PDF Compression That Actually Works
After reducing thousands of oversized PDFs for clients, here’s what delivers real results:
1. Adobe Acrobat’s “Optimize PDF”
The gold standard. Custom compression settings let you target specific elements (images, fonts, metadata). I regularly shrink 100MB design portfolios to under 10MB without visible quality loss.
2. PDF24 Tools (Free Desktop Version)
Surprisingly effective for a free tool. Their “Compress PDF” maintains decent quality while offering three compression levels. Just avoid their online version for sensitive files.
Warning: Most online “free” compressors degrade quality terribly. I’ve seen perfect scans reduced to unreadable blobs. Always preview before finalizing.
Pro tip: For scanned documents, OCR’ing text first (even hidden) often yields better compression than image-only reduction.
