The question of reducing the size of a pdf file is often raised by an active computer user. The scanned images are heavy. Because of this, the document takes up hundreds of megabytes of disk space. Let's consider the problem in more detail.
Using Adobe Reader
You can reduce the size of the document using free version adobe programs Acrobat Reader... Compression function is only available on checkout paid subscription... The utility is installed without any problems, so let's get to work right away.From the initial menu, go to the "File" tab. Click on the "Open" item and select the document. IN this example we will use a textbook weighing 69.9 MB. It consists entirely of scanned pages printed edition... You can also open the document by clicking on it in file manager... Go to the menu shown in the screenshot.
We leave the default values \u200b\u200bin the called window. Select the location to save the compressed pdf. The sample file now weighs 33.3 MB. The compression was performed for about two minutes. Image quality has deteriorated. This may not be visible on a website or computer. However, after printing, illustrations will be indistinct or even blurry. The disadvantage of this method is that there is no flexible configuration for an advanced user.
If installation is required additional parametersthen the optimizer will help. We open the document we need. Click on the button shown in the illustration below.
The settings are few, but they look difficult to master. Let us give the main definitions. They are located in the left menu "Pictures". Downsampling determines the resolution of the images. To the right of the parameter, you can set ppi (pixels per inch). It is highly not recommended for use when printing. Recommended when placing illustrations on the site. Below you can set the type of compression. ZIP is used for simple, single color images. JPEG - for any images. Its improved version is JPEG2000.
After setting up, select the location to save the file. Let's compare the quality of the optimized document and the original. On the left is the original file, on the right is the compressed file.
The quality changes are invisible even when the picture is enlarged three times.
Using third-party software
For the role free equivalent PDF Compressor will do.
The intuitive interface and low weight of the program will appeal to any user. In the upper left part of the window, click the “Add Files” button to open the document. You can also drag the file directly to the workspace of the program.
For optimization, click “Start Compression”. The button is at the top center. First, you need to set the compression parameters by clicking the “Compression Settings” button.
After opening the settings menu, you will be notified of the purchase of a license. She is needed for fine tuning compression. Click “Continue”, in the tabs “Compression” and “Optimization” check the boxes. Close the window and click “Start Compression”.
During the compression process, the weight of the example textbook decreased from 69.9 MB to 56.9 MB. Let's compare the quality. On the left - the document before optimization, on the right - after.
The result is worse than that of Adobe Acrobat Reader. Now in compressed file distortion is noticeable. The advantage of the program is that you can compress the file absolutely free of charge. As a result, worse quality and larger size. The utility logo is also added to the first page.
Using WinRAR
WinRAR - free program with the possibility of purchasing a license. Created to put files in an archive and then compress them. This does not change the quality. You can extract the original from the archive at any time.The utility workspace shows file system your computer. Select the folder to create the archive. Click on “Add”. The button is in the left upper corner... Before us is the archive settings menu.
We are interested in the "Compression method" drop-down list in the "General" tab.
Their names speak for themselves. High-speed, less time consuming, also having a low compression ratio. The maximum has opposite characteristics.
Documents from the "Files" tab are added.
The file from the example was compressed for several seconds. The file weight has changed from 69.9 MB to 68.3 MB. Conclusion: WinRAR does not work well with pdf files. The advantage of the program is that the original is preserved unchanged.
Via the ILovePdf online service
A convenient solution is web services for working with pdf files. ILovePdf can not only edit the contents of the file, but also reduce its size.
We start by pressing the big red button “Select PDF files”. An explorer will open, where we will indicate the path to the pdf document.
After selecting from below, the compression settings will appear. They do not need comments. Let's leave the recommended parameters. At the very bottom is the Compress PDF button. Let's click on it.
After the compression process, we get to new page and press the big red button again.
In the screenshot above, we were also informed about the document weight changes. Instead of 69.9 MB, the textbook now weighs 55.9 MB. The result is similar to that of the PDF Compressor application. The difference is that you don't need to download or install anything. Let's compare the quality. On the left is the optimized document, on the right is the original.
A slight loss of quality is noticeable, it does not affect the perception of information.
Using the SmallPdf online service
This service allows you to upload files from Google Drive or DropBox. From a computer, documents are sent through the explorer or by dragging and dropping a file into the browser window.
Click on the big red button. You don't need to click anything to reduce the size of the pdf file. It happens immediately after loading. Then we download the document by clicking on the “Download file” button.
From the service, the document can be sent to Google Drive or DropBox (adjacent buttons). The illustration shows the size of the compressed document. The file size has changed from 69.9 MB to 59.2 MB. Somewhat more than the previous service. Let's check the quality. On the left is the compressed pdf, on the right is the original.
SmallPdf was able to compress the file with virtually no loss in quality. The downside of the service is the lack of compression settings.
Concluding, archivers do not work well with PDF documentsand the best compression method is online services and a standard Adobe tool.
PDF files with an abundance of graphic elements look nice, but transfer them via e-mail - sheer torment due to the large size of such documents. It is not necessary to wait long for the file to be attached to the message, because you can reduce its size with virtually no loss of quality. Fortunately, there are plenty of ways to do this - choose what you want.
It is worth noting, however, that half of the methods listed below are only feasible with Adobe's Acrobat DC installed on your PC. This is a paid product, but the 30-day trial is completely free. It is available on the official Adobe Systems web site.
With CutePDF or another PDF converter
You can reduce the size of a PDF file using one of the converters, for example, CutePDF. It allows you to translate files from any format available for printing to PDF, as well as resize the document, increasing or decreasing the quality of images and text. When you install this product, a virtual printer is created in the system, which, instead of printing documents, converts them to PDF format.
1. Download CutePDF from the official site (free) and install. Do not forget to install the converter with it, otherwise nothing will happen after clicking on the "Print" button.
2. Open the file in a program that supports its format and has the ability to print documents. If it's a PDF file, you can open it in Adobe Reader; and if the file is in doc or docx format, Microsoft Word... Click on the "File" menu item and select "Print".
3. When the print preferences window opens, select CutePDF Writer from the list of printers.
4. Click on the "Printer Properties" button, in the window that opens, click on the "Advanced" button and select the quality of displaying the content. To compress the file to the desired size, select a quality lower than the original.
5. Click on the "Print" button and save the file to the desired location. Only PDF is available for saving, regardless of what format the document was originally in.
Using online tools
If you don't want to download and install anything, then you can compress the PDF file online. Compressing and converting documents online is fast and convenient.
1. Find a suitable tool on the Internet, such as Smallpdf. Unlike other similar online tools, here the user is not limited by the size and number of uploaded documents.
2. Having entered the site, upload the required document to it. This can be done by clicking on the label and selecting the file through the explorer, or by dragging the file with the left mouse button and dropping it in the required area. You can also add a document from Dropbox or c « Google driveand".
3. At the end of the process, click on the "You can save the file" button and select a place for it on your PC. To download condensed document to Google Drive or Dropbox, click the appropriate icon on the right side of the button.
In addition to Smallpdf, there are many other online compressors on the Internet: Compress PDF, Online2pdf, PDFzipper and others. Some allow you to upload files up to 50 MB in size, the second - up to 100 MB, others have no restrictions at all, but they do their job at about the same level.
In Adobe Acrobat
Shrink pDF file you can do it in Adobe Acrobat DC, but not in the free Adobe Reader.
1. Having opened the document in "Acrobat", click on the "File" menu item, then select "Save as other" and click on the line "PDF file of reduced size".
2. Click in the drop-down list on the version of the program with which your document should be compatible. By choosing the most new version, you can compress the file as much as possible, but there is a risk that it will become inaccessible in previous versions "Acrobat".
3. Click on the "Ok" button, wait for the compression process to finish and save the compressed document to the desired location.
Another PDF Compression Method in Adobe Acrobat DC
If you have Adobe Acrobat installed and you need to compress a document located on your PC, it is much more expedient to use the previous method. The same method can be applied when the required file is uploaded, say, to Google Drive, and you need to download it, reducing the size along the way.
1. Log into Google Drive with your account, double-click the PDF you want to compress and click on the printer icon to open the print screen.
2. In the window that opens, click on the drop-down list and select the line Adobe PDF.
3. By clicking on the "Properties" button, you will open another window, where you need to select the "Paper and Print Quality" tab, and then click on the "Advanced" button at the bottom of the window.
4. In the drop-down list (see the screenshot below) select the desired document quality, at the bottom of the window, click on the "Ok" button, then in the next two windows also click on "Ok".
5. Save the thumbnail file to your PC.
With Adobe Acrobat and Microsoft Word
The essence of this method of compressing PDF documents is that you first convert the file from one format to another, and then do the reverse conversion.
1. Open a PDF document with Adobe Acrobat, go to the File menu and select Save As.
2. Click on the "Choose another folder" button, then select the file type " Word document (* .docx) "and the save location. Click on "Save".
3. With the document open in Microsoft Word, click on the "File" item and select the "Save as Adobe PDF" sub-item.
Using the PDF Optimizer
This method of reducing the size of PDF files is also not complete without the use of software from Adobe Systems.
1. Open the document you want to reduce using Adobe Acrobat. Then go to the "File" menu, click on the "Save as Other" line and select "Optimized PDF File" to launch the PDF optimizer.
2. In the opened "PDF Optimization" window, click on the "Estimate space usage" button to understand which elements take up how much space in the file (in bytes and in percentages).
3. After evaluating what can be reduced and what makes no sense to compress, close the window by clicking on the "Ok" button and set the required compression parameters. To do this, in the left part of the window, left-click on this or that item, and in the right part, change the parameters.
4. You can delete images, make them black-and-white from color, compress, change resolution, change built-in fonts, etc. "Having played enough" with the parameters, click on the "OK" button and save the optimized file to the desired directory.
Method to compress PDF files on Mac OS X
PDF documents created operating system Mac OS X is noticeably larger in size than files with the same content created with Adobe Acrobat. If you are a Mac OS X user and would like to reduce the size of the PDF file you created, do the following:
- Open the TextEdit application, then in the program menu, click on the "File" item, and then select "Print".
- In the lower left corner of the window that opens, you will see a button with the name PDF. Click on it, and then on the line "Compress PDF" in the drop-down list. As a result, you will end up with a more compact PDF.
Archiving a file
To make the document take up less space on your computer, you can archive it using one of the archivers, for example, 7Zip or WinRAR. Both programs are quite popular, but the first is distributed free of charge, and for using the second over a limited period trial versionwill have to pay.
To compress a document using 7Zip archiver, click on the file right click mouse, then left-click the manipulator first on the line 7Zip, and then on the inscription "Add to" file_name ". Then the archive will be created automatically.
If you want to set certain parameters before archiving, select the "Add to archive" line. Then a window will open, as in the screenshot below.
Using the archiver, you can significantly reduce the size of the document, as well as create an archive consisting of several files, compressed and combined with each other. This will greatly facilitate their storage and transmission by email. Just before sending the zipped PDF file, make sure that the recipient also has an archiver installed, otherwise he will not be able to open the archive.
Note: Adobe Acrobat and Adobe Reader are not the same thing. Reader is free, but its set of functions for editing PDF-files is extremely limited, so you can reduce the size of documents only in Acrobat. However, Adobe Acrobat is a paid program. And if you do not have it and you do not want to buy it, use other options for compressing PDF documents that are not related to it.
Having received today from a person whose abilities I do not doubt at all, and who is no stranger to computers and the Internet, a letter with an attachment of three scanned documents with a total weight of 38 megabytes,
i decided to tell him step by step how to reduce the files resulting from the scan.
And then I thought that, for sure, it would be interesting and useful to someone else.
And the link to this page can henceforth be given to people - without additional explanations - receiving from them multi-megabyte letters.
Like this:
"Yes, by the way, I came across a page on the network here, I think you will be interested:
"
So. Let's get started ...
Warning: I think that most of my readers will not be interested in this entry and will not provide any new information.
Don't say I didn't warn you ;-)
0. Start withthat management programs for many scanners allow setting the quality and size of the output file, as well as its format.
In 99.99% of cases, the JPG format, size 1200 * 1600, DPI \u003d 300 will be enough for you, in other cases: 2400 * 3200, corresponding to the size of A4 sheet
But, if it was not possible to configure in the scanner, then it is the guide below that will help us solve everything.
1. So, we have a file scanned from A4 page.
We delivered tIFF format (or our not-so-new scanner refuses to save files in other formats, or it resets our settings every time, or it works quickly, only saving it to TIFF) - I have come across all the above cases and they are all defeated.
The resulting file is an eerie 26 megabytes.
2. Open it in IrfanView.
I recommend this program because I have been using it for viewing images for over 12 years. It's free for non-commercial use and supports many handy plugins. It is best to download it from the official website.
4.and choose the format - JPG
5. Set the file quality 85% - in most cases this is more than enough, and this figure has a very strong effect on the final file size 
7. You can stop at this, but if the file that we are sending will only be viewed on the monitor, without printing, or printed without the need to save high quality, we can make the file smaller... It will take a minute.
We press the key combination Ctrl + R or select "resize image" from the menu:
and reduce the size of the image: 
After that, the "weight" of the file became very small compared to the initial one, less than 1 megabyte
We can finally stop at this.
I will add that depending on the goals, the size and weight of the file can be changed in a very significant range.
Experiment!
How to quickly compress a PDF file
There are three ways to upload a file: drag and drop with the mouse, point to the path on your hard drive, upload from the cloud.
You can also convert a color document to black and white, which will reduce the size of the PDF file.
Compress PDF file online
No need to download or install anything - process PDF files in your browser wherever you like.
Online studio PDF2Go - free and secure alternative standalone programs for processing PDF documents. With this tool, you can downsample images and compress files.
Why compress PDFs?
One important thing to keep in mind when uploading files to the web or sending by email is size. The PDF format is widely used for resumes, all kinds of documents and even homework.
PDF compressor allows you to download and send even those files that may seem "overwhelming".
Secure file compression
By uploading files to PDF2Go, you don't have to worry about security. We guarantee confidentiality and protection from unauthorized access. All operations are performed automatically, and the copyright is yours!
See the Privacy Policy for details.
What files can you compress?
Downsizing is only available for PDF documents. We will automatically convert files to pDF format, and then compress.
With PDF2Go, you can quickly compress any file regardless of the content (be it tables, images or just text).
Documents:
Compress PDF files on any device
You don't need a computer to compress the PDF. Mobile studio PDF2Go is convenient and pleasant, like "coffee to go".
Whether it's a smartphone or tablet, Windows or Mac, Firefox or Internet Explorer - PDF2Go will help out in any situation.