I am taking over a Madcap Flare project that was recently converted from Latex. The PDF created from Latex was 509 KB in size. The PDF created by Madcap is about 30 MB. I have checked the size of all the images in the file. They are only about 1.5 MB combined. The content of the document has increased, by about 30 %. But with that I would expect a document of roughly: 1.3 * 509 KB + 1.5 MB = 2.15 MB which is a far cry from 30 MB.
Does anyone have any idea why this is happening and if there is a way to slash the PDF size?
PDF file size is huge
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Nita Beck
- Senior Propellus Maximus
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- Joined: Thu Feb 02, 2006 9:57 am
- Location: Pittsford, NY
Re: PDF file size is huge
Welcome to the forums! 
You might want to take a look at how PDF options are set in the target. Are images not being compressed, for example? (Fair warning: some users get varying results when images are compressed; there are several forum discussions on image resolution in PDFs.)
If you have access to Acrobat Pro, can you reduce the file size with it? I can't recall the exact name of the function, but I know there's some function in Acrobat with which one can reduce file size.
You might want to take a look at how PDF options are set in the target. Are images not being compressed, for example? (Fair warning: some users get varying results when images are compressed; there are several forum discussions on image resolution in PDFs.)
If you have access to Acrobat Pro, can you reduce the file size with it? I can't recall the exact name of the function, but I know there's some function in Acrobat with which one can reduce file size.
Nita
RETIRED, but still fond of all the Flare friends I've made. See you around now and then!
RETIRED, but still fond of all the Flare friends I've made. See you around now and then!
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kmorrison
- Sr. Propeller Head
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- Location: Ottawa, Canada
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Re: PDF file size is huge
It's called "Create Optimized PDF." This link has a concise explanation: http://support.soe.ucsc.edu/web/adobeNita Beck wrote:Welcome to the forums!
If you have access to Acrobat Pro, can you reduce the file size with it? I can't recall the exact name of the function, but I know there's some function in Acrobat with which one can reduce file size.
Re: PDF file size is huge
I discovered that Flare produces PDFs on my machine that are nearly twice the size of those produced on a colleague's machine. Turns out that I have Distiller 8 on my machine while she has Distiller X on hers. Flare appears to be picking up the settings from Distiller, and the recent versions are more efficient.
If you have Acrobat standard, there is a Reduce Document Size option (either in the Document menu or in the Save As... submenu depending on the Acrobat version). That worked quite well for me.
If not, it might be worth asking Madcap what tool Flare uses to write pdfs and whether you can control the choice.
If you have Acrobat standard, there is a Reduce Document Size option (either in the Document menu or in the Save As... submenu depending on the Acrobat version). That worked quite well for me.
If not, it might be worth asking Madcap what tool Flare uses to write pdfs and whether you can control the choice.