PDF file size - any tips on shrinking

[SarahW]

Hi,

Generating direct to PDF. My only concern is the file size is much larger than it used to be when generating direct to PDF from FrameMaker (before we switched to Flare). I've searched the forums, poked through the help, and fiddled around with some post-processing steps on my own but can't seem to come up with the magic combination. Any hints/tips/tricks to share?

Thanks,

Sarah

[Andrew]

In my experience, image processing (and font embedding, if the PDF is small enough) is the biggest PDF bloat factor. However, I don't know of any way to change the way Flare processes images for PDF.

[doc_guy]

Sarah, You might not like this solution, but I open my files in Acrobat (not Adobe Reader). Acrobat 7 has an option to reduce file size (its in the File menu). I can get a 10MB Flare output file down to around 1MB using this one option.

I'm only doing it for the files that I'm actually releasing, since it is a post-processing step and it doesn't really bother me, but I want to provide a smaller file for our clients.

[doc_guy]

FYI, in response to this thread, I created a post in my "Tips and Tricks" section of my website addressing how to do this in Acrobat. If you are interested, the link is here:

http://docguytraining.com/2008/10/reduc ... file-size/

[Andrew]

I never thought of that -- great tip Paul!

[doc_guy]

Glad it helped!

[DocuWil]

I do agree with this tip too, but ..... be aware that the quality of images reduce. Certain type of images will be worse than other types. My advice is to use PNG type images as much as possible.