How to Lighten PDF

Do you need to email some documents in PDF format but not being able to count on a particularly fast Internet connection and due to their weight not exactly “feather” are you having serious problems in succeeding in your intent? Well then why don’t you try to lighten PDFs ? This way, you should be able to solve your problems in no time.

How do you say? The thing interests you but you don’t have the slightest idea how to do it? Don’t worry … I can give you a hand! In the following lines I will in fact show you, step by step, how to lighten PDF by using some special online services and computer software with extremely simple and immediate use. You will see, in the end you will thank me.

Then? Are you ready to find out with me how to lighten PDF? Yes? Fantastic! So I would say not to waste any more precious time, to ban the chatter and immediately start focusing on what to do.

iLovePDF (online)

One of the first services you can turn to is  iLovePDF. It is an online solution that not only allows you to compress PDFs but, in order not to miss anything, also allows you to convert various types of files, rotate document pages, merge them, divide them and much more.

The basic version of the service, which is completely free, requires no registration and allows you to process only one file at a time. Its upload limit is a whopping 200MB. I would also like to remind you how this service protects the privacy of users by automatically deleting the files that are uploaded to its servers (an operation that is carried out a few hours after the upload).

To lighten PDF with iLovePDF, connect to the site using the link I gave you a few lines above and drag the document on which you intend to go to act in the browser window. If dragging does not work, select the document “manually” by clicking on the Select PDF file button  .

Therefore, wait for the file upload to be completed (the duration of the process depends on the weight of the file and the speed of the Internet connection in use) and select the level of compression to apply to it. Depending on your preferences and needs, you can choose from the following options:

• Recommended compression– Maximizes the size of the PDF without negatively affecting its visual quality;
• Maximum compression– Allows you to compress PDFs to the maximum at the expense of quality (so you will get “very light” PDFs with grainy images);
• Less Compression– Puts quality first but generates quite “heavy” documents.

After selecting one of the three aforementioned options, click on the Compress PDF button and wait for the PDF to be processed first and then automatically downloaded to your computer in its lightened version.

Online2PDF (online)

Online2PDF  is another great web service that allows you to edit and convert PDF files in various ways and which, of course, allows you to reduce their overall weight in just a few clicks. With this service you can upload up to 20 files for a total weight of 100 MB.

To lighten PDF with Online2PDF, the first thing you need to do is to connect to the main page of the service using the link I just provided you. Then drag the documents to be compressed on the Select files button   or click on the latter and select the documents on your computer.

At this point, expand the drop-down menu  Mode  and, depending on what your needs are, select the item  Create a new PDF file for each page or Standard conversion .

Then, click on the Compression tab   located at the bottom left and set your preferences regarding the image quality, the resolution of the images in compressed documents and the color mode of the latter. Clearly, the lower the image quality / resolution, the lighter the output PDF file.

Once you have adjusted your preferences, click on the Convert button   and wait for your files to be uploaded online and compressed (the duration of the process depends on the weight of the file and the speed of the Internet connection in use). At the end of the procedure, you will get a ZIP archive containing your PDFs in compressed format.

FileOptimizer (Windows)

Do you need to lighten PDF in series and prefer to act through a special software and from your PC with Windows installed? Then I recommend you try  FileOptimizer . It is a free and open source program, able to optimize various types of files by choosing from various compression profiles. It’s also portable, so you don’t need to install anything to use it.

To download FileOptimizer on your PC, connected to the download page of the program using the link that I have provided you a moment ago and first click on the folder at the top of the list (i.e. the one relating to the most recent version of the program, eg.  7.80.1298 ) and then on the FileOptimizerFull.zip entry  .

Then wait for the software download to start and complete, then open the ZIP archive that contains FileOptimizer and extract the contents to any folder. Next, run the FileOptimizer64.exe executable   if you are using a 64-bit operating system, or the FileOptimizer32.exe executable   if you are using a 32-bit operating system.

Then proceed to drag the PDF files on which you intend to go to act in the software window and click on the Optimize all files button   to start optimization. Keep in mind that original files will be automatically overwritten with compressed ones, so I advise you to make a backup copy before using the program.

Another detail I suggest you take into account is the fact that by default, FileOptimizer uses a resolution of 150 dpi to generate PDFs. To use a different compression profile, click on the Options button  attached to the program window, select the PDF tab   and choose one of the resolutions available in the Profile drop-down menu. 300 DPI is the recommended resolution for printing (therefore the one that generally offers a good compromise between weight and quality) while 150 DPI is the one for viewing on the screen (it ensures a lower quality but allows you to have “lighter” PDFs).

ShrinkIt (macOS)

If, on the other hand, you are using a Mac and do not feel like resorting to using one of the online services that I have reported to you in the previous lines, you can lighten PDFs using the ShrinkIt application  . Using this application is very simple, perhaps too much! In fact, it has no options to configure: all you have to do is start it and feed it with the document to be compressed.

To be able to lighten PDF on Mac with ShrinkIt, then connect to the application’s website via the link I provided you a little while ago and then press the Download ShrinkIt button to download it to your computer.

Wait for the application download procedure to start and complete, then drag the software icon  to the macOS Applications folder  and double-click the app icon to start it immediately.

Once the application window is displayed on the desktop, drag the PDF on which you intend to go to act in the ShrinkIt window and wait a few moments for the software to process the document. ShrinkIt will therefore replace the original document with its compressed version and will create a safety copy (in a non-optimized version) in the same folder.