How to Reduce PDF File Size Without Losing Image Quality. How to Compress a PDF File (Working Ways)
PDF files with lots of graphic elements look nice, but transferring them via e-mail- continuous torment due to the large size of such documents. You don't have to wait long for the file to be attached to the email, because you can reduce its size with almost no loss of quality. Fortunately, there are plenty of ways to do this - choose whichever you want.
It is worth noting, however, that half of the methods listed below are feasible only with Adobe's Acrobat DC installed on your PC. This is a paid product, but the 30-day trial version is absolutely free. It is available on the official website of Adobe Systems.
With CutePDF or another PDF converter
You can reduce the size of a PDF file using one of the converters, such as CutePDF. It allows you to convert files from any printable format to PDF, as well as change the size of the document, increasing or decreasing the quality of images and text. When this product is installed, a virtual printer is created in the system, which converts documents to PDF format instead of printing documents.
1. Download CutePDF from the official website (free) and install. Do not forget to install the converter along with it, otherwise nothing will happen after clicking 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, it can be opened in Adobe Reader; and if the file is in doc or docx format, Microsoft Word will do. Click on the "File" menu item and select "Print".
3. When the print settings 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 content display quality. To compress the file to the desired size, choose a quality lower than the original.
5. Click the "Print" button and save the file to Right place. Only PDF is available for saving, regardless of what format the document originally had.
Using online tools
If you do not 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. Going to the site, upload to it desired document. This can be done by clicking on the inscription and selecting the file using the explorer, or by dragging the file with the left mouse button and dropping it in the desired area. You can also add a document from Dropbox or Google Drive.
3. At the end of the process, click on the "You can save the file" button and select a location for it on your PC. To upload a compressed document to Google Drive or Dropbox, click the corresponding 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 do not have any restrictions at all, but they perform their work at approximately the same level.
In Adobe Acrobat
You can also compress a PDF file in Adobe Acrobat DC, but not in the free Adobe Reader.
1. With a document open in Acrobat, click on the File menu item, then select Save As Other and click on the reduced size PDF file line.
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 need to compress a document located on your PC, it is much more appropriate to use the previous method. The same method can be used when the desired 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 file you want to compress, and click 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 screenshot below), select the desired document quality, click on the “OK” button at the bottom of the window, then in the next two windows, also click on “OK”.
5. Save the reduced file to your PC.
Using Adobe Acrobat and Microsoft Word
The essence of this method PDF compression-documents is that you first convert the file from one format to another, and then do the reverse conversion.
1. Open a PDF document through Adobe Acrobat, go to the "File" menu and select "Save As".
2. Click the "Choose a different 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. Next, go to the "File" menu, click on the line "Save as other" and select "Optimized PDF file" to launch the PDF document optimizer.
2. In the “PDF Optimization” window that opens, click on the “Estimate space usage” button to understand which elements take up how much space in the file (in bytes and percentages).
3. After evaluating what can be reduced and what does not make sense to compress, close the window by clicking on the “OK” button and set the necessary compression parameters. To do this, in the left part of the window, left-click on one or another item, and in the right part, change the parameters.
4. You can delete images, convert them from color to black and white, compress them, change resolution, change built-in fonts, etc. "Playing enough" with the parameters, click on the "OK" button and save the optimized file to the desired directory.
Way to Compress PDF Files on Mac OS X
PDF documents created by Mac OS X are noticeably larger than files with the same content created using Adobe Acrobat. If you are a Mac OS X user and would like to reduce the size of the PDF you have 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 get a more compact PDF file.
File archiving
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 one is distributed free of charge, and you will have to pay for using the second one beyond the period limited by the trial version.
To compress a document using the 7Zip archiver, right-click on the file, then left-click on the 7Zip line first, 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 line "Add to archive". Then a window like the one in the screenshot below will open.
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 e-mail. Just before sending an archived PDF file, make sure that the recipient also has an archiver installed, otherwise he will not be able to open the archive.
Note A: Adobe Acrobat and Adobe Reader are not the same thing. Reader is free, but its PDF editing features are extremely limited, so you can only reduce the size of documents 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.
In this lesson, we will learn how to compress a PDF file. different ways and with different quality(corresponding to different PDF file sizes)
Our task: reduce the size of an existing PDF file to send it by mail or if we just need a smaller document size.
What we have in stock: the actual PDF files themselves or the file that/s needs to be reduced in size.
What will we get at the end:
In our case, I suggest using online services for working with PDF files (i.e., all manipulations with PDF files will take place on the sites of the services we need).
From the great abundance of services and sites, I would recommend 2 of them, with the help of which we will reduce our PDF files to the minimum size with maximum compression, or to “decent” compression but maintaining the normal quality of photos in a PDF document.
So I present 2 services for working with PDF files: and. In principle, one service would be enough (SMALLPDF.COM), but the PDF-DOCS.RU service has something that I will talk about a little later in this lesson;)
SMALLPDF.COM
Let's start with the SMALLPDF.COM service. By clicking on the link above, we will see something like this picture:
This service has an intuitive interface, in my opinion, it will not be difficult to figure it out, it will also not work to get lost in the functions. Therefore, in our case it is great option solution to our mini-problem.
Let's say we have a "compress PDF" folder and it contains all the files or one PDF file that needs to be reduced in size (I have 1 PDF file in the folder):
In order to compress the required PDF file, click the "Choose File" button:
After selecting the PDF file we need, the file selection window will close and the service will start manipulating the PDF file. The next thing we will see is the process of preparing and compressing a PDF file:
After passing the stage in “Loading 100%”, the page will be updated and we will see a block with the result of compressing our PDF file “big_file.pdf”:
From this data, we learn that our original file "big_file.pdf" is compressed by 71% ( good result) and that now it "weighs" 2.84 MB, and was originally 10.14 MB. Below we are offered a link to download the already modified file:
Click "Download PDF" and the download of the compressed PDF file will begin:
Finally, in our "compress PDF" folder there are 2 files - an uncompressed file "big_file.pdf" and a compressed PDF file "small_file.pdf":
With this compression service PDF files"SMALLPDF.COM" lesson is over, let's move on to the next service with its distinctive features "PDF-DOCS.RU".
PDF-DOCS.RU
So moving on to . As of this writing, Compressing PDF Files main page this service looked like this:
Why this particular resource was chosen by me to solve our problem: in this service we can achieve higher compression ratio of the PDF file compared to SMALLPDF.COM, but the quality of photos and pictures in the final PDF file (compressed) will be noticeably worse, respectively.
Let's start using the service. What do we have on initial stage: 1 PDF file in raw, uncompressed form:
First, we need to tell the service the PDF file we want to compress. Click on the "Select file" button:
As a result of this, a new window will open in which we will indicate the path to the PDF file. In our case, this is the “compress PDF” folder and the file “big_file.pdf” located in it. Next, we need to set the compression level of the PDF file; for this, there is a special field in the PDF-DOCS.RU service:
We click on this field (I highlighted it in the figure above), we are invited to choose from three options PDF file compression ratio:
In our case (for maximum PDF compression) we use the “best compression” item. Now all the parameters for compression are configured, click the "Forward!" and the service will start downloading our source file and compressing it:
After pressing the button, the server will start its work and a message will appear for the duration of the work:
Some time later, after the PDF-DOCS.RU service has completed all necessary work above the compression of the PDF file, we are informed about the successful completion of the compression:
Based on the presented data, we see that our compressed PDF file now "weighs" only 1.7 MB. This, in my opinion, is a very good result in terms of the quality of images in a PDF file.
Now we need to download our compressed PDF file. To do this, click on the link below in the "Download file:" field. In our case, the link to the file will be called "new-314_big_file.pdf", click on this link to download the file:
Clicking on this link will start the process of downloading the PDF file. In some cases, depending on the browser and settings used, clicking on a download link may cause it to open in the browser. If the file opens in a browser, just save it to your computer.
As a result of our manipulations to compress the PDF file, we have 2 PDF files in the "compress PDF" folder:
As we can see, the source file weighs only 1.7 MB, which is very convenient for sending by e-mail or uploading to the server.
Surely it is not news to you that the pdf format is widely used in all areas of activity due to its “weight” and its image quality. Why did I focus on "weight"? Because usually this 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. Compression 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, the developers of OS Windows strongly recommend using standard file reduction 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.
The question of reducing the size of a pdf file is often raised by an active computer user. conditioned big weight scanned images. Because of this, the document takes up hundreds of megabytes of disk space. Let's consider the problem in more detail.
With Adobe Reader
You can reduce the size of a document using the free version of Adobe Acrobat Reader. The compression feature is only available with a paid subscription. The utility is installed without problems, so let's get to work right away.From the start menu, go to the “File” tab. Click on the “Open” item and select the document. In this example, we will use a 69.9 MB textbook. It consists entirely of scanned pages of the printed edition. You can also open a document by clicking on it. file manager. Go to the menu shown in the screenshot.
We leave the default values in the called window. Choose a location to save the compressed pdf. The example file now weighs 33.3 MB. Compression was performed for about two minutes. The image quality has deteriorated. On a website or computer, this may not be noticeable. However, after printing, the illustrations will be fuzzy or completely blurry. The disadvantage of this method is that there is no flexible setting for an advanced user.
If you need to set additional parameters, then the optimizer will help. We open the document we need. Click on the button shown in the illustration below.
There are few settings, but they look difficult to master. Let's define the main ones. They are located in the left menu "Images". Downsampling determines the resolution of images. To the right of the parameter, you can set ppi (number of pixels per inch). Highly recommended for printing. It is advised when placing illustrations on the site. Below you can set the type of compression. ZIP is used for simple images dominated by one color. JPEG - for any images. Its improved version is JPEG2000.
After setting, choose a location to save the file. Let's compare the quality of the optimized document and the original. Left - original file, right - compressed.
Changes in quality are imperceptible even when the picture is enlarged three times.
Using third party software
PDF Compressor is suitable for the role of a free analogue.
An intuitive interface and a small weight of the program will appeal to any user. In the upper left part of the window, you must click the “Add Files” button to open the document. You can also drag the file directly into the program's workspace.
To optimize, click “Start Compression”. The button is at the top center. First you need to set the compression settings by clicking the “Compression Settings” button.
After opening the settings menu, you will be notified to purchase a license. It is needed to fine-tune the compression. Click “Continue”, check the boxes in the “Compression” and “Optimization” tabs. Close the window and click “Start Compression”.
During the compression process, the weight of the textbook from the example decreased from 69.9 MB to 56.9 MB. Compare quality. On the left - the document before optimization, on the right - after.
The result is worse than Adobe Acrobat Reader. Now the compressed file is distorted. The advantage of the program is that you can compress the file absolutely free. As a result - the worst quality and larger size. The utility logo is also added to the first page.
With WinRAR
winrar- free program with the option to purchase a license. Designed to place files in an archive and then compress them. The quality does not change. You can extract the original from the archive at any time.The workspace of the utility shows the file system of your computer. Select a folder to create the archive. Click on "Add". The button is in the upper left corner. Before us is the archive settings menu.
We are interested in the drop-down list “Compression method” in the “General” tab.
Their names speak for themselves. High-speed less time-consuming, also having a low compression ratio. The maximum has the opposite characteristics.
Documents are added from the Files tab.
The compression of the file from the example took several seconds. The file weight has changed from 69.9 MB to 68.3 MB. Conclusion: WinRAR does not work well with pdf files. Plus program - the original is preserved unchanged.
Using the online service ILovePdf
A convenient solution is web services for working with pdf-files. ILovePdf can not only edit the contents of a 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, the compression settings will appear below. They don't need comments. Leave the recommended settings. 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 changes in the weight of the document. 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 do not need to download or install anything. Compare quality. On the left is the optimized document, on the right is the original.
A slight loss of quality is noticeable, the perception of information is not affected.
Using the SmallPdf online service
This service allows you to upload files from Google Drive or DropBox. Documents are sent from a computer through Explorer or by dragging a file into a browser window.
Click on the big red button. You don't need to click anything to reduce the size of a pdf file. It happens right after loading. Then download the document by clicking on the “Download file” button.
From the service, the document can be sent to Google Drive or DropBox (neighboring buttons). The illustration shows the volume of the compressed document. The file size has changed from 69.9 MB to 59.2 MB. A little more than the previous service. Let's check the quality. Left - compressed pdf, right - original.
SmallPdf was able to compress the file with almost no quality loss. The downside of the service is the lack of compression settings.
In conclusion, archivers do not work well with PDF documents, and best method compression is online services and the standard Adobe tool.
If you work with PDF files, then you probably know that they can be large sizes due to the content of images and graphics. Fortunately, it is possible to compress PDF files even without losing quality, thereby reducing its 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 reduce your PDF is to use a free online tool called SmallPDF.com. The site is great (not filled with spam ads etc) and it does a good job of reducing the size of large PDF files. It is very convenient that you can use it anywhere and anytime. operating system, and even supports the new HTML 5 drag and drop functionality.
Go to the site and click on Compress PDF. Then click on Drop PDF here Choose file and find the desired PDF file to compress on your computer. After 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 compressed file.
Another online tool I use to compress PDFs is Neevia Compress PDF. It has many functions: high compression/low image quality or low compression/high image quality, etc.
The second way is with a free program
PDF Compressor is a freeware program that you can download for Windows XP/Vista/7/8 that allows you to quickly and efficiently reduce the size of one or more PDF files. You can download from http://www.pdfcompressor.org
It supports lossless compression, so you won't see quality degradation in PDF. It also supports encrypted PDF documents and can work with several or even thousands of PDF files at the same time.
The third way is Adobe Acrobat PDF Optimizer
Starting with version 7 in Adobe Acrobat, there is a new feature in the Advanced menu called PDF Optimizer.
Now you are taken to a screen that has a whole bunch of settings!
Click the Audit space usage button in the top right corner to get a detailed list of each PDF component and how much space it uses.
As you can see, there are many things you can do to reduce the size of a 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 helpful, especially if your images are really a high resolution. If the PDF does not need to be printed, you can reduce the quality and number of pixels per inch. You only need 72 pixels to view 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 that you can then attach to an email or post on a website. If you are using another method not mentioned above for shrinking PDFs, please let us know in the comments. Thank you.