Reduce PDF size by flattening InDesign file??

i have a 68 page catalog design in InDesign. i export as PDF/X-1a:2001 for printing. it comes out as 96MB and the printers site wont accept it. so they are telling me to flatten the images and layers in the PDF. I thought that type of PDF already does flatten everything so im not sure what they are talking about. Another project i worked on the transparencys were not coming through right to the printer, they also asked me to flatten the transparencies. but that i did in photoshop before bringing it into InDesign. This catalog file im on now... there are a ton of images and it wont take forever to flatten every image and re-place in InDesign. is there a better option to reduce the PDF size but still keep high quality for print? Thank you.

There are several different, and contradictory, meanings of "flatten" so it's on order to ask exactly what kind of flattening they want and what tools to do it with.
One meaning of "flattening" is to flatten transparency, turning it into images or composite shapes.
Now
1. This sort of flattening almost always makes things bigger, not smaller - if there is transparency in the first place.
2. When you save as PDF/X1-a or PDF/X-3 it will always be flattened; that's the rules.
3. So the choice of PDF/X-1a forces flattening and often makes files much bigger.
Do the printer require PDF/X-1a?

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The optimizer can reduce space, but some things can't get smaller. Text for example. Play with the settings, examine the results of Audit Space Usage.
Or give up. Even 5 MB is too large for a bulk mailing, by far. Instead put it on your web site and mail a link - done!

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Hi Ricci,
Since when are you facing this issue? Did you tried system restore to a date before this problem occured.
Does acrobat stop working when you open this specific pdf file or with any pdf file that you open?
Regards,
Rahul

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When you have those scanned documents in the computer, and choose
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I'm glad we were able to resolve this issue.

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Since a while DIAdem optimizes the size of exported PDF-files in a related way as it is suggested here. In principle the PDF-file is exported in a very high resolution, so you can display it in a reader with a very high zoom value (e. g. 6000 %) to look into details of your data. If you have a huge dataset, this could lead in fact to a bigger file size, if data points could be displayed because the high PDF-resolution. But in general, DIAdem only saves information in a PDF-file which is really necessary - but with a high resolution.

Text displacement in Reduced PDF Size in Adobe Acrobat X

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Welcome to Apple Support Communities.
The Quartz Filter in Finder might help.
Open the pdf file in Preview.
Then File, Save As, (Format PDF) checkmark the Quartz Filter, and select Reduce File Size.
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http://macintoshhowto.com/software/how-to-reduce-the-size-of-a-pdf-document-in-o s-x.html

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The Acrobat SDK is an interface to Adobe Reader (which cannot reduce file sizes) and to Adobe Acrobat.
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Reduce PDF size

How can I reduce the size of my pdf? The reduce size option is grey out, is there any other way to reduce a large pdf?

Were the versions split up @ version 6 Bill ? I stand to be corrected if so; but my memory serves that this wasn't until version 7 ...
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Acrobat 6 First Look - PDF Optimizer
By Richard Crocker
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Message was edited by: S.D.A.

CS2 Indesign increases pdf size from CS3 Indesign pdf

Hi
I am using CS2 Indesign Version 4. When I import a CS3 Version 5.0.2 pdf and then export the file to a pdf, it increases the file from 5 mgs to 30 mgs.
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- Dov

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I have a word document with a lot of images. the doc has 2.3 mega but the pdf gets around 8.5 mega; I've tried many settings in Adobe PDF but I cannot reduce the pdf size;
thank you

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Reduce PDF size by flattening InDesign file??

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