Many PC users face the problem not knowing how to reduce pdf size document to make it more compact. This article will clarify your doubts about choosing a desktop converter program or online service to compress a PDF file.
PDF (for Portable Document Format) is a format created by Adobe Systems using the capabilities of the PostScript language. It is platform independent and designed for electronic presentation of printed products, documentation and presentations.
PDF documents are suitable for the exchange of information between users around the world.
Benefits of PDF format:
- cross-platform - the document can be seen as it was created, regardless of the platform;
- compactness, supports many information compression algorithms;
- machine independence (it can be printed on a printer and printing unit);
- multimedia (supports videos and audio tracks, hypertext elements, as well as page previews);
- safety. The creators of the file can set security options, including the ability to lock (open, change or print after entering a password).
PDF document can be opened using free version Adobe Reader or plugin available in most browsers. V Google chrome this format is supported even without installing a plugin. Editing a file in PDF is possible in the paid version of the program Adobe reader... Also, many programs have been developed for this format and converting documents from it.
PDF files can include photographs, text information, shapes, and more. The displayed document does not depend on the platform type: in Windows and Mac OS it will look the same on the screen and when printed.
Why compress PDF files?
The size of a pdf file often reaches tens of megabytes due to the volume and abundance of graphic elements. This can be difficult when sending files by email or when hosted in cloud storage.
Consider free tools for compressing a pdf file and reducing its size: online services, as well as applications for Windows.
Are you looking for a way to compress your PDF document? In our article, you will learn how to reduce the size of a pdf file, and choose the appropriate option.
Using converters
CutePDF will allow you to translate a file that is available for printing into PDF, reduce it to the required size.
Install CutePDF by downloading it for free from the official website. First, the document must be opened in a PDF-compatible program that can be printed. It is better to do this in Adobe Reader or in Microsoft Word... Click on "File" and then "Print".
When the window with settings for printing opens, you should select CutePDF Writer from the list of printers.
Hover the mouse over "Printer properties", in the window go to "Advanced" and make a choice in what quality will be displayed its content. To compress the file, mark a quality level lower than the original document. Click on "Print" and then save as PDF.
Adobe Reader Pro DC
First, open the document in Adobe Acrobat DC, click on "File", "Save as Other" and then on "Reduced Size PDF File".
Then you need to select the programs in the drop-down list with which you need compatibility for the document. If you turn your attention to latest version, you will be able to compress the file as much as possible, but there is a risk that the recipient will not be able to open it in older versions of the program.
After clicking "OK", wait for the compression procedure to complete, and then you can save the file to the desired location.
It is advisable to use the same method if the file is located on " Google drive e ”, and you need to download it, having reduced the size beforehand.
Go to Google Drive, double-click on the PDF file you want to compress, and then on the printer symbol to open the print screen.
In a new window that opens in front of you, select Adobe PDF from the drop-down list. By clicking on the "Properties" button, you will see a new window in which you should go to the "Paper and Print Quality" tab, and then on the "Advanced" button at the bottom of the window.
In the drop-down list select the quality of the file, at the bottom of the window click "OK", then in 2 more windows - "OK". Save the document to your computer.
Microsoft Word
How to reduce pdf file size using Word and Acrobat?
This method consists in converting the file from the 1st format to the 2nd, and then in reverse conversion.
First, open the PDF file in Adobe Acrobat, in the "File" menu, click on "Save As", "Select another folder", specify the file type "* .docx" and the location where it will be located on the PC. After clicking the Save button, open the document in Word, select File and Save As Adobe PDF.
PDF Compressor
With the help of PDF Compressor, you can reduce the pdf file for publication on the website, in social networks and sending by e-mail. This service will not reduce the density of the document (DPI), the sharpness when scaling and printing is preserved.
By clicking on the "Upload" button, you can select up to 2 dozen files. You can drag them to the download area and wait for the processes to finish. Download condensed documents by clicking on their icons, or all files in the form of a ZIP archive.
Archiving
To make the file take up less space on your PC, you can archive it using one of the popular programs: WinRAR or 7Zip.
To compress a document using 7Zip, hover right button mouse on the file, and the left - on the line 7Zip, select the inscription "Add to" file_name ", and the archive will appear on the screen. Before compression begins, you can specify some characteristics by selecting "Add to Archive".
Using an archiver, you can compress a file or create an archive of several documents, which makes it easier to send them by e-mail. Before sending the archive to the recipient, you need to clarify whether he has this archiver installed.
Online converters
Smallpdf online service
This service is simple in functionality, but it has additional features: Import a document from Dropbox or Google Drive and then save it to cloud storage after the end of the online compression procedure.
V this service produced presetting to compress the file up to 144 dpi, therefore different compression rates are possible. For example, a file with a size of 6 Megabytes can be compressed by 2 times, while the quality will not decrease.
But it happens that a file whose size is 100 megabytes will be compressed to 88 megabytes due to the use of elementary algorithms to reduce the file size.
iLovePDF
In iLovePDF, you can upload a document from your own PC, as well as from cloud service Dropbox or Google Drive, and then select the compression level. The more compression you use, the worse the quality of the output file. A 100 MB file is compressed to 50 MB at maximum compression.
PDF files are quickly compressed for free, without restrictions on the use of the service, with automatic deletion from the service within an hour. The service is limited to downloading 1 file at a time.
Free PDF Compressor
This program is not regularly updated, but works fine on Windows 10, Windows XP, and others. If online tools are not available, Free PDF Compressor can be useful.
Free PDF Compressor will give you the opportunity to choose 1 of 5 presets for compressing a pdf file. Specify the parameters, the path to the saved file and select "Compress".
Optimizing PDF
You can open the document in Adobe Acrobat. By clicking on "File" in the menu, click on "Save as another", and then on "Optimized PDF file».
In the Optimize PDF window, click on Estimated Space Usage. After its implementation, you will understand what and by how many percent you can compress. Then you should close the window by clicking "OK", select the compression characteristics. Using left button mouse, click on the selected compression rate, and on the right, change the characteristics to achieve the required level of quality.
You can delete photos, convert them to black and white, compress, change the resolution, as well as fonts, etc., and then save the document to the desired folder.
Please note that many converting and compressing programs can be downloaded for free on the official websites.
Choose a program or online service based on your requests for the quality and compression ratio of the document.
When choosing the version of the format in which you save the file, make an allowance for the fact that the addressee may not have the latest version of the program and, therefore, he will not be able to access the document you sent.
Conclusion
On many modern PCs, the size hard drives is several terabytes. However, each megabyte is valuable if you need to quickly transfer a file over e-mail or place on the Internet. We hope that you have found all the information you need about pdf file compression and that you were able to follow our recommendations.
If you work with PDF files, you probably know that they can be large due to the content of images and graphics. Fortunately, you can compress PDF files even without losing quality, thereby reducing their 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 shrink your PDF is to use a free online tool called SmallPDF.com. The site is great (not filled with spam ads, etc.) and does a good job of downsizing large files PDF. It is very convenient that you can use it anywhere and in any operating system, and even supports new function drag and drop HTML 5.
Go to the website and click on Compress PDF. Then click on Drop PDF here Choose file and find the required PDF file to compress on your computer. After that, 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 the compressed file.
Another online tool that I use to compress PDFs is Neevia Compress PDF. It has many features, high compression / low image quality or low compression / high image quality, etc.
The second way is with a free program
PDF Compressor - free program which you can download for Windows XP / Vista / 7/8, which allows you to quickly and efficiently reduce the size of one or more PDF files. You can download it from the link http://www.pdfcompressor.org
It supports lossless compression, so you won't see quality degradation in PDF. It also supports encrypted PDFs and can work on multiple or even thousands of PDFs at the same time.
Third way - Adobe Acrobat PDF Optimizer
Starting with version 7 in Adobe Acrobat, there is a new feature in the Advanced menu called PDF Optimizer.
You are now taken to a screen that has a whole bunch of settings!
Click the Audit space usage button on the right upper corner to get a detailed list of each component of the PDF and how much space it uses.
As you can see, there are various things you can do to reduce the size of your 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 really have a high resolution... If the PDF does not need to be printed, you can reduce the quality and pixels per inch. You only need 72 pixels to view it 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, after which you can attach to an email or post on the site. If you are using a different method not mentioned above for shrinking PDFs, please let us know in the comments. Thank you.
PDF file size can be large for two reasons:
- high quality of documents, for example, when scanning a high resolution was selected;
- a large number of pages in the document, while sometimes only one or several pages are needed from the entire document.
How to save a single page from a multi-page PDF file
We will use the smallpdf.com resource. Upload your document to the site and select the pages you want in the final document. The selection can be made with the mouse or simply indicate the required page numbers. Then click the "Split PDF" button and download the file with the result. Thus, you can remove one page, and also leave one page in the document.
Also, you can simply print the necessary pages from the document on a virtual PDF printer, how to do this is described in detail.
How to reduce the size of a PDF file
Some people try to compress PDF files with archivers (an excellent article on that), but this does not give a serious result, since any images are almost not compressed, so you need to act differently - reduce the quality of documents.
It is better to use the same site smallpdf.com for compression. Upload your document and click Compress PDF. In most cases, the size of the original document will be reduced dramatically.
Sometimes the size can decrease several times, while the quality, of course, will deteriorate, but it is completely uncritical.
Read our other articles about working with PDF format and new questions, we will be happy to help you!
If you need to forward a document, PDF- ideal format compatible with operating Windows systems, Mac and Linux. PDF files are not only versatile, but also well protected, which allows you to assign passwords for especially important documents. However, PDFs can often be cumbersome, making them difficult to send. Fortunately, there are tools to reduce the size of such files.
Reduce PDF file size
One of the simple and effective ways is using Adobe Acrobat Reader. Open the program, then open PDF file you want to do less. Please 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 PDFs using the functions available in the application View (Preview).Open the file PDF via Preview and go to the menu File > Export.
Select filter Quartz and then select Reduce file size (Reduce file size). Click on Save (Save) to finish compressing the file.
Compress PDF file online
On the Internet, you can also find many free tools that can compress your PDF files.Smallpdf
Smallpdf, a free PDF editing site, helps you reduce size easily and easily required files PDF online. The site includes an automatic compression feature which makes the process very fast. Then you can upload yourself a new compressed file.The file compression process itself consists of two stages. Go to Smallpdf and drag your file to the box with your mouse or click Choose file (Select a file) to find and download the PDF from your computer:
Wait for it to start automatic process compression, then upload yourself the finished file.
PDF Creator
PDF Creator is a program with several interesting features that can help you create PDF files easily. During installation PDF Creator creates a virtual printer that allows you to save documents (Word, Excel, etc.) in the format PDF.After installation install PDF Creator, open the file with Acrobat Reader ... Click on Seal and choose virtual printer PDF Creator (PDF Creator virtual printer).
Then open Properties > Paper / Quality and press Additionally.
Please 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: © Artem Samokhvalov - Shutterstock.com
There is often a need reduce the size of the PDF document, which is already created. For these purposes, the easiest way is to use Adobe program Acrobat (Standard or Professional versions). For instance, Adobe version Acrobat 7.0 is now available for free download from the Adobe website (registration may be required). I draw your attention to the fact that for these purposes the usual PDF viewer (i.e. Acrobar Reader) is not suitable! What you need is a PDF document editor.
For information... PDF file cannot be reduced if it is made of vector objects, i.e. for example from text Microsoft applications Office (Word, Excel) or AutoCAD - because vector graphics always take up a minimum of space, unlike raster graphics. Therefore, this solution will help you a lot, most likely only when compressing scanned documents into PDF, i.e. created from bitmaps.
So, open the PDF file that you want to compress, go to the menu "File" - "Save as Other" and select the item "Reduced Size PDF File":
Next, you need to select the version with which the resulting compressed reduced PDF file will be compatible. The newer the version you select, the smaller the file size will be. But keep in mind that if you select, for example, the version "Acrobat 10.0 and higher", the file may not open in version 7, 8, or 9, i.e. previous. But now most of the users are using Acrobat Reader version 10 and higher, so there should be no problem. And if not, then more new version PDF viewers can be freely downloaded and installed.
By the way, this opportunity can be used if needed. reduce PDF size of multiple files at once! It is very convenient when there are many of them, so as not to open each separately:
After clicking the "OK" button - select a location to save the finished reduced PDF file, and give it a name. At the expense of some loss of quality, the document will take up less space than usual.