# Why is the exported PDF smaller than the input PDF size?

# Question

At times, it is possible that the file sized of an imposed layout from Phoenix is actually smaller than the size of the input PDF. Is this reducing the quality of the output file?

# Answer

No, not at all! From a technical perspective, in order to impose an existing PDF in a new PDF, Phoenix needs to pull in all of the graphics elements of the content stream of the original PDF as an XObject to be placed in the new PDF. Our PDF library only grabs the elements referenced in the content stream of the original PDF, which can mean a smaller imposed PDF since there is often other data included in the original PDF. Some common examples of data that gets culled are unused pages, fonts and images in the original PDF.

While it might be a bit startling, our PDF technology is tried and proven in production at hundreds of production sites around the world, so there is nothing to worry about with a smaller output file size. In fact, we actually think it's a great feature of Phoenix, that you can get lighter data coming out and reduced file sizes with no loss in file quality!