How to reduce PDF file size: 3 easy ways to compress

What are PDF files?

First thing’s first: what exactly are PDF files? And why are they better than Word or Excel documents?

Well, let’s start with the definition. The Portable Document Format (PDF) file is one of the most popular file types today. It’s commonly used across countless industries, from legal to real estate. And if you’re a student, you’ve probably downloaded tons of PDFs packed with classroom materials, presentations, and study guides.

PDFs earned noteriety in 2008 when Adobe released them as an open standard, which led to their current widespread usage. They offer a few key advantages over other file formats, including:

PDFs are surprisingly portable

As the name suggests, PDFs are portable. Even if you have to compress PDF file size, they beat other formats hands down. You can transfer, send, or move files without sacrificing image quality or losing your format. Think about how many times you’ve tried to open Word documents, only to see warnings about missing fonts. Or Powerpoint presentations missing images. With PDFs, you can share files with anyone without losing fonts, images, tables, or formatting.

PDFs are universally compatible

PDFs are compatible with all types of applications. Most operating systems come with pre-installed apps to quickly open PDFs, while browsers can open and display PDF files without missing a beat. So, if you’re sending online media kits to clients, you won’t have to customize your file format for different applications.

PDFs are a reliable file format

Most importantly, PDFs are reliable. Whether your PDF contains images, graphics, tables, or rich media, it’ll always display data in the same way. Even if you open a PDF on a smartphone or tablet, you can still see the exact information in the way it was intended to be displayed.

What size should a PDF document be?

Now that we’re all PDF connoisseurs here, there’s probably one burning questions left unanswered: what size should PDF documents be? In general, unless you want to use PDFs for high-quality print jobs (think: glossy business cards or brochures), your PDF file should be 1 MB or less. You can even reduce PDF size to 100kb, but more on that shortly.

Just FYI, any PDF that exceeds 1 MB is considered a large file. When this happens, you’ll need to compress the PDF file size. Compressing PDFs makes it easier to send files and upload them online, all while saving storage space and preserving image quality. That’s why, ideally, you’ll want to reduce PDF size to 100kb.

Why are PDF files so large in size?

Unlike other file types, PDFs can contain significant content. Your document might contain images, fonts, embedded hyperlinks, videos, and other types of content, all packed neatly into a PDF file that can be viewed on any system without any formatting problems.

That content adds up. If you’re housing a lot of content in one PDF file, it contributes to the total size of the file. Your PDF will still retain its formatting and quality, but the size of your PDF will be large.

If you get a warning from your application that your PDF is too large, you’re far from alone. PDFs are the recommended file format when uploading files for a lot of online job applications. You might also use PDFs when uploading government IDs, college applications, or tax documents. These PDFs contain significant data, which might exceed the recommended size to upload PDF files on these websites.

3 simple ways to compress PDF files

Let’s face it: it can be incredibly frustrating to deal with large PDF files. It can take forever to download and upload. And if you’re trying to email a large PDF, forget about it.

The good news? It’s easy to compress PDF file size in seconds without losing quality, even if you don’t have any previous editing experience. Here are some simple ways to compress your PDF files so you can skip the headache.

Use Save As instead of Save

Need a quick fix for your PDF file? When you’re saving, compress the PDF file size by choosing Save As instead of Save.

In many applications, these two functions are different. While they both create new files on your device, Save As always creates a new file. Meanwhile, Save compiles your changes onto the original PDF file. That means the original PDF remains intact, including its file size.

When you make changes, the file size continues to grow whenever you click Save. When you use Save As, you’ll create a new, clean, and optimized PDF.