How to easily reduce PDF file size?

In this post, I will try to show you a couple of methods to reduce the size of a PDF file. Depending on whether or not you have Adobe Acrobat (the full version), you can try one method.
 

Method 1 –Use the Save As command.

When you choose Save As, Acrobat rewrites the entire PDF document as efficiently as possible. When you choose Save, changes are appended to the file, meaning the file size might be increased. By default, Acrobat also optimizes a PDF document for faster web viewing when you choose Save As. Documents optimized in this way can be downloaded one page at a time from a web server or network, reducing the time it takes to access and view them.
reduce pdf size
 

Method 2 –Named Destinations: Use 'em or Lose 'em

Named destinations are markers that identify locations in a PDF file. Many PDF authors use named destinations for one document when they plan to link a second PDF file to a specific point in the first doc. (It's actually possible to deep link to a PDF file without named destinations. See this article for more info.) Unfortunately, every ten or so named destinations account for 1KB of file size. So if you don't need em, don't use em.
 

Method 3 – Print file using Adobe Print driver

The easiest way to try and shrink a PDF file is to perform a little trick, which basically is printing the PDF document to a PDF file. Sounds strange? It is. Basically, you open the PDF file in Adobe Reader and print it to the Adobe PDF printer.

A lot of time this works really well and will significantly reduce the size of your PDF file. When you go to File – Print, choose Adobe PDF from the drop down list of printers:
pdf reduce size
 
Amazingly enough, I’ve been able to shrink a 20 MB PDF file down to 3 MB just by using this method. Not really sure what it does to shrink it, but it works, especially if you have a good number of images that are eating up a lot of space.
 

Method 4 –Audit the use of space in the file.

Choose Advanced > PDF Optimizer. Click the Audit Space Usage button. The audit results list the bytes used by each element and its percentage of the document's total size.

The audit results can help you identify the most effective ways to reduce the file's size by showing which elements are significantly large. The audit reports the total number of bytes used by fonts, images, bookmarks, forms, and comments, as well as the total file size.
reduce size of pdf
 

Method 5 –Manage your graphics

Graphics are always a big problem when optimizing a PDF for size. First and foremost, use vector-based graphics whenever possible. Vector-based graphics scale perfectly, look better and take up less space than their GIF counterparts.

If you have to insert a graphic as a bitmap, prepare it for maximum compression and minimum dimensions. Don't compress the graphic beforehand, because distilling them in the PDF may cause the creation of noticeable artifacts in the image.

To tinker with the image compression quality to size ratios, select Advanced > PDF Optimizer, and on the images tab select compression options for color, grayscale, and monochrome images. Or, select Enable Adaptive Compression and drag the slider to balance file size and quality.
 

Method 6 – Manage Your Color

If you're making a PDF for the Web and/or if you're not concerned about printing colors, use the RGB color space. RGB has one less data channel than CMYK, so your files will be that much smaller.
 

Method 7– Minimize Fonts

Fonts take up a lot of space. If possible, don't embed your fonts. But if your document requires a certain look (and most do), keep the number of fonts to a minimum. Using subsetted fonts that only include the glyphs actually used will go a long way toward minimizing font size bloat.

Tip: In fact, there is another way to reduce PDF file size-Split a PDF file into multiple smaller ones. Read more about how to free split or cut PDF files.

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