Reducing PDF Size

Mary B · 2025-07-08T14:09:41+00:00

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Good Day Bugs-We recently changed from Adobe to BB. I needed to reduce a large size pdf. It seemed easy to do, and was happy to see I could do multiple files at once. However, the files are still too large to email. 15-30mb. I have tried reducing again, moved the quality slider in the output options box and it still only reduces 0.19%.

Anyone have any tips? I am trying to get the pdf's small enough to be able to email. Thanks!

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Luke Shiras

Have you deleted "layers" and flattened the file before reducing the file?

Luke Shiras

Also, this quick video explains the file reduction options that may need to be adjusted to get better results. https://university.bluebeam.com/how-to-reduce-file-size/1745236

I have noticed that Adobe (out of the box) seems better at file reduction, but that may be because its defaults are lower than BB's.

Mary B

Thanks Luke! I will check this out.

Doug McLean

Do you need to be able to email the whole document, or will only sending a few pages suffice?

If its only a few pages, break the file into individual sheets and email that way.

Sometimes, its how the PDF is created. I once had a single sheet PDF over 15 megs, and it was all because of a hatch pattern that the Architect had used when the file was created. It may just be one page inside the whole document that is messing up the file size.

All this being said, sometimes its better to upload the file to some kind of cloud storage system (Studio) and have your end users access the file that way.

Hope that helped a little

Luke Shiras

Sometimes, its how the PDF is created. I once had a single sheet PDF over 15 megs, and it was all because of a hatch pattern that the Architect had used when the file was created. It may just be one page inside the whole document that is messing up the file size.

Civil and Landscape drawings are notorious for this.

Mary B

Hi Doug,

The main package has been broken out into individual pages. It can be 1-3 pages. I tried everything I saw in the video and it is still not reducing. I am having my colleague try it too.

Appreciate all your help!

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