Rotolux

Physics, Python programming, Miscellaneous geekness

Guide to reducing the file size of a pdf for the eSlick

I reported a problem to Foxit with reading a few pages of Kevin O'Holleran's 27MB thesis on my eSlick.
Christina from Foxit explained that the error message "! This page cannot be displayed normally" was indicating a memory issue. Therefore, I worked out how to reduce the file size to a comparatively small 3.4MB by re-sampling just the raster images. Now the eSlick handles the file without problems.

To produce the smaller file on a Windows PC:

  1. Install the latest version of the free PDFCreator software v0.9.8.
  2. Open the original file and print it to the PDFCreator printer device.
  3. After the printing Progress bar completes and the printer driver queue empties, the PDFCreator dialog appears. Click the Options button. Click the Ghostscript link. In the Additional Ghostscript parameters field, add the text "-dPDFSETTINGS=/screen" (without the quotes) and click the Save button.
  4. Click the Save button on the PDFCreator dialog.
  5. Enjoy reading your new, lighter ebook