How come my pdf document is about 4 times the size of my original MS-WORD version?

Has it got images in? What size, what DPI? What did you use to convert it to PDF?

it has lots of images, goes from 3 to 17 Gig. Images are pasted as Windows metafiles. Converted it using DoPDF.

yikes! and what is your target size? Something for the web?

Best off resizing the source images before pasting them in word, then look at tweaking the PDF creation settings. Look at image quality, DPI and compression settings.

I’ve not used DoPDF only Distiller and Word’s own “save as PDF” option so can’t give much more detailed help.

And/or look at word’s own picture compression options.

It’s worth trying different PDF programs. Eg sometimes we find cutepdf creates smaller files than adobe, other times not.

Three gig?! Holy hell. What’s it contain, the Internet?

I’d look to optimise the Word doc as a first step. Turn off Fast Saves, turn off any version checking, optimise the images. Sometimes, simply cutting and pasting the entire thing into a new document can dramatically reduce its file size if Word’s done something Wordy with it.

Images are pasted as Windows metafiles.

I suspect that won’t help.

cheers all, can’t compromise on image quality. even as it is some line images are too shonky.

will play some more

Shirley you mean mb rather than gig?

No one in their right mind would have a 3 gig word doc.

cheers all, can’t compromise on image quality. even as it is some line images are too shonky.

This might be the issue. If the line images are shonky and you file size is 3gb you are in a whole world of resizing hell.

Images to be viewed on a screen don’t need to be more than 72 or 96 dpi if resized correctly – 300dpi at size on a screen is pointless.

You can convert the images to a compressed format with little if any drop in quality.

Another here looking for help re-sizing PDF’s

Another question – when I Zip a PDF that is, say 10.7 meg, why is the Zipped file about 10.6 meg – what’s the point?

Why are you zipping a PDF to start with?
Text weighs bugger all, so sort your images out (seems like a blind spot) and you’ll not need further compression.

Three gig?! Holy hell. What’s it contain, the Internet?

I remember receiving a 48 GB e-mail from someone at work a few months ago. I almost went over and slapped them!

Is the original doc in Word? If so I’ve had luck right clicking on images and compresssing images/reducing resolution for web viewing? Makes quite a bit of difference to file size.

oh yeah, meg

@TheArtistFormerlyKnownAsSTR PDFs are already compressed internally, so no point zipping them unless it’s a convenient way to send a whole directory of files.

oh yeah, meg

bit of a difference there…..Jeebus.

If your wmf files are pure vector data, they shouldn’t be crazy big like that; are they accidentally raster too/instead? (I think wmf supports both – if you outputting from some other program e.g. AutoCAD it may have messed up?)

Re import your images after you’ve converted them to jpegs, should save lots of space, any line work make sure it’s a bitmap file at very high res ( 600 dpi + ) for litho print and save file as a tif this should give good results without compromising quality

actually, zipping my pdf gave me a good ratio.

i have 120 diagrams, so, re-importing them is not so attractive

first mistake is using word. it’s guff

I remember receiving a 48 GB e-mail from someone at work a few months ago. I almost went over and slapped them!

Excel’s good for that. Select all / Format cells.

oh yeah, meg

Ah ok. As you were, then. Try a different conversion program, there’s shedloads out there.

Yeah, well i originally did it in WP 5.1, but no one else could open it