Doc is viewed on Windows machines... i didn't think this would matter with PDF's... but.. I went back into Word,switched to "publisher view" (which is the only way to access Word's ligatures option) turned Ligatures OFF and then produced the PDF as usual
VOILA!!!
The PDF was 80mb, and all the fonts were embedded ONCE each. After running Adobe Acrobat Pro's PDF Optimizer for Prepress the file dropped to 20MB!
I've uploaded it to LULU... I'm fairly sure this will work
THANK YOU for the discussion... I'm not sure what it was; (it was late at night)... but this discussion has really helped!

Huge PDF filesizes

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