How to Compress PDF in Easy Ways

Elise Williams

2023-04-13 17:06:35 • Filed to: Compress PDFs • Proven solutions

There are hundreds of solutions present on the internet, and all vary in features, pricing, mechanisms, etc. All these things make users confused. So, here you will get familiar with well-known applications that are recommended for compressing PDF.

We compress PDFs because the applications like Gmail, Outlook, LinkedIn, Facebook, etc. do not allow us to send large PDFs with large megabytes and so to send them across the internet, we have to compress to the size so that they can easily be attached with our messages and send to the internet world.

As we interact with PDFs in our daily lives, whether we are working in a professional area or learning in our academic areas, we require PDFs more than anything. In this article, we will also tell you how to use each application available online and offline to compress PDFs.

How to compress PDF in laptop offline
- #1 Wondershare PDFelement
- #2 Foxit Reader
How to compress PDF file size in Mobile
- #1 PDFelement App
How to compress PDF online

How to compress PDF in laptop offline

In this section, we will tell you the best offline desktop-based applications that will compress PDFs easily. You just have to download them on your PC to use them.

#1 Wondershare PDFelement

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Wondershare PDFelement - PDF Editor is a fantastic product launched by Wondershare as the same as the HiPDF. The difference between PDFelement and HiPDF is that PDFelement has more tools and features as compared to HiPDF. The other difference is that you have to download PDFelement to use it.

You can easily compress PDF with PDFelement. The application has a powerful editor and converter besides the compressor too. You can convert your PDF documents into multiple file formats and vice versa efficiently. You can also edit with PDFelement and add texts, stickers, highlighter, markers, annotations, etc.

The application also allows you to copy and erase texts from the PDF. You can also lock your PDF and magnify the important points quickly.

How to compress a PDF file on Windows

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Download and install the application and launch it.
The application gives you two ways to compress your PDFs.
The first way is, after opening the application on the homepage, you will have the option of compressing PDFs.

The other option is you can compress PDF by using the option available under the tool section.

After choosing any of the above two options, select the compression quality rate in which you want to compress.
After compressing, you can see how much the application has reduced the size of your PDF document.

With the PDFelement preview feature, you can easily preview the PDF document compressed at the compression quality rate you had selected. This option makes you revert if you don't like the quality.

PDFelements also have many other tools like PDF editor or converter. You can also convert your PDF documents. With its editor, you can secure your documents, add, and remove texts, graphics, colors, etc. You can also combine or split PDFs.

Tip: Reduce PDF File Size by Removing Unwanted Objects

PDFelement can not only help you reduce PDF file size but also can help you edit PDF directly to remove unwanted objects, no matter it is text, images, backgrounds, watermarks, forms, pages, or comments.

Tip: Compress PDF File by Cropping

The third method to compress PDF with PDFelement is using the Crop feature. After opening your PDF file, click the "Page" > "Page Box" button to set the margins for CropBox. Or you can also customize the page size as you want. For more information, please refer to this article about how to change PDF size.

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Video Guide on How to Compress PDF on Windows

How to compress a PDF on Mac

Get PDFelement for Mac if you need to compress PDF file size on Mac.

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Start the application on Mac, click on "Open File". Then go to “File”>“Save as Other”and choose “Compress PDF”.

Specify between Medium, Low, and High. Having selected the compression rate. click on "Save As" to compress the PDF.

#2 Foxit Reader

Foxit reader is also the best desktop-based option available to you. You can download it from their site to use it. The application is highly developed for educational and professional purposes. It adds up to your productivity and makes you produce results faster.

The application allows you to collaborate over a document. You can also make your digital signature with Foxit and paste it on different documents, including PDFs.

With Foxit, you can compress PDF file size efficiently. The application also has a powerful editor and a document converter. You can do any sort of editing with the Foxit Reader. You can easily read your PDF documents. The best of all is that Foxit has a dark mode too.

How to compress PDF with Foxit

The application is very easy to use.

Open the application after installing it.
Click on the Reduce file size under the File option above.
Click on the PDF optimizer.
Select from the three options: Reduce File Size, Advanced Optimization, and Optimize Scanned PDF.
Click on “reduce file size” and then “current file.”
Select the “retain existing” option on a pop-up window.
Click on OK.

Pricing

The application is not free to use.

How to compress PDF file size in Mobile

PDFelement for iOS is a full-featured PDF editor for you to create, annotate, edit, and compress PDF documents on mobile phones. Here is how to easily compress PDF size on iPhone/iPad with the app.

Install the app on your device.

Then open the app and select the PDF file to be compressed. Click on the three-dot icon and select Reduce File Size.

Then select a compression rate and click Save.

How to Compress PDF Online

In this section, you will get familiar with all the online solutions that you can use to compress PDFs easily. We will tell you about some websites that compress PDFs without downloading them. This simply adds up to the ease of the users.

#1 Wondershare HiPDF

HiPDF, a web-based application developed by Wondershare, is a solution available for all users to work with PDFs online without downloading the solution. With Wondershare, you can easily compress PDF to whatever size you need.

The application has all the tools needed to compress, convert, and edit the PDF. With HiPDFs powerful converter, you can easily convert your PDF documents to any other format easily. The application is very easy to use. Besides converting or compressing, you can also edit your PDF document.

Step-by-step Guide for Compressing PDF Files

All you have to do is land on the HiPDF webpage.

On the HiPDF Compress PDF webpage, choose the Choose File
After clicking on that option, upload the PDF file that you want to compress.
After dropping the PDF file, the application will ask you to select the compression quality rate of high, medium, and low. Select the quality in which you want to compress.
After that, click on the compress button to compress your uploaded file.
Click the download button to download your file.

Quality After Compressing

HiPDF never compromises on the quality of the documents. After compressing or converting PDFs, it maintains the best quality as it was before the compression. Because of the quality, many users recommend HiPDF.

Batch processing (paid feature)

Batch processing is a very useful and efficient feature of the Wondershare HiPDF. In batch processing, you can easily convert or compress your multiple PDFs without uploading them one-by-one. This feature is a paid feature, and you have to subscribe to HiPDF to use it.

Further modification

As mentioned above, HiPDF has both a converter and editor besides a compressor. You can add texts, graphics, markers, highlighter, etc., easily on your PDF document.

You will get many incentives while using HiPDF. The application's most significant advantage is its quality. Despite the application being free to use, it maintains the best quality of PDF documents. HiPDF's batch processing feature is also more affordable than any other application.

#2 Adobe Acrobat Online

Here, you will get the online, web-based interface of Adobe Acrobat. The whole application comes with dozens of tools, but it is for the desktop-based environment. The solution we are telling you is just the free version of Acrobat that only compresses your PDF documents.

With the web interface of Acrobat, you can easily compress PDF and get your documents back in the best quality.

How to Compress PDF with Adobe Acrobat

The online version of Adobe Acrobat is very handy.

Go to their PDF Compressor webpage. And click on the Choose File option.
The application will prompt you to add the PDF file that you have to convert.
After uploading your PDF file, select the quality in which you want to compress your PDFs. These quality options are: high, low, and medium.
After selecting quality, click on the compress button to compress.
Click on the download button to download your application.

Pricing

The application is not free to use, and you have to pay $14.99 after compressing a few documents for free.

#3 Smallpdf

Smallpdf is the online web-based application that is the best and fantastic choice for editing PDF documents. With Smallpdf, you can easily compress PDFs. The application makes you productive in your working hours, especially when you are working with PDFs.

It has a powerful editor with which you can easily edit your documents. The application allows you to add texts, annotations, graphics, highlighters, signatures, etc.

You can also convert your PDF documents into multiple file formats and vice versa. The application also allows you to copy text from the PDF. You can also erase texts, secure them, and hide them.