Thesis PDF Too Large? How to Shrink a Dissertation on a Mac

It is set by your graduate school and its repository, so read their formatting guide, not a forum thread. Published thesis rules tend to state format requirements more often than byte caps.

Read this as a pattern. Rules cluster around format (embedded fonts, no encryption, a named PDF flavor) and around what must travel as a separate supplemental file. Size caps, where they exist, live in your school’s own guide or on the upload form. Write the number down once, then aim well under it, because Smol sets quality and pixel size rather than output bytes and you should always check the finished file.

What are the ProQuest PDF requirements?

They are set by ProQuest and by your school, and they can change, so this page quotes no ProQuest size figure. Before you build the final PDF, read both your school’s guide and the instructions inside the submission form. Ask your graduate school office what it validates: embedded fonts, no encryption, page order, and any PDF/A requirement.

LaTeX embeds each image at its stored pixel size, however small you print it. A 4032 × 3024 phone photo included at 8 cm wide still carries about 12 million pixels into the PDF. The fix for LaTeX PDF images too large is to shrink the files in your figures folder.

• Photos: run them through Smol with output JPG, quality 75 to 80, and a maximum dimension of about 2000 pixels. For a figure printed 15 cm wide, 2000 pixels is roughly 340 pixels per inch.
• Plots and diagrams: export vector PDF from your plotting tool wherever you can, since lines and labels stay sharp at any size and add few bytes. Raster plots are the ones to compress.
• Screenshots and scans: compress to the printed size, not the captured size.
• Keep a copy of the full-resolution originals in another folder. Smol writes a _compressed copy by default, so point \includegraphics at the copies.

\includegraphics comes from the graphicx package (version 1.2e on CTAN, dated 2026-05-17), which scales how an image is displayed. Scaling does not reduce the bytes stored in the file, which is why width options alone leave the PDF just as heavy. The same logic applies to Word, Pages and Overleaf: shrink the file, not just its frame.

Smol’s image defaults fit pictures inside 2000 × 2000 pixels and strip metadata, including GPS from phone photos, which is useful for a document that will be public. On 24 small film photographs the default JPEG pass made files 69.3% smaller; those test images are 768 × 512, so your camera files will differ. Method on the benchmark page.

Reduce dissertation PDF size in two passes: images before the build, PDF preset after it only if you still need more. Both columns below are starting points, not measured thresholds.

Know what a preset is. PDF presets are long-edge pixel caps of 600, 900, 1200, 1800 and 2400 px for Tiny, Small, Medium, Large and Original, with JPEG quality of roughly 25, 45, 60, 75 and 88. They are not DPI targets, so effective resolution depends on page size, and Original is not lossless. The whole picture is in what the PDF presets actually do.

For scans, one test is worth knowing. On a 3-page, 300 PPI colour scan, word recovery by an OCR engine was 100% at Medium (109 PPI) and 96.8% at Small (82 PPI), but 1.42% at Tiny (55 PPI), per our scanned PDF guide. Avoid Tiny on anything you need to read. That same guide took a scan from 5,017,560 to 288,609 bytes (94.2%) using a separate OCR tool and then Smol’s Medium preset. Smol itself does no OCR.

Work from the figures folder, not from the finished PDF. This order keeps your text, fonts and links intact.

1. 1

   Find the heavy files

   Sort your figures folder by size. A few photos or scans are usually most of the weight.

2. 2

   Drag the folder into Smol

   Choose output JPG for photos, quality 75 to 80, and a maximum dimension that matches the printed size. Whole folders and mixed types are fine.

3. 3

   Point your document at the compressed copies

   Originals stay untouched by default and the copies carry a _compressed suffix. Update the paths or rename them, then rebuild the PDF.

4. 4

   Check the size and one hard figure

   If the file is still over your cap, repeat with a lower quality or smaller maximum dimension. Do not assume a target will be met; read the size.

5. 5

   Only then use a PDF preset

   For a scanned thesis or a PDF you cannot rebuild, drop it into Smol with Medium or Small, then check the result.

6. 6

   Run your school’s checks

   Confirm fonts, bookmarks, links, page order and any PDF/A validation on the final file, and email size with encoding in mind: base64 adds about 37%, per our email guide.

Start with what you already have. The best option depends on whether you can still rebuild the document.

The Preview trap is covered in why Preview’s Reduce File Size ruins PDFs, and a wider comparison sits in the best PDF compressor for Mac. If you are submitting an article instead, see journal submissions; for coursework, assignment uploads.

Smol is right for the weight, wrong for several thesis chores.

• You need a validated PDF/A. Smol does not validate or promise PDF/A; build and check that in your editor and your school’s tool.
• You need to merge chapters, split a file or reorder pages. Smol does not edit PDFs; assemble first.
• You need searchable text from scans. Smol does no OCR; use a separate OCR tool, then compress.
• You need lossless figures. Smol always re-encodes images, so for pixel-identical files use a lossless optimizer such as ImageOptim.
• You are on Windows or Linux. Smol is for macOS only.

Also, a PDF made by some generators compresses by almost nothing, so if a preset barely moves the size, go back to the figures.

Smol runs on your Mac, uploads nothing and has no account, which suits a document you have not published. See the PDF metadata guide for what properties a PDF carries, and why stripping them is reversible unless the file is rewritten. If a figure came from a clinical or restricted dataset, follow your data agreement. See also the LMS uploads page and PDF too big to upload.