Confused about getting Acrobat to compress PDFs

[leonardr]

If I want to share files from my Acrobat.com account, would other users need an Acrobat.com account in order to download the files via web browser?

Nope - they just need a browser, Flash and a connection to the Internet.

But for how long will it be "Completely Free"??? I give it 6 months or less.

I'll take that bet .

 

[melatwork]

Dov is right, converting to outlines will increase your file size so may be this could be part of your problem?

I have this pdf file size problem more and more now that I'm using illustrator/indesign. Using an ftp site, as far as I know, would be your best option.

I have, however, used another sneaky trick. It will depend on how your customer intends to proof (print out or screen proof) but I did once take a screen shot, opened in acrobat and then saved as a pdf. The result looked better (on screen) than my reduced pdf and was a fraction of the size, not to mention no font issues.

This may not be appropriate in all circumstances but it worked for me when I was stuck in a situation like yours and needed an immediate solution.

I would be interested in hearing of a better solution for the future though! (other than ftp)

 

[ratbag]

I can't believe some of the advice handed out by prepress pros in this thread.

Acrobat 6, 7, 8 and I suppose 9 have a pdf optimiser (in the print production toolbar). In 7 & up you can save presets. Create a preset that strips pdfs of all unnecessary crap. Lower the resolution & jpeg quality for maximum gains. Don't strip it of fonts and don't flatten transparency. Warn the client that they are viewing a low res version. I put LR in the filename so that it never goes to press.

 

[MAC.NETWORK]

PDF Optimizer will do it

PDF Optimizer will do it

Find PDF Optimizer (in Acrobat 7.0 it's on the Advanced Menu) and set colour and greyscale images for Bicubic Downsampling at no more than 300dpi for high quality printing (and 72dpi for screen viewing). This saves you remaking the document with resized images and the file size can go down to 10% or less, especially if the document was constructed with large hi-res photos reduced down on the page.

BTW Photos at 300dpi are more than good enough to image at 175lpi halftone screen.

 

[wesley]

Smaller PDFs

Smaller PDFs

I agree there is a diminishing point of return on making files smaller. You did not mention what kind of pdf this is, or what it represents, which seems to me is one of the most important issues we face now. Is it a content only - untrapped representation, or a final trapped color managed layered separated final contract proof? There is a certain amount of education that is needed today and all the responsibility that comes with it. You just cannot e-mail a PDF that is no larger than 2MB that will represent all aspects of any file. One of our responsibilities as service providers is to provide this education to our clients and create partnerships that optimize usage of the digital medium to produce great work.

 

[dcmead]

Here's what I do:
1. Respect the PDF workflow! Prep the job just the way you would normally prep it using QuarkXpress or InDesign and output a high rez PDF.
2. Process the color and trapping as normal, and save.
3. Crop as needed and then perform a PDF Optimization (if needed) and Reduce File Size. Save this file with no spaces or underlines in the file name and put it in the public area of your FTP server.
4. Create an idiotproof link to that low rez PDF which goes something like this:
ftp: // username : password @ ftp . yourftphandlehere . com/Public/jobnamehere.pdf (Don't put spaces in there like I did; I posted the message and noticed that it turned into an eroneous link missing some of the words!)
5. Email the link to your customer and instruct them to simply click on the link.

This may seem a bit cumbersome but it repects the pdf workflow, provides you a low res proof to email or ftp and provides a one-click solution to your customer.

dcmead

 

[John Baldwin]

Making Smaller PDF's without l losing quality

Making Smaller PDF's without l losing quality

Sometimes Acrobat just can't make them smaller. One really good way to make them smaller is to save as Postscript or as and EPS and then distill them. This will often make them a lot smaller without losing quality.

John

 

[leonardr]

The process of refrying (PDF->PS->PDF) is ALWAYS a LOSSY operation. DO NOT DO IT unless you are willing to deal with all of the myriad of possible data corruptions that can/will occur.

 

[RGB]

Sorry to disagree with those who claim that PDF Optimizer is the way to go, but do this test yourself and make up your own mind which works best for you.

I took a 92mb trapped pdf with active transparency and used PDF optimizer set at 72 dpi and used every other option available to get a maximum reduction in file size. This resulted in a 4.7mb PDF with serious degradation of image quality and horrible artifacts. I then took that same 92mb file, ran file reduce on it, which dropped it to 9.7mb. Then saved as PS and ran through Distiller using the smallest file size preset. This yielded a 1.4mb PDF with much better image quality and way less artifacts than the 4.7mb file that PDF Optimizer created.

I can appreciate that we all have our own way of doing things and there are a thousand different ways to get the same results, so it's nice to have a forum like this where we can all share our thoughts.

 

[RGB]

Just did one more test with the same file. This time I ran Reduce File Size first on the 92mb file which again dropped it to 9.7mb. I then tried PDF Optimizer using the Standard preset and the results were about the same as the first test....serious image degradation and artifacts with a file size of 7.7mb!. I've yet to encounter data corruption using the PS method. On occasion we've seen some strange things happen when running Reduce File Size, but not normally.

Thanks again for the input, folks.

 

[eastppress]

You wrote:
"The customer wants PDF proofs,"

If the customer wants viewing proofs or inkjet proofs, why not rasterize the page with sufficient resolution and anti-aliasing off to get sufficient quality, then compress?
You didn't say whether these were imposed pages or the size of the full document. Also, the RGB of a JPEG will reduce file size. (Earlier post was in this direction with a JPEG, and naming the file with LowRez is very good.) Doing a compression of the raster image will significantly reduce file size (You can always make them self-extracting ZIP files that will extract on Mac or PC.) The assumption here is that the customer does not intend to edit the file and return it to you, but we all know how predictable such an assumption and process control at the customer end is...

 

[nastyveg]

Try Distiller

Try Distiller

Do you have acrobat distiller? If so, save your existing pdfs as a postscript and then distill them. This will definately get them small enough to email. I have do lots of this and distilling is the best with viewing quality compromise.

 

[Dov Isaacs]

Do you have acrobat distiller? If so, save your existing pdfs as a postscript and then distill them. This will definately get them small enough to email. I have do lots of this and distilling is the best with viewing quality compromise.

That process known as PDF refrying is most strongly discouraged by Adobe and has been known to be the source of various problems later in a workflow is such refried PDF is further repurposed in a workflow.

- Dov

 

[RGB]

I can't believe anyone would actually try to re-introduce one of these PDF's into their workflow! "Refrying", as you call it, is simply a method to get a Hi res PDF down to email size. It is much less destructive than Acrobat's "PDF Optimizer", in my experience, but either process will yield a PDF that is unusable for output. Also, neither process is foolproof and both can cause some strange things to happen with your transparency, so check them over closely before sending them out!

Try both methods, decide for yourself.....and don't use the resulting PDF for anything other than an FPO proof!

 

[Dov Isaacs]

I can't believe anyone would actually try to re-introduce one of these PDF's into their workflow! "Refrying", as you call it, is simply a method to get a Hi res PDF down to email size. It is much less destructive than Acrobat's "PDF Optimizer", in my experience, but either process will yield a PDF that is unusable for output. Also, neither process is foolproof and both can cause some strange things to happen with your transparency, so check them over closely before sending them out!

Try both methods, decide for yourself.....and don't use the resulting PDF for anything other than an FPO proof!

Quite frankly, unless you are talking about much older versions of Acrobat or indiscriminately using stupid settings for the Acrobat PDF Optimizer, there is no good reason why the resulting PDF should not be usable in a PDF workflow. Unless you have "pre-ruined" your transparency by flattening live transparency, we are not aware of anything that the PDF Optimizer does to "cause strange things to happen with transparency."

If you have actual examples of bugs in Acrobat 9, please report them to Adobe (or pass them through me to report - we will need actual examples, though, including full information about the file's workflow).

- Dov