How to Minimize PDF File Sizes

There are a few ways that you can make PDFs smaller. Whether you’re sending documents over the web, storing them on your computer, or trying to print them, you want your PDFs to take up as little space on your computer as possible. This is because it can be a little more difficult to work with documents that have larger file sizes. Large documents take longer to open, can’t be shared via email due to data limits, and have a higher storage burden on your computer. 

In this article, we’ll go through some of the methods you can use to shrink the size of your PDF. These methods can be performed online through either PDF.Live or on your own as you manage the document. 

Using PDFLive to Change PDF File Sizes

Making your PDF smaller through PDF.Live is performed with the online PDF compression tool. You can learn more about how this tool is used in our article on reducing the size of a PDF. This tool will look through all the data that’s contained within your PDF file and trim the fat by eliminating data that’s not currently being used. 

The benefits of using the PDF.Live compression tool is that you don’t have to use a PDF or document editor to significantly alter your PDF. You can even select the level of compression!

 Other methods may involve changing the document by eliminating content that’s in your PDF. The compression tool will preserve all existing content while still making your PDF smaller. 

Other Ways for Shrinking PDF File Sizes 

If the PDF.Live compressor hasn’t shrunk your PDF enough, there are a few other methods available for making PDFs smaller. 

1. Split the PDF

PDFs can sometimes be hundreds of pages long — but does yours really need to be? Consider splitting a larger PDF into multiple smaller PDFs so it’s easier to send and receive essential portions of the document to other people. To do this, check out our post on splitting a page or pages from a PDF using the PDF.Live editor. 

2. Remove Images

Oftentimes, high quality images lead to PDFs having extremely large file sizes. This is because images contain a lot more data when compared to text. If a picture isn’t essential to your document, it’s sometimes best to remove it entirely. Alternatively, you can try to find a lower-quality version of a picture to put in your PDF. 

3. Reduce Page Size

In the page setup of your original document editor (e.g. Microsoft Word, Google Docs), you may have an option to change the paper size of your PDF. A standard document is 8.5” x 11”, but your PDF may not need to be that large. Explore the Paper size options in your Page setup to make your PDF smaller. However, take note that your PDF may not properly print out on a standard printer.  

4. Do Not Scan All PDFs

Scanning PDFs from a printed, physical version of your document may be convenient, but it actually leads to a PDF having a much larger file size. This is because a scanned PDF is considered an image instead of a bunch of text by your computer. As we mentioned earlier, pictures contain a lot more data than raw text, so the file size will consequently be much larger. When possible, instead of scanning PDFs, try to find the original digital version of the document and save it as a PDF. 

The post How to Make PDFs Smaller appeared first on pdf.live.

Imagine that you’re packing your car for a trip and need to bring 3 tents and 4 lawn chairs. In the normal world, you’ll need to carefully position these objects so you can fit everything in your car. However, imagine that instead, you could compress the 3 tents down to a single dense object called “T”. You would similarly compress the lawn chairs down to an object called “L”. You’ve saved a lot of space doing this, but need to know how many tents that T contains and how many lawn chairs that L contains. So, you call the first object T3 and the second object L4, so when you’re unpacking, you know how many tents and lawn chairs you have. If only we could compress objects in real life!

This is, in effect, how data compression works. A program looks for repeated patterns or data strings, and other information that it can then store in a simpler format that gives “instructions” of what it is when it’s unpacked. The resulting compressed archive is a ZIP file, and it saves a lot of memory space so it’s easier to send and download across the internet. When you receive a ZIP file, you’ll need to unzip it to access the information inside. 

That’s the technical explanation. The short, simplified answer is: A ZIP file is a squished version of larger files, and it could be one file or several files that have been highly compressed and changed into a new file format with a .zip extension.

Zip vs Compressed PDFs: What’s the Difference?

A compressed file retains its original format, but the data is reduced or reorganized to make it smaller, often without losing any information (see Lossy Vs. Lossless File Compression). When you compress a PDF, for example, the file format is still a PDF. When you zip a PDF, it becomes a compressed archive with a .zip extension. 

A ZIP file is not a compressed PDF; it’s just a container for information. The result is that ZIP files work with a lot of file types. Documents, images, and videos, for example, can all be compressed into a single ZIP file. The size savings will vary, but a ZIP folder is a great way to “package up” several files or file types into a single folder for storage or sharing. 

Another great part about using ZIP files is that you can easily make one using your computer, online, or on a mobile device. Other file types may require specialized software for compression or reduce their size.

Can you just zip a PDF for easier sharing?

Yes, you can technically zip a PDF, instead of compressing it, but zipping and compressing a PDF aren’t exactly the same thing. Zipping is a type of compression. 

• ZIP file: A container that bundles one or more files together and compresses them for easier sharing. The files inside keep their original formats.
• Compressed file: A single file that’s been reduced in size — sometimes by removing or simplifying data — but it stays the same file type (for example, a smaller .pdf). 

Remember, a ZIP file is a way to conveniently move large files and programs across the internet. Similarly, when you convert a .doc, .docx, or other file to a PDF, you’re putting it in a format that preserves your formatting settings. Single-page PDFs rarely have large file sizes, so you probably won’t ever need to ZIP a single PDF. If you’ve got an ebook in the form of a PDF, then zipping it makes it easier to share.

However, if you’re moving multiple PDFs at a time, it can sometimes be convenient to put the PDFs into a single file and then ZIP that folder to be sent out in a single email. PDF.Live offers PDF compression services for free, but this simply reduces the size of the PDF; the output is still a .pdf file. 

Give it a try: To compress PDFs, drag and drop your PDF into our Compression Tool. 

If you uncompress a ZIP file and find a .doc or .docx file within, you can also use PDF.Live’s Conversion Tool to convert the files to a PDF. 

If you put PDFs into a ZIP file, you do not need a convert ZIP to PDF tool, as you just need to follow the above instructions to uncompress a ZIP file. You do not need special software to unzip a standard ZIP file on Windows or Mac. Also be aware that ZIP files can contain many kinds of data, not just files that can be viewed as PDFs. Trying to convert a ZIP file directly to a PDF would be like trying to camp without first unpacking those tents and lawn chairs.

How to Send Large Files by Zipping Them 

Zipping a file is easy to do on both Windows and Mac. Both systems can zip files without external programs. These steps will actually work with any file type, including PDFs or a mix of files like JPG, PDF, DOC, and more. 

Zip a PDF on Windows 

To zip a PDF or other large file into a folder on Windows:

• Click and drag the files that you want to compress into a single folder.
• Right click that file or folder and select Send to and then Compressed folder.
• You will see a folder with a “zipped” icon in the same location.

Zip a PDF on a Mac

To zip files into a single folder on a Mac:

• Click and drag the files that you want to zip inside a single folder.
• Control-click or right-click the folder and then choose Compress from the shortcut menu.
• You will see a compressed file with the same name appear in the same location. 

Alternatively, you can select multiple files from your desktop or file manager, right-click and select Compress. Note that the ZIP file defaults to the name Archive.zip. 

Alternative to zipping a PDF

If you have a single, large PDF that doesn’t need zipped but is too large for sharing, you can easily compress the file online using PDF.Live:

• Head to PDF.Live’s PDF compression tool.
• Upload your PDF.
• Select the level that you want your file compressed to (higher compression may affect the quality of the PDF).
• Click Compress PDF.

How To Open a Zip File on Any Device 

To open a zip file, you can use any Windows, Mac, or mobile device without extra software (the ability is built into most modern devices).

Windows

• Locate the zipped folder you want to extract.
• Right click the folder, select Extract All and choose a location for the extracted files to be located.
• Note that a zipped file can contain multiple files, which is why unzipping a file produces a folder.

Mac

• Locate the zipped folder.
• Double-click the ZIP file.
• Unzipping rebuilds the file, so the larger it is, the more time it takes — usually it’s within seconds. 

iPhone

• From the Files app, tap the ZIP folder.
• Your iPhone will unzip it and put the contents in a new folder.
• Open the folder to view the ZIP file’s contents.

Android

• In the Google Files app, tap the zipped file.
• Tap the Extract option.
• You’ll see a preview of the files in the ZIP folder. Select Done to place them in a new folder.

FAQs About Zipping Files

What’s the fastest way to zip larger files?

The fastest way to ZIP a large file or folder is using a PC or Mac computer, which offer greater processing and disk speed. Beyond this, the time it takes to ZIP several files into a folder depends on the compression level, the number of files, and the size of the individual files. In other words, higher compression means smaller files but longer processing time. 

Is zipping files the same as compressing them?

A ZIP file is a compressed file, but it also acts as a container. ZIP formats compress data to reduce file size and can package one or many files into a single archive while preserving their original structure and integrity.

Why is my ZIP file still large after compression?

Images, videos, and graphics in particular can bloat the size of a ZIP file. Some PDFs will have images in them, so consider splitting the PDF into multiple files and zipping them separately. Many media files are already compressed, so zipping them may not reduce them much. For very large files, especially with graphics and video, consider using a cloud sharing solution.

Can I password-protect a ZIP file? 

Yes, you can password-protect a ZIP file. On a Windows device:

• Right click the ZIP file and select Advanced. 
• Under the Compress or Encrypt Attributes tab, select Encrypt contents to secure data.
• Set a password. Make sure that the password is memorable but not easily guessable, as the data inside the ZIP file won’t be accessible without the password, even for you. 

Note: macOS doesn’t have a simple built-in option for password-protecting ZIP files. You can use a third-party app such as Keka or The Unarchiver if you’re on a Mac.

Can I unzip files directly in Google Drive or Dropbox?

In a cloud storage service like Google Drive or Dropbox, you can open a ZIP folder. By double-clicking your ZIP file, you’ll see a preview of the contents. If you want to open the ZIP folder, you can select Open With and then a third-party app will be suggested for opening the ZIP file. This makes it so you don’t have to download the ZIP file – just the individual file you need within the zipped folder.  

The post How to Create a Zip File — Windows, Mac and Online appeared first on pdf.live.

4 Ways to Optimize PDFs

PDFs can be surprisingly large files, even though they’re designed to be easily shared (hence their name “portable document format”). This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it can make managing, sending, and moving PDF files difficult. To make it easier to work with your PDFs, it’s best to optimize them so they don’t have unnecessarily large file sizes. 

Optimizing a PDF can be a complicated process that involves reducing the bloat of a file without a significant reduction to the quality of the document. You can do some PDF file optimization on your own, but there are also tools available that make this very easy. 

In this article, we’ll be going through how you can optimize your PDF to reduce the file size as much as possible. 

1.  PDF optimization tools

Tools such as the online PDF compressor reduce the sizes of your PDFs without a significant change to the original file quality. The online PDF compressor doesn’t pixelate your PDF images or alter the legibility of your PDF text. The operations that this program performs aren’t easily done by everyday users like us. 

The file compressor essentially audits your PDF to understand what’s taking up space in the file. It will then look through your PDF and remove unnecessary elements. These elements may be unused embedded files like images, fonts, or hidden objects like Javascript functions. It may also remove comments and other data about the user who created the document. This tool is incredibly useful, as it will reduce the size of your file as much as 50% without any notable changes to the file itself. Make sure that any optimization tool you use is lossless so the data within your PDF won’t be affected. 

2.  Remove/compress images

Images in a PDF are the most common culprits for bloating file size. This is because images are incredibly complex and hold far more data when compared to text. If you’d like to learn more about how computers compress files, consider checking out our article on zipping files. 

It’s pretty easy to copy and paste an image into a document, but that document then inherits that image file size. If you copy and paste a high quality 1920x1080p resolution image with a 1 MB file size, for example, into your PDF, your document will be at least 1 MB larger. If your PDF is too large to email or store, consider reviewing the images within the document and deleting/compressing them. 

3.  Unembed unused fonts

If you’re using several different fonts in a document, that PDF file will contain all of the information about that font — including all possible characters. This isn’t an issue with one or two fonts, but if you’re using a lot of different fonts, particularly in other languages, it can sometimes significantly increase the size of your PDF file. Consider using just a couple fonts when constructing your PDF in a document editor. 

4. Zip PDF

We mentioned zipping files earlier, but what does this mean? A ZIP file is a compressed folder that contains a lot of information in a smaller file. Anyone can make a ZIP file on their computer and open it up later on (unzipping a file). 

If you’re sending a lot of different PDFs or one particularly large PDF, it can sometimes be useful to ZIP your PDF to make it easier to transport digitally. Email and cloud storage services often have file size limits. ZIP files can circumvent these size limitations by creating a smaller file that still contains the PDF(s) you’re using.

Illustration 22173271 Skypixel | Dreamstime.com

The post What’s a PDF Online Optimizer? appeared first on pdf.live.

Compressing a file allows you to store and send files across the web at a fraction of their original file size. A file compression program searches for patterns within your data and stores the data in a much simpler format. If you’ve ever compressed a file, you may notice some differences in the quality from the original. For example, if you’ve texted an image to someone over the phone, the receiver may complain about how the image is illegible or “grainy.” Other times, there may be no issues with the quality of an uncompressed file. 

There are two types of file compressions: lossy vs lossless. 

• Lossy: File compression method that removes redundant data to significantly reduce the size of a file. Some data will be deleted, resulting in a smaller file when the data is uncompressed. PDF.Live’s PDF compression tool is a lossy-style compressor — compressing PDFs may change the resolution of the new PDF. 
• Lossless: File compression method that doesn’t remove data during compression. The quality of the data won’t be affected but the resulting compressed file may not be much smaller than the original file. Zipping files is an example of lossless file compression — zipping a PDF does not change the integrity of the PDF. 

How Does File Compression Work?

File compression software packages larger files into smaller parts and smooshes them together so they’re easier to “ship” online. That’s the layman’s way to explain it. If you’re a technophile who wants to learn more about how, exactly file compression works, we suggest this article on How Stuff Works, which explains how file compression tools look for patterns and redundancies to reduce files to smaller sizes. If you’re looking to understand the difference between lossy and lossless file compression, read on …  

Lossy Compression Definition

The meaning of the word “lossy” is, simply, involving some loss of data. 

A lossy compression program will significantly reduce the file size or quality of an original file. You may be wondering: Why would you ever want this? Sometimes an image file may come in a very high resolution that is unnecessary for how you’re using it. If you want to host an image on a website, for example, you don’t need the same quality as you’d need for printing the image. High-quality images may cause webpages to take longer to load, which can negatively impact your website’s performance in search results. 

Also, if you want to send an image by email, it may be too large to attach to a message. As long as the recipient doesn’t need the file in its original size, you can compress it so it is smaller and easier to send by email, text message or other online file-sharing methods. 

PDF.Live has an online PDF compression service that you can try out today. PDF.Live’s online PDF compressor is a lossy compression tool, but it reduces PDF file sizes with minimum impact on the information contained within. 

Lossless Definition

What lossless means, in digital terms, is without loss of any data.

In a separate article, we cover ZIP files, which are a form of lossless compression. This means that any data compressed in a ZIP file can then be unzipped with no effect on the original data. ZIP files can be used on images, audio, text/text files, or a mix of many file types. For example, a software program that operates on your computer may be packaged within a single ZIP file that you download and then uncompress to install. 

The process of compressing files is useful for saving space on your device’s hard drive as well as making files easier to share when uploading/downloading them. However, compressing a file can have potential downsides. 

Lossy and Lossless – Which is Better?

The method that you use will be dependent on the type of data and how you plan to use the compressed file. 

A JPEG image works well with lossy compression and most programs will automatically compress JPEGs using lossy compression. Compressing a JPEG with a lossy method will result in a slightly lower-quality image but a far smaller file size. Lossy compression may also damage a transparent background, or the legibility of images with a lot of text (such as converted PDFs!). 

Example of lossy compression, before and after

On-screen, the before-and-after differences are barely detectable. Below, we used a 3rd party service called compressor.io to compress a JPEG of a closeup of a horse: 

The lossy compressed version of this file is far smaller than the original, but the quality on-screen barely changes.

TIFF, BMP, and RAW images work far better with lossless file compression. The resulting compressed versions of these files won’t be much smaller than the original images, but the quality won’t diminish. 

Example of lossless file compression, before and after

If you need an image to stay as high quality as possible, lossless file compression is probably better. Again, we used compressor.io to do lossless compression of the horse closeup:

However, the disc space that these files will take up on your system is almost exactly the same. 

Below is the original file next to the compressed versions of the file. The top one uses lossy compression and reduces the file size by 90%. The second compression is lossless and compresses the file size by only 6%. You can see in the before-and-after comparisons below, that the difference is barely detectable.   

Experiment with zipping, compressing, and uncompressing files to see what method works best for your needs. If you need to compress PDFs, PDF.Live has online PDF compression services that you can try out today. PDF.Live’s online PDF compressor reduces file sizes with minimum impact on the information contained within. 

Illustration 36507038 | Ekostsov | Dreamstime.com

Horse photo 16608234 | Nohead Lam | Dreamstime.com

The post Lossy Vs Lossless File Compression appeared first on pdf.live.