If you work with PDF files, you probably know that they can be large due to their images and graphics content. Fortunately, it is possible to compress PDF files even without losing quality, thereby reducing its size. In this article, I will try to show you several ways in which you can reduce the size of a PDF file.
Method one - online converters
The easiest way to reduce your PDF is to use a free online tool called SmallPDF.com. The site is great (not filled with spam ads etc) and it does a good job of reducing the size of large PDF files. It's very convenient that you can use it anywhere and on any operating system, and it even supports the new HTML 5 drag and drop feature.
Go to the site and click on Compress PDF. Then click on Drop PDF here Choose file and find the desired PDF file to compress on your computer. After the service automatically starts its procedure.
He was able to take a 95.7 MB file from me and cut it down to 45.7 MB. This is a fantastic result, isn't it? Then click download compressed file.
Another online tool I use to compress PDFs is Neevia Compress PDF. It has many functions: high compression/low image quality or low compression/high image quality, etc.
The second way is with a free program
PDF Compressor is a free program that you can download for Windows XP/Vista/7/8 that allows you to quickly and efficiently reduce the size of one or more PDF files. You can download from http://www.pdfcompressor.org
It supports lossless compression, so you won't see quality degradation in PDF. It also supports encrypted PDF documents and can work with several or even thousands of PDF files at the same time.
The third way is Adobe Acrobat PDF Optimizer
Starting with version 7 in Adobe Acrobat, there is a new feature in the Advanced menu called PDF Optimizer.
Now you are taken to a screen that has a whole bunch of settings!
Click the Audit space usage button in the top right corner to get a detailed list of each PDF component and how much space it uses.
As you can see, there are many things you can do to reduce the size of a PDF, including optimizing or scaling images, adjusting fonts, adjusting transparency, removing objects, and cleaning up the PDF.
In the Images section, for example, you can shrink and compress images to save space. This is really useful, especially if your images are really high resolution. If the PDF does not need to be printed, you can reduce the quality and number of pixels per inch. You only need 72 pixels to view on screen.
Look at all the settings and change them for your specific PDF file.
Hopefully one of the above methods will give your PDF file a reduced size that you can then attach to an email or post on a website. If you are using another method not mentioned above for shrinking PDFs, please let us know in the comments. Thanks.
The article presents 6 services that perform PDF compression online, with which you can reduce the size of a PDF file online. Why is it necessary to reduce the size of a PDF?
The popular PDF format often saves various documents, instructions, e-books, etc. This format has its advantages: on any computer, in any operating system, the file looks the same. Everything is fine, but there is one problem: the files saved in PDF format are quite large.
Sometimes, due to the file size, the following problems occur:
- files take up a lot of space on a disk, portable device (flash drive), mobile device
- it happens that large files take a long time to open in applications for viewing files of this format
- often there are restrictions on sending large files by e-mail
The solution to this problem is quite simple: you need to reduce the size of the PDF online, or with the help of an appropriate program. In this article, we will look at how you can compress PDF online using specialized Internet services.
There are quite a few services on the web for working with PDF files, which, among other things, can compress PDF online.
Even if such a function is not in demand often, the user should bookmark services that will help reduce PDF online if necessary. For example, a colleague recently approached me for help. She needed to send a scanned PDF document to a government agency, but they wouldn't accept incoming attachments larger than 2MB. Thanks to specialized services, we were able to easily reduce the PDF file online.
Try compression on different services in order to choose the best balance between file quality and compression ratio that suits you for a particular document.
How to compress PDF file online on iLovePDF
The online service, among other things, reduces the size of a PDF file. This service has 3 types: unregistered (free), registered (free) and premium.
Without registration, compression of one PDF file up to 160 MB is available, and for a registered user - up to 200 MB.
Click the "Select PDF File" button, or drag and drop a file from your computer to the area below the button.
Please note that there are special buttons nearby for downloading a PDF file from Google Drive and Dropbox cloud storages. In this case, the PDF file will be uploaded to the service from the "cloud", reduced in size, and then, if necessary, returned back to the cloud storage.
Through the rendering process, the uploaded file will be displayed in the service window.
- extreme compression (high compression ratio, worst quality)
- recommended compression (good compression ratio, good quality)
- low compression (low compression, high quality)
Choose the most appropriate option to reduce the weight of the PDF. The Recommended Compression option is selected by default.
After processing is completed, the service page will display information about the degree of compression of this PDF file.
Click on the "Download Compressed PDF" button to download the file to your computer, or click on the corresponding button to send the compressed file to the cloud storage. Here you can get a link to send a file to another user.
How to Reduce PDF Online with Smallpdf
Service for working with files in PDF format. The service can be used free of charge up to two times (performing any operation) in one hour.
There are no compression settings on this service, the settings are optimized to get a high quality compressed file. Drag and drop a file from your computer to the designated area, or select a file to upload from your computer or cloud storage (Dropbox and Google Drive are supported).
After the size of the PDF file is reduced, the page will display information about the PDF compression ratio. Then you can download the file to your computer, save it to cloud storage, convert the compressed PDF file to JPG format, or sign the file in eSign.
How to reduce PDF online with PDF Compressor
The website of the PDF Compressor service claims that when a PDF file is compressed, the density of the document (DPI) is not reduced, clarity and scaling are preserved.
The service allows batch processing of files. Upload up to 20 files (there are file size limits), wait for the file compression process to finish.
After that, the page will display the file compression size. The compressed PDF file is saved on the PC in a ZIP archive.
How to Reduce PDF Size Online at Jinapdf.com
Another service for working with PDF files is . Here they promise fast compression without loss of quality. This service is completely free.
Click on the "Select PDF file" button, and then wait for the PDF file compression process to complete.
Download the compressed file to your computer.
Compress PDF file on PDF2Go
Free online service works with files of this format. To transfer a PDF file from a PC to the service, click on the "Upload local files" button, or select a file to upload from the cloud storage (Dropbox, Google Drive), or specify a link (URL) to the file.
After downloading, you need to select the quality settings for the PDF file. The following quality options are available:
- Screen (high quality, 72 dpi) - default setting
- Minimum quality (40 dpi)
- E-book (high image quality, 150 dpi)
- Printer (high quality, 300 dpi)
- Preparing to Print (High Quality, Color Preservation, 300dpi)
If necessary, you can select the setting "Additional compression: all pages in grayscale".
Select the desired quality, and then click on the "Compress PDF" button.
How to reduce PDF size on Pdfio
Go to pdfio.co, select one or more PDF files. Upload files from a computer, from cloud storage (Dropbox, Google Drive), via a link from a website, or drag and drop files onto a page.
After uploading the file to the service, select one of the compression options:
- Low compression, high image quality
- Medium compression, medium image quality
- High compression, low image quality
Then download the compressed PDF file to your computer.
Article Conclusions
The user can compress a PDF file on one of 6 specialized online services: iLovePDF, Smallpdf, PDF Compressor, Jinapdf, PDF2Go, Pdfio. The compressed file will be smaller.
Let's talk about how to compress a PDF file, because with all the advantages and undeniable convenience of this format, it is not easy to call it economical in relation to media space.
A bit of theory
The popularity of PDF files is due to the ability to quickly create them, as well as long-term storage. This format acquires particular relevance if it is planned to issue printing products, as well as save copies of scanned documents. Most often, the question of how to compress a PDF file as much as possible arises among users when they notice that the size of a pair of identical documents is significantly different. There are several reasons for this: compression method, font and pictures. Large files may simply not fit on a flash drive or in an email. Once you figure out how to compress a PDF file, you can conveniently use it, view it, email it, and even free up extra space on your hard drive.
preliminary stage
PDF provides for the widespread use of color graphics, which allows you to colorfully design various documents. Such a volume cannot be accepted even by high-quality services specializing in e-mail. The created document should be initially saved in PDF format, this will greatly reduce its output size, while you will receive a file that will not lose its quality level. Other formats, including JPEG, PNG and TIF, require significant amounts of space to store scanned copies of documents on your hard drive. In addition, compressed materials are transmitted to the addressee much faster, while they can be easily combined into a single package of documents. We emphasize that it is undesirable to compress encrypted information, since, as a rule, information is disclosed during its decompression. This is unintentional, but very likely.
Compression methods
The first answer to the question of how to compress a PDF file will be given to us by 7-Zip. In this case, the compression procedure takes place directly in Windows. If you right-click, you will be able to "Send" to a Zip folder. As a result, the size of the document will be significantly reduced, but the format will also be different.
With that, Adobe Acrobat can help us figure it out. Open the file you are interested in in the specified program. Find in it the function of saving a PDF file with a decrease in its size. All necessary parameters can be pre-set in the settings of this software solution. For example, in the output parameters, you must specify the name of the data and the address of the corresponding folder. However, you can also reduce the size of the data using the PDF optimizer, which is available in Acrobat. In its settings, it is possible to remove everything unnecessary from files, for example, you can exclude embedded fonts. After opening the document, apply "Save" and use the function of optimizing the PDF file. In this case, the settings can be saved by default or set your own. So we figured out how to compress a PDF file.
What You'll Be Creating
PDF format is a common format for creating good quality digital documents and commercial materials, ranging from professional tasks to invitations for mom to Christmas dinner.
While design elements make your document attractive, they also bloat it up like a balloon, making it very difficult to send and download. What's more, conventional compression tools create copies with blurry images, which reduces the quality of your pdf document.
In this tutorial, I'll show you how to reduce the size of a large PDF file on any computer without compromising image quality, so you can send high quality documents without worrying about people receiving blurry pictures.
For Mac: Using Quartz Filters
OS X's built-in Preview app is designed to perform basic operations on PDF files, from preview, annotation, to compression. To compress a PDF, just click File > Export...>Quartz Filter (File → Export… → Quartz Filter) and select Reduce size (Reduce file size).
Although Preview may reduce your PDF, it will not preserve the quality of the images.The problem with Preview's built-in compressor is that your images lose a lot of quality, making them look blurry and sometimes unreadable in your PDF.
The solution is to use custom quartz filters, which give a balanced result, reducing the file size, while maintaining image quality throughout the document.
In this tutorial, we'll install and use Jerome Colas' Apple quartz filters to reduce a 25MB PDF to a more manageable size. You can also download filters from this Github page.
Step 1: Place quartz filters in your ~/Library directory.
The first step is to install Apple quartz filters on your computer, in the Filters folder in your System Library folder.
To do this, download quartz filters to your desktop and unzip the archive. Launch Finder and use hotkeys CMD+SHIFT+G to bring up the drop down menu Go to folder. Press enter to get to the Library directory.
Thanks to Jerome Colas for making these amazing filters for everyone.Once you are in the Filters folder, paste the quartz filters into it. If you don't have a Filters folder, create a new directory and name it "Filters".
prompt A: Some people prefer these filters to be available only for their account. To do this, you need to create a Filters folder inside the user's Library folder. To do this, click CMD+SHIFT+G, and print the following:
/Users/
and press Input. If the Filters folder does not exist in this directory, create it.
Step 2: Launch Automator and Create an Automator Application
The next step is to create an Automator application that will compress any PDF using the filters we just installed.
Launch Automator and create a new document. Click on Application and then on the blue button Choose to create a process.
You can simplify the process of compressing PDF files with Automator.On the left side is the Automator library. Use the search box to find Apply Quartz Filter to PDF Documents, which you will need to drag and drop to the right side of the window to create the process.
I also recommend adding Copy Finder Items to your processes in Automator. I'll show you now.A message will appear in a drop-down window asking you if you want to add to the processes Copy Finder Items(copy finder). I strongly recommend that you do this, because it saves you the trouble of finding the source file in case the compression result is not to your liking.
You can choose either standard compression settings - 150 dpi or 300 dpi.The final step is to select the quartz filter that you will use to compress the PDF file. If you installed the quartz filter that I recommended in Step 1, you should see it listed when you click the Filter dropdown menu. After you select a filter, give the application a name and save it to your desktop.
Step 3: Upload Your PDF File to the Automator Created Application
From now on, compressing files becomes a very easy task. To use the Automator app, simply drag your PDF file's icon and drop it on the app's icon. It will generate a compressed copy of your file. The size will depend on the quartz filter you chose at the stage of creating the application in Automator.
For my 25 MB PDF, I chose a 150 dpi filter, which is a standard option for almost all files. The compressed file was about 3 MB, and the quality of the images is quite acceptable, including small pictures.
Since the pictures in the compressed file are blurred quite a bit, the overall quality can be considered acceptable.You can change the quartz filter to get higher or lower quality, depending on your preference. Just save your changes in Automator and compress the original file for verification ( Copy Finder Items This is where it will come in very handy.)
On Windows: Resize Your PDF File with SmallPDF
On Windows, the easiest way to get a compressed PDF file is to create a new Word document or Powerpoint presentation, select "save as PDF", and select the option minimum size before saving the file to your desktop.
And while this works well for text documents, the quality can suffer significantly if you use any design to make your document more interesting. You can also , and then export them in a compressed format, but again, the quality of the document will suffer.
Windows users have a very limited set of PDF compression tools at their disposal.A common method for optimizing and compressing your PDFs is to use commercial products such as Adobe Acrobat Pro and InDesign, both of which provide high quality output and take advantage of a range of options if you have access to them as part of a Creative Cloud subscription. There are free desktop applications such as PrimoPDF, but when using them, I noticed that either the quality suffers, or the program significantly changes the file compared to the original.
Instead, you can use an online tool called SmallPDF, an online PDF toolkit application that you can use wherever you are, whenever you need it (and because it's an online application, you can use also on Mac, Linux, or Chromebook computers). One of these tools is Compress PDF, with which you can significantly reduce the size of your file by dropping it into an application or by selecting a file from your hard drive.
Aside from being a great design, SmallPDF can do an excellent job for a free tool.I tested the application using my 25MB PDF and it was compressed to 2MB, which is great for online publishing and mailing. The quality suffered a little, but it was quite acceptable, especially when compared to how other Windows applications designed for a similar task cope with it.
What do you think
What do you use to compress PDF files so that the quality of the images is preserved? Share your tools and techniques below in the comments.
Used sources: Document Icon - Designed by
If you need to send a document, PDF is an ideal format compatible with multiple operating systems (including Windows, Mac and Linux). Not only are PDF files versatile, but they're secure enough to allow users to assign passwords to particularly sensitive documents.
However, one notable downside to PDF files is their size. PDF files can often be bulky, making them difficult to send via email. Fortunately, there are a number of tools that can be used to reduce the size of such files.
Reduce PDF file size
One simple and effective way is to use Adobe Acrobat Reader. Open the program, then open PDF file, which you want to make smaller. Select Document > Reduce file size.PDF compression software
You should also pay attention to such popular file compression programs as WinZip, WinRAR or 7ZIP. In most cases, they can help you create lighter versions of PDF files.Reduce PDF File Size on Mac
Users Mac can compress PDF files using the features available in the app View (preview).Open file PDF via preview and go to the menu File > Export.
Choose a filter Quartz and then select Reduce file size (Reduce file size). Click Save (Save) to finish compressing the file.
Compress PDF file online
You can also find many free tools online that can compress your PDF files.smallpdf
Smallpdf, a free PDF editing site, helps you easily reduce the size of your PDF files online. The site includes an automatic compression feature, which makes the process very fast. You can then download the new compressed file for yourself.The file compression process itself consists of two stages. Go to Smallpdf and drag and drop your file into the box with your mouse or click Choose file (Select a file) to find and download a PDF file from your computer:
Wait for the automatic compression process to begin, then download the finished file for yourself.
PDF Creator
PDF Creator is a program with several interesting features that can help you easily create PDF files. During installation PDF Creator creates a virtual printer that allows you to save documents (Word, Excel, etc.) in the format PDF.After installation installation PDF Creator, open the file with Acrobat Reader. Click Seal and choose virtual printer PDF Creator (PDF Creator virtual printer).
Then open Properties > Paper/Quality and press Additionally.
Select Print quality and reduce DPI(permission) of the file. After starting the print job, a new lighter version will be created PDF file.
Image: © Oleksandr Yuhlchek - Shutterstock.com
