Web Site Optimization - Acrobat 8 Professional Review - Optimize PDF Files

Website Optimization is announcing it’s updated review of Acrobat 8 Professional with information about how to Optimize PDF files for your website.

PDF optimization is often overlooked when creating PDF files for the Web. While PDFs have become quite popular on the Web, many PDFs used in web sites are designed for high quality print output and are not optimized for the Web. Even PDFs designed for Web use can have a wait problem, weighed down with excess fonts, change histories, and unoptimized images and forms. Optimizing PDF files for the Web can significantly shrink their size and boost display speed, saving bandwidth and user frustration. (For the full “Optimize PDF Files for the Web” article, see http://www.websiteoptimization.com/speed/tweak/pdf/)

In this article we'll give you tips and tools to optimize PDFs for minimum file size while still maintaining accessibility and search engine visibility. We review Adobe's PDF Optimizer in Acrobat 8 Professional (pre-release) and Apago's PDF Enhancer 3.1.

Creating Small PDFs

The main factors in creating small PDFs are image resolution, image type (bitmap or vector), the number of fonts used and how they are embedded, PDF version, and the level of compression. In general the higher the PDF version number, the smaller the file. Acrobat 5 (PDF version 1.4) added JBIG2 compression, which is superior to the CCITT or Zip algorithms when compressing scanned monochromatic copy (see Table 1). JBIG2 (Joint Bilevel Image Experts Group) encodes compresses monochrome (1 bit per pixel) image data from 20:1 to 50:1 for pages full of text. Like other dictionary-based algorithms (LZW, ZIP) JBIG2 creates a table of unique symbols and when a subsequent symbol matches one in the table, it substitutes a token pointing to the table index. JBIG2 also compresses the entire table.

Acrobat 6 (PDF version 1.5) added the ability to compress the entire file (Clean Up Settings dialog). However, since over 90% of Acrobat users have version 5.0 or greater, using PDF 1.4 is a safer alternative. Acrobat will usually display (with a warning) a more recent PDF version, but new compression schemes will spawn an error when opened in older versions of Acrobat.

To create the smallest possible PDFs for the Web minimize the number of fonts, bitmapped images, and substitute vector based-graphics instead. Minimize the number and complexity of forms in your PDF document and flatten form fields, and avoid the use of multimedia.

There are different methods to create PDFs, including outputting to PostScript and Distilling, GDI/Printing (Webopedia Definition of Graphic Device Interface), one-click "Direct to PDF," and dynamically on the server-side. However you create a PDF, the techniques and tools listed in the full “Optimize PDF Files for Web” article (http://www.websiteoptimization.com/speed/tweak/pdf/)
can help you enhance and optimize your PDFs for the Web…


o Avoid Refried Graphics
o Use Vector Graphics
o Minimize Fonts
o Fix Fat Forms
o Use the RGB versus CMYK Color Space
o Optimize Existing PDFs
o Save As…

For the full “Optimize PDF Files for the Web” article, see http://www.websiteoptimization.com/speed/tweak/pdf/

Web Site Optimization
http://www.websiteoptimization.com

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Media Contact: Web Site Optimization Public Relations for article reprint rights and interviews with Andy King, author of popular book titled "Speed Up Your Site – Web Site Optimization".

Matt Hockin
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Internet Publicity Services
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