Reducing size of pdf in OSX Lion

I followed Jerome,s instructions - the same result as in the case of BertmanSG - file almost doubles in size from 7,5MB to 12MB, while treated by Acrobat9 on WinXP - was reduced to 6MB!

There is a video in this blog for making good (small) pdfs on MacOS X:

http://www.greifenwald.de/2009/11/pdf-dateigrose-verringern-reduce-file-size/

It is in german, but I think it's easy to follow the instructions in the video.

Don't know if anyone will read from the bottom up but here is the easiest way to do it. Many thanks to mrrish's post at the link below - but here is his method. Worked like a charm for me.

The solution I realized involves the following:

• Right click the PDF file you desire to work with and then select "Open with..."
• Select the "Colorsync Utility" application
• The Colorsync Utility will open up with your PDF file
• At the bottom of Colorsync Utility status bar, you can select the quartz filter you wish to apply (including any custom ones you made)
• Press "Apply"
• Save the document

I hope this workaround can hold up for now. I do admit I miss the ability to see and use my quartz filters right out of preview.

Take care. mrrish

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3196406

Thanks, worked for me.

Hello,

I love Apple Support community but cannot follow these high-tech explanations. I've had nothing but problems since "upgrading" to Lion last September. Surely there is a simple solution? There are no quartz filters in my PDF file, which was made using Adobe Acrobat. I cannot open the file in "preview." Please help, I'm ready to smash Lion to bits and dream of going back to a Mac that actually WORKED.

Aarg.

AWESOME!!

Merci bien Jérôme, thanks redticket.

For others finding this thread, I am replying to the original post in orer to make it easier to find a good solution that has emerged, for Lion. Download from here http://idisk.mac.com/jcolas-Public (and I guess this will vanish with mobileme on July 1 of this year 😟 ) the small zip file of quartz filters created by Jerome Colas.

Unzip & put these files in your 'System>Library>Filters' folder. System Library folders are controlled to prevent mistakes, and you may be told it can't be done but then asked for authorization, so fill in your admin password and the files will be isntalled.

Then follow the instructions in this post Re: Reducing size of pdf in OSX Lion (later in this thread),

or see this blog post which has illustrations and more instructions http://www.scooter-it.com/pdf-for-pros

What you gain is extra filters for controlling how much compression your pdf receives and therfore how good or bad it looks, especially the images. In the lower left corner of ColorSync Utility is a pulldown menu of filters showing what resolution they reduce to. WORK ON A COPY OF YOUR PDF and if you do not like th results either make another copy from the original or close the compressed copy without saving it.

I had excellent results transforming a 28MB pdf into 6.5 MB with no visible change to the very detailed color art images included.

Already compressed pdfs may not work, may even get bigger but you may try opening the pdf, doing a Save as pdf or Print to pdf, and then work with the file thus created.

Locked files may not work but you may be able to click the lock in the Get Info window and unlock them. Encrypted files may not work, and I don't know a workaround, but they aren't that numerous.

Good luck and thanks to those who contributed the methods and the filters!

For others finding this thread, I am replying to the original post in order to make it easier to find a good solution that has emerged, for Lion. [well, my reply doesn't appear under the OP no matter what I do, but it does summarize some stuff and may help someone so I will leave it]

Download from here http://idisk.mac.com/jcolas-Public (and I guess this will vanish with mobileme on July 1 of this year 😟 ) the small zip file of quartz filters created by Jerome Colas.

Unzip & put these files in your 'System>Library>Filters' folder. System Library folders are controlled to prevent mistakes, and you may be told it can't be done but then asked for authorization, so fill in your admin password and the files will be isntalled.

Then follow the instructions in this post Re: Reducing size of pdf in OSX Lion earlier in this thread,

or see this blog post which has illustrations and more instructions http://www.scooter-it.com/pdf-for-pros Go down to nearly the end for the relevant info.

What you gain is extra filters for controlling how much compression your pdf receives and therfore how good or bad it looks, especially the images. You'll use the Apple app ColorSync Utility to shrink the files. In the lower left corner of ColorSync Utility is a pulldown menu of filters showing what resolution they reduce to. WORK ON A COPY OF YOUR PDF and if you do not like the results either make another copy from the original or close the compressed copy without saving it.

I had excellent results transforming a 28MB pdf into 6.5 MB with no visible change to the very detailed color art images included.

Already compressed pdfs may not work, may even get bigger----but you can try opening the pdf, doing a Save as pdf or Print to pdf, and then work with the new file thus created.

Locked files may not work but you may be able to click the lock in the Get Info window and unlock them. Encrypted files may not work, and I don't know a workaround, but they aren't that numerous.

Good luck and thanks to those who contributed the methods and the filters!

Save as a PDF in whatever program you are using. Print-save OS PDF then open in Graphic Converter, save as PDF. Just reduced yet another one from over 17mb to about 800kb. A paid app but very powerful and worth every cent.

Pete

Thanks so much. Works excellent. I am wondering if there is a way to get the file to pass through the filter as it comes of the scanner? In other words I scan using preview or whatever other app one may use and the file size is small without needing to pass it through the automator app. Anybody know how this can be done?

Thanks,

Roger

Definitely great and simple to installl the jcolas filters. Simple. No animator, no problems

I had updated two pdf files and from about 4 mb once saved in acrobat, now they were 45 mb. with the 300 dpi I got them down to 3.5 mb without noticing the difference except one questionable picture.

Since the files are downloaded 17,000 times a month, I'm sure a lot of people will appreciate the smaller size.

Download from here, drag the filters to the rest of the filters in your system/library

http://www.scooter-it.com/pdf-for-pros

Thanks for taking the time to describe how to automate this terrific tip, redticket! Very slick. Works like a charm.

Best -

Ken

Hi, I know exactly how you feel. It took me ages to find out how to do this, even though I've done it before in Snow Leopard. Here's my best attempt to explain it:

1. Open the document you need to change. This is done by double-clicking on the file. The default program that pdf's open in is called "Preview" Its not a clever mode of opening it, just mac's equivalent of Adobe Acrobat.

2. At the top of the screen, there should be a toolbar that looks like this:

Preview File Edit View Go Tools Bookmarks Window Help

Click on the "File" button, and on the drop down menu that appears, click on "Export". This should be below "Duplicate" in the list.

3. A window will open that looks like a Save type window. The "Export As:" window is where you can name the file that you've exported. For examply, if I wanted to reduce a file called happy.pdf, I'd usually name the smaller file as happysmall (the .pdf bit is inserted automatically).

This window also lets you choose where you want to save the file to. Choose the folder you'd like.

4. Whilst still being in the "Export As:" window, at the bottom are two options. One says "Format" and lets you pick what file type you'd like to use. The other says "Quartz Filter". This is set as none. Click the button, and a drop down box will appear, giving you lots of options that I'm sure nobody ever uses. The second-to-last option is "Reduce File Size". Select this option.

5. Now click "Save", and the file you've created will be in the folder you specified. Done!

Note that because of the way this reduces the file size, if you have scanned files, they are likely to appear slightly fuzzy, and I would not recommend it. For typed documents, this method should be fine and I can't see any loss in the text quality.

I'm sure lots of people have tried o explain it on here below me, but try and follow this step by step and it should work.

C

Just install the additional quartz filters from the site mentioned above. take 5 minutes and you will have a half dozen sizes to choose from. I'm using the 300 dpi average quality for most documents now and the fuzzyness is neglegable. Today's 9.8 mb file is now 450 k and unless you were going to blow it up into a poster you'd never notice the difference.

But install those filters.

Hey guys, I just bought the app "PDF Squeezer" for $1.99 and it really does the work. Simplest solution 😉