Can Apple Preview display the page size (dimensions in inches) of a PDF

I can't really answer as to why it's so inefficient, but i've had the same problem, and i got around it by using free Quartz filters from Jerome Colas.

This post on the Apple discussion boards has the details, but the link is broken, an extra * on the end breaks it, it should be https://public.me.com/jcolas.

Download, unzip, and add the "Filters" folder to your Library folder.

To use, open a PDF in Preview, click File > Save As, then select Quartz Filter, and the level of compression.

I believe that Jerome is exposing something that already exists in OSX, but certainly, it's a good solution that works well for me, allowing me to get a good balance between quality and filesize.

This works for me on Mountain Lion:

1. Open all the JPG's in Preview so that the files are selectable within the one window, i.e. thumbnails of the JPG's are viewable in the selection pane located the window's left side.

2. Click in the selection pane and select all the thumbnails with Cmd-A.

3. Select File > Print... from the menu bar.

4. Select PDF > (from the drop down) Save as PDF... from within the Print Dialog.

5. Take it from there...