How to significantly reduce the file-size of PDF documents using Adobe Acrobat Pro

Stephen Phillips HND MISTC ACE ACA ACP (Design & Graphics Consultant SRK UK)

How to significantly reduce the file-size of PDF documents

Reduced Size PDF versus Optimized PDF
It is common practice to use the File > Save As Other > Reduced Size PDF when aiming to shrink the
file-size of a PDF. Unfortunately, this method is almost guaranteed to ruin the quality of any images
contained in the document and will not always be very effective at reducing the file-size.
It is not widely known that a potentially massive reduction can be made in the file-size by using
Adobe Acrobats Optimizer feature. A reduction by as much as 80% has been observed on many
significantly-sized PDF documents such as Reports and Proposals!
The Optimizer feature allows you to remove vast amounts of unnecessary or obsolete Objects and
User Data and allows you to optimize the content. The Optimizer can even analyse CAD lines to
reduce the total number of lines/points/nodes so that it still looks the same as the original. The best
part about the Optimizer feature is that you can precisely choose your Image Settings so that you
can compress the images without losing visible quality.
This technique is usually very effective on Reports & Proposals that contain a lot of photos, figures,
drawings and appendices; especially if the PDF includes individually inserted pages from multiple
sources. This technique however is less effective on Word-generated PDFs that only contain scans,
images or just purely text. This is due to Word automatically compressing inserted images at 220ppi
by default and as the Optimizer will be set not to go below this resolution it will ignore them.
It is recommended that any optimized PDFs are compared to the originals as in some cases the filesize will increase slightly. As stated previously, this is more effective on large documents with mixed
content.

Opening the PDF Optimizer

To open the PDF Optimizer dialog box, do one of the following:

In a single PDF, choose File > Save As Other > Optimized PDF.
When editing an Action Wizard, click Save To options. Then in the Output Options dialog
box, select PDF Optimizer, and click Settings.

PDF Optimizer settings

These are my preferred settings for optimizing a PDF; particularly a Report or Proposal that contains
Drawings, Figures and Appendices. Note that I currently use Adobe Acrobat Pro XI but please consult
your Help feature (keyboard shortcut F1).

How to significantly reduce the file-size of PDF documents using Adobe Acrobat Pro
Stephen Phillips HND MISTC ACE ACA ACP (Design & Graphics Consultant SRK UK)

Images
Notes:

220ppi is perfect for PDFs originating from Word as images are no higher than 220ppi by
default.
Use 300ppi for images above 301ppi for PDFs from other sources if high quality is needed.

Fonts

How to significantly reduce the file-size of PDF documents using Adobe Acrobat Pro
Stephen Phillips HND MISTC ACE ACA ACP (Design & Graphics Consultant SRK UK)

Discard Objects
Notes:
DO NOT tick if you are optimizing an interactive PDF or a 3D PDF.
Discard all JavaScript actions
DO NOT tick if you are optimizing a Form.
Flatten form fields

How to significantly reduce the file-size of PDF documents using Adobe Acrobat Pro
Stephen Phillips HND MISTC ACE ACA ACP (Design & Graphics Consultant SRK UK)

Discard User Data

Notes:
DO NOT tick the following if you are optimizing an intentionally layered PDF, interactive PDF or
a 3D PDF.
Discard all comments, forms and multimedia
Discard hidden layer content and flatten visible layers

Clean Up

How to significantly reduce the file-size of PDF documents using Adobe Acrobat Pro
Stephen Phillips HND MISTC ACE ACA ACP (Design & Graphics Consultant SRK UK)

Saving your settings

1. Click Save

2. Name your setting

3. Click OK
4. Click OK
You can now setup as many Optimizer options you need. You can then select them from the
dropdown list as required.

How to significantly reduce the file-size of PDF documents using Adobe Acrobat Pro
Stephen Phillips HND MISTC ACE ACA ACP (Design & Graphics Consultant SRK UK)

Setting up an Action to Optimize a currently opened PDF

This method will allow you to Optimize the currently opened PDF and will also append _opt to the
end of the newly created PDFs file-name e.g.
Original PDF
Optimized PDF

Client Report.pdf
Client Report_opt.pdf

Once setup everything will be done with just one click and is generally good practice as you can
compare the file-size whilst avoiding overwriting the original.
Note: The following instructions apply to Adobe Acrobat XI Pro but please consult your Help feature
if you do not have this version (Keyboard shortcut (F1).
1. Open the Tools Pane on the right
2. Action Wizard (if its not there you can enable it via the Show or hide panels button in the
top right)
3. Create New Action
4. Expand Save & Export
5. Click once on Save
Click on the Add to Right-Hand Pane button
Click on Specify Settings in the Right-Hand Pane
Select the Add to original file names: option
In the Insert After field type in _opt or any preferred alternative e.g. _optimized or
_reduced etc
10. Tick PDF Optimizer
11. Click on Settings

6.
7.
8.
9.

How to significantly reduce the file-size of PDF documents using Adobe Acrobat Pro
Stephen Phillips HND MISTC ACE ACA ACP (Design & Graphics Consultant SRK UK)

12. Choose your preferred Setting from the top left; as defined in previous steps. Alternatively
you can define new settings.

13.
14.
15.
16.

Click OK
Click OK
Click Save
Name your Action and add a useful description if necessary. This description will be
displayed when the Action is used. This may be useful if you intend to share your Action with
other users that use the same version of Acrobat Pro.

17. Click Save

How to significantly reduce the file-size of PDF documents using Adobe Acrobat Pro
Stephen Phillips HND MISTC ACE ACA ACP (Design & Graphics Consultant SRK UK)

Using the Action

1. Open the Tools Pane on the right
2. Action Wizard (if its not there you can enable it via the Show or hide panels button in the
top right)
3. Click on your Action name

4. Click Start

A progress bar appears in the lower right updating you to the Optimizers current task.

The optimized PDF will appear in the folder where the original PDF was opened from. This will have
_opt or your preferred alternative appended to its name.

How to significantly reduce the file-size of PDF documents using Adobe Acrobat Pro
Stephen Phillips HND MISTC ACE ACA ACP (Design & Graphics Consultant SRK UK)

How to share your Optimizer Action with others

1. Open the Tools Pane on the right
2. Action Wizard (if its not there you can enable it via the Show or hide panels button in the
top right)
3. Manage Actions
4. Click on your Action name
5. Click Export

6. Save the *.sequ file

7. Share or send the *.sequ file along with the instructions for the user to Right-Click > Import
Action (or just double-click) to enable them to import the action into their Adobe Acrobat
Pro software.

8. Your Action will then be available in their own Actions list