I have imported a 75 page pdf into Corel 14 as curves as I didn't want any font issues, I had to add some backgrounds etc to the document.
As this document is going to be emailed to a lot of people I need the file under 20 mb but when I save it as a pdf it is 120mb.
Is there any way I can vastly reduce the file size without losing quality of the document.
Look at your pdf settings. Objects- bitmap compression type to ZIP, downsampling to 300. I usually convert text to curves but if the doc is text heavy that will inflate it even more so. Shouldn't be any font issues. Put a check in the "Compress text and line art"
Basically just play around with different settings
Can you say which pdf method you are using? Corel's own Publish to PDF? Microsoft Print to PDF? or perhaps Adobe PDF?
If you are using Publish to PDF in CorelDraw, then the best way to reduce filesize is to choose: Publish to PDF / PDF Preset / choose Web from drop down menu. Since most of the file size comes from photos/bitmaps then this option reduces the file size the most as the bitmap resolution is low. The photos look worse and blurry as well but maybe you get the file down to, say, 10MB and it's ok to mail that.
If this doesn't reduce the size enough, then choose settings from the same Publish to pdf panel and from objects panel lower the JPEG quality even more and then perhaps from downsampling boxes go lower to 90 or 80. These options might be slightly different in 14.
What application was used to create the 75 page PDF? CorelDRAW or a rival graphics or page layout application? Obviously the best thing to do would be editing the original 75 page file, not a PDF exported from it. PDF files are not really meant for further editing after being created. Various applications (including CorelDRAW) introduce a whole lot of messy trash into PDFs to make the layout appearance look consistent and accurate. One exception is PDF files output from Adobe Illustrator saved with Adobe Illustrator editing capability left intact, but that is essentially an AI file twinned with a PDF.
Aside from all the vector trash common to imported PDFs any pixel based images (such as photos) will likely have had a level of lossy image compression applied to them. Opening a PDF in an application like CorelDRAW and saving it again will apply yet another level of lossy compression to an image that has already been compressed at least once before. Basically levels of generation loss are being cooked into the image. It's like taking a photograph, putting it through a copier and then making a copy of that copy.
Curves will enlarge the file.
Thanks for all the suggestions, really appreciated but after trying everything I had to go back to the drawing board and re-do document and import all pages as text. Saved as a web pdf and this reduced file to 8mb.