This article presents 6 online PDF compression services that can help you reduce the size of a PDF file online. Why is it necessary to reduce the size of a PDF?
The popular PDF format often saves various documents, instructions, e-books, etc. This format has its advantages: on any computer, in any operating system, the file looks the same.
Everything is fine, but there is one significant problem: the files saved in PDF format are quite large.
Sometimes, due to the size of the file, the following problems arise:
- files take up a lot of space on a disk, portable device (flash drive), mobile device;
- it happens that large files take a long time to open in applications for viewing files of this format;
- there are often restrictions on sending large files by email.
The solution to this problem is quite simple: you need to reduce the size of the PDF online, or with the help of an appropriate program. In this article, we will look at instructions on how to compress PDF online using specialized Internet services.
There are quite a few services on the network for working with PDF files, which, among other things, can compress PDFs online.
Even if such a function is not often in demand, the user should have in the bookmarks services that will help reduce PDF online if necessary. For example, a colleague recently contacted me for help. She needed to send a scanned document in PDF format to a government agency, but they did not accept incoming attachments larger than 2 MB. Thanks to specialized services, we were able to easily reduce the PDF file online.
Try compression on different services in order to find the best balance between file quality and compression ratio that suits you for a particular document.
How to compress PDF file online with iLovePDF
The online service, among other things, reduces the file size in PDF format. This service has 3 types: unregistered (free), registered (free) and premium.
Compression of one PDF file up to 160 MB is available without registration, and up to 200 MB for a registered user.
Click on the "Select PDF file" button, or drag the file from your computer to the area below the button.
Please note that there are dedicated buttons next to it for downloading a PDF file from Google Drive and Dropbox cloud storage. In this case, the PDF file will be uploaded to the service from the "cloud", reduced in size, and then, if necessary, returned back to the cloud storage.
Thanks to the rendering process, the downloaded file will be displayed in the service window.
- extreme compression (high compression ratio, worst quality);
- recommended compression (good compression ratio, good quality);
- low compression (low compression ratio, high quality);
Choose the one that suits you best to reduce PDF weight. The "Recommended compression" option is selected by default.
After processing is complete, the service page will display information about the compression ratio of this PDF file.
Click on the "Download Compressed PDF" button to download the file to your computer, or click on the corresponding button to send the compressed file to the cloud storage. Here you can get a link to send the file to another user.
How to Reduce PDF Online to Smallpdf
Service for working with files in PDF format. The service can be used free of charge up to two times (performing an operation) in one hour.
There are no compression settings on this service, the settings are optimized to obtain a high quality compressed file. Drag a file from your computer to a special area, or select a file to upload from your computer, or from cloud storage (Dropbox and Google Drive are supported).
After the PDF file is reduced in size, the page displays information about the PDF compression rate. Then you can download the file to your computer, save it to the cloud storage, convert the compressed PDF file to JPG format, or sign the file with eSign.
How to reduce PDF online with PDF Compressor
The website of the PDF Compressor service claims that when compressing a PDF file, the document density (DPI) is not reduced, the clarity and scaling are preserved.
The service allows batch processing of files. Upload up to 20 files (there is a limit on the file size), wait for the compression process to finish.
After that, the page will display the size of the file compression. The compressed PDF file is saved to your PC in a ZIP archive.
How to reduce PDF size online at Jinapdf.com
Another service for working with PDF files is. They promise fast compression without loss of quality. This service is completely free.
Click on the "Select PDF File" button and then wait for the PDF compression process to complete.
Download the compressed file to your computer.
Compress PDF file to PDF2Go
A free online service works with files of this format. To transfer a PDF file from a PC to the service, click on the "Upload local files" button, or select to upload a file from the cloud storage (Dropbox, Google Drive), or provide a link (URL) to the file.
After downloading, you need to select the quality settings for the PDF file. The following quality options are available:
- Screen (high quality, 72 dpi) is the default setting.
- Minimum quality (40 dpi).
- E-book (high quality image, 150 dpi).
- Printer (high quality, 300 dpi).
- Print preparation (high quality, color preservation, 300 dpi).
Optionally, you can select the Extra Compression: All Pages in Grayscale setting.
Select the quality you want and then click on the Compress PDF button.
How to reduce PDF size on Pdfio
Go to pdfio.co, select one or more PDF files. Upload files from your computer, from cloud storage (Dropbox, Google Drive), using a link from the site, or drag and drop files onto the page.
After uploading the file to the service, select one of the compression options:
- Low compression ratio, high image quality.
- Medium compression, medium image quality.
- High compression ratio, poor image quality.
Then download the compressed PDF to your computer.
Conclusions of the article
The user can compress a PDF file on one of 6 specialized online services: iLovePDF, Smallpdf, PDF Compressor, Jinapdf, PDF2Go, Pdfio. After processing, the compressed file will be smaller.
Good day!
PDF files seem to be good for everyone, but they have one cornerstone ... The fact is that the size of some PDF-focks is far from "ideal", often when they weigh even 100 ÷ 500 MB, sometimes it reaches 1 GB! Moreover, this file size is not always justified: i.e. it doesn't have some very high-precision graphics that take up so much space.
Of course, when you are dealing with such a size, it becomes difficult to transfer it to other PCs, tablets, phones. (for example, the phone may simply not have enough memory for a dozen of these files!) .
In such cases, you can "slightly" reduce the size of the PDF by compressing it. Compression, by the way, can be done in different ways. Actually, this is what today's article will be about ...
By the way! If you remove some pages from a PDF document, then you can reduce its size due to this. If this option suits you, then I recommend this note:
Method number 1: archiving
Perhaps the most straightforward and obvious is to add PDFs to the archive. Thus, sometimes, it is possible to significantly reduce the size they occupy. In addition, one archive file is much faster and more convenient to copy from one PC to another. (rather than a dozen or even a hundred PDF-foci) .
Addition! The best free archivers for Windows -
To send a file to the archive - just 1-2 clicks of the mouse are enough. For example, in such a popular archiver as 7-Zip (you can also find it in the link above) : just right-click on the file and select "Add to archive ..." ... See screenshot below.
Actually, my file was compressed almost 3 times! See example below.
Advantages of the method:
- after unpacking the archive, the PDF file does not lose its quality;
- ZIP archive formats can open most modern ones;
- one archive file (within which there are hundreds of PDFs) is copied much faster than doing it with the same files without adding them to the archive.
Disadvantages of the method:
- to open a file, you need to extract it from the archive (and not on all PCs / phones / tablets the required archiver can be installed);
- not all files lend themselves equally well to compression: one can be compressed very decently, the other by 0.5% ...
- when choosing some archive formats - it may take a long time to compress the files.
Method number 2: compression using quality reduction (DPI)
DPI is the number of dots per inch. The more dots per inch, the higher the quality of the displayed image (and the more the file weighs). Naturally, when re-saving a PDF file, you can specify a new number of dots per inch (DPI) and thereby reduce the file size (along with its quality).
However, I would like to point out right away that not always with decreasing DPI, the quality of the picture deteriorates (in many cases, you won't notice the difference by eye!).
You can do a similar procedure in many programs : Adobe Acrobat (not to be confused with Adobe Reader), Fine Reader, Cute PDF Writer, Libre Office, etc. Below I will give a couple of free examples ...
1) Libre Office ()
Nice and free office suite (I previously recommended it as an alternative to MS Office). In its arsenal has a program DRAW, which can easily and easily make changes to PDF (including DPI change). Let's take a closer look ...
To start DRAW - start Libre Office, and select "Picture DRAW" from the menu.
A window will open with many options for saving. Here you can change the compression quality, resolution (DPI) and other parameters. In general, I have highlighted the most necessary in the screenshot below.
After specifying the parameters - click the export button to create a new file.
Fast, simple and easy! Is not it?
2) CutePDF Writer ()
This free program, after installation, "creates" a separate special line when printing a document (with the necessary properties for compression) ...
Those. install it, then open some PDF file, say, in Adobe Reader (you can also use any other PDF reader) and press "Print" (combination Ctrl + P).
Then choose the line " CutePDF Writer", and open its" Properties ".
CutePDF Writer Properties
Then you need to open the print quality tab and go to "Advanced".
Here you can set the print quality in DPI (and other parameters).
NOTE.
By the way, you need to install both files that are available on the official website of the program!
Advantages of the method:
- we do not lose compatibility (the file remains the same PDF);
- the operation is pretty fast;
- the DPI change operation can be performed in dozens of different programs.
Cons of the method:
- in some cases, the quality drops dramatically (for example, if you are dealing with schemes and high-quality portfolios - most likely this option will not work).
Method number 3: converting to DjVU format
DjVU format, on average, provides stronger compression than PDF. And I must admit that DjVU is one of the few formats that really competes with it.
To convert from PDF to DjVU, in my opinion, it is most preferable to use one small utility - PdfToDjvuGUI .
PdfToDjvuGUI
Of. site: http://www.trustfm.net/software/utilities/PdfToDjvuGUI.php
Note: please note that the utility sometimes incorrectly reads the "names" of files written in Russian.
PDF to DjVU - small utility
It is very simple to use it: just add the desired file (Add PDF), set the settings (you can leave nothing) and press the button "Generate DjVU"... A "black" window should appear for a while, after which the program will inform you that the file has been re-converted.
By the way, the program will place the DjVU file in the same folder where the original PDF was located. See the screenshot below for an example. Without changing the quality (and the program allows you to change DPI), we managed to reduce the file space occupied by almost 2 times!
PS
Below are a few more online services that can perform a similar conversion operation.
Advantages of the method:
- maximum file compression (i.e. saving disk space!);
- the file can be immediately opened in the reader, just like you do with PDF (i.e. it is not an archive).
Disadvantages of the method:
- large files require significant conversion time;
- when converting, the quality may be "lost" (therefore, check important graphs manually, how they were compressed);
- DjVU format supports fewer programs than PDF.
Method number 4: using online tools
An excellent site for fast compression and conversion from one format to another. Files up to 20-30 MB in size are processed literally within 10-15 seconds! The service does not touch the markup of the document, links, menus, and other elements. Compression takes place at the expense of graphics (that is, the PDI parameter).
Another universal service for quickly converting PDF to DjVU, or for compressing PDF without changing the format. The result can not only be downloaded to your PC, but also immediately sent to a cloud drive: Google Drive, Dropbox ...
There are 3 compression levels available on the service: minimal, normal and extreme. It works very quickly, processes files up to 3-040 MB in 5-10 seconds. (at least that was the case with my ten test files) .
The files were compressed // Service "I love DPF"
I also note that on this service you can split a PDF file into several parts, convert it to other formats, combine several PDFs, etc. In general, this is a rather multifunctional service, I recommend it!
Advantages:
- it is unnecessary to install any programs on your computer;
- services can be used even from mobile devices;
- as a rule, compression of small files on services is faster.
Disadvantages:
- confidentiality (I think not everyone decides to send some of their documents to an unfamiliar service);
- the need to upload / download files to the service (if the Internet is not very fast and there are a lot of files, this will turn into a "headache").
Additions on the topic are welcome ...
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 squeezed. In fact, files also need to be compressed, because in some cases they may not be a couple of kilobytes long. This often applies to books and large articles with pictures.
Quickly compress PDF document can be sent by mail, where a fixed size of the downloaded file is set. When uploading to your website or other resource where you want to save space. There are many options for why this needs to be done, so in the article I will reveal all the known methods.
How to compress PDF online using services
Compressing PDF documents over the Internet is the most popular and convenient way. There are many services to implement the process, which I will describe in this article. Here we go?
pdfcompressor.com
The resource may not be the best, but it is easy and convenient to work with it. To load a document into the resource window, just move it there, or click the button "Download" and select a file on disk. Suppose I take a 19MB book on computer architecture. Now I will upload it to the site and see how efficiently it will compress the document.
As a result, the book shrank by 49%, almost doubled, which means its size is now 9.7 MB.
Compressing PDF format is not the only thing that can be done on the resource. It also converts images and ODT to PDF, converts PDF to DOC and vice versa, the same with HTML, PUB, ePub. The disadvantage of the service is the slow uploading of a large file to the server, so you need to be patient and wait if you decide to compress the file into 100 MB.
ilovepdf.com
The next option for compressing the PDF format is the ilovepdf.com service. Also popular, but that's not important to us, is it? You, as a user, are interested in the effectiveness of this service. We'll check it now.
Having entered the resource, you have two methods of uploading a file to the server - press the button "Select PDF file" or drag it there. I choose the same 19MB computer architecture book. 3 compression options immediately appear in the window - low compression, the recommended and extreme... Depending on the type you choose, the quality of the document will either not suffer, or will suffer more. Let's try extreme compression.
We are waiting for the PDF file to download and the compression process begins. According to my observations, loading occurs at a low level. Approximately 60-70 Kb / s, the Internet is not shitty 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 in almost the same way. It is up to you to choose which one is more convenient. By the way, the components of the document were not affected, that is, images and text.
In addition to the ability to complete the process that we are currently implementing, the resource can do the following useful things:
- Combine and split PDF files;
- Compress PDF;
- Convert PDF to Word, PowerPoint, Excel, JPG and vice versa;
- Insert watermarks into the file;
- Remove security passwords;
- Flip the document at any angle;
- Upload files from the Dropbox cloud and Google Drive.
Note that an unregistered user can upload a file up to 160 MB, after registration, you can upload files up to 200 MB.
smallpdf.com
Practically 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 the resource, and wait for the process to end. The result is almost identical to the previous ones - 9.6 MB.
The compressed file can now 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 a book file to jinapdf.com. Hope this compressor is better than the others.
The result turned out to be much worse than the others, with 19 MB we were able to achieve compression up to 17.4 MB. Therefore, I will not use this option.
Additional tools can be found on the site:
- Convert PDF format to Word, Text, JPG and vice versa;
- Converting images to text;
- Combine PDF;
- Extract PDF;
- Splitting PDF.
In short, nothing new and all services are eerily similar to each other.
pdfio.co
You can download a document from a cloud computer or via a link, as well as using a drag and drop method. After loading, we wait a bit and see the result.
So, a beautiful and pleasant interface gave us the worst result - 18.2 MB. Probably worse can be the absence of any compression.
You can compress pdf without loss of quality, for this you need to select "Low compression ratio", or slightly worsen the image quality by selecting the "High compression ratio" option.
In addition to the "unique" functions that are on the resource, you may have noticed the item "Online text recognition". The top panel contains image compression options, various converters and converters from MP4 to GIF.
pdf.io
A very basic website with a big button "Select a file" with which you need to select a PDF document. There are download options from the cloud or from a link.
In this case, we 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 to Dropbox or Google Drive.
pdf2go.com
Guys last hope. I move on 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 the programs is less convenient, since you need to find a worthwhile option, download and install. Fortunately, I have put together a few options that keep up with their brethren - 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 "Reduced PDF File Size" option. This feature is only available in the paid version.
Best for viewing PDF. I think this is the most convenient utility, but I did not find the compression function there.
The most effective way to compress a document in our format is to run it in the online tools that I described above, and then compress it using 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 7-ZIP> Add to Archive option.
In the settings, set the same parameters as mine. You can play around, maybe you will achieve better results.
I achieved the following size after compression to archive - 9.66> 8.54. Not much, but sometimes that's enough.
We have covered a bunch of methods on how to compress PDF online or using programs. In fact, I did not consider some options for utilities here, since there are a lot of troubles with them. From the above, we have come to the conclusion that the most effective compression methods are:
Even with a fairly simple converter, you can reduce the size of your PDF document. But here you need to be as careful as possible, not all documents can be compressed using this method. The use of the converter is considered one of the most simple ways to reduce the consumed disk space.
All actions will be performed using the example application PDFConverter:
A reduced file will be stored in the folder specified in the program. 
Online tools
There are a lot of sites on the Internet that allow you to compress a document in any format in just two clicks. For this it is enough:
Attention! For documents containing very important information, it is better not to use such resources. Personal or confidential information can fall into the hands of unauthorized people.
Adobe Acrobat application
You can also try using Acrobat Reader to reduce the file size by saving it again. This method is far from always suitable, in some cases it is the other way around. will increase occupied disk space, so you should be careful with its use:
Compression with Adobe Acrobat DC
This method can reduce the size of very large documents. With pre-compressed files, printing to a file may not help, and in some cases the size will be increased... Therefore, the presented method should be used with the utmost care.
How to use Adobe Acrobat DC:
Printing is completed, now you can enter the catalog in the saved PDF, open him or send by email.
We use Acrobat and Word
This reduction method involves saving it in .doc format in Acrobat DC and converting it back using Microsoft Word or another similar text editor.
Format conversion procedure:
Using the optimizer
Using a dedicated compressor (optimizer) PDF is one of the simplest and most effective ways to reduce size. In this case, the user does not need to perform such difficult actions as printing to a file or changing the format.
All the necessary steps will be shown using the example of the PDF Compressor application:
Archiving files
Archiving can also yield impressive results in size reduction of any type of data. For these actions you will need to use a special archiver(WinRar, 7zip and so on). Attention, to open data compressed in this way, you also need to use an archiver.
How to compress data using 7zip:
The compression is complete, you can now open or unpack the resulting archive.
If you often come across PDF files, then you know that sometimes they can be quite weighty 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'll show you a couple of ways to reduce the size of PDF files. If you have Adobe Acrobat (not free) it's much easier to do this, but we'll only use the free methods.
Method 1 - SmallPDF.com
This is the easiest way to shrink your PDF. Using this free service you can also convert PDF to: Word, PTT, JPG. In general, the functionality is very extensive, but we will return to our goal.
So, go to the site smallpdf.com. Next, at the bottom of the screen, select the language.
Next, click on “ Compress PDF».
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 while the file is uploaded to the server and compressed. When finished, you will receive the following message (see screenshot below).
To download the already reduced PDF file, click the button “ You can save the file". By the way, the service works with Google and DropBox cloud storage, which is very convenient. From the clouds, you can upload files, as well as move already compressed documents to them.
As you can see in the screenshot below, using this online service, it was possible to reduce the file size from 5.46 MB to 3.1 MB. Good enough compression, and it's free
Among other online services, I would also recommend using pdfcompressor.com/ru/ or convertio.co/en/compress-pdf/. I especially liked the last service, if you select a high compression ratio in it, the document size will decrease by 15-20%, although there is no particular loss of quality.
Method 2 - PDF Compressor Program
A wonderful free program for compressing documents in PDF format. You can download it on the official website pdfcompressor.org. Install and start working with the program. First you need to download the file, for this click on the button " Add file"Or just drag the PDF to the center area of the window.
Then click on the button " Start Compression". After 10-15 seconds we will get the result.
The result did not comfort me, as my document was compressed by only 1 KB. But if you work with files over 20 MB, then PDF reduction occurs by 30-40%.
The good thing about compression with PDF Compressor is that the document does not lose quality. It is also useful that in this program you can work with PDF documents in batch mode, compressing simultaneously 100 or more files.
Method 3 - Free PDF Compressor Program
Free and easy to use program. You can download it at freepdfcompressor.com. After installation, go directly to compression.
We load the document by clicking on the button " Browse"On the first line. On the second line, specify the path where the compressed PDF file will be saved.
Next, select the compression format. Of the five presented, I recommend installing “ Printer ...". In this mode, compression occurs with minimal loss of quality (especially my observation).
Now you just have to click on the button " Compress»And wait for the program to finish processing each page of your document.