How to compress PDF online

Do you need to urgently reduce the size of a PDF file to be able to email it to your colleagues but you don’t know how to do it? How about relying on an online service? In this way, you can “lighten” your documents easily, in a few seconds and without wasting time installing new software on your computer.

All you need is an online browser, such as Chrome, Firefox  or Safari, and an average fast Internet connection, nothing more. And the good news doesn’t end there! The services I am about to tell you about are 100% free (at least in their basic version), they allow you to process even large files and do not require any registration from you (or in any case this is not mandatory). You can visit them and directly feed them the files to be processed.

So, what are you doing still standing there? Take two minutes of free time and find out now how to compress PDF online by following the instructions below. I am sure that, at the end of the reading, you will be able to tell yourself very happy and satisfied with what you have learned and that you will also be ready to provide useful tips on this to all your friends. What do you say, we bet?

Index

• Online2PDF
• PDF Compressor
• iLovePDF
• PDF Candy
• Other services to compress PDF online

Online2PDF

If you prefer to have extensive control over the quality of the documents to be obtained, try using Online2PDF: it is a web service that allows you to optimize PDF documents by choosing between various quality levels, to eliminate the protection against printing and modification, convert to and from Excel format and much more. It supports the upload of up to 20 documents at the same time and has an overall upload limit of 150 MB (each file, however, cannot exceed 100 MB). Note that the data uploaded to its servers is deleted shortly after processing.

To put Online2PDF to the test immediately, linked to its home page and drag the documents to lighten in the gray box where it says (or simply drag your files here) . Alternatively, select the files manually by pressing the Select files button and choosing the documents from your computer via the additional window that opens.

Next, click the  Compression which is located at the bottom left and indicates the quality levels you prefer from the drop-down menu Image quality and resolution of images. To obtain PDFs with an optimal size/quality ratio, I advise you not to go below 80% quality and 300 dpi resolution.

To further reduce the size of your files, you can also choose to turn the document into black and white, by selecting the option you prefer from the Colors / Black and White drop-down menu  (located a little further down).

Once you have adjusted the optimization parameters as you prefer, press the Convert button and wait for the documents to be processed first and then downloaded to your computer. It all happens automatically. Again, if you haven’t changed your browser’s default settings, the files will be saved in your PC’s Downloads folder.

PDF Compressor

Another good service you can turn to compress your PDFs online is PDF Compressor. The name leaves no room for many doubts: it is a totally free and rather simple to use online application that allows you to compress the size of documents in PDF format directly from the browser window, in a rather practical and immediate way. It has no tight limits in terms of maximum weight of documents to act on and you can upload a maximum of 20 files at a time.

Note that, unlike other similar services, PDF Compressor does not act by changing the resolution of the files. Furthermore, it must be said that the service protects users’ privacy by deleting the documents they see uploaded to its servers 1 hour after upload.

To use it, connect to the website of the service and drag the PDF you want to compress onto the page displayed, in correspondence with the wording Drag your files here. Alternatively, click on the Upload files button and manually select the files of your interest using the window that opens.

Then wait a few moments for the upload procedure to be completed and for the selected files to be compressed, after which you will be shown how much it was possible to reduce the size for each document, in correspondence with the relative preview.

To download individually compressed PDF files, press the Download button that you find on each preview. If, on the other hand, you have uploaded multiple files and you prefer to download them all together, in the form of a compressed archive, press the Download all button at the bottom. Unless you’ve made any changes to the default settings of the web browser you’re using, you’ll find the output files in your computer’s Downloads folder.

iLovePDF

None of the tools I have already told you about convinced you in a particular way and are you looking for alternatives? Then you would do well to put iLovePDF to the test . This is another useful solution to perform the object operation. It allows you to process only one file at a time with a maximum weight of 80 MB.

Basically it is free and does not require registration, but to get around the limitations just mentioned you need to create an account on the site and subscribe to the Premium version (for a fee, at a cost of 3.99 euros/month). The service also protects the privacy of users by automatically deleting the documents that are uploaded to its servers a few hours after the upload.

You ask me how to make use of it? I’ll tell you right away. First, connect to its home page and drag the document you intend to go to in the browser window. If dragging doesn’t work, you can also select the document by clicking the Select PDF file button located in the center. And if your PDF is on Dropbox or Google Drive, you can upload it directly from there, after logging into your account, by clicking on the related icons located on the right.

Once the upload is complete, select the compression level to apply to the PDF. Depending on what your needs are, you can choose from the following options by clicking on the relevant buttons located at the bottom.

• Recommended compression– maximizes the size of the PDF without excessively negatively affecting its visual quality.
• Maximum compression– allows you to compress PDFs to the maximum but reduce their quality.
• Less compression– PDF quality is kept high but returned files will be less “light”.

Once you have made your choice, press the Compress PDF button located at the bottom of the page and wait for the file to be processed first. Subsequently, it will be downloaded automatically to your computer, in the Downloads folder (as long as you have not changed the default browser settings).

PDF Candy

PDF Candy is another great web tool that, in my opinion, you should try if you are looking to compress your PDF documents. It is totally free, very easy to use and does not require registration to work. Furthermore, it does not impose particular limits regarding the maximum weight of the files and the number of documents that can be uploaded daily.

To use it, connect to its official website and drag the PDF you are interested in taking into the browser window. You can also select the document manually, by pressing the + Add file button in the center of the screen. And if the PDF is on your Dropbox or Google Drive account, upload it directly from there by selecting the relevant icons and logging in.

Once uploaded, the compression of the file will start immediately, after which you will be shown how much it was possible to reduce its size and you can download the lightened document on your PC by pressing the Download file button. The document will be stored in the Downloads folder on your computer (if you have not changed the default browser settings). If you prefer, you can also save the file to one of the supported cloud storage services by clicking on its icon.

As for privacy, files uploaded to PDF Candy’s servers are deleted within one hour. They are also never shared, disclosed or given to third parties.

Other services to compress PDF online

The services for compressing PDF online that I told you about in the previous lines are those that in my opinion are the best on the market. On the Net, however, there are also other equally valid solutions, as in the case of those I have indicated below. Put them to the test (after carefully reading their uploaded file privacy policies) and I’m sure they won’t let you down.

• SodaPDF– allows you to compress PDF files automatically and quickly. The user also has the option to select the compression level as needed. All for free and without registration.
• PDFAID– another website belonging to the category covered by this guide. It allows you to intervene on various compression parameters, including grayscale, is free and is also highly intuitive.
• WeCompress– simple online service useful for reducing the weight of PDF documents (but not only). It does not offer any kind of option (it does everything automatically) and has a very pleasant user interface.