Tech tip: Making your PDFs smaller

If you've created a PDF on your computer, but it's come together with a huge file size, you may want to make it smaller so that you can email it more easily. There are a couple of ways to go about this:

  • If you have Adobe Acrobat Professional – there's a command under File called "Reduce File Size". That should shrink the file.
  • If that doesn't work, or doesn't take the file size down enough, then you can go back to the master document and make sure that your document is as small as possible. Make sure that any graphics are on the small side – file-size wise. If you have inserted large file sizes, then they'll add to the overall file size of your PDF.

    • For example, if you've put a photo in your document – say, your headshot – but you have inserted the original photo that the photographer gave you, then it's likely that it will be much bigger than it needs to be. I suggest scaling and downsizing your images in Photoshop before placing them into the document that you're making the PDF out of. That should significantly reduce the file size.