[reportlab-users] reducing filesize of created pdf

[Tim Roberts]

On Tue, 10 Jan 2006 15:17:44 -0800, "Britt Hibbert"
<bhibbert at citrus.textdriven.com> wrote:

>I apologize if this has been answered previously in the list, but I could not locate any information on it in the docs or on the list. Is there any way to reduce the filesize of the pdf that is created by reportlab, perhaps by rendering at a reduced quality? 
>

PDFs are not "rendered", and unless you are embedding images, there is
no way (or need) to adjust quality.  When you draw a line from (1",1")
to (8",8"), the PDF doesn't get a pixelated line encoded at some
resolution.  Instead, it contains the simple raw instructions:

    72 72 m      % m for move-to
    576 576 l    % l for line-to

So, the instructions in a PDF are essentially at infinite quality: it is
up to each printer to decide how best to render them.

File size is perhaps the one characteristic that distinguishes the
genuine Adobe Acrobat Distiller from all of the freeware/shareware
alternatives.  I've tried half a dozen PDF utilities, and Distiller
consistently produces files that are significantly smaller than ANY of
the others.

-- 
Tim Roberts, timr at probo.com
Providenza & Boekelheide, Inc.