Compress a PDF in Preview on Mac (2024)

FAQs

Can Mac Preview reduce PDF size? ›

To save storage space, you can compress a PDF in Preview. Note: When compressed, the PDF may be of lower quality than the original. The resulting file size and image quality may vary depending on the options you select.

The Acrobat online PDF compressor balances an optimized file size against the expected quality of images, fonts, and other file content. Just drag and drop a PDF into the PDF compression tool above and let Acrobat reduce the size of your PDF files without compromising quality.

File compression involves taking the original PDF and compressing the data so the total file size is smaller. By compressing PDFs, you can reduce the file size by 20% to 30%, making it possible to email large PDF files without compromising quality or readability.

Click the "Tools">"Compress". Here, you can choose three options for how to make a PDF smaller for email. Choose between Low, Medium, and High compression.

In the Preview app on your Mac, open the file you want to change. Choose Tools > Adjust Size, then select “Resample image”. Enter a smaller value in the Resolution field. The new size is shown at the bottom.

PDF compression can maintain the quality of your contents if you select the appropriate settings. Reducing the quality of a document, especially its images, can save quite a lot of space on disk, but at the expense of readability and usefulness.

The most apparent drawback is the potential loss of quality as previously discussed. In the quest for smaller files, one inevitably sacrifices a certain amount of quality. Secondly, time can be a limitation. Particularly with larger files, the amount of time it takes to compress a PDF file can be substantial.

What is the best option to compress a PDF? ›

Try Adobe's free online PDF compressor to compress a PDF for free, or use Preview if you're on a Mac. If you subscribe to Adobe Acrobat Pro, you can compress a PDF using the Optimize PDF tool. You can also reduce a PDF's size by compressing it with Microsoft Word.

In brief, compressing a PDF does not change or alter the format. It only removes unnecessary elements from the document to make it smaller and better, but it will still be a . pdf document.

Open a PDF in Acrobat. From the hamburger menu (Windows) or the File menu (macOS), select Save As Other > Reduced Size PDF. Choose the location to save the file and select Save. Acrobat displays a message showing the successful reduction in PDF size.

6 common reasons PDF files get too large

EMBEDDED FONTS — some fonts can be surprisingly large. EMBEDDED FILES/FILE ATTACHMENTS - it's possible to attach many types of files to a PDF and these files are stored inside the PDF contributing to its total size.

If you don't want to permanently change your original document, you can save a copy of it with a smaller file size instead. Choose File > Reduce File Size (from the File menu at the top of the screen).