Can't reduce Photoshop PDF in Adobe Acrobat Pro

[lynnt53881684]

I'm using Adobe Acrobat Pro and am working on a 13-page PDF scan from a book which needed some edits after I was done. I broke the pages up and edited them in Adobe Photoshop (to remove some of the background) then saved them again as PDFs, and I think somewhere between point A and point B something became convoluted. The file is currently 2.3 MB large and it needs to be 1 or less. I know that at this point the problem is that my file is saved as an object not as text, but I can't figure out what I am doing wrong to try and get it to a text file. Here's the troubleshooting I have already done:

1. I reopened the pages in photoshop and made absolutely certain that "preserve photoshop editing" was UNCHECKED on every page, then recompiled the whole thing. At this point, the file was 10.4 MB.
2. I opened up Print Production --> Flattener Preview and flattened all the images (default setting)just in case some pesky layering had been retained.
3. I opened Preflight and ran "convert to greyscale" to eliminate any color problems causing the issue
4. I saved as an Optimized PDF and checked EVERY box under "discard objects" "discard user data" and "clean up." I set the image downsample to 200 ppi and reduced the file compatibility to 8.0 or later.
5. I opened up Enhance Scans and ran "recognize text" in an attempt to convert the object problems to text to reduce size.

After all of these steps, when I run "audit space usage" images are still set at 83%. It's only 13 pages! I have another document that's 13 pages that I managed to reduce down to 366KB. However, that file I did not have to edit in Photoshop.

So I know it's because I ran it in Photoshop and I know it's because it saved all the pages as images, but I do not know how to fix this. All the info I can find just lists one of the steps I've already taken. Please help!

[Karl Heinz Kremer]

Without seeing the actual file, it's impossible to say what's going on. In general, Photoshop and Illustrator store application specific data in their PDF files - this can be removed using the "Discard private data from other applications" setting in the "Discard user data" category. When you select all options in that section, that should take care of this additional data.

How are you compressing your images? You may want to try a different compression mechanism.

[zl_inhand]

I'm having a similar problem, generated PDF from PS6 then get a file  as large as 140+MB - for a 53 pages brochure, while I need something in 10MB for emailing.  Tried "Save as optimized PDF" but could not reduce any much; now I ticked all in "Discard user data" and get a 9.86MB PDF that looks fine.  

Thanks for the tip. It solved my problem!

[DeliaC]

After years of the same problem I JUST found the solution and was able to significantly reduce a document. First, make sure when using art from photoshop that invisible layers are removed and flattened. Save them as 120DPI (not 300).
Then instead of reducing the size of the file in preflight simply select Save As and Compress PDF.  When I did this my file reduced from 337 MB to 8.