Good lord it's huge! PDF file sizing

[mroberon1972]

I combined the software referance with instructions on how to use it in this post.

http://www.enworld.org/forums/showthread.php?t=81577

Hope you guys find it useful...

 

[simstim]

simstim,

You officially have my eternal gratitude. I downloaded Ghostscript and it absolutely ROCKS! I believe it honestly did a better job of downsizing than Acrobat 6pro.

My pleasure. It does produce very well-optimised files.

 

[jonnjonnzz]

Finally...some progress.

Pretty darn impressive too. At least in some ways.

Although it is apparently impossible to get anything but garbage by using Adobe Acrobat as printer driver to create PDFs directly from PagePlus, I tried a different route.
I output a PP PDF (27meg) and opened it in AA (all fonts where they belong and everything perfect that way) then optimized it. Now the PDF is 2.4meg. Yeehah!
I tried it with the print quality version and went from 124meg to 28meg. Very impressive.

But I have to admit I'm really pissed at the idea that I'm going to have to lay out $450 that I really can't afford in order to get a single function in a program that isn't worth a plugged nickle to me in any other way.

Does anyone know if there are any other inexpensive programs out there that will do the sort of optimizing that Acrobat is capable of?

If you are going to spend that kind of money on just Acrobat itself, you ought to see if you can get an academic priced version of teh entire Adobe Creative Suite. It frequently comes up for auction on Ebay, and I have seen it show up at some of the marketPro Computer Shows. I will be ordering it from one of the academic vendors in the next couple of weeks, average price comes out to $389 plus shipping. Of course, if you aren't a student it makes it hard to get at that price.

John Jones

 

[madelf]

If you are going to spend that kind of money on just Acrobat itself, you ought to see if you can get an academic priced version of teh entire Adobe Creative Suite. It frequently comes up for auction on Ebay, and I have seen it show up at some of the marketPro Computer Shows. I will be ordering it from one of the academic vendors in the next couple of weeks, average price comes out to $389 plus shipping. Of course, if you aren't a student it makes it hard to get at that price.

John Jones

I would happily spend $400 if I could get the entire Creative Suite. There's a lot in there I'd like to have and could certainly use.

Sadly, I am not a student.

 

[Axegrrl]

Head to your local community college and sign up for an inexpensive class. That gets you a student ID, which is often all that is needed to buy stuff at the student price. The amount of money you save on software like this can be far more than you spend on the tuition for the class.

If you're incorporated as a business, you might even be able to write off the course of the college class as a training expense. Make sure you take a class in an appropriate subject (and define, ahead of time, how that particular class will be "appropriate").

 

[madelf]

Head to your local community college and sign up for an inexpensive class. That gets you a student ID, which is often all that is needed to buy stuff at the student price. The amount of money you save on software like this can be far more than you spend on the tuition for the class.

If you're incorporated as a business, you might even be able to write off the course of the college class as a training expense. Make sure you take a class in an appropriate subject (and define, ahead of time, how that particular class will be "appropriate").

Not a bad idea.
I'll have to look into that.
I could use some life drawing classes or something anyway.