5 Lesser-Known Ways to Reduce the Size of a PDF file

What is a PDF?

A PDF, or Portable Document Format, has been around since its invention by Adobe in 1991. Fast forward to today, PDFs are the ultimate global file format. Most businesses use PDFs as a digital standard for sharing information. PDFs have great security options, can be translated into thousands of languages, and reduced in file size.

But, you may also run into a scenario where you want to reduce a PDF’s size. This may occur for a variety of reasons, including faster emailing and downloading time. 

The following five ways can help you reduce your PDF size while still optimizing readability and formatting.

1. Re-save the PDF to reduce PDF size

An easy way to reduce the size of a PDF file is to take out all unnecessary add-ons, like blocky objects and tags. You can also compress your images, which can take up a lot of space. 

With Adobe Acrobat, you can use the “print to PDF” option to reduce the size in a few simple steps.

1. Open the PDF file
2. Choose the Export / Save as dialog
3. Select the PDF as file type
4. Click Save and export

2. Compress a PDF with Adobe Acrobat 

Using Adobe Acrobat is a great way to split a PDF with ease and effectiveness. Instead of using the “Save As” feature, which can take longer as it has to add up all your new changes, use the “Save” feature instead. Here’s how:

1. Open Adobe Acrobat’s PDF editor
2. Go to “File – Save As” and then click “Save” once more

3. Remove unwanted objects from PDF files

Several things can increase the size of a PDF, including links, images, bookmarks, Javascript, and form fields. The size of a PDF file is increased by links, bookmarks, form fields, and JavaScript. Adobe Acrobat makes it easy to do this quickly and seamlessly without losing your most important content. Follow the steps to remove unwanted objects for optimized size.

1. Open the PDF in the PDF editor
2. Using Acrobat, Go to File > Save as other > Optimize PDF
3. Choose the objects to remove and click OK.

4. Clear unused space with the PDF Optimizer

There may be unused space on your PDF that you can’t even see, taking up crucial space and making your file bigger. To get rid of it, use Adobe Acrobat’s PDF Optimizer tool again.

1. Select Tools > Advanced Optimization
2. Click on PDF Optimizer
3. Select the Audit Space Usage

5. Make sure you’re optimizing your color scheme

Use RGB color space instead of the CMYK, which can take up more space. Using Adobe Acrobat, follow the below steps.

1. Open the PDF in Adobe Acrobat Pro
2. Choose Tools > Print Production > Convert Colors
3. Select the RGB color space
4. Select the FOGRA39 profile 
5. Check which pages you would like to convert
6. Click OK

Hope you like this article and it helps you to reduce the size of the PDF file. You may also like to read about the benefits of converting word to pdf Files.