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Reducing size of pdf in OSX Lion

Ladies and Gents,


Can you please let me know how I can reduce the size of pdf docs in OSX Lion. I use to be able to save as pdf, open it again and then "save as" with reduce option. In lion it only shows "Save version" instead of "save as". Thanks in advance and regards, Theo.

Airport Extreme-OTHER, Mac OS X (10.6.8)

Posted on Jul 26, 2011 8:41 AM

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Posted on Jul 26, 2011 8:52 AM

  • Open PDF in Preview
  • Print– save as PDF
  • Open in Preview
  • Save
  • Choose Quartz filter and choose reduce file size
93 replies

Aug 4, 2011 9:03 AM in response to theorozenburg

Hi,

in SL I have generated my own quarz filters with color sync.

That is neccessary, as the reduce file size normaly makes the doucuments unreadable.


Now I have no more acces to theese filters in preview.

I tried to open also the pdf's with color sync directly, but unfortunately the only filter working is the pre-defined reducer, which I can not use.

Is anybody having here a solution?

Aug 14, 2011 3:08 PM in response to theorozenburg

I have used Preview to reduce a big pdf file, alothough it does reduce it from about half the size it does also reduce the quality of the file.


So I was wondering, beside buying Adobe professionnal's software, is there a "cheaper-that-does-only-one-thing" type of application for mac osx lion that can reduce (and optimize) pdf files and keep the quality ?

Aug 14, 2011 3:17 PM in response to theorozenburg

theorozenburg wrote:


Thanks FFS4B, it's one step more to get a reduced pdf version compared with Leopard but that's probably because in Lion you are able to "save a version" and get back to previous documents.

Regards, Theo.


Leopard couldn't do it either, if you had it there, you'd installed one or another of the custom Automator workflows that started appearing after Leopard's release. One is here:


http://skycoast.us/pscott/software/mac/

Aug 14, 2011 3:19 PM in response to BabaOrhum

BabaOrhum wrote:


So I was wondering, beside buying Adobe professionnal's software, is there a "cheaper-that-does-only-one-thing" type of application for mac osx lion that can reduce (and optimize) pdf files and keep the quality ?


Nothing you do that compresses the images in the PDF is going to "keep the quality", it's only whether or not you can *see* the degradation or not. It's a lossy compression.

Sep 2, 2011 7:20 AM in response to theorozenburg

Hey, don't lose hope... I found this thread by Jerome Colas, about reducing PDF file size


Try these steps:


1. Download the quartz filters made by Jerome Colas LINK


2. Move the FILTERS folder on your Library folder ---> /YOUR HARD DRIVE/Library/


3. Open Automator, create Application (Not Workflow!!!)


4. Search and drag "Open Finder items" to the right


5. Search and drag "Apply Quartz Filter to PDF Documents"

- when prompted "This action will change the PDF files passed into it. Would you like to add a Copy Finder Items action so that the copies are changed and your originals are preserved?" Click Don't Add


6. From the Filter drop down, select Reduce to 150 dpi average quality - STANDARD COMPRESSION


User uploaded file


7. Save it to your Desktop.


8. To resize PDF, just drag the PDF file over the Automator Application you saved on your Desktop.


Your PDF file size is now reduced, without compromising the quality! 🙂


Thanks to Jerome Colas for the wonderful quartz filter!

Nov 8, 2011 2:59 AM in response to redticket

Hi all,

I was pretty excited when I found this Automator solution for Lion users, and seems like it's the ticket for most people here, but not me!

I have done all the steps exactly, the pdf opens once dropped on the newly created automation application, but it doesn't reduce in size at all. I've tried a number of Jerome's filters but get the same results. I also tried to apply filters in Colorsync but nothing seems to alter my fie size 10.7MB... So strange.


Any clues would be most warmly appreciated!

Reducing size of pdf in OSX Lion

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