How to Compress PDF to 300 KB or Less with 3 Easy Methods [Free or Paid]

While the PDF document format is popular for it containing both image and textual content, the downside is quite obvious, the large file size. On the flipside, electronic submissions and e-Filling usually have rigid limitations against the size of your PDF document, and in many cases, we find that our document size exceeds the limit.

From this guide, you’ll learn about 3 easy methods to compress PDF to 300 KB or less, free and paid options both included.

This guide will put more emphasis on reducing the file size of an existing & digitized PDF document on your computer or mobile phone, over the principles of keeping your documents small in file size (avoid scanning using high DPI value, or print scans to PDF, for instance). The meaning is that if you have a large PDF file and you’re looking for a solution to compressing it to 300 KB or less, this page is exactly the guide you’re looking for.

How to Check the File Size of Your PDF Document?

Prior to starting compressing your PDF file size right away, you may need to check the actual storage that your PDF document takes up on your computer, to understand how much you intend to reduce the size of it, which also determines the compression strategy to a degree (we’ll get to that in a bit).

A common scenario is that you need to reduce the size of a scanned document, it’s 1MB because of the high DPI value used while scanning, but you intend to compress it to 300KB to Email it to your customer. In that case, we need a strong compression method with at least a 70% compression ratio.

To check the file size of a PDF document, locate the PDF file on your Windows or Mac computer, right-click on it, and hit Properties, then you’ll find the PDF File Size information from the General tab (Windows) or Description tab (Mac).

Compressed PDF

How to Compress PDF to 300 KB or Less Online Using PDFgear

The simplest way to reduce the size of your PDF document is using the free yet powerful online PDF compressor tool PDFgear. With it, you can easily compress your oversized documents or scanned PDFs on Windows, Mac, Linux, iPhone, Android, etc.  All you need is a web browser app and a stable internet connection.

See the tutorial below to learn how PDFgear compresses your document in 3 simple steps. 

Step 1. Upload PDF to PDFgear

Use a web browser to navigate to PDFgear PDF Compressor online tool, then drag and drop your large PDF file into the PDF compressor box to upload the PDF document file.

Upload PDF File to PDFgear

Step 2. Compress PDF with PDFgear

When the PDF file is uploaded and processed, there’ll be three compression modes provided: Low compression, Medium compression, and Strong compression. Select one according to the PDF original file size and your output file size preference.

Step 3. Download the Compressed PDF Files

The compression process will be complete and the compressed PDF will be ready in 2 seconds, the size of the compressed PDF will be shown under the filename. Hit the blue Download button to save the compressed PDF to your computer.

Download the Compressed PDF

Choose Wisely the Compression Modes as Your PDF File Size 

For PDF compressing beginners who would go about the tasking using PDFgear, here’s a good piece of advice.

Different compression strategies may be required considering the different file sizes of your original file. For example, if your PDF document is 500 KB, then the low compression mode should suffice for better document quality. On the other hand, if you have a 2MB large PDF document and you intend to reduce the size of it to 300 KB, then Strong compression mode is the smart choice.  

How to Compress PDF to 300 KB Offline Using Adobe Acrobat

Of course, the free online service PDFgear is really handy, as long as you’ve got an internet connection. However, for those who’re always out on a business carrying solely a laptop, they may need a solid offline option to compress PDF documents to 300 KB.

For this, what we need is Adobe Acrobat Pro DC, the PDF reader tool with advanced PDF management features, including PDF compression. This method works with Windows and Mac computers.

  1. Launch Adobe Acrobat Pro DC (or other applicable versions) on your computer.
  2. From the menubar, click File and then hit the Open option from the dropdown to open the PDF document.
  3. Hit the Tools tab from the upper-left side to enter the Acrobat tools section, and then hit the Optimize option under the Protect & Standardize category.
  4. From Optimize PDF menu, hit the Advanced Optimization button.
  5. In the pop-up Advanced Optimization window, you can compress PDF file size with various parameters.
  6. When ready, hit OK to save and export the PDF document which has been optimized to 300 KB or less.

Acrobat Optimize PDF to 300 KB

How to Compress PDF to 300 KB or Less with Preview App

After introducing the methods of compressing PDFgear using good and reliable third-party service/software, here in this part, we’ll talk about how to reduce PDF file size using an inbuilt option.

If you’re running a Mac computer, lucky for you to have a really easy approach to reducing PDF file size. The PDF reader application Preview on your Mac computer can serve as a simple and practical PDF compressor tool, and here’s how you can reduce your document file size with it.

  1. Open the PDF you intend to compress using Preview app
  2. Go to the File tab, and hit Export… from the dropdown
  3. From the pop-up export settings menu, click the Quartz Filter, then choose Reduce File Size.
  4. That’s it! Then you can hit the Save button to save the compressed PDF document on your Mac computer.

Compress PDF to 300 KB on Mac

What Makes PDFgear Beyond Something Mundane

As mentioned earlier in this guide, the free online service PDFgear is the more recommended solution to reducing the size of PDF to 300 KB or less. But why is this method prevails, and what makes PDFgear stand out from other similar online PDF compressor tools? 

The reasons are as follows, we’ve rounded up the PDFgear online PDF compressor highlights which proves PDFgear is something beyond ordinary.

  • A completely free service that processes your files in a secured connection 
  • Significantly compress PDF documents without losing quality using MRC (Mixed Raster Content) technology
  • Customizable compressions allow you to flexibly choose between quality or size reduced
  • Intuitive conversion implemented by dragging and dropping, easy for beginners
  • The entire PDF compression process takes you less than 10 seconds
  • Other PDF management features such as PDF converting, PDF editing, PDF annotating, etc.

Wrap-up

That’ll be all about the information to reduce the size of your large document files, I believe you’ve acquired the skill you need from the three given methods. If so, don’t forget to start trying once you have time!

Just remember, if you want to keep the PDF as the original quality, then the compress ratio should be low. And if you’re looking forward to an extremely small PDF file, then the document quality is something to be sacrificed. You can also check the PDF Convertor apps to convert your documents to any other format. 



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