The maximum size of a pdf file. How to reduce the size of a pdf file: compression methods and volume reduction

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

Hello everyone, my dear friends and guests of my blog. Today I will show you how to compress a PDF file for sending or uploading to a website using special programs and online services. I have no doubt that you often work with PDFs, but sometimes there are times when they take up so much space that they exceed the allowable upload size. What then to do? Don't be sad. All these methods are absolutely free, so you don’t even have to worry about it.

First of all, I want to show you how you can reduce the size of a pdf file using online services without installing programs. Naturally, not everyone wants to install an additional application that will load the system, while one of these four services will come to our aid for free.

Small PDF

I'll start with my favorite service. It almost always helps me out, and it helps to reduce the file size without losing quality. At least it's not noticeable.

But I want to warn you right away that this does not mean that any size will be reduced by 5 times. If we get lucky. Everything depends on different factors.

Well, for those who are not familiar with this service, I say - you can make no more than two operations per hour. This is the limitation of the free version. But if you need to do more transactions, then the price for an unlimited monthly access will be simply ridiculous for you.

PDF Compressor

Another pretty good online service that has proven itself well.

Of course, the main disadvantage of this service is that it cannot work with too large files. When I tried to upload the previous 147 MB ​​file, I got an error about exceeding the size.

PDF2Go

Also a very cool service that helped me out a couple of times. I had no complaints while working with him.

As you can see, this document has been compressed even more powerfully than in the first case. Already not even 5, but 20 times. Of course, if such a small document is especially unnecessary for you, then you can put a better quality, for example, 150 or 300 dpi.

I talked more clearly about the three above services in this video.

PDFio

Well, the last one for today, I would like to consider the Pdfio service.

But sometimes this service may give you a message that our file is already incredibly well compressed and it will not further reduce its size. This is the main disadvantage. Therefore, I would not recommend that you use this thing in the first place.

Programs for working with PDF files

Well, now let's talk about individual applications that you will have to install. Of course, not everyone likes it, but the program will always be with you, even if the Internet is turned off.

Adobe Acrobat

Let's start with the official application from Adobe, which is the creator of the PDF format itself and therefore is fully focused on working with it.

1. In order to compress the PDF file as much as possible, enter the program itself and open the document whose weight you want to reduce. To do this, click on the menu "File" - "Open".
2. Now click again on the "File" menu, but now select the item "Save as different" — "Reduced PDF File".

After that, you will get a reduced size document. But Adobe Acrobat has another feature. Can choose "Optimized PDF File".

The difference between these two functions is that here you can adjust various settings so that you can see for yourself what you can donate, and what to a lesser extent. For example, you can reduce the quality, remove active links from the document, which also affect the weight, optimize for quick viewing online.

You can even apply custom downsampling for color and monochrome images (forced downsampling). Thus, lowering the quality of graphics in adobe acrobat, we also reduce the size.

Naturally, this is the most convenient way. True, its disadvantage is that you need to install a special paid program. But who am I kidding? With us, more than 95 percent of users (and even more) do not purchase a license. But in fact, the program can be downloaded from the official website and used for free for 7 days.

CutePDF

This is not quite a program, but rather an add-on with which you can save a PDF file from Adobe Acrobat Reader, in which this function is not available by default. If you still do not have an adobe reader, then download it for free from Adobe website. Just be careful, as the installer imposes McAfee antivirus. Remove all checkboxes.

First you need to download for free CutePDF Writer from the official site, then run the installer. Just don't try to find a program, it won't be there. Now follow the instructions exactly.

This add-on is pretty good considering it's free. But of all the options I have proposed, I like it the least. The fact is that in this way it will not always help you compress the PDF file to the minimum size. Sometimes it turns out that the volume, on the contrary, also increases, especially if it initially takes less than 1 or 2 megabytes.

Archiving

Well, perhaps I’ll tell you about the most antiquated way that helped us out even at a time when there were no converters and online services. Many people forget that the file can be compressed using any archiver, for example, using the free 7-zip.

If you do not have a 7-zip archiver, then you can download it from here, then install it as a normal program.

Also, many email clients cannot send large files. On the other hand, the archiver can split one document into several parts that can be sent by mail and put together by a simple extraction.

I just tried to reduce a file that weighs 420 kb, as a result, I got an archive smaller than 300 kb. That is, archiving copes well even with small volumes, and after so many years, it does not lose its relevance. Naturally, this method is relevant for forwarding or sending by mail. And after the recipient receives the archive, he will unpack it and it will be in its original form.

You can read more about working with archivers.

Why reduce the size of documents?

As a rule, these actions are carried out in three cases:

• To free up disk space. You yourself have seen how much space you can free up.
• For forwarding. Many sites, programs and email clients do not accept large volumes for sending and are limited by some maximum size. Compression can help us with this.
• Speed. The larger the document, the longer it takes to open. Sometimes, if the computer is weak, it can even lead to a freeze.

Sincerely, Dmitry Kostin.

Why compress a PDF file at all? I understand pictures, videos that weigh tens, if not hundreds of megabytes, the same music. Here they need to be compressed. In fact, files also need to be compressed, because in some cases they may not be a couple of kilobytes. Often this applies to books and large articles with pictures.

Fast compress PDF document file can be sent by mail, where a fixed size of the uploaded file is set. When uploading to your website or other resource where you want to save space. There are many options for why this should be done, so in the article I will reveal all the known methods.

In an article about PDF definition, I wrote about its advantages. The format can be opened on any computer and operating system and the appearance of the document will not change. The only downside is the size.

How to compress PDF online using services

Compressing a PDF document over the Internet is the most popular and convenient way. To carry out the process, there are many services that I will describe in this article. Here we go?

pdfcompressor.com

It may not be the best resource, but it is easy and convenient to work with it. To load a document into the resource window, just drag it there, or press the button "Download" and select a file on disk. Suppose I take a book on computer architecture with a size of 19 MB. Now I will upload it to the site and see how efficiently it compresses the document.

As a result, the book shrank by 49%, almost doubled, which means its size is now 9.7 MB.

Compressing the PDF format is not the only thing that can be done on the resource. It also does image and ODT to PDF conversion, PDF to DOC conversion and vice versa, same with HTML, PUB, ePub. The disadvantage of the service is that it is slow to upload a large file to the server, so you need to be patient and wait if you decide to compress a 100 MB file.

ilovepdf.com

The next PDF compression option is the ilovepdf.com service. It's also popular, but it doesn't matter to us, does it? You, as a user, have an interest in the effectiveness of this service. Now we will check it.

Having entered the resource, you have two methods for uploading a file to the server - click the button "Select PDF file" or drag it there. I choose the same 19 MB computer architecture book. 3 compression options immediately appear in the window - low compression, recommended and extreme. Depending on the type you choose, the quality of the document will either not suffer or suffer more. Let's try extreme compression.

We are waiting for the PDF file to load and the compression process to begin. According to my observations, loading occurs at a low level. Approximately 60-70 Kb / s, the Internet is not good for me, which means this is a limitation of the service itself.

As a result, the document shrunk by 50%, as in the previous case, and its size was 9.4 MB. We can conclude that ilovepdf.com and pdfcompressor.com do their job almost equally. Choose which one is more convenient for you. By the way, the components of the document were not affected, that is, images and text.

In addition to being able to complete the process that we are currently implementing, the resource can do the following useful things:

• Merge and split PDF files;
• Compress PDF;
• Convert PDF to Word, PowerPoint, Excel, JPG and vice versa;
• Embed watermarks in the file;
• Remove security passwords;
• Flip the document at any angle;
• Upload files from Dropbox cloud and Google Drive.

I note that you can upload a file to an unregistered user up to 160 MB, after registration you can upload files up to 200 MB.

smallpdf.com

Almost no different from previous services, but who knows, maybe smallpdf.com can compress pdf better? This is what we will find out now.

I upload a PDF book document to a resource, and wait for the process to finish. The result ended almost identically to the previous ones - 9.6 MB.

Now the compressed file can be downloaded to your computer or saved to . By the way, the functionality of the service has the same features as in all other sites.

jinapdf.com

Right now, without further ado, I'm uploading the book file to the jinapdf.com server. I hope that this compressor will be better than the other options.

The result was much worse than the rest, with 19 MB we were able to achieve a compression of up to 17.4 MB. Therefore, I will not use this option.

You can find additional tools on the site:

• Convert PDF format to Word, Text, JPG and vice versa;
• Converting an image to text;
• Merge PDF;
• PDF extraction;
• Split PDF.

In short, nothing new and all services are eerily similar to each other.

pdfio.com

You can upload a document from a cloud computer or via a link, as well as by drag and drop. After downloading, we wait a bit and look at the result.

So, a beautiful and pleasant interface gave us the worst result - 18.2 MB. Probably worse could be the absence of any compression.

You can compress pdf without quality loss, for this you need to select "Low compression ratio", or slightly degrade the image quality by selecting the "High compression ratio" option.

In addition to the "unique" functions that the resource has, you might have noticed the "Online text recognition" item. The top bar contains image compression options, various MP4 to GIF converters and converters.

pdf.io

Very simple website with a big button "Select a file" with which you need to select a PDF document. There are options for downloading from the cloud or via a link.

In this case, it was possible to compress PDF by 37%, maybe someone will have a better result, I can’t say. Rather it depends on the document.

You can download the file to your computer or upload it to Dropbox or Google Drive.

pdf2go.com

Last hope guys. I turn to the last service on this list and announce the verdict. Then I'll move on to the programs.

The result is 17.48 MB.

The conclusions are obvious, only the first two services from the list provide normal tools for compressing PDF files.

How to compress a PDF file using programs

Using programs is less convenient, since you need to find a worthwhile option, download and install. Luckily, I've put together a few options that keep up with their fellow online services.

Adobe Acrobat

A well-known program for viewing PDF documents. Who does not know, with the help of it you can save a document with a reduced size. To do this, go to "File", select "Save As Other" and click on the option "Reduced PDF File". This feature is only available in the paid version.

For viewing PDF is best. I consider this the most convenient utility, but I did not find the compression function there.

The most effective way to compress a document of our format is to run it in the online tools that I described above, and then compress it with an archiver, for example, .

Let's say I already have a compressed file. The same book in PDF format. I right-click on it to bring up the context menu and select the option 7-ZIP > Add to archive.

In the settings, set the same parameters as mine. You can play around, maybe you will achieve a better result.

I achieved the following size after compression into the archive - 9.66 > 8.54. Not much, but sometimes that's enough.

Results

We have looked at a bunch of methods on how to compress PDF online or with software. In fact, I did not consider some utility options here, since there is a lot of trouble with them. From the above, we have come to the conclusion that the most effective compression method is:

PDF files have been, and still are, an extremely popular document format for a long time. Moreover, the ability to edit pdf files is much weaker than other office documents, such as DOC or DOCX in Microsoft Word, ODG in LibreOffice Writer.

And yet PDF is used by a huge number of computer users. Sometimes the size of a pdf file takes several kilobytes, but more often the size can reach several tens of megabytes due to the large number of pages that have heavy graphic elements. This can impose certain difficulties when trying to send pdf files by e-mail or upload them to the cloud file storage.

To help you reduce the size of a pdf file, in this article I will review free tools that will help you compress the file and reduce its size. Among such tools, I will present both online services and individual windows applications. If you have your own options for cool pdf compressors, please recommend them in the comments.

If you are looking for a quick and easy way to reduce your PDF files without the need for complicated manipulations, then Smallpdf is for you. It is an online service that is easy to use, simply drag and drop files onto the service and compress. This is really handy when you need to be able to periodically compress files from anywhere.

Smallpdf online service

While the service is fairly basic in terms of functionality, it does have some additional features, such as the ability to import a file from Google Drive or Dropbox and save it back to the cloud once the compression operation is complete. The only downside is that there is a limit of 2 PDF compressions per hour. If you want more, you'll have to fork out $6 a month.

Compression results are mixed. The service is configured to compress a pdf file up to 144 dpi without specifying any settings. Hence the different compression ratios. For example, a 5.72 MB source file can be compressed to 3.17 MB without any loss in quality when viewed, which is not bad at all. However, it also happens that a 96.98 MB file is compressed to only 87.12 MB. This once again proves that the Smallpdf service uses the simplest algorithms for reducing the size of a pdf file. However, if you just want a smaller file size, then Smallpdf is definitely for you.

iLovePDF

Platform: online

Another service on the web, but one that offers a bit more compression options. iLovePDF allows you to upload a file from the system, Google Drive or Dropbox and then choose from three compression levels. The more compression you apply, the worse the quality of the output PDF will be. But this also means that the output file will be smaller.

iLovePDF Online Service

Using the same file as in the first case, 97 MB in size and using maximum compression, I managed to compress it to 50.29 MB, i.e. cut by more than half is an excellent result.

I was able to upload any pdf files; they compress fairly quickly, and besides, I did not notice any restrictions on how many times one could use the service. The only limitation of the service is downloading one file at a time.

Files are automatically deleted from the service after about an hour. This limitation can hardly be called serious. During this time, you can have time to download the resulting pdf-file to your computer or send it to the cloud.

If you're looking for an online PDF compressor that compresses pdf files to the highest quality without significant loss of quality, try iLovePDF.

Free PDF Compressor

Platform: Windows offline

This lightweight compressor does what it needs to do and nothing more. Although it is not updated regularly, it works great on Windows 10 and previous operating systems up to and including Windows XP. If online tools are not available to you for various reasons, then Free PDF Compressor may come in handy.

Free PDF Compressor

Free PDF Compressor gives you the option of choosing one of five presets to compress your pdf file. Just select the compression setting, select the path to the pdf file where the output file will be saved and click the button Compress.

My 97MB file was compressed to 50MB using the first compression setting. The process was faster than online services. Although, perhaps this is due to the installed hardware in the computer.

PDF Compressor

Platform: Windows offline

If none of the above tools work for you, try PDF Compressor. Judging by the information on the given resource, the application is guaranteed to work on Windows XP/Vista/7/8. But after checking that it works on Windows 10, I was convinced that this operating system is also quite suitable for PDF Compressor.

Unlike competitors, you can compress more than one file at a time, and even more: you can specify a file with a list of pdf files that you want to reduce, or you can specify an entire folder with files.

PDF Compressor

The only caveat in PDF Compressor is that sometimes the application in free mode can be inefficient in compression. Our 97 MB file lost just over 15 MB, which is not much compared to the competition. But it is worth changing the compression settings and the pdf-file from 97 MB left only 46 MB - this is the best result. It is a pity that all compressor settings are only in the paid version.

Other ways to reduce the size of a pdf file

Compressing a PDF by changing its quality is one way to reduce file size, but it's not the only way. You can delete pages or zip the pdf to ZIP. The 4 methods above will help you choose the most suitable one and reduce PDF files quickly and with minimal loss in quality.

And what free tools do you use to achieve this goal?

Once a PDF document is created, it tends to be very large, so in order to optimize it, you need to know how to reduce the PDF file size.

PDF- a very popular document format among users. A universal program for viewing this format on all types of operating systems is adobe reader.

Format advantages:

• The quality of file display is superior to compression types such as JPEG and GIF;
• Standardization - documents with this format can be opened on all devices, while the appearance of the document will not change;
• Ensuring security - by transferring PDF files online, you can always be sure that no one will have access to edit the file. It is also difficult to embed a viral malicious script into such files;
• Support for a large number of compression algorithms;
• Automatic detection of document authenticity.

By the way, you may be interested in other articles:

Adobe Acrobat Pro for compression. Using Standard Functions

One of the most popular programs for working with PDF files is Adobe Acrobat Pro. With it, you can edit a previously created document and reduce its final size.

The application is paid, however, users can download a free trial version for 30 days or a portable version with reduced functionality for editing.

The program allows you to significantly reduce the size of the final file.

Follow instructions:

• Open your document in Adobe Acrobat;
• On the main panel, enable the File tab;
• Find and select the item "Save as another document ..." and then "File with reduced size", as shown in the figure below;

• Next, a window will appear in which you will need to specify the necessary parameters and the level of protection of the document being created;
• After converting the file, click on the "Open" tab - "Optimized file" again and in the pop-up list click on the "Save as another ..." item;
• Select a location on your hard drive where you want to save the reduced size document and click the OK button. This program allows you to compress without losing quality.

In Adobe Acrobat, you can not only optimize the file, but also forcefully reduce its size.

To do this, follow the instructions:

• Open the document in the program;
• Now enable the File tab on the utility's main toolbar;
• Select "Save as different" and in the new list that appears, click on "Reduce size", as shown in the figure below;

This method is perfect if, after optimization, the size has not decreased to the level you need.

• In the new window, select the version of the program with which the final file will be compatible;

• Press the OK key to apply the options to only one file or Apply To Multiple to save the settings for multiple PDFs at once.

You can compress a file using the built-in functions of the Windows operating system. If the document does not open or takes too long to start, you need to perform an emergency compression.

To do this, open the properties of the PDF file.

Then, in the general settings, find the "Other" key and in the window that opens, check the box next to the item "Compress content ..." marked in the figure below.

Save your changes by pressing OK.

This compression method is the simplest, so after compressing files that are several GB in size, the overall image of the content may be slightly distorted.

After compression, open the document in adobe reader to check its quality.

If it is invalid, return the original properties and optimize the file using third-party utilities.

If you need to reduce the file size only for a certain amount of time, use data archiving utilities.

For example, 7Zip or WinRAR. In the future, if necessary, you can quickly unpack the archive and get a PDF with the initial size.

Cute PDF Utility

Consider the Cute PDF program. It is one of the most common applications for converting to PDF and for optimizing final documents.

The utility is free to download and offers a wide range of features.

The program creates a virtual printer on the computer, through which the user interacts with the main functions.

To reduce the size of the desired file using Cute PDF, follow the instructions below:

• Open the document in any PDF reader;
• Now click on the "Print" button;

• In the window that opens to configure print settings, specify that the printer has the name "Cute PDF", find the "Properties" or "Properties" button and click on it. In the Windows operating system, this key is located opposite the printer name;

Note! If there is no Cute PDF name in the drop-down list of available printers, the program may not have been installed correctly or you did not restart your computer after installation.

• In the window that appears, open the Compression tab, then select the desired quality level and compression level for the document. Save the settings and close the properties window;
• Now in the printer settings window for printing, press the Print button;
• Next, a window will appear for selecting a location to save the document;
• Wait for the save to finish and check the size of the final file. If necessary, you can carry out all the above steps with a compressed file to further reduce its size.

Using Google Drive storage and Adobe Acrobat

Compression can be done directly through your Google drive. You must also have Adobe Acrobat installed on your computer.

Log in to your drive account and download the required PDF file.

Then you need to open the PDF in your browser.

To do this, select a document from the list of previously downloaded ones, right-click on it and click on the “Open” or “Open” item.

Now we need to send the contents of the PDF tab to the print queue. To do this, open the print settings window in the browser settings.

Select Adobe PDF from the list of available devices. Next, press the OK button.

Instead of the usual printing process, the process of saving the document to the computer's hard drive will begin.

At the same time, the program automatically optimizes it, due to which the size will be reduced.

Remember! In order for the Adobe PDF item to be available in the print list, Adobe Acrobat must be installed on your personal computer. Otherwise, saving in this way will not be possible.

Compressing with MS Word

The popular word processor Word from the MS Office software package will also help you reduce the size of the final PDF. Open the file with Adobe Acrobat.

Then save the document as MS Word (Figure below).

Now find the saved object and click on it with the right mouse button. In the pop-up list, click on the "Convert to Adobe PDF" item, as shown in the figure below.

Wait until the end of the process. As a rule, it will not take more than two minutes.

In this way, you can reduce the document size by about thirty percent without significant loss of quality.

The best online converters

Thanks to open source software, a lot of services have appeared on the Internet that replace some desktop programs.

To reduce the size of the document you need, you can use the following services:

• Shrink PDF. Official link to the resource: http://shrinkPDF.com/ru/. This online converter allows you to reduce the size of up to 20 documents at a time without losing quality.

To get started, click on the "Open" button and select the documents to be compressed on your computer. Wait for the object to be uploaded to the service.

The file and the status of its compression process will now appear at the bottom of the page. Wait for the process to complete and download the resulting file to your device.

The figure below shows an example of using the service;

Also, using this service, you can instantly compress JPEG and PNG files. To do this, switch to the corresponding service tab.

• SmallPDF. Link to the main page of the site: https://smallPDF.com/ru/compress-PDF . With this service, you can optimize popular formats, including PDF.

To get started, drag the file from the desktop to the red area of ​​the open page in the browser. You can also open the file using Google's cloud storage or Dropbox.