Why PDFs Get Large: Browser-Based Compression Targets Images, Not Text

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Many PDF compressors rasterize every page into images, which degrades quality and can leave sensitive documents on a remote server. The author, who builds free browser-based file tools, explains that a PDF's file size usually comes from embedded images, while text and fonts take up very little space. The recommended approach is to leave content streams untouched and re-encode only the images, downscaling photos to a reasonable resolution. For scanned text pages, converting to black and white at around 150 DPI can shrink files dramatically while keeping text sharp. The article also stresses telling documents apart from photographs, keeping color when uncertain, and recompressing object streams losslessly.

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agentbelt: One Safe Toolbelt for Multiple AI Coding Assistants

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ProgrammingDEV Community ·

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ProgrammingDEV Community ·

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ProgrammingDEV Community ·

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