Chances are you use PDF documents every day in your business —whether to distribute full color brochures, or copies of your transaction documents. The beauty of PDF is that anyone can view and print them. However, PDF file sizes can become quite large, especially for highly graphical brochures and the like —too large to send to clients and prospects via e-mail. Well, that problem is solved thanks to an unpublished trick I discovered that can often shrink large PDF documents 1/5th to 1/10th their original file size!  Here is how it is done.

The technique I am about to share with you assumes you have a copy of Adobe Acrobat Professional version. (If not, at the end of this article I'll show you where you may be able to purchase it for about 1/3rd its retail price). 

The following steps are very straightforward and should be easy to follow:

1. Open the PDF using Acrobat Professional (not the free viewer);

2. Under the File menu select Save As... and a dialog box will appear;

3. In the File Name field add "_sm" to the end of the file name, just before the ".pdf" (quotes only shown for clarification purposes —do not include them).  NOTE: The reason you are modifying the file name is so you won't write over your current PDF. The "_sm" will simply help you distinguish the new "small" version from the larger original PDF.

4. In the File Type field choose "PostScript" which puts a ".ps" after the file name. Then click the SAVE button.  NOTE: By doing this you are saving a version of your original PDF as a PostScript file.

   Go to the PostScript file you just saved and double-click on it. This will automatically launch Adobe Distiller (which comes with Acrobat Professional) which will then convert the PostScript file back into a PDF. IMPORTANT: Make sure your default settings in Adobe Distiller are set to "Standard" —if not, change it to "Standard" and double click the PostScript file again.

Adobe Distiller should create a smaller file size version of your original PDF (with "_sm" at the end of the file name). Depending upon how the original PDF was created, the savings in file size can be quite substantial.

For example, click on the two links below to see how I greatly reduced the size of a full color 12 page PDF brochure from over 2664kbs to just 415kbs. 

• Original PDF brochure  (2664kbs)
   

• Reduced PDF brochure (415kbs)

That's about an 82% reduction with no apparent diminishment of quality! This size reduction makes a huge difference, especially if you have to e-mail the PDF as an attachment.

Now, if you currently don't own Adobe Acrobat Professional (as an active agent, you should) and you have kids that are in school (any where from K - College), then you can purchase Acrobat under the academic pricing model which is currently $149.95 vs. $499.00 retail. Just go to Academic Superstore and order online or through their 800 number.

Using the tip above you no longer have to punish your clients and prospects by sending huge PDFs. Now doesn't that make you feel a bit, well... svelte?