Compress PDFs for camera ready publications using Adobe Acrobat Pro

Alec Jacobson

June 18, 2013

weblog/

Here're the settings I use to optimize the size of PDF files for camera ready publications. I have used this for all my recent publications and it usually reduces my PDF files from ~100MB to ~20MB without any noticeable loss in quality:
  1. Open input.pdf in acrobat pro
  2. Make compatible with Acrobat 5.0 and later
  3. Check Images
  4. Color Images: Downsample Off
  5. Color Images: Compression JPEG
  6. Color Images: Quality Maximum
  7. Grayscale Images: Downsample Off
  8. Grayscale Images: Compression JPEG
  9. Grayscale Images: Quality Maximum
  10. Monochromatic Images: Downsample Off
  11. Monochromatic Images: Compression JPEG
  12. Monochromatic Images: Quality Maximum
  13. Uncheck Fonts
  14. Check Discard Objects
  15. Uncheck all except Discard all alternate images and Discard embedded print settings
  16. Check Discard User Data
  17. Uncheck all except Discard private data of other applications and Discard hidden layer content and flatten visible layers
  18. Check Clean Up
  19. Object compression options: Compress document structure
  20. Uncheck all
  21. Save these settings as "Camera Ready"
  22. Hit OK and save as opt.pdf