If you're like me and have struggled for hours trying to figure out how to shrink someone else's PDF files without access to the original, you're in luck (as long as you're running Mac OSX):
- Just open the offending PDF in Preview, save as JPEG (slide the quality down to "Least" for greater reduction in file size)
- Save your new JPEG as a PDF (also with Preview).
You're basically just flattening the PDF into an image, rather than unembedding fonts and "optimizing" images like Adobe Acrobat's PDF Optimizer does.
Pros: Big drop in file size; free; fast & easy
Cons: You'll lose editable forms; you may also lose resolution, depending on how low you slide the quality when you save as JPEG
Hope it helps somebody!
