What Happens When You Compress a PDF File
Compressing your PDF file helps make it easier to share. Otherwise, in some cases, the file can be quite large, which takes up lots of memory and makes it more difficult to open as well as store the document in certain programs. However, the right compression tool can decrease your PDF file up to 500 MB or more, thus further ensuring it can be accessed and saved by anyone.
But just what happens when you compress a PDF file? Let’s take a look.
Less File Size
PDFs are an effective way to send electronic documents to others while still preserving the page layout, as well as its contents, which helps ensure it is legible no matter who or how it is retrieved.
However, there are times when a PDF file may exceed the attachment size limit on mobile apps as well as other online programs, in which case you can simply compress the file size to ensure it can still be worked with in various situations.
The two main contributors to a large PDF file are redundant texts and large images.
Redundant Texts
PDF files often contain lots of repeated texts, also known as redundancies, as well as spaces, that cause the file to be larger by contributing to increased bits and bytes that take up more memory.
Therefore, during the compression process, the tool’s algorithm will pick out any repeated words and spaces and then put them into an index where they will be converted into a pattern that can be read by computers, such as numbers, rather than words, which requires fewer units of memory.
Then once the recipient accesses the document on their device, the machine’s expansion program will expand the file to its original state.
Large/Lots of Images
PDF files that contain large images or lots of images can also result in a large file, which can make it more difficult to upload.
Therefore, when you compress a PDF file, it can also shrink the images. However, instead of searching for redundant texts, the program’s algorithm looks for large numbers of similar pixels and then assigns one value to them. But the program rewrites the value for each pixel so that it refers back to its original color once the image is opened.
Some compression tools also enable you to select whether you want custom, high, low, or medium compression, which allows you to decrease the file size in varying degrees to help maintain the look of your images.
In the end, compressing a PDF file is beneficial in many ways, and it further takes into consideration users’ needs, thus enhancing their experience, which is especially important when communicating with clients or other businesses for building and maintaining relationships. It can also be done easily using an online PDF compressor, which only requires basic Adobe Acrobat knowledge.
To compress the PDF file online, simply upload it into the program and then select the file in the menu, or you can drag the file into the drop zone, after which time the compression tool will automatically resize it.
This article has been posted in accordance with Socialnomics’ disclosure policy.
