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I have a pdf file of size 266KB which I open with Photoshop, crop out the boundaries and save it back again. The new file size is 7.96MB!

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Since all I did was a crop, I did not expect the file size to increase. How can I save the pdf file so that the file size does not blow up like this?

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You didn't actually edit or crop the PDF. What you did was rasterize the entire the PDF by importing it into Photoshop. You then cropped this new raster image and exported that as a new PDF. In other words, your two PDFs have entirely different contents. Since one is mostly vector information and the other is a full-resolution pixel image, it's no surprise the new one is a lot larger.

Modify the PDF in Illustrator or Acrobat, not Photoshop, if you want to retain the vector information and small file size.

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  • You could also use InDesign. Sep 11, 2011 at 18:41
  • Placing a PDF in ID and then cropping would allow the export of a new PDF, but I wouldn't expect that to produce as viable or efficient a result as cropping in either Acrobat or Illustrator. You're creating an INDD container for the full PDF and adding cropping information. Might be worth experimenting with. Sep 11, 2011 at 20:23
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Open in Adobe Illustrator, crop, then save using PDF presets.

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More a sidenote, than an answer: Normally it's better to actually save your data as pdf, then print it. This is something you should really care about when it comes to print. CMYK colors get messed up, when printing (even with the native adobe distiller printer). You can repeat that test: Do some vectors in AI, save them, reopen and then compare the colors to your original AI file.

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