Program for reducing PDF files. Program for compressing PDF documents

Many PC users face the problem of not knowing how to reduce the size of a PDF document so that it becomes more compact. This article will clear up any doubts you might have about choosing a desktop converter program or an online service to compress a PDF file.

PDF (from Portable Document Format) is a format created by Adobe Systems using the capabilities of the PostScript language. It is platform independent and is designed to present printed products, documentation and presentations in electronic form.

PDF documents are suitable for exchanging information between users around the world.

Advantages of the PDF format:

• cross-platform - the document can be seen as it was created, regardless of the platform;
• compact, 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. File creators can set security options, including the ability to lock (open, edit, or print after entering a password).

You can open a PDF document using free version Adobe Reader or plugin available in most browsers. IN Google Chrome this format is supported even without installing the plugin. Editing a PDF file is possible in the paid version of Adobe Reader. Many programs have also been developed for this format and converting documents from it.

PDF files can include photographs, text information, forms, etc. The appearance of the displayed document does not depend on the type of platform: in Windows and Mac OS it will look the same both on the screen and when printed.

Why do you need to 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 cause difficulties when sending files by e-mail or when placing them in cloud storage.

Let's 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 a PDF document? From 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 convert a printable file into PDF and reduce it to the required size.

Install CutePDF by downloading it for free from the official website. First, the document should be opened in a program that supports the PDF format, with the ability to print. It is better to do this in Adobe Reader or Microsoft Word. Click on "File" and then "Print".

When opening the window with settings for printing, select CutePDF Writer from the list of printers.

Hover your mouse over “Printer Properties”, in the window go to “Advanced” and make a choice in what quality its contents will be displayed. To compress a file, set a quality level lower than the original document. Click on "Print" and then save to PDF.

Adobe Reader Pro DC

First, open the document in Adobe Acrobat DC, click on “File” in the menu, “Save as another” and then on “File in reduced size PDF format”.

Then you need to select programs from the drop-down list with which the document is required to be compatible. If you focus your attention on latest version, you will have the opportunity 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.

The same method is advisable to use if the file is located on Google Drive and you need to download it, having first reduced the size.

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 the new window that will open in front of you, select Adobe PDF in 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 to the “Advanced” button at the bottom of the window.

Select the file quality in the drop-down list, click “OK” at the bottom of the window, then “OK” in 2 more windows. Save the document on your computer.

Microsoft Word

How to reduce pdf file size using Word and Acrobat?

This method consists of converting a file from format 1 to format 2, and then converting it back.

First, you should 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 using PDF Compressor can reduce a PDF file for publication on a website, on a social network and for sending by e-mail. This service will not reduce document density (DPI); clarity is maintained when scaling and printing.

By clicking on the “Download” button, you can select up to 2 dozen files. You can drag them to the download area and wait for the processes to complete. Download compressed documents by clicking on their icons, or all files as 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 the right mouse button over the file and the left mouse button over the 7Zip line, select “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 will make it easier to send them by e-mail. Before sending the archive to the recipient, you need to check whether he has this archiver installed.

Online converters

Smallpdf online service

This service is simple in functionality, but has additional features: Import a document from Dropbox or Google Drive, and then save it to cloud storage after finishing the online compression process.

IN this service Pre-set to compress the file up to 144 dpi, therefore different compression rates are possible. For example, a file whose size is 6 Megabytes can be compressed 2 times, and 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 file size reduction algorithms.

iLovePDF

You can upload a document to iLovePDF from your own PC, as well as from cloud service Dropbox or Google Drive, and then select the compression level. The higher the compression ratio used, the worse the quality of the output file. A 100 MB file with maximum compression is compressed to 50 MB.

PDF files are quickly compressed for free, without restrictions on using the service, with automatic deletion from the service within an hour. The limitation of the service is to download 1 file at a time.

Free PDF Compressor

This program is not regularly updated, but it works perfectly on Windows 10, Windows XP, etc. 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”.

PDF optimization

You can open the document in Adobe Acrobat. By clicking on “File” in the menu, click on “Save as Other”, and then on “Optimized PDF File”.

In the PDF Optimization window, click on Estimate Space Usage. After its implementation, you will understand what and by how much percent you can compress. Then you should close the window by clicking “OK” and select compression characteristics. Using the left mouse button, click on the selected compression level, 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 them, change resolution, change fonts, etc., and then save the document to the desired folder.

Please note that many conversion and compression programs can be downloaded for free on official websites.

Choose a program or online service based on your needs for the quality and degree of document compression.

When choosing the version of the format in which you save the file, make allowances for the fact that the recipient may not have latest version program and, therefore, he will not be able to access the document you sent.

Conclusion

On many modern PCs the size hard drives amounts to several terabytes. However, every megabyte is valuable if you need to quickly transfer a file over e-mail or post it on the Internet. We hope that you found all the information you needed about compressing a PDF file, and you were able to use our recommendations.

Compressing PDF files is not as complicated a process as it might seem at first glance. There are a number of programs with which you can perform these actions easily and quickly. They will be discussed in this article.

Advanced PDF Compressor provides the user with the ability to reduce the size of the required PDF document. Here you can clearly see how much this file has been reduced. Also, thanks to Advanced PDF Compressor, you can convert images into one or more such documents, or group any number of PDF files into one. A significant difference from other similar programs is the ability to create profiles with different settings, which in turn makes it easier for multiple people to use.

Free PDF Compressor

Free PDF Compressor is a free software tool that is only capable of reducing the size of a specified PDF document. For these purposes, there are several template settings that can be selected based on the required quality. Thus, the user is able to give the PDF file the quality of a screenshot, e-book, and also prepare it for color or black and white printing.

FILEminimizer PDF

FILEminimizer PDF is a simple and easy-to-use program that does an excellent job of compressing PDF files. For these purposes, the user is offered four template options. If none of them suits you, you can use the settings and set your level. In addition, it is the only product that provides the ability to export a compressed document directly to Microsoft Outlook for later sending by email.

CutePDF Writer

CutePDF Writer is a free printer driver that is designed to convert any document into PDF format. In addition, the program is capable of compressing PDF files. To do this, go to additional settings printer and set the print quality to be lower than that of the original. Thus, the user will receive a PDF document with a significantly smaller size.

The article contains the best software tools, with which you can significantly reduce the size of the required PDF document. Unfortunately, none of the programs reviewed have been translated into Russian, but despite this, working with them is very simple and convenient. All you have to do is decide which solution to use, because each has its own unique capabilities.

If you've been around PDF files often, you know that sometimes they can be quite heavy with 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 this is much easier, but we will only use free ways.

Method 1 - SmallPDF.com

This is the easiest way to make your PDF file smaller. 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 website 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 compression takes place. Upon completion, you will receive the following message (see screenshot below).

To download an already reduced PDF file, click the " You can save the file" By the way, the service works with cloud storage Google 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 were able to reduce the file size from 5.46 MB to 3.1 MB. Pretty good compression, and it's free

Among other online services, I would also recommend using pdfcompressor.com/ru/ or convertio.co/ru/compress-pdf/. I especially liked the last service; if you select a high compression ratio, the document size will decrease by 15-20%, although there is no significant loss of quality.

Method 2 – PDF Compressor Program

Wonderful free program to compress documents into PDF format. You can download it on the official website pdfcompressor.org. We install and start working with the program. First you need to upload the file, to do this, click on the “ Add file"or simply drag the PDF into 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, since my document was compressed by only 1 KB. But if you work with files larger than 20 MB, then the PDF reduction occurs by 30-40%.

Compression using 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 V 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 " Browse" in the first line. In the second line we indicate 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 (purely my observation).

Now all you have to do is click on the “ Compress"and wait until the program finishes processing each page of your document.

How to compress a PDF file to reduce its size?

1. You can change the compression settings if you wish. Start compressing the file by clicking on the appropriate button.
2. Save the compressed files.

How is a PDF file compressed?

There are different methods used to reduce the size of a PDF file. How effectively a file is compressed depends on what data the PDF file contains. For example, PDF files with images compress well. PDF24 uses the following PDF compression methods:

1. Removing font information that is not needed when displaying a PDF file.
2. Reduces the image size depending on the specified DPI setting.
3. Reduces image quality depending on the specified quality parameters.
4. Modify PDF file and compress structural data.

How to reduce PDF size without losing quality?

PDF24 allows you to compress files without loss, but in this mode the file size may decrease slightly. How it works:

1. Click on the highlighted area at the top of the page and select the files to compress.
2. Switch the lossless compression mode and start compressing the file by clicking on the corresponding button.
3. Save the compressed files.

Why is my PDF so big?

If the PDF file contains images, the file size may be large. This is usually why large PDF files are created. A text-only PDF file weighs much less. If your PDF file has images, you can use PDF24 to create small images, reducing their size and quality.

Does PDF compression degrade quality?

The PDF24 compression tool has several modes. Normal compression mode reduces the size and quality of the image as it has a greater impact on the file size. You can enable lossless compression mode, but this will have a minor effect on the size. Often deterioration in quality is not a problem. The only question is how acceptable the quality is in relation to the size.

Do PDF files compress well?

Yes, if the PDF contains images. They can be individually compressed and reduced in size. Compressing PDF files without images is not as effective.

Are PDF files compressed?

PDF files typically use internal compression tools for the objects they contain. However, such compression is not necessary. Some objects may not be compressed. The PDF creation program determines which objects will be compressed and which will not, but the PDF standard itself does not imply compression.

Is it safe to use PDF24 tools?

PDF24 takes file and data security seriously. We want users to be able to trust us. Therefore, we are constantly working on security issues.

1. All file transfers are encrypted.
2. All files are deleted automatically from the processing server within an hour after processing.
3. We do not store files or evaluate them. Files are used only for their intended purpose.
4. PDF24 is owned by the German company Geek Software GmbH. All processing servers are located in data centers in the EU.

PDF files have been and still are an extremely popular document format for a long time. Moreover, the ability to edit pdf files is much weaker than other office documents, such as DOC or DOCX in Microsoft Word, ODG in LibreOffice Writer.

And yet PDF is used a huge amount computer users. Sometimes the size of a pdf file takes several kilobytes, but more often the size can reach several tens of megabytes due to the large number of pages with heavy graphic elements. This can pose certain difficulties when trying to send pdf files by email or upload them to cloud file storage.

To help you reduce the size of your pdf file, in this article I will review free tools that will help you compress the file and reduce its size. Among such tools I will present online services and individual windows applications. If you have your own options for cool pdf compressors, please recommend them in the comments.

If you're looking for a quick and easy way to make your PDF files smaller without the need for complex manipulation, then Smallpdf is for you. This is an online service that is easy to use, allowing you to simply drag and drop files onto the service and perform compression. This is really handy when you need to be able to periodically compress files from anywhere.

Smallpdf online service

While the service is fairly basic in its functionality, it does have some additional features, 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 to 144 dpi without specifying any settings. Hence the different compression ratios. For example, a 5.72 MB source file can be compressed to 3.17 MB in size without any loss in viewing quality, which is not bad at all. However, it also happens that a file of 96.98 MB in size is compressed to only 87.12 MB. This once again proves that the Smallpdf service uses the simplest algorithms to reduce 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 online service, but one that offers a little more compression options. iLovePDF allows you to upload a file from the system, Google Drive or Dropbox, and then choose one of three compression levels. The more compression you apply, the worse the quality of the output PDF file will be. But this also means that the output file will be smaller.

Online service iLovePDF

Using the same file as in the first case, 97 MB in size and applying extreme compression, I was able to compress it to 50.29 MB, i.e. cutting it by more than half is an excellent result.

I was able to download any pdf files; They compress quite quickly, and besides, I did not notice any restrictions regarding how many times the service could be used. 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 are looking for an online PDF compressor that compresses PDF files as efficiently as possible without significant loss of quality, try iLovePDF.

Free PDF Compressor

Platform: Windows, offline

This lightweight compressor does what you need it to do and nothing more. Although it is not updated regularly, it works great on Windows 10 and previous operating systems up to Windows XP. If online tools are unavailable to you for various reasons, then Free PDF Compressor may be useful to you.

Free PDF Compressor

Free PDF Compressor allows you to choose one of five presets to compress a 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 97 MB file was compressed to 50 MB 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 suits you, try PDF Compressor. Judging by the information on the resource provided, 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 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 compress, or specify an entire folder with files.

PDF Compressor

The only caveat to PDF Compressor is that sometimes the application in free mode can be ineffective in compression. Our 97 MB file lost just over 15 MB, which is not much compared to competitors. But it’s worth changing the compression parameters and a pdf file from 97 MB left only 46 MB - this best result. It’s 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 is not the only way. You can delete pages or archive the pdf in ZIP. The 4 methods above will help you choose the most suitable one and reduce PDF files quickly and with minimal losses in quality.

What free tools do you use to achieve this goal?