Mac Kung Fu, 2nd Edition

Tip 153

Shrink PDF Files

All applications capable of editing documents or pictures on a Mac can output files as PDFs. To do so, just click File→Print on the menu of the application, and click the PDF drop-down at the bottom left. Then select Save as PDF, and enter a filename as usual (be sure to add a pdf file extension if you want the file to be read on computers other than Macs).

However, PDFs created by Macs tend to be large. The solution is simple: repeat the previous steps to output a PDF, but choose the Open PDF in Preview option from the PDF drop-down list. Then, when the Preview window appears, click File→Export. In the Save As dialog box, click Reduce File Size in the Quartz Filter drop-down list.

Note that shrinking PDFs in this way ...