PDF Compressor 5.5.1

One of the reasons that made PDF files so popular was their small size as compared to other text-based file types, making PDF the perfect format for web download and e-mail distribution. Scanned PDFs, though, are but pictures of the original pages of the printed document, which may result in a far-too-heavy PDF file. PDF Compressor has been designed to turn bulky PDF files into manageable text-based PDFs of less than a third of their original size without compromising their quality.

PDF Compressor can also reduce further the size of text-based PDFs as well, though in this case the difference in size between the input and the resulting file won’t be so noticeable. It is when dealing with image-based (a.k.a. “scanned”) PDFs that this tool shines in all its beauty. To refine the final quality, the program will ask you if the PDFs on the conversion list as Text PDFs or Scanned PDFs. If the latter, you can also add the DPI value of the original images, when known, to help the program in its conversion process.

No further customization is allowed. For instance, there is no way of selecting a page range for compression as a separate PDF file, and all files on the list will be converted following your latest choice of file type. Therefore, you’re advised not to mix text and scanned PDFs in the same conversion list if you wish to optimize the conversion process itself and the resulting PDF files.

The overall conversion ratio (and the subsequent reduction in file size) is excellent, just as the quality of the output PDFs, images and all. I can only recommend you to take advantage of the trial provided and test it with your heaviest PDFs – you’ll surely be surprised, and in a good way.