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Best Practices for Optimizing PDF File Sizes with Adobe Acrobat Pro

Do you need to reduce the file size of your PDFs? Adobe Acrobat Pro offers several powerful tools to help you optimise PDF file sizes. This article will walk you through using the PDF Optimiser, auditing space usage, and applying image compression.

Key Takeaways

  • Use the PDF Optimiser in Adobe Acrobat Pro to adjust settings like image compression and font management and remove unnecessary elements to reduce PDF file size efficiently.
  • Run a space usage audit in Acrobat Pro to identify and optimise elements consuming the most space, such as high-resolution images and embedded fonts.
  • Implement image compression techniques, effective font and transparency management, and discard unnecessary objects and data to significantly reduce PDF file sizes while maintaining quality.

Using PDF Optimiser in Adobe Acrobat Pro

The PDF Optimiser in Adobe Acrobat Pro is a powerful tool designed to reduce file size by adjusting settings such as image compression, font management, and removing unnecessary elements. This feature is particularly useful for optimising scanned PDF files, making them easier to share and store.Customising the default settings within the PDF Optimiser allows users to adjust their documents to strike the perfect balance between file size and quality.

Accessing PDF Optimiser

To access the PDF Optimiser, you can follow these steps:

  1. Navigate to the Tools Center or the right-hand pane in Acrobat Pro.
  2. To access the Save As Other feature, click the hamburger menu on Windows or the File menu on MacOS.
  3. Then, select Optimised PDF from the options provided.
  4. Alternatively, you can access it via All Tools> Compress a PDF and then select Advanced Optimisation.

This straightforward process ensures that you can quickly begin optimisation, achieving maximum efficiency.

Customising PDF Optimiser Settings

After accessing the PDF Optimiser, you can adjust the settings according to your needs. The Images panel allows you to set options for colour, grayscale, and monochrome image compression. Adjusting these settings can significantly impact the size of your PDF file, especially when dealing with high-resolution images. For instance, you can downsample images to reduce their resolution, merging the colours of the original pixels into larger pixels to save space.In addition to image compression, the PDF Optimiser lets you manage fonts and transparency. Here are some features you can use:

  • Embedding fonts ensures that your document’s fonts appear the same on any device but can increase file size.
  • Unembedding fonts can save space but may cause font substitution issues on different devices.
  • Transparency flattening is another crucial setting that divides transparent artwork into vector-based and rasterised areas, reducing file size and ensuring compatibility with older formats.

Finally, remember to use the Clean Up panel in the PDF Optimiser dialog to remove redundant items from the document. This includes discarding all form submissions, import, and reset actions, including JavaScript actions and alternate images. By fine-tuning these settings, you can achieve advanced optimisation, making your PDFs both efficient and high-quality.

Auditing Space Usage in a PDF Document

Understanding what elements contribute to your PDF document’s file size is crucial before starting the optimisation process. Auditing space usage provides detailed insights into your file’s composition, helping you identify which elements can be optimised or removed to reduce the size of your PDF. This step is crucial for targeted optimisation, ensuring you focus on the most impactful areas.

Running an Audit

You can easily perform a space usage audit in Adobe Acrobat Pro. Here’s how:

  1. Select ‘Save As Other > Optimised PDF’ from the hamburger menu or ‘All tools > Compress a PDF’.
  2. Select ‘Advanced Optimisation’.
  3. Within the PDF Optimiser, click on ‘Audit Space Usage’ to generate a summary of the file’s components.
  4. This report will detail the total number of bytes utilised by specific document elements, providing a clear view of what’s consuming the most space.

Interpreting Audit Results

The real optimisation process starts with the interpretation of the audit results. The audit report categorises the file’s content into sections such as images, fonts, and content streams. By analysing this summary, you can determine which elements contribute the most to the file size. For example, high-resolution images or embedded fonts might be flagged as significant space consumers.High usage percentages in the audit results indicate elements that are potential targets for optimisation or removal. For instance, if images consume a large portion of the file size, consider down-sampling or compressing them. Similarly, if fonts are a significant contributor, you might opt to unembed them or use subset embedding.Once you have identified the critical areas for optimisation, you can make informed decisions on how to proceed. This could involve down-sampling images, removing unused fonts, or discarding other unnecessary elements. By targeting the highest-impact areas, you can effectively reduce the size of your PDF file without compromising its quality.

Image Compression Techniques

Images often contribute significantly to the size of a PDF file. Applying effective image compression techniques can help balance image quality and file size, making your documents more manageable. Acrobat Pro offers several options for compressing images, including downsampling and specific compression methods for colour and monochrome images.

Down-sampling Images

Down-sampling is an effective technique for reducing file size by decreasing the resolution of images. In Adobe Acrobat Pro, you can specify the resolution to which images are reduced, often selecting 72, 150, or 300 ppi. Different down-sampling methods, such as bicubic or subsampling, can also be chosen to balance quality and file size. Experimenting with these settings can help you find the optimal balance for your specific needs.

Monochrome Image Compression

Specific compression techniques can be particularly beneficial for monochrome images such as scanned text documents. JBIG2 compression is particularly effective for monochrome images, offering both lossy and lossless modes to suit different needs. Compared to other methods like CCITT compression, JBIG2 provides superior quality and compression, making it a preferred choice for reducing file size while maintaining clarity.Using the right compression method for monochrome images can significantly reduce file size without sacrificing readability. These techniques can also ensure that your documents remain clear and legible even as they reduce in size.

Managing Fonts and Transparency

Fonts and transparency are other critical factors that influence the size of a PDF file. Properly managing these elements can help reduce file size while ensuring your document remains visually consistent across different devices.

Embedding vs. Unembedding Fonts

While embedding fonts guarantees a consistent appearance of your document’s fonts on any device, it may also increase file size. By embedding only a subset of the fonts used in the document, you can reduce the overall file size while maintaining text appearance. However, removing embedded fonts can save even more space, though it may lead to font substitution issues if the required fonts are not available on the viewing device.Managing fonts effectively involves balancing the need for a consistent appearance with the desire to reduce file size. Consider the importance of visual consistency for your specific use case when deciding whether to embed or unembed fonts.

Flattening Transparency

Another technique for reducing the size of a PDF file is flattening transparency. This process divides transparent artwork into vector-based and rasterised areas, reducing complexity and file size. It’s particularly useful for ensuring compatibility with older formats and printing processes that do not support transparency. The Transparency panel in Acrobat Pro allows you to flatten transparency, and the ‘Flattener Preview’ dialog box helps identify areas affected by this process.By flattening the transparent elements of your document, you can make your PDFs more versatile and easier to handle, especially in environments where transparency is not supported or needed.

Discarding Unnecessary Objects and Data

Another effective method to decrease the size of your PDF files is by discarding unnecessary objects and data. This includes removing embedded elements like forms, comments, and multimedia, as well as cleaning up metadata and hidden layers.

Removing Embedded Elements

The Discard Objects panel in Acrobat Pro helps remove all form submission, import, reset, and JavaScript actions in Acrobat DC.The Discard User Data panel can be used to remove the following from your document:

  • Personal information
  • Comments
  • Forms
  • Multimedia
  • Document information
  • Metadata
  • Object data
  • File attachments
  • External cross-references
  • Private data of other applications
  • Hidden layer content

By sanitising documents, you can ensure that embedded content and attached files do not unnecessarily increase the PDF size.

Cleaning Up Metadata and Hidden Layers

Cleaning up metadata and hidden layers further reduces file size by eliminating unnecessary data. The Sanitize and Remove Hidden Information feature in Adobe Acrobat Pro can eliminate data such as metadata, JavaScript, actions, and form fields. The Remove Hidden Information feature can also find and eliminate hidden elements like comments, attachments, and digital signatures.By discarding hidden layer content, you decrease file size without compromising the original appearance of the PDF.

Enabling Fast Web View

Fast Web View offers the following benefits:

  • Restructures a PDF for page-at-a-time downloading from web servers
  • Significantly improves loading times for large documents
  • Allows users to view documents before they are fully downloaded

This feature is especially beneficial for large PDFs.

Benefits of Fast Web View

Fast Web View offers quicker loading times, a seamless reading experience, and enhanced accessibility for users with slow internet connections. By enabling incremental loading of pages, users can start reading the document without waiting for the entire file to download.

Steps to Enable Fast Web View

To enable Fast Web View, open the Preferences dialog box in Acrobat, select Documents under Categories, and ensure the ‘Save As Optimises For Fast Web View’ checkbox is selected. For an existing PDF, open the file, choose Save As from the menu, and select the same filename and location to confirm the overwrite. Verifying the Fast Web View status can be done by checking the lower-right area of the Description panel in the Document Properties dialog box.

Verifying Optimisation Settings

Verifying optimisation settings is crucial to confirming that the desired changes have been correctly applied. This involves checking document properties and saving the optimised PDFs properly.

Checking Document Properties

In Adobe Acrobat Pro, you can check document properties by selecting the hamburger menu > Document Properties (Windows) or File > Document Properties (macOS). This lets you view the file size, title, author, and optimisation status.

Saving Optimised PDFs

After confirming the optimisation settings, save the PDF using the Save As command to retain all changes. This ensures that the optimised file retains the reduced size and any other adjustments made during the optimisation process.Overwriting the existing file with the same filename and location will apply the new settings and reduce the file size effectively.

Advanced Optimisation Techniques

Acrobat Pro offers advanced optimisation techniques for those who want to elevate their PDF optimisation. These methods involve sophisticated approaches to reducing file size while maintaining document quality.

Using Action Wizard

Adobe Acrobat Pro’s Action Wizard can streamline repetitive optimisation tasks for numerous PDF files. Creating a sequence of actions allows you to apply consistent optimisation settings across various documents using the appropriate Acrobat version.To access the Action Wizard, navigate to Tools and select Action Wizard from the available options. This tool is especially useful for professionals who handle large volumes of PDFs and need to streamline their workflow.

Batch Processing Multiple Files

Batch processing allows simultaneous optimisation of multiple PDF files, saving time and maintaining consistent settings across all documents. Using the Action Wizard, you can efficiently apply predefined actions to a group of PDF files simultaneously. This approach speeds up the optimisation process and ensures consistency and quality across your document library.To batch process multiple files, select the files you want to optimise and apply the predefined actions using the Action Wizard. This method is ideal for organisations that manage numerous PDFs efficiently, reducing the overall file size and enhancing accessibility.

Summary

Optimising PDF file sizes in Acrobat Pro is a multi-faceted process that involves a combination of techniques. Each step plays a crucial role in reducing file size while maintaining document quality, from using the PDF Optimiser to customising settings for images, fonts, and transparency. Auditing space usage, applying image compression techniques, managing fonts and transparency, discarding unnecessary objects, enabling Fast Web View, and verifying optimisation settings are all integral parts of this process.By implementing these best practices, you can create lean, efficient, high-quality PDF documents that are easier to share, store, and access. Whether you’re a professional handling large volumes of documents or an individual looking to optimise a few files, Adobe Acrobat Pro provides the tools you need to achieve your goals. Embrace these techniques and enjoy the benefits of optimised PDFs.

Frequently Asked Questions

How can I access the PDF Optimiser in Adobe Acrobat Pro?

To access the PDF Optimiser in Adobe Acrobat Pro, go to Save As Other > Optimised PDF in the hamburger menu (Windows) or the File menu (MacOS), or select All tools > Compress a PDF and then choose Advanced Optimisation. This option allows you to efficiently reduce the file size of your PDF document without compromising its quality.

What are the benefits of enabling Fast Web View?

Enabling Fast Web View in a PDF can improve loading times, provide a seamless reading experience, and enhance accessibility for users with slow internet connections. This can be especially beneficial for improving user experience and accessibility.

How do I run a space usage audit in Adobe Acrobat Pro?

To run a space usage audit in Adobe Acrobat Pro, go to ‘Save As Other > Optimised PDF’ or ‘All tools > Compress a PDF’, then select ‘Advanced Optimisation’ and click on ‘Audit Space Usage’ for a summary of the file’s components.

What is the difference between embedding and unembedding fonts?

Embedding fonts ensures consistent appearance but increases file size while unembedding fonts reduces file size but can lead to font substitution issues. Be careful to consider both options before making changes to your document.

How can I batch-process multiple PDF files for optimisation?

You can optimise multiple PDF files simultaneously by using Adobe Acrobat Pro’s batch processing feature through the Action Wizard. This feature allows you to apply predefined actions to the selected files simultaneously, saving you time and effort.

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New apps, new features, and faster, easier ways to work together. The latest release of Creative Cloud for teams is here, and it’s packed with new apps and features designed ....

Meet Photoshop Elements 2021 & Premiere Elements 2021

It’s never been easier to turn your inspiration into endless creativity! Turn your inspiration into stunning creations with powerful, easy-to-use software. Discover automated editing, step-by-step guides, effortless organisation, fun ways ....

Adobe Acrobat 2015 End of Life – And why you should consider upgrading.

In line with the Adobe Support Lifecycle Policy, end of product and technical support for Adobe Acrobat 2015 and Adobe Reader 2015 officially ended on 7 July 2020. What does ....

Adobe Creative Cloud Workshop by Modern Marketing

6 Steps to Creative Efficiency

As marketers, you’re well aware of the value of creating, publishing and sharing content that increases awareness of your brand. Are your teams struggling to come up with fresh ideas ....

Transforming your business with Adobe Sign

Organisations around the world are transforming their businesses thanks to digital technology programs like Adobe Sign. The power of an end-to-end digital experience allows you to replace traditional paper and ....

Maintain Your Physical and Mental Health During The COVID-19 Quarantine

The unprecedented pandemic that the world is going through at the moment has put an unbelievable strain on people’s lives as they know it. This has resulted in a large ....

Distance Learning Hacks for Students and Educators

Overnight, educators and students around the globe have had to quickly transition from in-class learning to remote home learning. While the transition to distance learning brings rewards, it also brings ....

Making the transition to remote learning – resources to help get you started

As we adjust to a continually changing educational landscape and embrace the idea of distance learning – which has suddenly moved to the forefront of our teaching practice – many ....

Adobe Spark – Your Free Personal Trainer to Social Media Marketing

Stay Connected, Stay Productive. [/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row] Social media marketing is a lot like working out. It takes discipline and results are never instant. Now more than ever however, it is critical ....

IT’S BACK! – Sizzling Creative Cloud Deal for Commercial And Government

It’s back like the Terminator! – A repeat of the ‘Summer Sizzling Deal’ Adobe made available in February this year! And at the same LOW price! From the 8th November ....

Adobe Illustrator Rumoured to be Coming to iPads in 2020

Adobe Illustrator App Could Roll Out To IPads In 2020 Photoshop is not the only Adobe app to come to iPads. Adobe’s suite of creative software that are originally accessible ....

Warning from Adobe: Don’t Install MacOS Catalina Just Yet

Warning: If you use an older Adobe app, don’t install MacOS Catalina Apple launched its MacOS Catalina operating system on October 7, complete with lots of new features and improvements. ....

Adobe’s New Customer Journey Analytics Simplifies Marketing Analytics

Adobe Introduces Customer Journey Analytics for Its Adobe Analytics With Customer Journey Analytics, teams could bring in new data sets such as in point-of-sale systems and call centers to produce ....

Auto Reframe Coming to Adobe Premiere Pro Soon

Adobe adds Auto Reframe to Premiere Pro for quick vertical video Adobe is adding a new feature to its Premiere Pro desktop video editing app to make creating content for ....

Adobe Lightroom Speeds Things Up

Adobe Announces The Update to the Lightroom Ecosystem We’ve Been Waiting For! Today, Adobe announced updates to the Lightroom ecosystem, including GPU-accelerated editing in Lightroom Classic and Camera Raw, providing a smoother ....

Adobe Just added Video Speed Adjustment To The Adobe Premiere Rush App

Adobe Premiere Rush supercharges video speed adjustment Adobe Premiere Rush, Adobe’s cross-platform video editor for smartphones, tablets, and PCs, arrived on select Android devices in May following a broad launch ....

Adobe Lightroom is Available from the Mac App Store

Adobe Lightroom is now on the Mac App Store The first major Adobe app has arrived on the Mac App Store. The first major Adobe app to be available on ....

Create Anytime, Anywhere with Adobe Fresco

Adobe Fresco brings painting to the iPad Do you like to be creative on your iPad? Adobe brings Fresco to Creative Cloud, so you can paint wherever you want. Adobe ....

New AI Takes the Phony Out of Photoshop

New Technology Can Detect Photoshopped Fakes, Even Reveal the Original Images Photoshop is arguably the most powerful tool at a photographer’s disposal. And like many powerful tools, it can be ....

Adobe Acrobat’s PDF Software Stays Ahead of the Pack

Acrobat Pro DC: Adobe’s PDF software is still the one to beat A feature-packed solution for professionals Since its development back in the 1990s, the PDF has gone on to become the ....

Adobe Premiere Rush Debuts on Android

Premiere Rush, Adobe’s video-editing app for YouTubers, is now available on Android Adobe’s Premiere Rush CC, which arrived on the desktop and iOS last October, is now available on Android. ....

Latest Adobe Updates for Video, Audio and Animation

Adobe Brings about Significant Changes to an Almost Perfect CC Lineup NAB show started way back in 1923, about 96 years ago. Held at the Las Vegas Convention centre, it ....

Adobe CC Updates and Releases – The Full Scoop

Adobe Creative Cloud Updates Adobe today announced performance updates and new innovations for video and audio tools in Adobe Creative Cloud, all designed to improve efficiency in video production. What’s ....

Speed Up Your Workflow with Adobe Dimension CC’s Cloud Rendering Feature

Adobe Dimension CC can now render images in the cloud Adobe today announced the latest release of Dimension, the company’s 2D and 3D compositing tool and one of the newest ....

Content-Aware Fill for Video – The Details

Adobe brings content-aware fill for videos to After Effects Adobe today announced that it is bringing content-aware fill to After Effects, the special effects software that is part of its Creative ....

Photoshop CC 20.0.4 Update Is Now Available

Adobe has just announced the release of Photoshop CC 20.0.4. This update includes fixes to some of the top customer reported issues and other bug fixes. Here is a list ....

Photoshop CC 20.0.4 Update Is Now Available

Adobe has just announced the release of Photoshop CC 20.0.4. This update includes fixes to some of the top customer reported issues and other bug fixes. Here is a list ....

Adobe XD CC 2019 – New Features and Updates Continued

In our last article, we shared the latest enhancements available on Adobe XD CC 2019 from a design point of view, but as you probably already know, XD isn’t limited ....

Sizzling Hot Creative Cloud Deal for Commercial And Government

It’s February, the hottest month of the year in South Africa and Adobe has a Summer Sizzling Deal to match. At the beginning of March 2019 Adobe creative Cloud for ....

New Features and Updates Released at Adobe Max 2018 – Adobe XD CC 2019

What’s not to love about Adobe XD? This powerful tool helps us to design, prototype and share. The good news is, it just got better. NEW FEATURES & UPDATES AVAILABLE ....

New Features and Updates Released at Adobe Max 2018 – Adobe Illustrator CC 2019 and InDesign CC 2019

The Adobe Max Conference held in October 2018 was nothing short of spectacular. So many things to look forward to, but even more things made available now. New features and ....

New Features and Updates For Adobe Photoshop CC 2019

In our last article we covered the features and updates made to Adobe Dimension CC 2019. Today, we’ll have a look at the new features and updates available in Adobe Photoshop CC ....

New Features and Updates Released at Adobe Max 2018 – Adobe Dimension CC 2019

Now that we’ve covered the Max Sneaks, we’ll be sharing the new features and updates for Adobe Creative Cloud 2019, that were announced at the Adobe Max Conference. There are many ....

The Other 5 Adobe Max Sneaks that have us Super-Stoked

We recently shared with you 5 Adobe Max sneak peeks from the 2018 Adobe Max conference held in LA. These included Brush Bounty, Project Fast Mask, Moving Stills, Smooth Operator ....

Five Adobe Max Sneaks that have us Super-Stoked

This year at Adobe Max conference, which was held in Los Angeles from 15-17 October 2018, Adobe gave us sneak previews of a few new tools, apps and enhancements that ....

Yet Another Acquisition: Adobe Acquires Marketo

Another day and another gigantic purchase to the value of $4,5 billion. Adobe is set to acquire Marketo as part of its ongoing strategy to dominate the enterprise marketing space. ....

Incredibly Sweet Deal: Adobe Creative Cloud For Teams

If you are in the commercial or government sector, then we have a very exciting announcement for you! Adobe has put together a truly sweet deal, but it is only ....

Adobe No Longer Supporting Older Operating Systems – What You Need To Know

It has recently been reported that Adobe would no longer be supporting older operating systems with their new release of software. This has naturally led to a number of people ....

Photoshop CC Cranks Up ‘The Disappearing Act’ With New Content-Aware Fill

Do you remember what it was like to remove unwanted things from photos in Photoshop before they developed the ‘Content Aware’ feature?For those veterans who have been around for a ....

Why We Love Using Frequency Separation in Photoshop to Retouch Headshots

Frequency Separation has been around for a long time but has received a bad reputation in the past. This is not because there is anything wrong with the software. It’s ....

Acrobat Tips: Create Amazing Presentations With this Little Known Easy-To-Use Tool

If you thought that the only way to create a striking presentation was by using MS PowerPoint, we wouldn’t hold it against you. Few people know that you can create ....

Adobe Acrobat Tips: Convert PDF Files to MS Office for Editing and Back to PDF from Any Device

Adobe Acrobat has made it a lot simpler to work in teams, no matter where we are in the world or which devices we’re using. It enables us to create ....

Full Version of Adobe Photoshop Set to be Available on iPad in 2019

Since it debuted in the 90’s, Photoshop has undergone a innumerable advancements. Since it was initially sold with Barneyscan-branded scanners, it was almost named Baneyscan XP, but that all changed ....

Augmented Reality Just Got Real With Adobe’s Project Aero

Earlier this month, Adobe released the preview of their new AR (augmented reality) authoring tool and multi-platform system called Project Aero. Using immersive technology, this interface blurs the line between ....

Discover Adobe XD And Get It Here For Free

Custom-built to provide UX (user experience) designers with an optimised design process, Adobe Experience Design CC, more commonly referred to as Adobe XD, is a powerful software medium used to ....

What’s New in Adobe Creative Cloud CC 2018

It is almost mid-June 2018, so you may be wondering why we would choose to talk about what’s new in Adobe CC 2018 now. Well, it seems that there are ....

Five things we learned at the Adobe Max conference

Adobe Max is an in-your-face, larger-than-life, all-guns-blazing annual celebration of creativity, which this year descended on Vegas. It’s Nice That was invited by Adobe, with over 12,000 other creative minds ....

Adobe to Compete With Shopify

Not too long ago, if asked what Adobe had in common with Shopify, the answer would be “nothing”! After all they aren’t even in the same market space. Adobe is ....

PALMs by Primal Pictures

Primal Pictures now brings you PALMs, catering for your specific learning needs and adapting learning to improve your retention and outcomes. What is PALMs? PALMs stands for Perceptual and Adaptive ....

Adobe Photoshop CC 2018: Now Better than Ever

Adobe Photoshop has always been one of the most popular suites available for editing photos, thanks to its array of useful features that allow users to correct color, resize, crop, ....

‘Siri’ for Photoshop – Adobe Acquires Voice Activation Interface Platform

Imagine having the convenience of calling on ‘Siri’ or ‘Bixby’ (for the Samsung enthusiasts) to assist you through the processes of your next Photoshop project. Well, this has been an ....

Adobe Student Package – Pre-order and WIN!

Pre-orders now open! Learning Curve are excited to announce pre-orders for the Adobe Creative Cloud Suite can now be placed! Place your order with us before the 28th February 2018 and ....

Swivl – your personal cameraman in a box!

Video observations that strengthen and inform Swivl™ is a multi-purpose robotic motion platform, which will allow you to self-capture video. The robot enhances video capture by wirelessly following the movement ....

Introducing iSpring

Learning Curve is proud to introduce iSpring, the fully stocked e-Learning authoring toolkit for PowerPoint. Developing e-Learning content has never been so fast and easy! With iSpring Suite, you can turn ....

Top reasons to switch to Creative Cloud today!

Creative Suite software has not been updated since April 2012, yet many Adobe users have still not made the move to Creative Cloud. With thousands of new features available and ....

South African Companies hit hard for pirated software

Staggering 33% of installed software is not licensed. Last year South African companies coughed up more than R3.64million for using unlicensed software. This is according to the BSA, who in ....

End of the Road for Adobe CS6

As predicted, Adobe have officially announced all Creative Suite (CS) perpetual products will no longer be supported from May 2017. Learning Curve, Africa’s only Platinum reseller are here to guide ....

EOH Corporate Video

Best Practices for Optimizing PDF File Sizes with Adobe Acrobat Pro

Nathier Rhoda

“I’m always seeking the next big thrill”

Me in a word: Exploratory

The first 21 years of my life were a mix of travel, sports and chasing academic excellence. As a child, I enjoyed jet skiing, bungee jumping and a few venomous pets. I’m still always seeking the next big thrill, like rock climbing and cave exploration.

Since leaving university and surviving the COVID years, I’ve developed my skills across different fields, from education to private healthcare, with a keen interest in human biology and education.

To relax, I watch old war movies or series, and shows like Sons of Anarchy and The Wire. Cooking was a big part of my childhood and I’d always help my parents prepare meals. I’ll bake anything with chocolate!

My wilderness survival buddy would be my dad. He’s a DIY expert, with basic wilderness survival skills. I once had a narrow escape outdoors: Venturing off the path on a solo hike, roasting in midday sun, suffering from dehydration, leg cramps and an encounter with a juvenile cobra. (I survived.)

Some everyday things that really annoy me are the morning traffic rush – and people being indecisive at the drive-thru window.

My bucket list destinations? Thailand, for rock climbing and base jumping, and Burma, for Lethwei (Burmese bare-knuckle boxing).

I think the human race needs a greater focus on work-life balance. Spending more time enjoying the little things, whether sport, art or music would help everyone live better, more fulfilling lives.

If I could change the law, I’d ban farm-raised lion hunting, and I’d allow a years’ paid parental leave for all new parents.

Outside of work, I juggle sports, cooking and taking my dogs out for regular walks.

My work family is supportive and engaging, always available to bounce ideas or chat. Learning Curve is the best work family ever, with an unparalleled culture. I like the freedom and flexibility to explore new and creative avenues – and the endless coffee (Yay!)

Stephanie Lathe

Medical Education Solutions Specialist

“Every day is different.”

Me in a word: Outgoing

I grew up in KZN, often barefoot in the bush, or soaking up the Durban sunshine. Our home was loud, with four daughters and weird and wonderful pets, and my love for performing means I have a large, bubbly, personality.

I wanted to be a singer and actress, then a vet. I moved to Cape Town to study Anatomy and completed an M.Sc at Stellenbosch University, then joined Learning Curve, where I work with 3D Anatomy software, Primal Pictures.

In my free time I like hiking, running, and yoga – and I’ve taught myself to play the ukulele. I recently started busking and people did tip me. (Was that their way of begging me to stop?)

Home entertainment? OK, this is embarrassing but I love the kind of reality shows which I fondly refer to as ‘trash TV’. I’m a vegetarian and love veggies, but also a classic mac and cheese with a parmesan crust.

I’m a cat person – my cat is my baby. I like the feline independence, and contrary to popular belief, they can be very friendly and loving.

Australia’s top of my bucket list; I was a huge Steve Irwin fan as a child and I’d love to visit the family’s zoo. I’d also love to spend more time exploring the spectacular nature that South Africa has to offer, and learn more musical instruments.

If I was in charge, there’d be a law against chewing with your mouth open, and one act of kindness every day would be compulsory. Kindness and compassion are what the world needs now.

I’m very lucky to be part of the wonderful Learning Curve education team. We’re passionate about our work and we’re loud and energetic, always having lots of fun with our clients around the country. This is a family that I love being a part of. Every day is different, which keeps things fun and exciting. Our team is full of knowledgeable people – I’m constantly learning new things from my colleagues.

My favourite office snack? Peanuts.

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