Reducing the Size of PDF Files


Why would someone want to reduce the size of a pdf file? I had to do that…twice. When I asked our webmaster if she could please upload to the school’s web site the handouts I made for parents, she said they were too big. So, this is how I solved the problem.
My goal was to have my presentation available to parents so they could download it at home. The presentation was made with Keynote, a software application for presentations, part of the iWorks suite, for Macs.

The first thing I did was convert the keynote file to pdf format. How? 
File –> Export –> PDF.
 
The original .key file was 111 Mb. Way to big! I knew that, that’s why I converted to pdf. Smart me! Now I had reduced the size to only 4.3 Mb. I also took away the videos, and only included links. That should do the trick. Right? Wrong! Turned out it was still too big. The web master told me it would be best to have the file size down to about 1Mb. 
But how? No matter what I removed, I couldn’t take it under 3 Mb. Finally, the solution! Pretty simple, let me show you.

1. Open the pdf file. In a Mac, when you double-click on a pdf, it opens up with the Preview application.

2. Under File, go to Export.
3. From the pull down menu for Quartz Filter, choose Reduce File Size. Save and Replace.
4. Voila! Piece of cake! After that, the file size did reduce, now down to 506 Kb! Perfect! 
The quality wasn’t bad at all and the web page’s loading time is really good. After that, I’m reducing all my handouts, especially if they are going to be uploaded.

Cheers!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Discovering Add-ons & Scripts

Image
Hi! It's back-to-school time. I hope your school year is off to a good start. As for me, it's been a very busy season. I can tell you that, amongst many other events, two major situations take place each year at my school: Open House and New Google Apps accounts. What's so special about these two? They both require a great deal of prepping and tech assistance. For instance, during Open House, the Tech Integration Team takes advantage that all the parents are present to have them register for tech orientation sessions. A couple of years ago, we'd lay out long sheets of lined paper, one for each different session, with a limited amount of lines. In the next years, we decided to take it a step further and created a Google Form. We had laptops available during each of the Open House nights and asked parents to register electronically to a tech session. While parents were submitting forms, I'd be in the background, checking numbers against the capacity we had fo
Read more

Voice Feedback in Google Docs

Image
Hi! I was recently asked by a teacher how she could provide voice feedback in Google Docs. Sometimes, it's better to record your feedback, rather than writing a long note, and I'm pretty sure students would appreciate listening to their teacher's voice too! Here are some options I found. They all work for Google Docs. Some will mention if they work on Google Slides or Google Classroom too. Mote This is a Chrome extension. The basic plan has some limitations , but it's ok. Mote creates a link to the voice note in a comment box. For a better experience, the kids would also need to install that extension, that way they wouldn't be taken out of the Google doc to listen to the message and could play directly in the comments box. Works the same also in Google Slides and in Google Classroom. Read&Write This is another Chrome extension, which also has other cool features you might like. Again, to better experience this feedback option, it is recommended that the student
Read more

Hello World!

Hello World! This is how I started my first tweet some years ago and this is how I start my first public blog. I am trying to reach anyone out there that shares the same interests I have. The purpose of this blog is to share my experience as a technology trainer at an elementary school. I will be posting what has worked for me, any resources I recommend, and in general, the day to day experiences I go through in my daily life. Check back frequently and feel free to comment and share your experiences too. Let the learning begin!
Read more