How to Optimize a PDF

1

PREPARED BY @THEOFANNING02.16.11

2

Overview

๏ What is a PDF?

๏ G.I.G.O.

๏ It starts with an export

๏ Optimizing with Acrobat

๏ Final thoughts

What is a PDF?

3

4

A brief History

PDF (Portable Document Format) is a file format

developed by Adobe as a means of distributing

compact, platform-independent documents. It is

superficially similar to HTML; a PDF document

may contain images and text, as well as

hyperlinks. However, as PDF is based on a

variant of PostScript, each document is self-

contained, packing text, graphics, and fonts into

a single file.

Garbage in. Garbage out.

5

6

Some helpful document creation tips

๏ Start with quality

• If your images look bad before you start, they will get worse after optimization

๏ Bigger isn’t always better

• Don’t enlarge your images or art larger than their original size

๏ Stick with the tried and true

• Use trusted image formats (jpg, gif, png, tiff)

• PDF images often have other data that can get corrupted

It starts with an export

7

8

Three ways to export your file as a PDF

๏ Print as PDF

๏ Save as PDF

๏ Export as PDF

9

Print as PDF

๏ Pro: This works in most programs

๏ Con: Not a lot of control

10

Save as PDF

๏ Pro: This works in most programs

๏ Con: Not a lot of control

11

Export as PDF

๏ Pro: More options and control

๏ Con: Not always an option

Optimizing with Acrobat

12

13

Two ways to optimize your PDF with Acrobat

๏ Easy way — reduce file size

๏ Better way — PDF optimizer

Reduce file size

14

PDF optimizer

15

PDF optimizer

16

Final Thoughts

17

18

This can happen to you

Even if you follow these simple

steps, programs (like Keynote) still

have little issues with exporting

certain features and functions.

Thank you

19