Preview increases pdf file size when saving

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Level 1

7 points

Preview increases pdf file size when saving

When I save a PDF journal article using Preview, it often increases the file size by 2x - 4x, regardless of whether I have added annotations. In the attached image, you can see I downloaded a journal article (2.3 MB), opened it in Preview, duplicated and saved it and the resulting copied file was 6.1 MB.

This is a problem because I it signifiantly increases the size of my synced reference library. It is worse with larger files (25 MB eBooks that increase to 80 MB).

Can anyone help me find a way to annotate a journal article and preserve the original file size? I have tried Adobe Reader (awful and buggy interface, but preserves the original size!), and several other PDF apps (e.g. Skim) seem to rely on Apple's PDF engine where the file results in a larger size as well. Using Quartz filters to reduce file size within Preview is not effective. I'm happy to purchase a program if it works well.

MacBook Pro, OS X Mavericks (10.9.2), 13-inch, Mid 2010

Posted on Mar 24, 2014 3:39 PM

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Answer 1

Sep 14, 2014 9:39 AM in response to a13z

I have also experienced this issue. My PDF file of 300MB increased to over 900MB when I simply put one straight line annotation onto it. Effectively this made the PDF unusable since it is now very slow to open and it is too large to transfer onto my iPad. I've experienced this multiple times with a variety of PDF files, and so now simply avoid changing them in any way in Preview. I have written to Apple via apple.com/feedback and have talked to Apple store 'Geniuses' about this. Apparently it is a known issue, but there was no promise of a resolution. I love the way Preview opens quickly and displays files and also allows beautiful, smooth scrolling of PDFs. It's a pity that there's this enormous problem with annotating. If anyone knows of a solution, it would be great to hear. I've tried other PDF programmes such as Adobe for Mac, but wasn't too impressed.

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Answer 2

Old Toad

Level 10

207,439 points

Sep 14, 2014 10:16 AM in response to PatrickMike

Give Skim a try. It's an open source app designed specifically for viewing and annotating PDF files.

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