Compressings/Compacting PDFs

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   I had a request recently to shrink a couple of PDFs.  I created some of them.  Others were created by some other process.  Other than TransformFile, I can't think of any feature that will take a PDF and make it smaller.  I did find a website called smallpdf [dot] com that lets you select a PDF then download the smaller version.  I ran a couple of them through it and they did come back quite a bit smaller.  We're now examining them to see if the quality is acceptable.  I would love to do something like this myself and I know I'm going to be asked to.  Is there a method or feature I'm missing?

Bob

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BobW Members Profile Find Members Posts Senior Member Joined: 27 Feb 13 Location: Minnesota Status: Offline Points: 64	Post Options Post Reply Quote BobW Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Topic: Compressings/Compacting PDFs Posted: 24 Apr 15 at 10:56PM
	I had a request recently to shrink a couple of PDFs. I created some of them. Others were created by some other process. Other than TransformFile, I can't think of any feature that will take a PDF and make it smaller. I did find a website called smallpdf [dot] com that lets you select a PDF then download the smaller version. I ran a couple of them through it and they did come back quite a bit smaller. We're now examining them to see if the quality is acceptable. I would love to do something like this myself and I know I'm going to be asked to. Is there a method or feature I'm missing? Bob

mLipok Members Profile Find Members Posts Senior Member Joined: 23 Apr 14 Location: Poland, Zabrze Status: Offline Points: 453	Post Options Post Reply Quote mLipok Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 27 Apr 15 at 2:01PM
	1. How many pages contain test document ? 2. What was the initial size of the PDF (in KB) ? 3. What was the size after using this specified page ? 4. Did you try: Option 10 in ReplaceFonts - Removes embedded fonts if it matches the 14 std fonts
	Here you can find description how to test my examples: http://www.quickpdf.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=2932&PID=12600&title=drawcapturedpagematrix-matrix-howto#12600

erico Members Profile Find Members Posts Senior Member Joined: 24 Sep 14 Location: Minnesota USA Status: Offline Points: 51	Post Options Post Reply Quote erico Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 27 Apr 15 at 3:53PM
	TransformFile() may reduce the size of PDFs. CompressContent(), CompressImages(), CompressFonts() may also help edit: corrected typo Edited by erico - 27 Apr 15 at 3:54PM
	Eric O

BobW Members Profile Find Members Posts Senior Member Joined: 27 Feb 13 Location: Minnesota Status: Offline Points: 64	Post Options Post Reply Quote BobW Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 28 Apr 15 at 11:10PM
	I've tried the following in a quick program: TransformFile LoadFromFile ReplaceFonts(10) CompressContent() CompressImages(1) CompressFonts() SaveToFile Description Original Size My Program SmallPDF[dot]Com result 2 page IRS form 289K 278K 99K Single page 1,128K 1,142K 558K scanned image (made by putting a form on a copier that emailed me the PDF) 1 Page PDF I 116K 120K 26K created with QuickPDF In two cases the resulting file is LARGER than the original! I tried using each of the functions individually -- TransformFile by itself got the first PDF down to 267K, but none of them really did much at all. This is going to be a bit of a problem for me because I know I'm going to be asked why I can't do what the free website did.

erico Members Profile Find Members Posts Senior Member Joined: 24 Sep 14 Location: Minnesota USA Status: Offline Points: 51	Post Options Post Reply Quote erico Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 29 Apr 15 at 3:36PM
	The size of the scanned image is most closely tied to the dpi resolution of the scanned image. Your best chance there would be to use a lower resolution using SetImageResolution and FitImage as required. For the other two, without looking at the content, there is really no way to be certain what is increasing the PDF size. It could be almost anything.
	Eric O

AndrewC Members Profile Find Members Posts Moderator Group Joined: 08 Dec 10 Location: Geelong, Aust Status: Offline Points: 841	Post Options Post Reply Quote AndrewC Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 06 May 15 at 7:50AM
	Bob, Most programs that reduce PDF file sizes concentrate on re-sampling and re-compressing images within the PDF. This is usually achieved by reducing the colours in the image, using a different image compression such as lossy JPEG and also lowering the DPI by resampling the image. I don't believe that SetImageResolution will be much use. To get this working with Debenu Quick PDF Library you will need to extract the larger images, process them to reduce their size and then use something like ReplaceImage to update the image. I suspect this is a feature currently on the Debenu TODO list. Other optimisations may include removing unused character from fonts and then re-compressing them or removing unused objects. Each of these processes is quite complex and time consuming. Andrew