How to shrink PDF files

You need to share a large number of PDF files on the Internet and, unfortunately, not having a particularly fast Internet connection, you would like to reduce the weight a little before you start uploading them online. The problem is that you don’t know which tools to turn to. Well, no problem: I’m here to give you a hand

There are several applications and various online services that allow you to “lighten” PDF documents by optimizing their content to the maximum. They don’t work wonders – unless you decide to lower the visual quality of the files a lot – but they can definitely help.

What do you say, then, if we take five minutes of free time and discover, together, some of the best resources you can turn to to reduce PDF files  I assure you that you will be spoiled for choice and that, regardless of the solution you prefer, you will be able to reach your goal in no time. Happy reading and good work!

Index

• Shrink PDF files with Windows
  • Free PDF Compressor
  • NXPowerLite
• Shrink PDF files with macOS
  • Preview
  • ShrinkIt
• Reduce PDF files online
  • PDF Candy
  • Online2PDF
• App to reduce PDF files

Shrink PDF files with Windows

Are you using a computer with Windows installed and would like to understand which tools you can use to be able to reduce PDF files? Then immediately test the resources specifically used for this purpose that you find below. I’m sure they will satisfy you.

Free PDF Compressor

The first program I recommend you to try is  Free PDF Compressor: it is a software that allows you to reduce the weight of PDF files through various conversion profiles. It’s free and super easy to use.

To download it on your PC, connected to its official website and click first on the Download mirror button and then on the item  Click here. When the download is complete, open the freepdfcompressor_setup.exe installation package and, in the window you see appear on the desktop, first click on the Yes button and on the  Next button. Then place the checkmark next to the  I accept the agreement item and finish the setup by pressing the Next button again for four consecutive times, then on the  Install button and, finally, on the Finish button.

At this point, start Free PDF Compressor, press the Browse button in the program window displayed on the screen and select the PDF to compress. Select, therefore, one of the conversion profiles from the Settings menu choosing between Screen that generates documents at 72 dpi exclusively for viewing on the screen (low quality); eBook for creating documents at 150 dpi optimized for ebook readers (medium-low quality); Printer that generates files at a resolution of 300 dpi also suitable for printing (medium quality); Prepress which preserves the colors more than the Printer profile (medium-high quality) and Default which generates PDFs at the highest possible quality.

Finally, indicate the location where you want to save the output file by clicking the Save As button and press the Compress button to complete the operation. Done!

NXPowerLite

If you are looking for a viable alternative to the software mentioned above, I suggest you try  NXPowerLite. It is very simple to use and allows you to compress not only PDF files, but also Word images and documents, Excel sheets and PowerPoint presentations. It is paid (costs 36 euros), but it can also be used in a free trial version that allows you to test all its functions for a period of 30 days. Note that it is also available in a Mac version.

To download it to your computer, connect to its official website and press the Download Now button located in the center. When the download is complete, open the NXPowerLiteSetupxx_x.exe file obtained and, in the window that appears on the desktop, press the Next button. Then, check the box relating to acceptance of the terms of use of the service and press the Next button again. Then choose the Typical option, click on the Install,  Yes and  Finish buttons to complete the setup.

At this point, call up the program by double-clicking on the relative shortcut that has been added to the desktop and, once the NXPowerLite window is displayed, press the Add file button and select the documents to be compressed. Alternatively, drag your PDFs directly into the software window.

Finally, click on the Optimize button, in order to start the compression procedure. In case you want to change the profiles used, select the option New optimization profile from the pulldown menu optimization profile, select the tab PDF in the window that opens and makes all the adjustments.

Please also note that, by default, optimized PDFs are saved in the same location as the original ones. To select a different output path, click on the Edit button (located below) and choose the destination folder from the new window that opens.

Shrink PDF files with macOS

What about macOS? What tools are available to be able to reduce the size of PDF files? Well, the ones I have indicated below are, in my opinion, the best in the category: put them to the test now!

Preview

If you need to reduce the weight of one or more PDF files on your Mac, I’m happy to inform you that you don’t necessarily have to resort to using third-party programs. Then in fact use Preview, the “standard” macOS application for managing images and PDF documents.

In fact, Preview integrates a special quartz filter designed specifically for the purpose in question. Then open the PDF file in relation to which you intend to intervene, access the File menu (top left) and click on the Export item. In the window that opens, select the PDF option from the Format menu and the Reduce file size option from the Quartz filter menu.

Finally, indicate the location where you want to save the lightened PDF via the Located in the drop-down menu and click the Save button to finalize the procedure. It was simple, wasn’t it?

If you are not satisfied with the final result obtained using the quartz filter already included in Preview, you can download others from the Internet and install them on macOS. If this interests you, read my guide on how to compress a PDF file with Mac for more information on this.

ShrinkIt

Another excellent tool you can use to perform the operation covered by this tutorial is  ShrinkIt, a free application that allows you to reduce PDF files simply by dragging them into its window.

To download ShrinkIt on your Mac, connect to its official website and press the Download ShrinkIt button. When the download is complete, extract the ZIP file obtained in any position and drag the program icon inside it to the Applications folder of macOS. Then right-click on it and select the Open item twice, in order to circumvent the limitations that Apple imposes on applications from non-certified developers (an operation that must be performed only at the first start).

Now that you see the ShrinkIt window on your desktop, proceed as just said: drag the PDFs you want to compress on it and you’re done! The application will replace the original file with its compressed version and will create a backup copy (in a non-optimized version) in the same folder as the source file.

Reduce PDF files online

Now let’s move on to online PDF compression solutions, which can be used from any operating system and browser program without installing additional software on your computer. In addition, they do not require user registration and ensure privacy by deleting all files uploaded to their servers within hours of processing.

PDF Candy

If you do not want to waste time manually adjusting the quality parameters of the PDFs to obtain, take a look at PDF Candy that does everything by itself: just feed it the files to be optimized and reduce their weight as much as possible without affecting them. the quality (or at least without noticeably affecting it). It does not apply any particular limitations regarding the maximum weight or the number of documents that can be loaded and it is free.

To test the capabilities of PDF Candy in first person, connected to the home page of the service and drag all the documents on which you want to go to act in the box located in the center of the screen (the one with the writing or drag and drop it ). Alternatively, you can select PDFs to resize “manually” by clicking the + Add Files button. And if the documents are on your Dropbox or Google Drive account, you can upload them directly from them by selecting the relevant icons and logging in.

Wait, therefore, for the documents to be processed by the service, after which you will be shown how much it was possible to reduce their size and you can proceed with the download of their lighter versions by clicking on the Download file button. If you haven’t changed your browser’s default settings, the files will be saved in your computer’s Downloads folder. Alternatively, you can save PDFs to one of the supported cloud storage services by clicking on its icons.

Online2PDF

Online2PDF is another web service that allows you to reduce PDF files totally free. It supports the simultaneous upload of up to 20 documents and has an overall upload limit of 100MB. It differs from PDF Candy in that it allows you to fine-tune the properties of the output files.

To use it, linked to its main page and drag the files to be compressed into the gray box located in the center. Alternatively, select the files manually by clicking the Select Files button. Next, press the Compression icon located at the bottom.

At this point, use the drop-down menu Image quality and Image resolution to set the PDF to obtain quality and resolution. To reduce the weight of your files even further, you can also choose to turn them into black and white documents by selecting your preferred option from the Colors / Black and White drop-down menu. Of course, a lower quality/resolution of the files corresponds to a lower weight of the same, but in principle I advise you not to go below the standard parameters of Online2PDF: 80% quality and 300dpi resolution.

Finally, click on the Convert button, in order to start the processing and then the download of the documents. If you haven’t made any changes to your browser’s default settings, the documents will be saved in your computer’s Downloads folder.

App to reduce PDF files

Do you need to reduce PDF files from your smartphone or tablet? In this case, you can rely on some applications specially designed for the purpose and working on both Android and iOS. Try them now, I’m sure you won’t regret it.

• Compress PDF( Android / iOS ) – allows you to reduce the weight of PDFs by selecting documents from the device memory or from supported e-mail and cloud storage services. Note that you need an Internet connection to be able to use it. It’s free, but offers in-app purchases (starting at $ 4.99 on Android and $ 10.99 on iOS) to speed up the compression process.
• PDF Compressor by ZeroAppStudio( Android ) – app for Android devices only that allows you to reduce the weight of PDFs simply by indicating the compression percentage. It’s free.
• PDF Compressor by xu jianwei ( iOS ) – specific app for iOS thanks to which you can lighten PDF files by choosing between various compression parameters. It costs 5.49 euros.