Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Reduce PDF Size

When saving a Word file as PDF there is a quick trick to reduce the resulting file size. 

Use the following procedure.
  1. In Word, use the normal Save as -> PDF
  2. Open the PDF that was created (if it does not open automatically)
  3. Select File -> Save as
  4. Click "Save".
This overwrites the current PDF file with a new version that removes the extra baggage that Word added.

As an example, I had a file that was originally 8,594 KB. After using the above procedure it was reduced to 6,353 KB.

Setup:
  • Word 2010
  • Adobe Acrobat 9
  • Windows 7