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4 ways to compress and reduce the size of a PDF file

Do you have huge PDF documents? Maybe you want to reduce the size of your PDF files, either because it's too big to send as an email attachment, or simply because it takes too long to load your PDF reader The 6 Best PDF Readers for Windows The 6 Best PDF Readers PDF Viewer for Windows Adobe Reader is not always the best choice for viewing PDF files. Here are the best PDF readers for Windows 10 to consider. Read more.

Fortunately, there are a wide range of services that can compress your files down to a more manageable size. (How does file compression work?) We've selected some of the best below.

Some of these couldn't be simpler. Others offer many more options to help you decide how much quality loss (if any) you're willing to let your PDF files suffer. If there are other similar free solutions, let us know in the comments!

1. Third party PDF tools

Adobe Acrobat PDF Optimizer (cross-platform)

4 ways to compress and reduce the size of a PDF file

If you have Adobe Acrobat installed on your computer, there is a tool within the application called "PDF Optimizer". This is one of the best and easiest ways to reduce a PDF document.

To get to this, open your PDF in Acrobat, click Tools> Optimize PDF . A toolbar with some options will appear just above the PDF.

If you click Reduce size , Acrobat will apply default settings to your file in an attempt to reduce its size.

If you click Advanced optimization, You'll have more options to make sure you maintain the quality you need. To help with this, in the Advanced Optimization window, click Audit Space Usage, and you will be able to see how much space each type of element occupies within the file.

PDF Compressor (Windows)

4 ways to compress and reduce the size of a PDF file

For ease of use and the ability to bulk compress a large number of PDF files at once, PDF Compressor is a great option that we've covered above. This program can not only compress thousands of PDF files at a time, but also shrink encrypted and protected PDF files.

In addition, this compression is lossless, which means that the quality is maintained, despite the smaller file size.

4Dots Free PDF Compress (Windows)

4 ways to compress and reduce the size of a PDF file

This free software application allows you to compress single or multiple PDF files in one go. You can also compress entire folders of PDF files with just a few mouse clicks, even if the PDF files are password protected.

Once you've selected the files you want to compress (drag and drop is supported), select the location where you want to save the smaller files. Hit Compress And the tool will do all the work for you.

Free PDF Compressor (Windows)

4 ways to compress and reduce the size of a PDF file

This completely free software is also extremely easy to use. Select the file you want to reduce, press Compress , then save the smaller file.

Additionally, you can choose from five compression levels, depending on how you want to use the file:

  • Low resolution (72 dpi), ideal for screen display only
  • Medium resolution (150 dpi), ideal for an e-book.
  • High resolution (300 dpi), ideal for printing.
  • Prepress (300 dpi), ideal for prepress, including color preservation
  • Default, ideal for a wide variety of uses.

2. Browser PDF Tools

SmallPDF

4 ways to compress and reduce the size of a PDF file

You don't even need an account to use SmallPDF. Simply go to the site, add the file and click Compress PDF . You can then drag your PDF onto the page, locate the file on your hard drive, or import the PDF from Google Drive or Dropbox. The file will be compressed automatically. Simply click the download button to save the new file to your hard drive.

You can compress two files per hour for free. If you want more, you will need to upgrade to the premium version.

The quality of the compressed file will not be less than 144 dpi. This should make most PDF files small enough to upload or email without a problem. And if you're concerned about security, the file is deleted from SmallPDF's servers after an hour.

NeeviaPDF

4 ways to compress and reduce the size of a PDF file

If you want more control over the quality of your compressed PDF, try DocuPub's NeeviaPDF (for files less than 10MB in size).

To keep things simple, you can choose one of the presets, from low compression (for higher image quality) to maximum compression (for lower image quality). You are also given the option to discard certain elements within your PDF. This includes things like forms, annotations, and page tags, which can unnecessarily increase file size.

How much of the original PDF you want to discard depends on how much space you really need to save.

3. Windows PDF Tools

Windows 10 finally includes an option to print to PDF. However, advanced features, such as adjusting the quality and size of a document, are not part of this feature. Meanwhile, many PDF printers allow you to choose quality and compression settings, which can greatly influence the size of your PDF files.

Please note that the tools highlighted below require GhostScript to view and manage PDF files.

FreePDF

FreePDF is a classic PDF printer. 7 Best Tools to Print to PDF 7 Best Tools to Print to PDF Not a single version of Windows comes with a native print-to-PDF solution. So what is the best alternative? We checked 8 of the most popular options to find out. Read More Once installed (remember you need GhostScript), you'll find it as part of your Windows printers.

To reduce the size of a PDF document with FreePDF, open it, press Ctrl + P to start the print dialog, choose FreePDF as your printer, click OK , and wait for the FreePDF dialog to appear. Here, you can choose from three preset PDF profiles, including eBook, High Quality, and Medium Quality.

4 ways to compress and reduce the size of a PDF file

To create a custom PDF profile, click Edit Settings at the top right, choose Profiles , click New , and customize the options available in the Profile Editor window. You can change the overall quality of your PDF, adjust the default resolution for images within a PDF, or add a watermark to your PDFs.

4 ways to compress and reduce the size of a PDF file

The default medium quality profile compressed a 10 MB scanned PDF document to a 1.7 MB PDF file with an acceptable loss of quality.

IrfanView

IrfanView is a lightweight and feature-rich image viewer for Windows. Includes a variety of plugins. 6 Cool IrfanView Plugins to enhance this simple Image Editor. 6 Cool IrfanView Plugins to enhance this simple Image Editor. More information that makes it a versatile tool, for example, to convert images to different types of files. Batch Process Your Photos and Images How to Take a Screenshot and Batch Process Images with IrfanView How to Take a Screenshot and Batch Process Images with IrfanView Read more. It also has PDF printing qualities, though not in the classic sense.

Before you can view PDF files with IrfanView, you need to install GhostScript. So when you try to Save your large PDF as a new, smaller PDF file, you'll see a PDF Settings window next to your Save PDF As... dialogue. Under General , you may need to set the PDF preview during save to unnecessary , so you can select the settings right away. You can then adjust the compression settings as seen below.

4 ways to compress and reduce the size of a PDF file

In my test, I chose medium quality for all types of images and could reduce the size of a scanned PDF document from 10 MB to less than 1 MB. The result was visibly blurry, but perfectly legible.

4. Mac PDFTools

PDF Filter

4 ways to compress and reduce the size of a PDF file

If you regularly update your Mac's operating system, you should be able to reduce your PDF without installing any new applications. This is a cool feature in OS X that many people don't know about.

First, open your PDF in preview. You can usually double-click the file, but if you have a PDF reader like Adobe Reader installed, you'll want to right-click>Open With>Preview ). Then click File> Export , y en el cuadro desplegable Filtro de cuarzo, seleccione Reducir el tamaño del archivo .

Esto solo funciona con archivos PDF grandes. Intente hacer esto con un PDF muy pequeño (menos de unos pocos MB), y estos podrían realmente incrementar en tamaño.

Exprimidor de PDF

4 ways to compress and reduce the size of a PDF file

Aparte del simple proceso anterior, realmente no hay muchas opciones para las herramientas de compresión de PDF gratuitas y de buena reputación para los usuarios de Mac. Si desea controlar la calidad de salida, etc. de sus archivos PDF comprimidos, lo mejor es descargar una aplicación como PDF Squeezer ($ 5.99).

Esta es una aplicación de costo relativamente bajo que le permite elegir entre varias configuraciones de compresión predefinidas o elegir la suya propia. También puede procesar por lotes varios archivos a la vez (incluidos los archivos cifrados).

¿Qué herramientas de compresión de PDF recomiendan??

Esto es solo el comienzo de lo que puede hacer con sus archivos PDF. Desde leer el texto dentro de las imágenes y escanear archivos en busca de malware, hasta convertir archivos PDF a otros formatos y desbloquear archivos PDF protegidos con contraseña, puede encontrar la herramienta PDF perfecta para ayudarlo..

Ya sea que esté tratando con archivos PDF interactivos o libros electrónicos grandes, los archivos PDF pueden llegar a ser sorprendentemente grandes. Cada una de las herramientas anteriores debería ayudar a reducir esos archivos a un tamaño mucho más manejable..

¿Necesitas editar tus archivos PDF, pero no quieres instalar software? Pruebe estos editores de PDF en línea y herramientas de anotación. 5 Sitios web gratuitos de editor de PDF para crear, rellenar, anotar o modificar archivos PDF 5 Sitios web gratuitos de editor de PDF para crear, rellenar, anotar o alterar archivos PDF Estas aplicaciones web lo ayudarán a hacer todo con un PDF , sin instalar nunca ningún software. Read more.