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Any recommendations for a desktop/cli PDF optimization tool that will reduce the size of a pdf? I've tried few and the best one so far is the one that is inclu

Any recommendations for a desktop/cli PDF optimization tool that will reduce the size of a pdf? I've tried few and the best one so far is the one that is included in the subscription version of Adobe Acrobat. But I only need it occasionally and is not worth paying $20/month sub.

niutech 3y ago
Check out FileOptimizer (https://nikkhokkho.sourceforge.io/static.php?page=FileOptimizer https://nikkhokkho.sourceforge.io/static.php?page=FileOptimi...)
aidos 3y ago
Ghostscript maybe? Depends on what you’re doing but it can downsample images etc.
- nirav72 3y ago
  Yes, its mainly to reduce image size for scanned documents. I'll give Ghostscript a try.
  - aidos 3y ago
    Something like this is probably a good starting point: ghostscript -sDEVICE=pdfwrite -dCompatibilityLevel=1.4 -dPDFSETTINGS=/printer -dNOPAUSE -dQUIET -dBATCH -sOutputFile=output.pdf input.pdf From this gist https://gist.github.com/guifromrio/6390547# https://gist.github.com/guifromrio/6390547#
    - nirav72 3y ago
      Very helpful tip. Thank you! - Ran it through GS and I got 30% reduction in a 50mb pdf file. I think if I play around with some options - such as converting images to grayscale, I might be able to reduce it by another 10-20%.
      - mijoharas 3y ago
        I guess it depends on your document, but I'm surprised you only get that much compression. For scanned to pdf documents I often get orders of magnitude. I'm not at my computer, but try messing with the `/printer` in the above command, there are other options, (possibly `/ebook`?) that control the compression ratio from memory.
evrflx 3y ago
Did you already give ghostscript a try?
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
mpweiher 3y ago
If you're on a Mac, (my) PdfCompress is fairly smart about doing a good job. Haven't updated it in while though... :-/
senjin 3y ago
I recently found out Mac's built in Preview app can do this. Go to export then change the Quartz Filter to "Reduce File Size"

niutech 3y ago

Check out FileOptimizer (https://nikkhokkho.sourceforge.io/static.php?page=FileOptimizer https://nikkhokkho.sourceforge.io/static.php?page=FileOptimi...)

aidos 3y ago

Ghostscript maybe? Depends on what you’re doing but it can downsample images etc.

nirav72 3y ago
Yes, its mainly to reduce image size for scanned documents. I'll give Ghostscript a try.
- aidos 3y ago
  Something like this is probably a good starting point: ghostscript -sDEVICE=pdfwrite -dCompatibilityLevel=1.4 -dPDFSETTINGS=/printer -dNOPAUSE -dQUIET -dBATCH -sOutputFile=output.pdf input.pdf From this gist https://gist.github.com/guifromrio/6390547# https://gist.github.com/guifromrio/6390547#
  - nirav72 3y ago
    Very helpful tip. Thank you! - Ran it through GS and I got 30% reduction in a 50mb pdf file. I think if I play around with some options - such as converting images to grayscale, I might be able to reduce it by another 10-20%.
    - mijoharas 3y ago
      I guess it depends on your document, but I'm surprised you only get that much compression. For scanned to pdf documents I often get orders of magnitude. I'm not at my computer, but try messing with the `/printer` in the above command, there are other options, (possibly `/ebook`?) that control the compression ratio from memory.

evrflx 3y ago

Did you already give ghostscript a try?

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]

mpweiher 3y ago

If you're on a Mac, (my) PdfCompress is fairly smart about doing a good job. Haven't updated it in while though... :-/

senjin 3y ago

I recently found out Mac's built in Preview app can do this. Go to export then change the Quartz Filter to "Reduce File Size"