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Top 10 PDF Reducer in 2024

Margarete Cotty

2024-04-18 11:56:27 • Filed to: Compress PDF to Smaller Size • Proven solutions

Have you ever wanted to share your PDF files online or via other media only to realize the file is too large to send smoothly and successfully? Well with a quality PDF reducer this shouldn't be hard at all. With the following selected PDF file reducer tools for Windows reducing the size of your PDF document shouldn't be hard at all.

A PDF reducer is a specialized application or process that optimizes the contents of a PDF file to reduce the overall file size. This may involve modifying the text, images, and other PDF elements. In this article, we’ll explore the best PDF file reducer apps that you can use on your web browser (online PDF reducer) or your desktop (offline PDF size reducer software.)

9 Best PDF Reducers of 2023

Part 1: Best PDF Reducer Online
Part 2: Best Desktop PDF Reducer Software

Requirements and Key Differences between an Online and an Offline PDF Reducer

There are several advantages to using an online PDF reducer, but there are also downsides since as security concerns and so on. To get a fairly accurate picture of which type of PDF reducer would suit you best, let’s look at the three most important considerations when picking a PDF reduction tool online or offline

Convenience: Between the two, an online PDF compression service is far more convenient because there’s nothing to install and you can use the same tool on any connected system running a modern browser.

Speed: This can go either way because working on an old system with low specs will give you about the same experience as using a brand new computer with a spotty Internet connection. However, an online PDF size reducer will probably work faster on an older machine, while new systems have butter-smooth operations, which makes them perfect for a powerful PDF optimizer tool.

Security: This issue is a little contentious because of the confidentiality and privacy of your files and sacrosanct. Even if the website itself is highly secure, your Internet connection must be equally safe in order for your documents not to fall into the wrong hands. As such, a desktop PDF reducer might be a better option because you can keep all your documents offline.

Part 1: Best PDF Reducer Online

Let’s begin with a look at the various online PDF reducer services that you can use to bring down the file sizes of your PDF documents so they’re easier to share online, send via email, or attach to chat and messaging apps.

#1: Wondershare HiPDF

Wondershare HiPDF is a sophisticated and versatile suite of PDF tools for editing, conversion, compression, OCR, locking, and other operations. Each operation has a dedicated web page where you can upload your PDF, process it, and download it back to your desktop or a cloud storage service. The interface is very user-friendly and you can even process PDFs in batches if you have a subscription to HiPDF.

Key Features

High-quality compression makes the document much smaller but web-ready
One-click PDF size reducer
Several other useful PDF tools are available
Free to use for limited transactions
Secure site with encryption and other security protocols in place
Batch Process is available when you subscribe to HiPDF
Advanced features like OCR online

HiPDF makes it easy to perform multiple actions. Once the file has been compressed, you’ll be given an option to download it, share it online, or perform more actions directly with the processed file.

Pros

Free for single compression use
High-quality output suitable for web use
Simple interface with minimal user input
Efficient file compression without significant content degradation
Easy access to a desktop PDF editor from the same developer

Cons

Batch Process is a premium feature
Requires a stable and fast Internet connection

#2: Adobe Acrobat Online

Adobe Acrobat is probably the most well-known name in the world of PDF. In addition to its powerful suite of desktop solutions for PDF, Adobe offers a few online PDF solutions for free. They’re primarily meant for processing one file at a time and with a lot of restrictions, but it’s still a very convenient way to reduce PDF file size and get it down to the size you need.

Pros

Professional-grade compression quality
Simple and user-friendly web interface
Access to other online free tools

Cons

Expensive to upgrade to a paid plan
No batch processing
Sign-in required for sharing and other actions

Pricing: Adobe Acrobat starts at around $14.99 for a monthly subscription with an annual commitment.

#3: Smallpdf

The next professional PDF file reducer on our list is Smallpdf, a versatile online PDF compression utility that can significantly reduce PDF file sizes with a single click. The only downside to using Smallpdf is that you’ll need to upgrade to a Pro plan if you want to use the highest compression level.

Pros

Reasonable compression level with the free option
Upgrading gives you access to a full set of PDF tools
Also available as a desktop version

Cons

Only basic compression (default settings) with the free plan
Not ideal for large files if you need a much smaller output file
Not as affordable as many other PDF reducers of the same quality

Pricing: Licenses start at $12 a month on an annual contract

#4: ILovePDF

The last online PDF reducer we’ll be covering today is ILovePDF, a user-friendly site with a light-hearted theme. However, the tools are very professional and the UI has been designed keeping in mind that not all users are technically knowledgeable. It also includes important services such as PDF file repair, PDF unlocking, and so on.

Pros

User-friendly UI with simple operations
3 levels of cmpression
Useful PDF tools to continue processing after compression

Cons

The PDF editing module is limited to adding content
Not as powerful as other premium PDF reducers
No free trial version of the desktop PDF editor

Pricing: Starts at $7 monthly with an annual commitment

5. SEJDA PDF Compressor

Apart from supporting Windows this PDF file size reducer software also works with Mac and Linux. Sejda comes with a desktop and online version and quite easy to use. File compressing is done one file at a time or via multiple batch-processing where you can reduce lots of files at once. Also comes with encrypted functionalities to ensure your files are protected, both for online downloads and uploads with documents removed permanently after processing. Also includes image feature such as resolution and quality adjustment.

Pros

Image and font adjustment.
Optimization of images.
Works with Linux and Mac.

Cons

Online version deletes file meaning you could lose if unsaved.
Only three processing tasks every hour allowed.

Part 2: Best Desktop PDF Reducer Software

#5: Wondershare PDFelement

Wondershare PDFelement - PDF Editor is a highly acclaimed PDF editor for Mac and PC that has increasingly gained popularity over the past few years since its original release. Now in its 8th major iteration, PDFelement offers feature-richness of Adobe Acrobat Pro DC, but for a fraction of the cost of either of those products. It also offers standard versions of the software to handle day-to-day PDF tasks such as editing, creation, conversion, annotation, form filling, PDF organization and, of course, a PDF size reducer module.

There are two ways to compress a PDF file using PDFelement. The first involves using the Compress PDF icon from the welcome page; alternatively, you can also use the Compress PDF menu option in the main Tool menu in case PDFelement is already running on your PC or Mac.

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The compression quality of PDFelement is second to none, meaning it can deliver segment-leading results at a much lower pricepoint. Apart from being able to compress files, you can also take advantage of all the basic tasks listed above as well as advanced ones such as automatic form field recognition, OCR, cloud access, and more.

The biggest USP for PDFelement is that it is a much more affordable option than other top PDF editing software despite having a rich collection of basic and professional PDF tools.

Pros

Access OCR (optical character recognition) features to create editable/searchable PDF files from scanned documents.
Convert and create PDFs to/from other file formats you usually use.
Edit text, images and pages of your PDF.
Annotate your PDFs leaving comments, highlights and reviews.
Create PDF forms, fill and recognize PDF form fields.
Sign your PDF files and add permissions for security reasons.
Secure with password and permissions, redactions and digital signature.
Includes batch processing capabilities.

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#6: Foxit

Since version 10, Foxit PDF software has undergone some key UI changes, which means the navigation for the Compress PDF process is slightly different from before. Currently, the required action only takes a few steps. In addition, you get access to Advanced Optimization where you can control image downsampling, embedded text removal, and other compression parameters.

Pros

Huge improvement in UI since v10
Fast compression with very little data degradation
The upgrade to premium gives you full access to powerful desktop tools

Cons

Not as well known in the market
The new UI is fairly user friendly but it might be difficult for anyone upgrading from the older version before v10

Pricing: Pricing starts at $16.99 a month for the full Windows or Mac package

#7: ORPALIS PDF Reducer

With this PDF size reducer software, you can do quite a number of things with it. Language is automatically selected for you as per your location with English the default one. It's quite useful as a PDF reducer in that you can batch process files or just drag and drop them when you want to compress their sizes. Essentially, you can reduce PDF size in a number of instances and some good efficiency can be accomplished. The layout, color and other features are detected automatically in an attempt to enhance the handling process. The output file is of good, usable quality irrespective of the data in your PDF.

Pros

Content segmentation.
Fast and uncomplicated.
Batch processing.

Cons

Cannot increase PDF file size.
Lots of things selected automatically for you that you might not like such as language, color etc.
Doesn't support all file formats.
Lacks PDF editing capabilities.

#8: Cvision PDF Compressor

Cvision PDF MB reducer compression tool allows you to get some much needed compact PDF documents. The shade of your PDFs is important when it comes to reducing their size with this PDF reducer. For instance, white and black PDF files can be reduced by a factor of up to 10 while colored PDF files can be reduced by a factor of up to 100. It tries to maintain your data as it was originally as much as possible and the user interface isn't that bad. All available options are easy to find and supports batch processing.

Pros

Batch PDF file processing.
Easy to use.
Does its compression quite well.

Cons

Lacks other PDF editing functionalities.
User experience can be better.

#9: TalkHelper PDF Converter

With some good features for PDF compression this tool is practical and quite smooth to use. Whether you're looking for PDF size reducer to 1 MB or other it gets the job done. The interface is a good one and a tad intuitive and reduces file sizes effectively well. It includes batch processing where multiple PDF documents can be compressed fast, though you must drag the files and drop them into the system. Quality is not that bad and can be speedy as well.

Pros

Batch processing features.
Practical usability.

Cons

Lacks sufficient PDF editing features.
Doesn't have most advanced file processing tools.

A Final Word on PDF Compression

It’s very important to know how much you want compress a file before you actually do it, especially if there are a lot of images and other visual elements in the file. If you’re not careful, you may compress a file and then realize that the imagers are too grainy or pixelation to use. For that reason, we recommend using either HiPDF or PDFelement - or even both; There’s also an iOS app, and all the desktop and mobile versions are integrated with cloud access for Wondershare Cloud. This comrehensive ecosystem of PDF products makes it simple to work across multiple platforms and keep your files on the cloud to have them accessible from anywhere. The biggest selling point for most users, however, is the attractive pricing that gives you full access to such a wide array of easy-to-use PDF tools on demand.

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