PDF files can sometimes take up a lot of memory on a phone or computer. Fortunately, there are now many tools and programs that you can use to turn a heavy and bulky PDF file into a light and simple file that you can easily share online. The next time you come across a large PDF file, you can remove the volume limit with just a few simple steps. In the continuation of this article, join us to acquaint you with the best tools for reducing the size of PDF files.
1- Adobe Acrobat Pro
If you are running a professional and full version of Adobe Acrobat on your system, you can find the app’s built-in tool called “PDF Optimizer”. This tool is one of the best and easiest ways to reduce the size of a PDF file. To use this feature, just open the desired PDF file in the Acrobat app and then select the Optimize PDF option from the Tools menu of this program . This toolbar has several options that will appear at the top of the PDF file.
By clicking on the Reduce File Size option , you can reduce the size of one or more files. In the next step, you must enter the storage location of the desired file along with the desired name, and finally, by clicking on the Save Acrobat program option, apply the default settings. On the file you want, it will reduce its size.
If you select the Advanced Optimization option, you will have more options for achieving the desired quality. With the help of this feature in the Advanced Optimization window, you must click on the Audit Space Usage option and see how much space each section of this file takes up.
Using the default settings of this section, our test file increased from 11 MB and 775 KB to 212 KB, which makes Adobe Acrobat Pro one of the most effective PDF compressors.
2- NeeviaPDF
If you want more control over the quality of your compressed PDF file, you can use DocuPub’s NeeviaPDF for files smaller than 24 MB. For simplicity, you can change its settings from low compression (for higher image quality) to maximum compression (for lower image quality).
You will also be able to delete some elements inside your PDF file, such as forms, annotations, page tags that increase file size for no reason.
The test file we used lost 98% of its size, from 11 MB and 775 KB to 203 KB! This was the smallest amount we encountered in our tests, and the file result looked very good. How much you delete a PDF file depends on how large you want your file to be.
3- Windows PDF tool
Windows 10 has finally added the Print feature to PDF. However, its advanced features such as changing the quality and size of a file are not part of this feature; But many PDF printers allow you to set and select the quality and amount of compression you want, which ultimately greatly affects the size of your PDF files.
Note that the tools that we will introduce to you below require GhostScript to display and manage PDF files.
FreePDF tool
It is a classic tool that allows you to create your own compressed profile. After you install this program, you will see it as part of your list of Windows printers. To reduce the size of a PDF file using FreePDF, simply use the Ctrl + P keys to execute the print dialog and then select FreePDF as your printer. Then click OK to bring up the FreePDF dialog. Here you can pre-configure your PDF profiles from three profiles: eBook, High Quality and Medium Quality.
To create a custom PDF profile, first click on the Edit Configuration option in the upper right corner, then select Profiles and then New. Now customize the options in this Profile editor window. Note that you can change the overall quality of the PDF file, as well as change the default resolution settings for photos in the PDF file, or even add watermarks to your PDF files.
The default medium quality profile converts a scanned 10 MB PDF document to a 1.7 MB PDF file.
Download the FreePDF tool now from this link
4Dots Free PDF Compress tool
This free application allows you to compress one or more PDF files at a time. You can also compress the entire PDF file in different folders with just a few simple mouse clicks and reduce their size; Even if the PDF files of your choice have a password.
Once you have selected the PDF files you want to compress, select the location where you want the compressed files to be saved. Note that you can overwrite the new compressed files on the old files or save a copy of them. The compression operation of the PDF file of our choice took a few minutes using this program, and finally made an 11.5 MB file 29.5% smaller.
Download the 4Dots Free PDF Compress app now from this link
Free PDF Compressor tool
This tool easily shrinks the file you want and the steps to use it are very easy. In the first step, you must select the file you want and then save the reduced file by selecting the Compress option.
In addition, you can choose the following 5 levels of compression according to your taste and desire in this program:
- Low resolution (72 dpi) for on-screen viewing only
- Medium resolution (150 dpi), suitable for an e-book
- High resolution (300 dpi), suitable for printing
- Pre-print (300 dpi) or Prepress, suitable for color printing
- Default, suitable for different uses
Our test file was compressed in less than 1 minute using this program, and since we had put the settings in the most compressed mode, our 11 MB and 775 KB file became 276 KB, the final images of which were of extremely good quality.
Download the Free PDF Compressor tool now from this link
IrfanView tool
IrfanView is another PDF file compression program for Windows that has become a versatile image editing tool with a variety of plugins. For example, you can use it as an image converter, add watermarks to photos, and more. It also has different qualities for printing PDF files.
You must have GhostScript installed on your system before you can view PDF files using the IrfanView tool. Then when you want to convert your large PDF file to a small new file, a PDF Settings window will appear next to the Save PDF As dialog.
In our test of this program, we selected the average quality for all the images in the PDF file and, using IrfanView, converted a 10 MB file to a 1 MB file, the result of which was visually blurry but readable.
Download IrfanView from this link now.
PDF tools for Mac
1- PDF Filter
If you are constantly updating your Mac OS, you should be able to shrink the PDF file you want without using any special program. This is an interesting feature in OS X that many Mac users are unaware of.
You must first double-click the PDF file, but if you have a PDF reader app like Adobe Reader installed, you must first right-click on the PDF file and then go to> Open With> Preview. Then go to File> Export and click Reduce File Size in the Quartz Filter section.
Note that this way you can only reduce the size of high-volume PDF files, and if you use this method for smaller multi-megabyte PDF files, their size may increase.
2- PDF Squeezer
Apart from the above method, there are not many free and reliable tools for Mac users to compress PDF files. If you want to control the output quality and other factors of your compressed file, it is better to download programs such as PDF Squeezer for $ 5.99. It allows you to choose from a variety of predefined compression settings, or even compress PDF files multiple times.
