Can I reduce the size of a pdf created from an ID document with numerous placed pdfs?

[Janine_Mills@adobeforums.com]

I have an 86-page InDesign document that has about 25 placed pdf images (created from AutoCAD) and about 10 bmp and/or tif images in it. The ID file size is 4360KB, the pdf file size (created by printing to Adobe PDF) is 4972KB. I've tried using the File>Export command, as well as creating a .ps file and creating the pdf through Distiller, both with larger file sizes resulting. Is there anything I can do to reduce the pdf file size??

[Gernot_Hoffmann@adobeforums.com]

Janine,

AutoCad vector graphics don´t consume much space in the PDF.
The raster images should be better compressed, depending on
the purpose. TIFF shouldn´t contain Photoshop layers (flatten):

Web (view only):
Downsample to 72 dpi if above
JPEG-medium-compression/LZW automatic

Medium quality (desktop printer):
Downsample to 144 dpi if above
JPEG-medium/low-compression/LZW automatic

DTP, PrePress:
Downsample to 288 dpi if above
No compression

DTP, PrePress, line art like engravings:
As original
No compression

Vector graphics are lossless code compressed
by default settings.

Best regards --Gernot Hoffmann

[Janine_Mills@adobeforums.com]

Thanks for your advice. I tried changing the downsampling, etc., and the resulting pdf file was about 2000KB bigger than before! (I always get a larger pdf file size when "exporting" as opposed to printing to Adobe pdf.) It seems that the size does have something to do with the placed pdfs, because when I drop them out, the file goes down to less than 1000KB. Any other suggestions?

[Gernot_Hoffmann@adobeforums.com]

Janine,

do you have grayscale Tiff images ?
These were compressed up to Distiller 5.0 by ZIP instead
of JPEG. A severe bug. I don´t have Distiller 6.

Please describe the details for your file formats
and compression settings.

The size of the PDF depends also on the compatibility
level. For 5.0 the files are smaller than for 3 or 4
but not all application programs are able to read 5 .
(PageMaker reads 3, my large format RIPs read 4 but not 5).

Best regards --Gernot Hoffmann

[Janine_Mills@adobeforums.com]

Gernot,
I use b/w bitmap images. I just tried reducing the file sizes of the largest bmp files placed in my ID document and re-printing to Adobe PDF, but the resulting file was no smaller.
I'm not sure what file formats and compression settings you are asking me to describe....
Thanks again,
Janine

[Gernot_Hoffmann@adobeforums.com]

Janine,

it seems there is still a bug in Distiller. Which version ?
You DID choose either JPEG or JPEG/LZW Automatic ?
This would be correct. The B/W images (if they are like
photos) should be automatically compressed by JPEG.

Probably the B/W images were packed as ZIP/LZW.

Please download the free trial version of
Quite a Box of Tricks by
<http://www.quite.com>

This will show you the compression modes for each image.

Curing the problem is not easy. It works like this:

1. Replace in the actual joboptions file by text editor
(WordPad):
ConvertImageToIndex = No (instead of Yes)

2. Use oversized grayscale images AND downsampling to 72 dpi
if above 72 dpi. The source image should be much larger
(by pixels) than necessary. This forces Distiller to apply
JPEG. Don´t ask me why - it works.

By the way - it´s not a specific problem for InDesign. It´s a
Distiller problem.

Best regards --Gernot Hoffmann

[Gernot_Hoffmann@adobeforums.com]

Janine,

I forgot to mention that Quite a Box of Tricks
can shrink PDFs. You can try this by the free
trial version but then you´ll get a big black
cross on each page...
The full version costs about 130 British pounds.
That´s not too much.

Best regards --Gernot Hoffmann

[Gernot_Hoffmann@adobeforums.com]

Janine,

bad news:
Quite a Box of tricks shrinks, but it doesn´t change ZIP
to JPEG.

An alternative:

1. Replace in the actual joboptions file by text editor
(WordPad):
ConvertAllImagesToIndexed = No (instead of Yes)

2. Convert Grayscale to RGB (it´s still gray, of course).

Tested by BMP images. Result is JPEG in PDF instead of ZIP.

Best regards --Gernot Hoffmann

[Janine_Mills@adobeforums.com]

Gernot,
Thank you for your efforts, and I apologize for not responding sooner, but the problem is definitely with the pdfs, not the tifs/bmps in the document.

[Guy_Smiley@adobeforums.com]

[email]Janine_Mills@adobeforums.com[/email] wrote in
news:3bb42a6f.7@webx.la2eafNXanI:

> Gernot,
> Thank you for your efforts, and I apologize for not responding
> sooner, but the problem is definitely with the pdfs, not the
> tifs/bmps in the document.

If the CAD PDFs contain large numbers of paths, then they will take up
a large amount of space, and there's nothing you can do about it. How
big are the PDFs when they come out of your CAD program?

[Janine_Mills@adobeforums.com]

Hi Gus,
That's the odd thing, the PDFs from AutoCAD are not that big. They average about 140KB.

[Guy_Smiley@adobeforums.com]

[email]Janine_Mills@adobeforums.com[/email] wrote in
news:3bb42a6f.9@webx.la2eafNXanI:

> Hi Gus,
> That's the odd thing, the PDFs from AutoCAD are not that big. They
> average about 140KB.

That's not odd. That's the answer: 25*140kb=3500kb.

And the name's "Guy".

[Janine_Mills@adobeforums.com]

Sorry about the name mix-up....
So you're saying there's nothing I can do about the final size?

[Guy_Smiley@adobeforums.com]

[email]Janine_Mills@adobeforums.com[/email] wrote in news:3bb42a6f.11
@webx.la2eafNXanI:

> Sorry about the name mix-up....
> So you're saying there's nothing I can do about the final size?

Nothing other than somehow making the placed PDFs you've created from
AutoCAD smaller.