Free PDF compression programs

PDFs have become the standard for sharing documents; their success is due to various characteristics: they are write-protected so you are quite sure that a document sent via email remains the same; the PDF file is always the same whatever program you use to view it and the same file can also be read without problems on a smartphone, on an iPad and on an Ebook Reader.

A common problem with PDFs is that, sometimes, the file size can be really large even several hundred MB, making it very difficult to share it via chat (on WhatsApp the size limit for files is 64 MB) or by email.

In the following guide we will show you how to reduce and resize the size of PDFs on PCgenerating files that are much smaller and easier to share using free tools.

READ ALSO: Top 10 PDF Editing Programs

1) Irfanview

Irfanview it is one of the absolute best programs that we can install on the computer. This program was born as a free image viewer but, thanks to the numerous plugins, it also becomes useful for carrying out various otherwise difficult operations.

With IrfanView you can view PDF files and save any file into a new compressed PDF. To do this, however, you need to install the plugin on your PC Ghostscript. Dal menu Filegoing up Save As.. and then select the PDF format at the bottom, where it is written Save as.

When you select the PDF format, Irfanview displays a box of options to decide how much to compress the file and the images included in it.

2) PDF24 Tools

The second tool we recommend you use to effectively manage PDFs is PDF24 Toolsdownloadable as a PC program but also usable online without installation.

In both cases we will be able to effectively compress the PDFs by opening the site or program, pressing on the function Compress PDF and uploading the PDF files to be reduced.

In a few seconds we will obtain extremely small PDF documents (usually always less than 1 MB, but it depends on the size of the original file), ready to be shared via email or via messaging app.

To learn more we can read our guide on how to compile and insert text into PDFs from your PC without printing them.

3) Jsoft PDF Reducer

Jsoft PDF Reducer is a free program for Windows PC to try to effectively reduce the size of PDF files.

Although its main function is to compress PDFs, but it also works to split documents, delete pages, rotate PDFs, add watermarks, protect PDFs and is also capable of performing an operation on multiple files together.

4) Free PDF Compressor

Reduce PDF Size is a program that allows you to compress multiple PDF files at a time, simply and automatically. It has an options menu where you can choose the degree of compression, to reduce the file size without losing quality.

The software in question is very simple to use, applies an excellent level of compression to every type of file (preserving readability even for the printing phase) and can be used immediately, without any initial configuration.

5) SmallPDF (web)

SmallPDF is a convenient site for effectively compressing PDFs without having to install any program, but using exclusively one of the web browsers on your PC (Edge or Chrome on Windows, Safari on Mac).

It allows you to immediately compress the file and start downloading the compressed file; in one test the system was able to reduce the size of my PDF file from 7.9 MB to 3.9 MB, more than 50%. There is nothing to install, just visit the indicated site and drag a file from your desktop to your browser to convert it and then download the new version into a smaller, smaller file.

Other programs to compress PDF files

1) Mac users can use the Preview app to compress PDFs without having to download other programs. Open the file in Preview by selecting the file in the Finder and then, in Preview, go to File > Export, with the “Reduce file size” from the “Quartz-Filter” drop-down menu, then press the “Save” button.

2) iLovePDF is a website that allows you to upload a file from your PC, from Google Drive or Dropbox, and to use one of three compression levels, from minimum to maximum. Using a 100 MB PDF can also halve the file size.

3) PDF Creator is an open source program for creating PDFs which has, among its creation options (in the Formats menu), the option to compress the file and reduce its size.

4) PDF Candy It’s not a program, but a Web service that offers 24 different tools for working on PDFs, including one for compressing files.

5) Pdf2Go is another online PDF file compression tool, with optimization options and also with the possibility of converting everything to black and white to take up less space.

6) SodaPDF is a site where you can compress PDF files automatically and quickly, without downloading any program, directly from the browser.

7) NicePDF is a free program to download on Windows PC that is used to compress PDF files in a very simple and effective way.

Other sites to compress PDF for free are:

• HiPDF
• Sejda.com
• Docopub
• WeCompress
• PDFio

Let’s try them all, so as to find the one that best suits our needs.

Conclusions

Using the programs or websites suggested in this guide we will be capable of compressing any PDF file optimallyobtaining files that are much smaller and suitable for sharing via email, via PEC or directly on WhatsApp chats.

We remind you that, in the case of documents created with Word, the Microsoft program has the option to optimize all images by significantly reducing their size, without any loss of quality. After optimizing images with the tool included in Word, the conversion to PDF will be easier.

A large PDF can always be split into two or more smaller parts, as seen in the ai guide programs to cut and merge, separate and unify PDF files.