How to make a PDF smaller with PDF by Zaweba
Reduce a PDF's file size in one click, choose a preset like Smallest file, shrink many files at once, or audit space usage to see what takes the room.
A PDF too big to email is one of the most common annoyances there is. Scans are usually the culprit, along with documents full of large photos. File, then Reduce file size in PDF by Zaweba shrinks a document offline, with as much or as little control as you want.
One click
The simplest way is one click. Choose Reduce file size and the document is made smaller with sensible settings. For most everyday jobs, like getting a scan small enough to attach, that's all you need.
Presets and settings
When one click isn't quite right, open the settings. There are three presets.
Balanced is the middle path, good for most documents.
Smallest file squeezes hardest. Use it when size matters more than anything, such as a document going to someone on a slow connection or a system with a strict upload limit.
High quality keeps pictures looking their best while still saving what it can. It suits brochures, photo documents and anything that will be printed.
Below the presets are finer controls: picture resolution and JPEG quality, and 15 things the reduction can discard or flatten. Lower picture resolution makes the biggest difference for photo-heavy documents. JPEG quality trades a little sharpness for a lot of size. The discard and flatten options remove parts of the file that may not be needed in the copy you're sending.
Several files at once
You can reduce several files at once, saving the results into a folder. The originals are untouched, so you can always go back. This is handy for a batch of scans or a set of reports that all need to go out today.
Audit space usage
Before reducing, it can help to know what's taking the room. Audit space usage shows the bytes by kind, so you can see whether the size is in pictures, fonts or something else. If it's nearly all pictures, picture resolution is the setting to change. If it's something else, the discard options may help more. Audit first and you can make one well-aimed change instead of trying settings at random.
Keeping the quality you need
Always keep the original. Reducing picture resolution and JPEG quality throws detail away for good in the reduced copy.
Look at the result before sending. Zoom into a photo and into small text in a scanned page. If either looks rough, step back from Smallest file to Balanced, or raise the picture resolution a little.
Think about what the reader needs. A document for reading on screen can take much lower picture resolution than one for printing.
Shrinking as part of a routine
Reducing file size is also a step in Actions, and the built-in Optimise scanned documents and Prepare for web publishing actions are natural partners. A watched folder with a reduce step means every scan dropped into it comes out smaller automatically.
Save as helps a little too. It leaves out unused objects and can pack small objects into compressed streams, which trims files that have been edited and saved many times. Remove hidden information can shed attachments and earlier versions, which sometimes account for more of the size than you'd guess.
All of it happens in PDF by Zaweba on your own PC, so you never have to upload a private document to a website just to make it smaller.
