optimize .pdf files to send to blackberry

You don't mention what software you are using for 'creating' or 'converting to PDF' but the principle is the same. The act of 'optimizing' is merely the act of applying an appropriate amount of compression to the file so as to making it small enough for proper use without compromising the quality of the file. For example, optimizing a PDF for pre-press would result in a file much larger than optimizing one for viewing on the web.

If you are merely using the Print to PDF command built-in to Mac OS X then you only really have two choices 'Save as PDF' and 'Save as PDF-X' both resulting in files that are about the same size even though they are set up differently. If you want many more choices for optimization then you will have to purchase Adobe Acrobat, the free Reader will not do. There may be other third-party apps that also create PDFs but you'll have to do your own search for them but the principle remains the same regardless.

You don't mention what the problem is that your friend is having regarding reading the pdf files. Are they just too large to receive. I've been able to read regular pdf files that I have created as well as using the Word 2010 ability to save a file as a pdf. I've not made any modificaitons for reading on a smartphone.

Also, if you are scanning this file yourself, instead of saving as a pdf, you might think of scanning as a picture file, and maybe saving as a jpg. It could create a smaller file if that seems to be the issue, you can also enlarge the photo by tapping on it.

Adobe Acrobat is an expensive purchase just to solve this problem. You might want to give Smile Software's PDFpen or PDFpenPro a try. You can download trial versions of those apps from their site. I've noticed that you are running fairly old versions of Mac OS X, v10.5.8 and v10.4.11 respectively, so make sure you get the appropriate version of either of those apps if you do go that route. Look at the bottom of the page for links to the older versions of those apps.

Well the whole point of the PDF format is that when you create a file it retains the fidelity of the original. In other words it should look the same as the original file no matter where you view it. It sounds like you either want to change what it looks like so that it is more suitable for viewing on the small screen of a smartphone or that it is changing from the original look when viewed on the smartphone to the point that it is difficult to view. Please clarify.

Using your analogy of a movie file note that the movie is not changed in any way from the original it is merely scaled down in size and therefore the resulting file is able to be viewed in the smaller memory footprint allowed by smartphones. It also doesn't take up as much space within the limited storage space of a smartphone. For example, running a movie through Handbrake doesn't turn a 16:9 movie into a 4:3 movie that's been pan-and-scanned. Yes there are fewer pixels making up the image and looking at it at its original size is different, the resulting fewer pixels are magnified, but the movie is essentially the same.

Going back to my original post about optimization of PDF files. Using optimization to create a PDF file better suited for the confines of the smartphone means using higher compression to make the file smaller at the expense of image quality. The formatting itself should remain the same.

Viewing PDF files on the small screen of a smartphone usually means having to zoom in to the point that the text is readable but it also means that you have to scroll side-to-side to read wide passages of text in addition to scrolling down.

If your goal is to change the formatting/look of the PDF to make it more suitable for viewing on the small screen of a smartphone, to avoid the zoom and scrolling, you need to do that before turning it into a PDF. The process of converting to a PDF will not do that for you no matter which conversion software you use.

My experience with viewing PDF files on my iPhone 4 is that the fidelity of the original files is maintained as it should be. It looks exactly like it does on my laptop and desktop. That being said I do have to zoom in and scroll around to read the text and view any images.

No, actually what I said was that if you want to avoid the zooming and scrolling then you have to change what the document looks like before you turn it into a PDF. The PDF format is otherwise fine for what you are doing. The drawback to doing this is that you essentially have to do some work to prepare the file ahead of time so that the resulting PDF is suitable for reading on a smaller screen.

For example, you might want to copy and paste the text from those newspaper articles into a TextEdit document so that when it is changed into a PDF and opened on the small screen of a smartphone the text is sufficiently large enough to be read without the need to zoom in and scroll around.

The PDF file format is not the issue. It is the article's original layout and design.

For smartphone reading, ideally you want a single text column, with large-ish text, and images that span the whole width of the column, for it to be most readable.

Unless you are prepared to re-layout every article you want to send, you're going to be stuck with the problem you have.

On the iPhone, there are some PDF viewers that will attempt to "re-flow" the layout of an article to make it more readable on the small screen. Perhaps there are similar apps for the Blackberry.

Printopia allows you to Print to PDF direct from iOS devices, as long as you are on the same network as your Mac. You can also save the resulting PDF direct to Dropbox.

http://ecamm.com/mac/printopia/

It might do what you want...