How to reduce the size of a PDF file: a review of programs

One of the most common data formats is PDF. The peculiarity and at the same time the purpose of this format is the storage of documents in electronic form, and of typographical quality. But sometimes, especially when it comes to simple texts, printing quality is not required at all. Many people who scan documents, still use the PDF format because of the widespread and availability of software for encoding the format. The resulting document by size may exceed all conceivable and unthinkable limits. But the quality is at an altitude, although the book has at least or no illustrations at all. Supporters of this approach can state - well, who in our time of six-core processors and hard drives on terabytes is thinking to save a few tens of megabytes?

Nevertheless, there is a convenient alternative to PDF, which is an excellent answer to the question of how to reduce the size of a PDF file, designed for simple documents, without a huge number of colorful drawings. These files are in DjVu format. Savings when using the format goes in order and times. Here is an example - a book in PDF format takes 20 megabytes, and after converting to DjVu only 2! So, dear fans of saving, we are waiting for the replenishment of DjVu fans in your face, especially if you have some free time, which can be spent with advantage, sorting the library while simultaneously converting all the masterpieces on your hard drive into this convenient format.

An additional advantage (to the author's subjective view) is that after conversion from a fairly heavy format into an easier one, the clarity of the font display improves. Also, you will first need to install a specialized viewer, which differs from the usual almost every user working with the text on the computer Adobe Reader'a. For these needs there is some choice of software, some of the most popular programs for converting to djvu and programs for viewing this type of files we will consider in the article. It is characteristic that after all the indicated procedures you simply will not come up with the question of how to reduce the size of the PDF file. They will not be in your library.

Perhaps the most common viewer is WinDjView. The program is distributed under the Open Source license, so you can use it and modify the source code as you please. A distinctive program for PDF format after conversion. Functional content - you can open several documents in different tabs, there is a continuous scrolling of pages. You can copy and search the text of the document if the text layer is provided in the document. This program is based on the DjVuLibre library, also distributed free of charge.

Another free viewer program is DjVu Reader. The main advantages are that it does not require installation and is simple, one can say ascetic. There is also a universal option for viewing DjVu and PDF, as well as a huge number of other formats - STDU Viewer. Installing at least one of these programs is a great answer to the question of how to reduce the size of a pdf-file: just put the viewer and convert to a more economical format.

Now let's turn to converter programs, which involve transforming a cumbersome PDF file into a small-sized DjVu. The simplest of them is PDF2DjVu, distributed under a free license. There is a version for Linux and Windows systems. The main drawback is that it does not always correctly convert files. If you suddenly do not want to install any programs and allow Internet tariffs, then you can use the online service - Any2DjVu. Simply select the type of file that you plan to load, and set the file parameters, which should be output in a few seconds, solving the problem of how to reduce the size of PDF. Immediately warn about the potential impossibility of conversion if the PDF file consists entirely of images and is completely devoid of the text layer. By the way, online service Any2DjVu gives much more effective solutions for compression of the converted file (according to independent reviews, it is better to double the DjVuLibre package). And it's not surprising, because the service Any2DjVu uses a closed commercial protocol in its algorithms.

So, we have seen that an excellent answer to the question of how to reduce the size of a PDF file is to convert to a more economical DjVu format. The choice of method is yours. Good luck!