How To Reduce Pdf File Size In Preview

From professional person proposals to your female parent's Christmas potluck invitations, the PDF is the go-to format for creating eye-catching digital documents and marketing materials. Besides the actual text, y'all can add together photos, clipart, and other graphics to brand your work stand out.

Just while these design elements tin make your documents pop, they cause your PDF to balloon in size, making it almost impossible to transport and for others to download. Moreover, typical pinch creates copies with blurry images that lower the quality of your documents.

In this tutorial, I'll evidence you how to reduce big PDFs on any computer without compromising epitome quality so y'all can transport out quality documents without always having to worry about people getting turned off past fuzzy images.

On the Mac: Use Quartz Filters

The default Preview app built into Os X is designed to handle your basic PDF needs, from viewing to annotation to file compression. To shrink a PDF, simply click on File → Export… → Quartz Filter and select Reduce file size.

reduce file size by default — While Preview can reduce your PDF, it isn't able to preserve prototype quality.

The trouble with Preview'southward built-in file compression is how image quality drops drastically afterwards, causing any paradigm or graphic in your PDF to await blurry and at times incomprehensible.

A workaround is to use custom quartz filters that achieves the residuum yous need to reduce the file size while preserving image quality throughout the document.

For this tutorial, we're going to install and utilise these Apple quartz filters past Jerome Colas to reduce a 25MB PDF file down to a more manageable size. Y'all can download the filters for costless from this Github page also.

Footstep 1: Motion the quartz filters to your ~/Library/ folder.

The offset stride is to install the Apple tree quartz filters to your reckoner, specifically the Filters folder inside the system'due south Library folder.

To practice this, download the quartz filters to your desktop and unzip. Launch Finder and utilize the keyboard shortcut CMD + SHIFT + One thousand to pull up the Become to binder: drib down menu. Hit enter to open the Library binder.

the quartz filters inside the filters folder — Credits get to Jerome Colas for creating these awesome filters for anybody.

Once you locate the Filters folder, paste the quartz filters within. If the Filters folder isn't available, simply create a new folder and name it "Filters."

Tip: Some people would rather accept these filters available merely to a single admin business relationship. To do this, y'all'll demand to create a Filters folder within the user's Library. To locate this, hit CMD + SHIFT + K, type the following:

/Users/<your user proper noun>/Library

and hittingEnter. If the Filters binder isn't already existing inside the directory, create a new ane.

Step 2: Launch Automator and Create an Automator Application

The next footstep is to create an Automator app that will compress any PDF using the filters nosotros just installed.

Launch Automator and create a new certificate. Click on Awarding, then the blue Choose button to create the workflow.

create a new automator application — You lot'll be able to simplify the process of resizing PDFs with Automator.

On the left-hand side is the Automator library. Apply the search field to locate the Apply Quartz Filter to PDF Documents activity, which you will elevate to the right-hand side of the window to create the workflow.

copy finder items action — I highly recommend adding Copy Finder Items to your Automator workflow. You'll see.

Before proceeding, a pop-up message will announced request you lot if y'all would like to add a Copy Finder Items activeness to the workflow. I highly recommend this considering it saves y'all the trouble of scrambling for the original file in case the end-effect doesn't plow out as expected.

select quartz filter — For standard pinch, you can choose either 150 dpi boilerplate or 300 dpi.

The concluding step is choosing the quartz filter that yous'll use to compress the PDF. If you've installed the quartz filters as outlined in Step 1, you lot should be able to see them listed when you click on the Filter driblet down carte du jour. Once you've chosen your filter, give the app a proper noun and save it to your desktop.

Pace iii: Drag and Drop Your PDF to the Newly Created Automator App

File compression is pretty straightforward from hither on. To utilize the new Automator app, simply elevate your PDF and drib it on the app. Information technology will then generate a compressed re-create of your PDF. The size would depend on the quartz filter yous selected while edifice the app on Automator.

For my 25MB PDF, I selected the 150 dpi average quality filter, which is standard compression quality for near. The compressed file is near 3MB and the prototype quality is quite acceptable all throughout, including the smaller images.

pdf reduced file comparison — Though the images in the compressed file are a little blurry, the quality is acceptable as a whole.

You're free to change the quartz filter to a higher or lower quality depending on your preferences. Only save your changes on Automator and elevate the original file to test (this is where the Copy Finder Items activity comes in handy).

On Windows: Shrink Your PDFs with SmallPDF

On Windows, the closest you tin can go to a native compression solution is to create a new Give-and-take certificate or Powerpoint presentation, select to save every bit a PDF, and then choose the Minimum size option before saving it to your desktop.

While it works for text-based PDFs, quality can suffer if yous've used diverse design elements to adorn your documents. Yous can also import PDFs into Word 2013 or newer and then export them in compressed formats, but one time once more, your quality will likely suffer.

minimize option windows — Windows users have limited options when compressing PDFs

The usual route is to optimize and compress your PDF using premium software such as Adobe Acrobat Pro and InDesign, both of which will give you lot loftier-quality results and are great options if you accept a Creative Cloud subscription. There are complimentary desktop alternatives like PrimoPDF, merely I find that either the prototype quality suffers or the compressor changes the PDF completely from the original version.

You tin instead utilise online tool chosen SmallPDF, a spider web app built with several PDF tools that are accessible wherever you become and whenever you lot need them (and, as information technology's a web tool, you could as well employ it on a Mac or Linux powered PC, or a Chromebook). Ane of these is the Compress PDF tool where you can drag and drib or choose a PDF file from your difficult drive to reduce its file size significantly.

compressed file smallpdf — Besides peachy design, SmallPDF does the task quite well for a free tool.

I tested the app with my 25MB PDF and it was able to reduce it to around 2MB in size, which is perfect for publishing and sending online. Paradigm quality is affected but acceptable when compared to how other Windows-only apps handle PDF compression.

Your Thoughts

What do yous use to compress PDFs while preserving image quality? Share your ain tools and techniques in the comments beneath.

Resources: Document icon designed past Dimitry Sunseifer from the Noun Projection