[Macworld]

Post your comments for Slim down your PDFs here

[rpoland]

The one subject that seems to be missing;
I use the "crop" to trim pdfs but I notice that no matter how it's saved the area outside the crop is still available.
Isn't there a way to permanently remove this?

[graphic3211]

HOWEVER - If you are sending your files to a printer, DON'T do anything in this article.

[GregoriusM]

That is not true.
Talk to your printer as to the resolution (DPI) that he requires to output your file.
If you use an image in any document at 100% size, then a 300 dpi image is what is required for output a 150 line film or straight to printer output. 150 line output if high quality output often seen in higher end magazines, although some go to 175.
Basically, double the DPI of your image when compared to the line number your printer is going to output your file as.
Obviously, if you've taken an image and enlarged it, then your initial resolution needs to be in accordance with your enlargement. 200% image needs to be 200% the DPI.
So, basically, if you have enormous images in your file, you can still bring them down to size properly for output to your printer/service bureau and get highest quality results.
Printers/service bureaus do not want the file sizes to be any larger than they have to be just as this article suggests.
They deal with hundreds if not thousands a day and a lot of them archive the file for you. They do NOT need any larger file size than is needed for proper output.
So, TALK TO YOUR PRINTER OR SERVICE BUREAU FIRST!
Greg

[applemanDesign]

maybe he is talking about to a printer in his network... ??

[graphic3211]

I still stand by what I said, don't do this if you are sending a file to a service bureau or printer. I get hundreds of files a day, the fonts are subset or missing, the resolution in photos is too low or some other size saving program was used to make the PDF unprintable. And everything is our fault, since it "looks great on my screen".
I do agree - talk to your printer before you do anything, but customers rarely do. I'd rather have big files than files that won't print the way they are supposed to.

[zbeggs]

I have to agree with graphic3211, as I've been on the losing end of being the good guy and attempting to keep things lean and mean for my printers. Granted, I always believe in talking early and talking often with service bureaus, but that doesn't always make for an error-less experience.
Interestingly, most of the printers I work with now don't want me to send optimized files; they'd rather deal with gigantic files than allow for any margin of error.

[nyip11]

I have to agree with graphic3211 and zbeggs, life being what it is, even if your printer has the font, it could be slightly different from yours. IOW, the same courier or Times font could be different in your printer.

[thrint]

there is a problem with your article. Specifically this:
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To shrink a PDF file, open it in Preview, choose Save As from the File menu, and, in the Save dialog box, choose Reduce File Size from the Quartz Filter pop-up menu.
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That option in the pop up menu vanished with Leopard. The PDF menu now only has
Open PDF in Preview
Save as PDF
Save as Postscript
Mail PDF
Save as PDF-X
Save PDF to iPhoto
Save PDF to Web Receipts Folder
Edit Menu
NOWHERE is there any indication of the old "Reduce File Size" option.
Obviously the "Edit Menu..." option can change that but when I try that it eventually just opens a dialog box in my home folder asking me to select a work flow.
So how do you get the Reduce File Size option back?

[julienixon]

thrint:

You want to choose "Save As..." not "Print". Reduce File Size will be in the Quartz Filters list on Leopard.

[thrint]

not exactly right in order to get to the Quarts filters drop down from "Save As..." you have to first Print -> Preview and then do Save As... in preview.
Thanks for pointing that out as it got me to the right place.
Too bad you can't do that from the PDF drop down menu in the Print dialog. I amean why do I have to go through Preview first? sigh

[jworrall]

The article seems great for dealing with files created on your computer, but what about scans? I scanned a two-page magazine article with a mix of photos and text. To make sure the photos came out well I used 600 dpi. The resulting file was 54 MB. Then I ran OCR (optical character recognition) on it in Acrobat and it came down to 1.7 MB. I don't understand that because it still displayed the image of the text, but you can't argue with results.