Pre-compress Images Before PDF Creation
Reduce image file sizes in your source document before converting to PDF. A 300 DPI image scaled to fit a page is wasted data.
Impact: Can reduce PDF size by 60-80%
Expert Tips for PDF Optimization and Compression
Five proven techniques to shrink PDF file size — from pre-compressing images to font subsetting — with the measured impact of each.
The Tips
Use PDF/A for Archiving, Standard PDF for Sharing
PDF/A embeds all fonts and is self-contained but larger. Use standard PDF for email and web where file size matters.
Impact: 30-50% smaller files for sharing
Enable Linearization for Web PDFs
Linearized ("Fast Web View") PDFs load page-by-page rather than all at once.
Impact: Perceived 50% faster loading
Remove Unused Elements
Delete hidden layers, unused bookmarks, and metadata before finalizing.
Impact: 10-20% size reduction
Subset Embed Fonts
Instead of embedding entire font files, subset embedding includes only used characters.
Impact: Significant size reduction for documents with few special characters
Put This Into Practice
Free, unlimited file conversion with no sign-up. Files are encrypted in transit and automatically deleted within one hour — up to 100 MB per file, batch supported.