PDF files chop-chop reach giant proportions. Fortunately, many tools tin chop an oversized PDF down to something easier to share online. Next time y'all hit a PDF file size limit, they'll bond you out.

We've compiled the best tools to compress a PDF file and get in smaller into four general categories.

ane. Adobe Acrobat Pro

Adobe Acrobat DC Optimize PDF reduce file size menu

If yous have Adobe Acrobat installed on your computer, at that place's a tool inside the application called "PDF Optimizer". This is one of the best and easiest ways to shrink a PDF document.

To get to this, open up your PDF in Acrobat, click Tools > Optimize PDF. A toolbar with a few options will appear but above the PDF.

If you click Reduce File Size, you can choose to reduce a single or multiple files. Side by side, you lot'll cull the file location and proper name. In one case you click Save, Acrobat volition apply default settings to your file to endeavor to reduce its size.

If you click Avant-garde Optimization, you lot'll have more options to ensure you maintain the quality you need. To assistance with this, in the Advanced Optimization window, click Audit Space Usage, and you'll be able to run across how much space each kind of element is taking upwards within the file.

Using default setting, our sample file shrunk from 11,775KB to only 212KB, making Adobe Acrobat Pro one of the almost constructive PDF compressor in this list. It'southward a paid tool, after all, but there was 1 free tool that performed improve with default settings. Adobe Acrobat Pro DC will set you lot back $14.99 per calendar month, simply you lot tin become a 7-day costless trial.

NeeviaPDF

DocuPub Neevia PDF settings options

If you want more control over the quality of your compressed PDF, attempt DocuPub'south NeeviaPDF (for files less than 24 MB in size).

To go on things simple, you tin cull one of the presets, which range from low compression (for a higher paradigm quality) to maximum compression (for a lower image quality). You're besides given the option to discard certain elements from within your PDF. This includes things like forms, annotations, and page labels, which can unnecessarily increment the size of the file.

Our sample PDF lost 98% of its size, clocking in at simply 203KB, down from 11,775KB. This was the smallest nosotros achieved in our tests, and the event looked just fine. How much of the original PDF you want to discard depends on how much space you really need to save.

Windows ten finally includes an option to impress-to-PDF. Notwithstanding, avant-garde features, similar tweaking the quality and size of a document, are not part of this characteristic. Meanwhile, many PDF printers let you choose quality and compression settings, which can profoundly influence the size of your PDF files.

Note that the tools highlighted below require GhostScript to view and handle PDFs.

FreePDF

FreePDF is a archetype PDF printer, and nosotros highlight it here because it allows you to create your ain pinch profiles. One time installed (remember that you demand GhostScript), you'll find it listed equally part of your Windows printers.

To reduce the size of a PDF certificate with FreePDF, open it, press Ctrl + P to launch the print dialog, choose FreePDF every bit your printer, click OK, and wait for the FreePDF dialog to pop up. Here, you can choose from three preset PDF profiles, including eBook, High Quality, and Medium Quality.

freepdf-pdf-profiles

To create a custom PDF profile, click Edit Configuration in the summit right, choose Profiles, click New, and customize the options available in the Profile editor window. You tin can change the general quality of your PDF, accommodate the default resolution for pictures inside a PDF, or add together a watermark to your PDFs.

freepdf-profile-editor

The default medium quality profile compressed a scanned PDF document of 10 MB to a ane.7 MB PDF file with an acceptable loss in quality.

4Dots Costless PDF Compress

4dots Free PDF Compress main window

This freeware application enables you to compress single or multiple PDFs in ane fell swoop. Y'all're also able to compress unabridged folders of PDFs with just a few clicks of the mouse, even if the PDFs are password protected.

Once y'all've selected which files you want to compress (drag and drop is supported), select the location where you want the smaller files to exist saved. Yous tin overwrite the sometime file or salvage a re-create. Hit Compress and the tool volition practise all the work for yous. Our 5 sample PDFs took a few minutes to shrink and came out 11.5MB or 29.5% smaller.

Free PDF Compressor

Free PDF Compressor file selection screen

This completely free slice of software is also extremely simple to use. Select the file you lot want to compress, hit Compress, then relieve the smaller file.

In addition, y'all tin choose from five levels of compression, depending on how y'all want to use the file:

  • Low resolution (72 dpi), ideal for screen-view only
  • Medium resolution (150 dpi), ideal for an ebook
  • High resolution (300 dpi), ideal for printing
  • Prepress (300 dpi), ideal for prepress, including colour preserving
  • Default, platonic for a wide variety of uses

Our unmarried sample file was done in less than a minute and, due to choosing the maximum compression level, came out at just 276KB, downwardly from 11,775KB. The terminal image quality was perfectly fine.

IrfanView

IrfanView is a lightweight and feature-rich image viewer for Windows. It comes with a range of plugins that turn information technology into a versatile image editing tool, for instance, to convert images to different file types, add watermarks to your photos, and batch process images. It also has PDF printing qualities, though non in the classic sense.

Before you tin view PDF files with IrfanView, you demand to install GhostScript. Then, when you endeavor to Save your oversized PDF as a new and smaller PDF file, you'll see a PDF Settings window adjacent to your Save PDF As... dialog. Under General, y'all might have to fix the Preview of PDF during salvage performance to not needed, and so y'all tin select settings immediately. And so you tin can conform compression settings as seen below.

IrfanView PDF Save Options

In my test, I chose medium quality for all prototype types and could reduce the size of a ten MB scanned PDF document to less than 1 MB. The result was visibly blurred, but perfectly legible.

PDF Filter

compress-pdf-mac

If you lot routinely update your Mac's operating system, yous should be able to shrink your PDF without installing whatsoever new apps. This is a cool feature in Os 10 that many people don't know about.

Start, open your PDF in preview. Unremarkably you can simply double-click the file, but if you have a PDF reader such every bit Adobe Reader installed, you lot'll desire to correct-click > Open With > Preview). So click File >Export, and in the Quartz Filter driblet-down box, select Reduce File Size.

This only works with large PDF files. Attempt doing this with a very small PDF (less than a few MB), and these could actually increase in size.

PDF Squeezer

pdfsqueezer

Other than the elementary procedure higher up, at that place really isn't much choice for reputable, free PDF compression tools for Mac users. If y'all want to control the output quality, etc. of your compressed PDFs, your best bet is to download an app such as PDF Squeezer ($5.99).

This is a relatively low-cost app that enables you to cull from diverse predefined compression settings, or to choose your own. Yous can also batch process multiple files at once (including encrypted files).

How Do Yous Brand a PDF Smaller?

This is only the kickoff of what you tin do with your PDFs. From reading the text inside images and scanning files for malware to converting PDFs to other formats and unlocking password-protected PDFs, you tin find the perfect PDF tool to help you lot.

Whether you're dealing with interactive PDFs or large ebooks, PDFs can cease up being surprisingly large. Each of the tools higher up should aid with shrinking those files to a much more than manageable size.

Need to edit your PDFs, only don't want to install software? Attempt these online PDF editors and annotation tools.

The 6 All-time PDF Readers for Windows

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