Compress PDFs in Mac OS X 10.5
I needed to create a PDF from a Word document recently and found that the resulting PDF was 12MB! I noticed that the images inside the document were the cause. In Word 2003 in Windows I know that there is a Compress Pictures button that will remove cropped areas and compress the image. I was using Word 2008 for Mac which unfortunately doesn't have this option. Also, the Print dialogue in Mac OS 10.5 doesn't provide a 'compress PDF' option as it did in 10.4. A search on the Internet gave the following options, which I would like to share here.
Note that this only works best when you create a PDF (or already have a PDF) with images inside it. The methods described below compress the images and thus reduce the file size, which will look OK on screen, but may have lower quality when printed. (In most cases, this won't matter, as you need to email the pdf or put it up on the web!)
Method 1: ColorSync Utility
Open up ColorSync Utility. Drag your PDF document to the dock icon of ColorSync Utility, which will open it. From the Filter drop-down menu in the bottom, choose 'Reduce file size' and save the document. Done. (via MacKB.com forums)
Method 2: Preview
Open your PDF in Preview, select File > Save As and from the Quartz Filter drop-down select 'Reduce file size' and save the document. Done. My preferred method(via Apple support pages)
Method 3: Automator action
Add a 'Compress PDF' option to the Print dialogue to simplify things. I haven't tried this method, but will certainly make the process of creating smaller sized PDFs much easier! Download the Compress PDF Workflow.
I think these are very straight forward and quick ways to compress those heavy-sized PDFs. If you know of any other methods, please share.
Comments
I tried method 2 with mixed results. The first file was text with two small, limited color photos. It went from 3.5Mb to 1.5Mb. BUT, the second file was larger after saving with 'reduce file size.' It was a gif-type, color graphic with limited text; went to 4.7Mb from 2.5Mb!
@Ron,
Thanks for letting us know! It's quite strange that the file size went up after compression! It would be interesting to see if this happens with other GIF files.
I tried method two on three different files, and they were all reduced considerably. I'm a little bit hesitant to not check the file size after what happened to rob, but I haven't noticed anything like that here. Thanks for the tip.
To all you guys thanks for confirming the post... ^^ It can really save me a lot from uploading and save space..
Thanks man. You saved my day! I needed to sent out a newsletter and it had 3 pics in it. When I saved it as a pdf it went from 26 Mb to 64 Mb and of course that didn't work for me so I tried different stuff thought it was weird that I couldn't do on word since I've done it b before on PC... Anyways I looked and I tried with scaresly any hope of getting any sleep this night until I stumbled upon your site here about the issue. I used the 1 method, the color sync. It went down from 60 to 600 kb and it looks fine! So again thanks a lot for your effort on helping me/us out, you're the man! aaand I downloaded the workflow wuhuu!!
I do not seem to be able to solve the problem with any of the above solutions. As I saved my file in to PDF, it went from 20 mb to 72 mb!!! I then tried the Preview method which did reduce the size to 32 mb but also reduced the quality of the pictures I had used so obviously that it was not worth using it. The problem was also that the size of the PDF made it open up so slow that I felt flashbacks from 1994. Arrgh! I tried the first method, the ColorSync and the effect was the same, the pictures getting really blurry. So I need other ways. How do I reduce the size of the photos, as they are the source of the problem I assume?
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