I have a template I use from Microsoft Word for a contract I use frequently. It does have a color image on it. I then save the file as Adobe PDF format, add a few form fields if necesary, extend features in Adobe Reader (so my client can fill out and digitally sign it), Then I reduce the file size, which at this point is maybe 25K.
The last thing I do is add a digital signature -- necessary, because this is a contract.
I'm using CoSign for digital signatures as they need to be verifiable and this was the least expensive option for me.
The problem I have is that once it's digitally signed, the document size increases from maybe 25K to almost 2MB.
What can I do to keep the file size MUCH smaller? I don't want to jam up my clients' mailboxes or risk having a contract not delivered because of large file size. I'm using Acrobat 9.x.
