Filed under: Video, Productivity, Tips and tricks, Leopard
Reducing PDF file size with a Quartz filter
Apple has an interesting video tip up this week on reducing the file size of graphic intensive PDFs created from the Print dialog. In their example they make a PDF from a Keynote presentation containing lots of graphics, and substantially reduce its size by selecting the "Reduce File Size" Quartz filter in the ColorSync options of the Print Dialog before choosing "Save as PDF..." from the PDF drop-down menu. In their example, without the filter the resulting PDF is 5.3MB and with the filter it's only 632KB. So I thought I'd give it a try on some of my own documents. But then I ran into a problem.
The Print dialog ColorSync access to Quartz filters has disappeared in Leopard. The video tip was made with Tiger; it seems a little bit ironic that they would release it now with a feature that is no longer available in Leopard. However, digging around a little bit I discovered a work-around. The Quartz filters are still available on the Save dialog box in the Preview application (above). So to achieve the same effect when you're in the Print dialog instead of choosing "Save as PDF..." from the drop down menu rather hit the "Preview" button, which opens the PDF in the Preview application. You can now "Save as..." and when you do the Quartz filter drop-down menu will appear, including the "Reduce File Size" filter. Give it a name and save it and you'll have your smaller PDF.
In my own testing using the "Reduce File Size" filter did noticeably degrade the quality of images in the PDF, but the file size savings were significant as well. It would actually be nice if there were more granularity so you could have some control over the compromise between file size and image quality. Nonetheless, if you have to shrink a graphics intensive PDF for emailing, etc. this can be a handy tip.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Michael said 8:29AM on 12-12-2007
Quartz filters can be customized to your favourite level of granularity quite easily. This has been discussed all over the mac-web, e.g. http://www.hoboes.com/Mimsy/?ART=360
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njyo said 8:31AM on 12-12-2007
what I always wondered is whether the "Reduce File Size" setting also affects Vector-PDFs. OmniGraffle for example exports files as vectorgraphs with already small file size. Sometimes I can still squeeze a bit by this setting, but does that then only affect any pixelgraph images embedded?
Thanks for clarification.
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Levi said 8:37AM on 12-12-2007
I just tried this on a 124k PDF and the result came out at 140k... I think it's done some vector to bitmap conversion.
kjg1 said 9:00AM on 12-12-2007
You can get the same effect by choosing the option "Compress PDF" under the PDF option in print dialog box. No need to go through extra dialogs as with the quartz filter.
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Mat Lu said 11:48AM on 12-12-2007
Actually, the "Compress PDF" option is gone from the "PDF..." drop-down menu in Leopard.
STrRedWolf said 10:30AM on 12-12-2007
Be careful with those. From what I read, it looks like they're forcing all bitmapped graphics to be JPEG compressed... which is very bad for PDF's destined for a printer.
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Mat Lu said 11:45AM on 12-12-2007
Yeah, I wouldn't do this for something destined for print. The idea is to use it for emailing, etc.
Peter Cook said 10:32AM on 12-12-2007
In my testing "Reduce File Size" in Acrobat Pro does a much better job with smaller files and better quality.
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Keith Symmers said 6:20AM on 2-16-2008
I have Acrobat Pro. If in Word, I print to Acrobat, in the box under Presets, there's a PDF Options choice (along with paper handling, copies, etc.). On that page, there's a choice for Adobe PDF Settings, with an option to select Smallest File Size. Doing a normal print, a one-page Word file with a big Excel chart on it was 124KB. Using the "smallest file size" option, the file was only 52KB.
spizz said 12:30PM on 12-12-2007
I was trying compress a PDF the other day and noticed that the Compress PDF option that used to be in Tiger was now gone in Leopard. A quick Google search got me this from Apple's Website http://tinyurl.com/ynw7gu Compress PDF. It's an Automator action.
Works great!
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Mark Sponsler said 5:22PM on 12-12-2007
Thanks for the tip. I didn't want to have to buy something like Acrobat Pro in order to do something like this. No, you definitely would not want to use the result for printing. However, it's a great way to reduce the size of something you want to email. BTW, Spizz's tip worked for a slightly smaller file, but didn't look quite as good as the original tip using the quartz filter. YMMV.
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Mr.Clicky said 6:34PM on 12-12-2007
PDF Shrink...costs money but works a treat with a bunch of options for intended use (email, print with quality etc) thrown in.
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Jerome said 3:38AM on 12-15-2007
It is possible to edit these filters with Colorsync utility (in Leopard, but I guess this also exists in Tiger)
By creating a filter that samples graphics at 150dpi, and compresses them at average JPEG quality, I manage to compress PDFs in a way that is both (at least for my graphic loaded PPTs and Keynote presentations)
- good enough to be printable
- small enough for emails
That is quite comparable (in file size) to Adobe PDF standard quality, free .... and works with Leopard
The filters are located in the /Library/Filters/ or ~/Library/Fiters/ folder.
If you are really lazy, you can download the one I use (150 dpi, average JPEG compression) here, then put the unzipped folder in your Library folder : http://idisk.mac.com/jcolas-Public
You can use the filter from Preview's Save dialog, when saving to PDF.
Hope this helps.
Jérôme.
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Jerome said 4:35AM on 12-15-2007
I have actually put 8 different filters for various PDF compression qualities here http://idisk.mac.com/jcolas-Public
Just download and put the Filters folder in your /Library/ or ~/Library/ folder.
Enjoy.
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Maxwell said 4:38PM on 12-25-2007
I just tried "Reduce File Size" with Preview in Tiger on the (excellent) Zen to Done e-book, and it grew from 1.1MB to 2.8MB. I'll stick with PDFshrink.
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ecobore said 4:59PM on 1-14-2008
funny, I have tried this in the past, but I also tried 'email PDF' and it produced a smaller file - so go figure!
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