Jerome Colas

Q: Reduce PDF file size : free Acrobat replacement for Leopard

*Well, at least this fits my need*, which to be able to email PDFs of my iWork or Office presentations with both :
*+ acceptable quality*
*+ acceptable file size*



It uses the poorly documented Quartz filtering ability for PDFs in Preview. There are a couple of articles I found here or elsewhere on the web, but they still don't make things simple.

You can manually edit those same settings (using Colorsync Utility) but can also benefit from my trial-and-error process and directly download from my iDisk.
After download and decompressions, *simply drag the downloaded "Filters" folder to your Library folder* (inside your user folder to install it just for this user, or at the root level of your hard disk in order to install it for all users) - And if you already have such a folder, simply copy the contents of the downloaded folder into it.

*Here are the filters :*
*http://idisk.mac.com/jcolas-Public*

Feel free to use, download, copy, use the idea ... in any way you like.

*Then, in order to create a compressed PDF with decent quality :*
+ Open your existing PDF in preview, or Print any document using "Open PDF in Preview" from the PDF pop-up menu in the Print dialog
+ Choose Save As in the File Menu (pretty easy I guess), then choose PDF as format, and one of the "Reduce to XXX dpi ..." Quartz filters, and click Save.

I included 8 settings which produce increasingly large files, with increasingly better quality.
I find the 150 dpi / average JPEG compression to be quite suitable for most purposes.

I have tried (before Leopard) PDF compression software like PDFshrink but was not satisifed with the results and interface.

These filters produce much better (better being in terms of consistency, file size and quality) than the filter Apple includes with Leopard (and maybe Tiger ?).
The Apple "Reduce file size filter" scales images by 50%, with target dimensions between 128 and 512 pixels, which can give very unusable results.

The filters I use 2 two things :
+ resample images to 75, 150, 300 or 600 dpi (I do not not if there is upsampling)
+ compress the images using Jpeg compression at average or low quality
Once installed, you can visualize, edit or copy them using Colorsync Utility (in the Applications/ Utilities folder)

As an example, using a 73 MB PDF from a 55 page Powerpoint presentation, the compressed files have the following sizes :
+ 75 dpi low quality : 2.7 MB
+ 75 dpi average quality : 3.2 MB
+ 150 dpi low quality : 4.2 MB
+ 150 dpi average quality : 5.3 MB
+ 300 dpi low quality : 7.6 MB
+ 300 dpi average quality : 10.2 MB
+ 600 dpi low quality : 16.0 MB
+ 600 dpi average quality : 20.3 MB

Voilà.
I don't think I'll be using Adobe Acrobat anytime soon.

"Thanks" a lot to Adobe for not being able to have a working version of Acrobat on Leopard until next January.
I hope many people (with needs similar to mine) will discover that they don't realy need it.

And I just wonder why Apple does not include these filters in Leopard.
Is this just in order to be nice with Adobe ?

Feedback or comments greatly appreciated.

Jérôme.

MBP 17" 2.4Ghz/4GB, Mac OS X (10.5), and other Macs too

Posted on Dec 15, 2007 4:08 AM

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Q: Reduce PDF file size : free Acrobat replacement for Leopard

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  • by Benoit Mars,

    Benoit Mars Benoit Mars Jul 2, 2009 5:56 AM in response to Markus Oliver
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Jul 2, 2009 5:56 AM in response to Markus Oliver
    Thanks a lot. It's very useful to turn large pictured documents into net sendable files.
  • by billm,

    billm billm Aug 30, 2009 10:21 AM in response to Jerome Colas
    Level 1 (25 points)
    Aug 30, 2009 10:21 AM in response to Jerome Colas
    You rock dude! Virtual beer and blessing prayers at you!!!

    bill meade
  • by knamax,

    knamax knamax Aug 31, 2009 12:05 AM in response to Jerome Colas
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 31, 2009 12:05 AM in response to Jerome Colas
    Jerome,
    tks a lot for the filters, quite a good idea.

    Actually I tried to tweak withe the filters too and I got always the same problem which is: I have a file I created with Word for Mac, mainly it is a table with some pics and descriptions.
    The file is 4 Mb, if I save as PDF it becomes 4.8 Mb, If I save with the option "reduce file size" it keeps 4.8 Mb, if I save with a filter, ANY filter, it becomes smaller (2.1 Mb, which is still a lot) but the first three pics become black.
    I created the file in the same way, the pics are all the same size, I really cannot understand anymore, after some serious efforts and time spent to try to save in different ways why the first three pics become black and the others do not do.....
    If anybody has some idea it would be greatly welcome.... tks
  • by Lynsun,

    Lynsun Lynsun Sep 5, 2009 3:07 PM in response to Jerome Colas
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Sep 5, 2009 3:07 PM in response to Jerome Colas
    Is this a crazy question? I wonder, since no one else has posted it. Maybe I'm letting my novice-ness show thru.

    How do I know when I save as "Reduce to....(anything)" that my 2.8MB file is not already smaller than what I'm choosing, so I actually INCREASE my file size?

    Is there a way in Color Sync Utility that I have not found to preview the file size before applying filters?
  • by G4PB,

    G4PB G4PB Sep 10, 2009 5:48 AM in response to Jerome Colas
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Sep 10, 2009 5:48 AM in response to Jerome Colas
    All this used to be available built in with Tiger. There is a reader down there somewhere that is still on Tiger. You go through the process 'Save As' > Quartz Filters to reduce file size ..... then in Tiger it was possible to scale the file size reduction to get optimum results ... I don't remember exactly how now but it was a wonderful gadget. Why on earth it disappeared in Leopard is beyond me.
  • by Michael Popowitz,

    Michael Popowitz Michael Popowitz Sep 30, 2009 9:00 AM in response to Jerome Colas
    Level 1 (30 points)
    Sep 30, 2009 9:00 AM in response to Jerome Colas
    Am I the only one? I have 10.5.7 with Mac G5, Adobe Acrobat Pro 7. I downloaded the Filters folder and placed it in the Library. I opened 35mb pdf file with hi quality photos, in preview, and clicked "save as" and selected the compression in the quartz filter dropdown menu. When it saved the file the images all came out black, blue, grey, etc, not the original tones. Not helpful. Can you please assist? I also tried the Colorsync Utility and the app did not allow me to edit the parameters. Thanks.
  • by Daniel Toman,

    Daniel Toman Daniel Toman Nov 2, 2009 11:45 AM in response to Michael Popowitz
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 2, 2009 11:45 AM in response to Michael Popowitz
    Michael, see the earlier comments about inverted colors. Apparently the JPEG compression filter doesn't deal well with CMYK images - you'll need to add this filter to your chosen profile using ColorSync Utility:

    *Convert to Profile*
    sRGB IEC61966-2.1 | CMYK data | All objects
  • by Daniel Toman,

    Daniel Toman Daniel Toman Nov 2, 2009 11:52 AM in response to Lynsun
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 2, 2009 11:52 AM in response to Lynsun
    Lynsun, your thinking is correct, the filtered result may well increase the file size. But a file size preview is probably not necessary, just save the file to a new name so you don't overwrite the original, then see how big it comes out.
  • by sharik14,

    sharik14 sharik14 Nov 18, 2009 1:50 PM in response to Jerome Colas
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 18, 2009 1:50 PM in response to Jerome Colas
    Jerome,

    This saved my day.

    Thank you, thank you, thank you!
  • by Grini,

    Grini Grini Nov 19, 2009 6:45 PM in response to Jerome Colas
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 19, 2009 6:45 PM in response to Jerome Colas
    Thanks Jerome, your Filter for reducing PDF's works a treat. You just saved me days of work arounds. Cheers Grini
  • by Elizabeth C,

    Elizabeth C Elizabeth C Dec 5, 2009 10:45 AM in response to Jerome Colas
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 5, 2009 10:45 AM in response to Jerome Colas
    This was SO helpful! I had a file that needed to be slightly smaller to fit the website upload requirements, and the "Reduce File Size" quartz filter in Preview/Color Sync Utility made it too poor of quality for me to use. Thank you SO much for your help!
  • by Targon,

    Targon Targon Dec 22, 2009 4:21 PM in response to Daniel Toman
    Level 1 (45 points)
    Dec 22, 2009 4:21 PM in response to Daniel Toman
    See the earlier comments about inverted colors. Apparently the JPEG compression filter doesn't deal well with CMYK images - you'll need to add this filter to your chosen profile using ColorSync Utility:

    Convert to Profile
    sRGB IEC61966-2.1 | CMYK data | All objects

    Hi can you please explain in more detail exactly what needs to be done here to fix the problem with compressed file sized ending up actually larger. I can't find any option in the Quartz Filters to add this profile.

    Thanks
  • by OftenConfused1963,

    OftenConfused1963 OftenConfused1963 Jan 12, 2010 12:50 PM in response to Jerome Colas
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 12, 2010 12:50 PM in response to Jerome Colas
    I did not read through all the post so if this is a repeat, I apologize, but I found this trick today. You can reduce .pdf file sized by creating a custom quartz filter in ColorSync Utility. Check this out:
    http://www.hoboes.com/Mimsy/hacks/quality-reduced-file-size/
    By doing this and adjusting the quality, I was able to get a 12M file down to 608K with great quality.
  • by Kurt B,

    Kurt B Kurt B Jan 14, 2010 2:12 AM in response to Jerome Colas
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 14, 2010 2:12 AM in response to Jerome Colas
    Perfect, exactly what I was looking for! Works fast and efficient.
    Thanks a lot!

    Kurt
  • by Michael Stancato,

    Michael Stancato Michael Stancato Jan 25, 2010 8:27 PM in response to Jerome Colas
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 25, 2010 8:27 PM in response to Jerome Colas
    I'm a complete novice at this.

    I've downloaded Jerome's files. How do I get them to work? I've opened ColorSync Utilities for the first time. Do I put Jerome's files into ColorSync? I tried drag-n-drop, File > Open but no luck. If they don't go in ColorSync how do I get them to show up in Apple's "Preview" Application?

    I'm also having the color inversion issue from InDesign exported pdf's. So I'm piecing together instructions from here:
    http://www.hoboes.com/Mimsy/hacks/quality-reduced-file-size/

    And Here:
    Daniel Toman say's : Convert to Profile
    sRGB IEC61966-2.1 | CMYK data | All objects

    Has anyone done the whole thing?
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