PDF Reducer Review – How to Compress PDF Files to a Smaller Size
Last Updated on September 21, 2025 by Tina Clark
Why should you reduce the PDF size without losing quality? Suppose you just create an amazing PDF document, but the file size is too large to share via the Internet or store on a mobile device. It makes sense that a PDF includes hundreds of pages covering graphics, images, bookmarks, and more to make it appealing. There are plenty of methods to compress PDF size and optimize it for the web on Windows and Mac. The article shares 5 easy ways to make PDF files smaller.
Part 1: The Best Method to Compress PDF File Size
Whether you need to shrink the PDF file size or cut out the desired pages of the PDF, PDFelement is the all-in-one PDF toolkit. It only compresses the size of the PDF but also enables you to delete unwanted files, split up the pages of the PDF, and crop part of the PDF. Moreover, there are multiple advanced features to edit and manage PDF files.
1. Retain the optimal PDF quality when reducing the PDF file size.
2. Provide the batch process to convert or compress multiple PDFs.
3. Custom the levels, sizes, quality, and others for resizing PDFs.
4. Remove unwanted files, split PDFs into different pages, etc.
Step 1: Launch PDFelement on your computer after installation. Select the Open files menu to trigger the open-file dialog and import the large PDF file. Alternatively, locate the PDF file in File Explorer, and drag and drop the file into the PDF reducer.
Step 2: Head to the Tools menu and choose the Optimize PDF button to reduce the PDF file size. It provides 3 different options, Low, Medium, and High, which will automatically calculate the PDF file size. Click the Apply button for compressing PDF size.
Step 3: To compress the PDF size, you can also remove some unwanted PDF elements, like texts, images, annotations, backgrounds, pages, forms, and more. Choose the desired file and remove it from the PDF file to reduce the PDF size without losing quality.
Step 4: When you need to get the desired part of a PDF page, you can click the Page menu to choose the Page Box button to set the margins. You can also customize page size as desired. After that, you can save the cropped PDF with the desired file size.
Part 2: 2 Web-Based PDF Reducer to Downsize PDFs
Web-based PDF compressor is another efficient method to reduce PDF file sizes. It is suitable for some small PDF files as long as you have a good Internet connection.
Method 1: Reduce the PDF Size with Adobe Acrobat online
Adobe Acrobat provides the online PDF compressor. If you have an account for a subscription, you can simply compress PDF files right from your browser with 3 different compression levels accordingly.
Step 1: Go to https://www.adobe.com/acrobat/online/compress-pdf.html in a web browser, and sign in to your account. If you do not have one, log in with a social media account.
Step 2: Click the Select a file button to import the desired PDF file from your computer. Once you have imported the PDF file, you can choose the desired compression method.
Step 3: Click the Compress button to compress PDF size online. After that, it will automatically reduce the file. Just download your compressed PDF file or sign in to share it.
Method 2: Reduce the PDF Size via Smallpdf
Smallpdf is another online PDF Compressor to reduce PDF file size. If you just need to compress some files with a small file size, you can use the free version with time limits to manage the PDF files online.
Step 1: Visit https://smallpdf.com/compress-pdf in a web browser to open the online PDF compressor. It does not ask for an account. If you have one, log in to unlock the limitations.
Step 2: Click the CHOOSE FILES button to upload the desired PDF. You can also upload a PDF from Google Drive or Dropbox. After that, select a proper compression level.
Step 3: It will reduce the PDF file size up to 70% without losing quality. But the Strong Compression option is available for the Pro account. Just download the compressed PDF afterward.
Part 3: Shrink the PDF size with the Built-in Tools on Win/Mac
By default, you can shrink PDF file size without extra software on Windows and Mac. The built-in Preview app can do the job on Mac while MS Word can reduce PDF file size on a PC quickly.
Method 1: Shrink a PDF File on Mac with Preview
Step 1: Open the Preview app on your Mac, go to the File menu and choose the Open option to add the PDF file that you want to compress. It enables you to move unwanted pages.
Step 2: Head to the File menu and select the Export button to open the PDF export dialog. Pull down the Quartz Filter option and select the Reduce File Size option to reduce PDF size.
Step 3: Enter a filename into the Export As field, and set the destination in the Where box. Make sure to select PDF in the Format option. Click the Save button to confirm shrinking the PDF size immediately.
Method 2: Shrink a PDF on PC Using Microsoft Word
MS Word can open, edit and convert PDFs with higher-resolutions of graphics. Of course, the file size will indeed be larger. In Word 2013, you can find a new option on the file export dialog to compress a PDF file size.
Step 1: Open the desired PDF in MS Word. If you want to edit the document, click the Enable Editing option. Compress the pictures in the document using the Compress Pictures option in the Picture Tools tab.
Step 2: Go to the File menu and choose the Save As option. Navigate to a location folder, write down a filename in the File name box and select PDF from the Save as type field.
Step 3: After that, you can select the Minimum size option in the Optimize for section. Click the Save button to compress the PDF and save the Word file to PDF with the minimum size.
Conclusion
Here are 5 easy ways to compress a PDF file on a PC and Mac. The built-in Preview and MS Word allow you to reduce a PDF file size without detailed parameters. If you have already subscribed to the services, Adobe Acrobat and Smallpdf are simple ways to reduce PDF files online. PDFelement is a versatile method to make PDFssmaller by cropping, splitting, compressing, and removing unwanted objects.