To make good quality, compressed PDF files on a Mac, try one of these two options.

1) Use Preview’s quartz filter with modified settings.

The standard quartz filter saves at low quality. Instead, you can install modified filters
with a higher standard, as described here:
NOTE: SOMETIMES THESE INCREASE FILE SIZE INSTEAD. IF SO, OPT FOR
COLORSYNC’S CONTROLS, LISTED BELOW. EVEN THERE, SOME OPTIONS MAY EXPAND
RATHER THAN COMPRESS.

https://computers.tutsplus.com/tutorials/how-to-reduce-the-size-of-your-pdf-without-
compromising-image-quality--cms-21698

On the Mac: Use Quartz Filters

For this tutorial, we’re going to install and use these Apple quartz filters by Jerome Colas to
reduce a 25MB PDF file down to a more manageable size. Discussion here:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/1292868?start=0&tstart=0
Download here (as a zip file)
https://github.com/joshcarr/Apple-Quartz-Filters

then move the quartz filters to your ~/Library/PDF Services folder.

If you would like an Automator Application for Compression

Launch Automator and create a new document. Click on Application, then the blue Choose
button to create the workflow.
create a new automator application
You'll be able to simplify the process of resizing PDFs with Automator.

On the left-hand side is the Automator library. Use the search field to locate the Apply Quartz
Filter to PDF Documents action, which you will drag to the right-hand side of the window to
create the workflow.
copy finder items action
I highly recommend adding Copy Finder Items to your Automator workflow. You'll see.

Before proceeding, a pop-up message will appear asking you if you would like to add a Copy
Finder Items action to the workflow. I highly recommend this because it saves you the trouble of
scrambling for the original file in case the end-result doesn’t turn out as expected.
select quartz filter
For standard compression, you can choose either 150 dpi average or 300 dpi.
The final step is choosing the quartz filter that you’ll use to compress the PDF. If you’ve installed
the quartz filters as outlined in Step 1, you should be able to see them listed when you click on
the Filter drop down menu. Once you’ve chosen your filter, give the app a name and save it to
your desktop.
Step 3: Drag and Drop Your PDF to the Newly Created Automator App

File compression is pretty straightforward from here on. To use the new Automator app, simply
drag your PDF and drop it on the app. It will then generate a compressed copy of your PDF. The
size would depend on the quartz filter you selected while building the app on Automator.

For my 25MB PDF, I selected the 150 dpi average quality filter, which is standard compression
quality for most. The compressed file is about 3MB and the image quality is quite acceptable all
throughout, including the smaller images.
pdf reduced file comparison
Though the images in the compressed file are a little blurry, the quality is acceptable as a whole.

You’re free to change the quartz filter to a higher or lower quality depending on your
preferences. Simply save your changes on Automator and drag the original file to test (this is
where the Copy Finder Items action comes in handy).

More info here:

https://blog.online-convert.com/compress-pdfs-on-macos-without-losing-quality/

First, you go to /System/Library/Filters or /System/Library/PDF Services so there you can

make several edits to the XML files. Next, locate the file named ‘Reduce File Size.qfilter. Click on
the copy and paste option and then copy it to your desktop. For those that want several
compression options, you can create several copies of this file.

In some cases, it may be that you can not access the default compression filter anymore and can
use the above linked filters by Josh Carr.

The next step is to find the file. Right click on it and chose ‘Open With>TextEdit‘. You can also
choose another text editor if you have one just in case you want to do it differently.

In the ‘Compression Quality‘ field, you will see that it is set to ‘0’ by default. Look at it and you
can set it to any number you want to. They range from 1 which is the least compressed, to the -1
which is the most compressed.

You can set any of these to 0.50 which is medium quality in case you are creating multiple files.
Also, you can set one to 0.75 for high-quality files.

The next field you can edit is the ‘ImageSizeMax’ option. This is set to 512 by default. However,
you can increase it to final size, whatever that may be. Most people set this option to 1684 for
their medium quality compression. That ends up resulting in A4 at 144 DPI. For high-quality
compression, they set it at 3508 which results in A4 paper at 300 DPI. (7016 for 600 dpi, 842
for 150).

The last step is to check the ‘Name‘ field in every one of them. You should change the name to
something self-evident. That’s because this is what will end up appearing in the Quartz Filter
drop-down menu option later on.

Once you have named the files to match the names, you then copy/paste them back into the
/System/Library/Filters or /System/Library/PDF Services directory. This step may require
administration authentication. Doing this will add new options for the compression you selected
to your ‘Export’ menu. Remember, you can dabble with the numbers and values if you don’t
really like these suggestions.

Josh’s notes:
The filters I use 2 two things:

resample images to 75, 150, 300 or 600 dpi (I do not not if there is upsampling)
compress the images using Jpeg compression at average or low quality

Once installed, you can visualize, edit or copy them using Colorsync Utility (in the Applications/
Utilities folder)

As an example, using a 73 MB PDF from a 55 page Powerpoint presentation, the compressed

files have the following sizes:

150 dpi average quality : 5.3 MB

300 dpi average quality : 10.2 MB
600 dpi average quality : 20.3 MB

Using ColorSync Utility to Compress PDFs

https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?
q=cache:7e6zyrY9BpsJ:https://www.cultofmac.com/481247/shrink-pdfs-colorsync-utility/
+&cd=4&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox-b-1-d

ColorSync Utility’s Reduce File Size is extreme: the original is 66MB, while the processed
version weighs just 283kb but is poor quality. To do better, start with a copy of the filter. To do
so, just click on the downward arrow on the right of the filter name. (Open a file, and on the
filter menu at the bottom, select Live Update.

Then choose Duplicate Filter, and double-click the resulting filter to rename it. I called mine
Make Smaller. Now we’ll edit the default values to make the image compression less extreme.

Click the disclosure triangle to expand the filter’s options. You’ll see Image Sampling and Image
Compression. Image Sampling can be deleted, or you can set the Max size to 3508 for 300 dpi.

That leaves us with Image Compression. Go ahead and click the triangle to expand the settings.
All we’re going to do is move the Quality slider on the JPEG settings. Right now it’s on half way.
We want to slide it up to around 70%, which in almost all cases offers the best size:quality ratio.

That’s it. You’re done with the filter. Go ahead and close the window.

Now you have your filter, what do you do with it? You used to be able to access these filters from
right inside the Mac system print dialog, so you could apply them whenever you created a PDF.
They took that out, Lord knows why. Now you have to open your PDF with ColorSync Utility and
work from there. Luckily, it’s easy. Step one, drag your PDF onto the ColorSync Utility icon in
the Finder (or in the Dock), or hit File>Open… in the menubar (Command-O), and navigate to
your file.

Click on None, and pick your previously created filter. Click Apply. The preview updates live to
show you the effect your filter is having. In this case, you probably won’t notice much difference,
which is a good thing. Go ahead and select some other filters to see what they do.

Now, with your own filter applied, go ahead and save the new file. Hit ⇧⌘S, or pick File>Save
As… from the menubar. That’s it. Let’s take a look at the result.

Mine comes out at 7.4MB, just over a tenth of the size of the 66.6MB original.

Not bad, right? Especially when compared to Apple’s joke of a preset. If you use this trick often,
you might consider keeping ColorSync Utility in your Dock for quicker access.
Roundup of the above options here:
https://www.podfeet.com/blog/2015/01/a-better-way-to-reduce-file-size-in-preview/

found Josef Habr on Twitter @zpjet. Ok, now that I’ve given Josef credit, let me tell you about
his clever solution.

Josef figured out that the Quartz filters are stored in the System/Library/Filters directory. He
opened up the one entitled “Reduce File Size” and found the parameters inside the text file to set
the compression quality and the maximum image size. He made three new files by copying the
original, and fiddled with the settings until he found values that would create a good, better, and
best option. He also figured out where in the text file the name was stored for the menu choice
within preview. He modified that name for each file so he could tell them apart. He documented
the compression quality numbers and the image size maximum all in the forum post. I’m
reproducing his post right here on podfeet.com just in case MacWorld shuts down the discussion
forum.

Compression Quality:

Good: 0.25
Better: 0.5
Best: 0.75

ImageSizeMax:

842 (that’s A4 at 72dpi)

1684 (A4 at 144dpi)
3508 (A4 at 300dpi)

I decided that this called out for a Clarify tutorial so you can see where all of these values go and
especially the Name Key value. I made the three extra files as Josef suggested, and put copies
back in the Filters folder. I opened up my Calendar and sure enough I now have good, better and
best versions of the Quartz filter for Reduce File Size. Remember my original was 200MB, the
good one is 2.5MB and the images look a bit fuzzy, the Better one is 7.7MB and the images look
just fine for this purpose, while the Best one looks a smidge better at 9.8MB.

In the shownotes I put a screenshot of the same image five times. The default Preview resize,
then good, better and best according to Josef’s research, and then finally the giant 200MB file
version that came out of iPhoto. To be honest, the better or best picture is pretty
indistinguishable to my eyes vs. the 200MB version.
Here, the author recommends
25% and 842 for Good (72 dpi)
50% and 1648 for Better (144 dpi)
75% and 3508 for Best (300 dpi)

https://www.podfeet.com/blog/tutorials-5/how-to-reduce-the-file-size-of-a-pdf-using-preview/

Note that now the filters are in Library/PDF Services, instead of in /Filters.