How to compress a pdf file to a specific size. How to reduce the size of a pdf file: compression methods and volume reduction
PDF files can be compressed for different purposes, or you need to reduce the PDF size by different reasons. Think about the CV you submit online and by mail. PDF files cannot be perceptibly large when mailed if you want the PDF file to reach the recipient. The mailbox is not always large and of course there is a risk that mailbox recipient will not accept your PDF file. Inexperienced users do not pay attention to file size. The resume PDF file can sometimes be very large if you don't pay attention to some points. Resume often contains images and that's why PDF files get big, this is something that is often left out because the user didn't pay enough attention to it when the file was created.
In case you want to take care of the PDF size even though you have never done it before, don't worry, we have developed small program that takes on this task. This program is part of PDF24 Creator and is called PDF24 Compress. You can download latest version PDF24 Creator right now from this page. The program is free and used by millions of users. PDF24 Creator is a utility that solves the issues of creating PDF files.
Install PDF24 Compress
The PDF24 Compress utility is part of the PDF24 Creator. Download the free PDF24 Creator from this page, download and install the application. After downloading, just double click on the downloaded file. The installer will launch and guide you through the installation process. Once installed, you will be able to run the PDF24 compression program on your desktop. Click on the PDF24 icon.
Compress PDF files with PDF24 and reduce the size of PDF files
Launch PDF24 Compress. Open your PDF file that you need to reduce. To do this, use the appropriate icon or simply drag and drop it into the file list. Your PDF files will be displayed in this list.
This utility downloads a file and shows the current size and size after compression. Using the basic options, you can control the compression. Adjust the settings according to your preferences. Information about each parameter is built into the utility. After setting the parameters, click the "Recalculate Size" icon to calculate the new file size. If the file size is within the range you expect, you can see the result and compare the quality with the original. If the compression result and quality are satisfactory, you can save your compressed PDF file. Otherwise, you just change the settings and then try again.
With PDF24 Compress you can reduce the file size significantly in some cases. Depending on the original file and the parameters used, reductions to more than half of the original size are common.
Compress PDF Files Online
If you don't want to install any software, or if you need an online tool to reduce the size of PDF files, PDF24 is also suitable for this. PDF24 provides you with various free online PDF utilities with which you can easily solve PDF problems. You can also cut PDF files with one of these utilities
PDF files have long been, and still are, extremely popular format for documents. And the possibilities pdf editing files are much weaker than others office documents, such as doc or docx in Microsoft Word.ODG in LibreOffice Writer.
And yet PDF is used huge amount computer users. Sometimes the size of a pdf file is several kilobytes, but more often the size can reach several tens of megabytes due to a large number pages with heavy graphic elements. This can impose certain difficulties when trying to send pdf files via e-mail or uploading them to the cloud file storage.
To help you cut pdf size file, I will consider in this article free tools to help compress the file and reduce its size. Among such tools I will present online services and individual applications windows. 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
Although the service is quite simple in its functionality, it has some additional functions 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 instance, original file 5.72 MB in size can be compressed to 3.17 MB without any loss in viewing quality, 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 quite 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 an application in free mode may 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 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?
If you have often encountered PDF files, then you know that sometimes they can be quite hefty due to images or other graphics. Fortunately, there are now many ways to compress any type of file, including PDF Documents.
In this article, I will tell you a couple of ways to reduce the size of PDF files. if you have Adobe Acrobat(not free), then it is much easier to do this, but we will only use free ways.
Method 1 - SmallPDF.com
This is the easiest way to reduce your PDF file. Using this free service can also convert PDF to: Word, PTT, JPG. In general, the functionality is very extensive, but we will return to our goal.
So, we go to the site smallpdf.com. Next, select the language at the bottom of the screen.
Next, click on " PDF Compression».
Now you need to either drag your document to the appropriate area, or select it in the standard way.
Then we wait a few seconds until the file is uploaded to the server and compressed. Upon completion, you will receive the following message (see screenshot below).
To download an already reduced PDF file, click the button " Can you save the file". By the way, the service works with cloud Google repositories and DropBox, which is very convenient. You can upload files from the clouds, as well as move already compressed documents to them.
As you can see in the screenshot below, using this online service, we managed to reduce the file size from 5.46 MB to 3.1 MB. Pretty good compression, plus it's free
Among others online services I would also recommend using pdfcompressor.com/en/ or convertio.co/en/compress-pdf/ . I especially liked the last service, if you select a high compression ratio in it, then the document size will decrease by 15-20%, although there is no particular quality loss.
Method 2 - PDF Compressor
wonderful free program to compress documents into PDF format. You can download it on the official website pdfcompressor.org. Install and start working with the program. First you need to upload a file, to do this, click on the button " Add file» or simply drag the PDF to the central area of the window.
Then click on the button " Start Compression". After 10-15 seconds we will get the result.
The result did not console me, because my document was compressed by only 1 KB. But if you are working with files larger than 20 MB, then PDF reduction happens at 30-40%.
Compression with PDF programs Compressor is good because the document does not lose quality. It is also useful that in this program you can work with PDF documents in batch mode, compressing 100 or more files at a time.
Method 3 - Free PDF Compressor
Free and easy to use program. You can download it at freepdfcompressor.com. After installation, go directly to compression.
Upload the document by clicking on the button " Browse' on the first line. In the second line, specify the path where it will be saved compressed file PDF.
Next, select the compression format. Of the five presented, I recommend installing " printer...". In this mode, compression occurs with a minimum loss of quality (purely my observation).
Now all you have to do is click on the button Compress” and wait for the program to finish processing each page of your document.
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.
Quickly 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.
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 type conversion to PDF format, PDF conversion v DOC format and vice versa, the same with HTML, PUB, ePub. Lack of service in slow loading big file to the server, so you need to be patient and wait if you decide to compress the file to 100 MB.
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;
- Downloading files from Dropbox clouds 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 I'm without extra words I upload the book file to 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", or slightly degrade the image quality by selecting the option " High degree compression."
In addition to the "unique" functions that the resource has, you might have noticed the "Online text recognition" item. On the top panel there are image compression options, various converters and converters from MP4 to GIF.
pdf.io
Very simple website 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.
V this case I managed 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
well-known program for PDF viewer 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.
To view PDF is better Total . I consider this the most convenient utility, but I did not find the compression function there.
Most effective method, compress a document of our format - run it into online tools, which I described above, and then compress using an archiver, for example, .
Let's say I already have a compressed file. The same book in PDF format. I click on it right click mice to call 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.
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 foregoing, we have come to the conclusion that the most effective method compressions are:
It's probably not news to you that pdf format widely used in all fields of activity due to its "weight" and its image quality. Why did I focus on "weight"? Because usually given file weighs a lot because of the many color, bulky and bright graphics and so on. Therefore, today we will consider the question: “how to reduce the size of a pdf file”, since most people have questions about this very reason. Some generally prefer to use other programs because of this problem. Compress pdf files is a process that requires the use of a special software. To reduce the file size, you can use the following programs: Adobe Acrobat, by using standard Windows compression. You can download Adobe Acrobat from the developer's website.
How to compress a pdf file?
Method using Adobe Acrobat
In order to reduce a pdf file, open Adobe Acrobat, then click on the “File” - “Open” tab in the main menu - these actions give us the opportunity to open the file we need to compress. Then repeat the steps "File" - "Open" - "Save as another" - " Reduced PDF file". In the window that appears, select the version compatibility setting and click “OK”, in order to apply the settings to several files, click “Apply to all”, to save, click “Save As”.
Method for reducing file size in Adobe Acrobat, using the PDF optimizer
As you have noticed, Adobe Acrobat gives us the opportunity to reduce the file size in a convenient way for us. First you need to select the documents that you want to reduce in size. To do this, we need to click in the main menu on the tab “File” - “Open”. Then we repeat the same steps, then click on “Save as another” - “ Optimized PDF file". Then you need to adjust the settings to your taste and save the file by clicking on the “Save As” button.
Method for reducing the weight of a pdf file according to OS Windows standards
In order to achieve best quality and the smallest weight, OS Windows developers strongly recommend using standard reduction files before starting work on it. This can be done by right-clicking on the file you created - "Properties" - "General" - "Others" - then you need to check the box "Compress ...". This procedure takes no more than one minute and is one of the most effective.