Compressing PDFs on Mobile Devices: Best Apps and Tools for On-the-Go Compression

How to Compress PDF

Have you ever been notified that your PDF file is too large to upload when you are trying to upload it to some sharing sites on your mobile? Or have you ever tried to share a PDF file with your friends or colleagues but just found it takes so long to completely load the file not to mention sending it? Apart from these common cases, many more situations like these will upset you. 

All these situations are caused by the large size of a PDF. Luckily, a professional PDF compressor can easily solve this problem. So how does a PDF compressor work? A professional PDF compressor can reduce the file size, making it easier to share and upload. What’s more, it saves storage space on your mobile and also enhances the performance of your device for it requires less processing power to handle smaller files.

Herein, we will round up the best PDF compressors for mobiles, including apps and online tools. 

Top 5 PDF Compressor Apps for Android or iOS to Shrink PDF Size

Nowadays, you might not always have your computer with you but you definitely always bring your mobile. Mobile devices have become a must in everyday life. So in this part, we will introduce 5 PDF compressor apps for you to resize a PDF even on the go.

Compress PDF File

Judging from its name, Compress PDF File is a pure PDF compressor app to reduce PDF size. You can get it from your Google Play Store by entering its name. Now it has gotten about 5,000,000 downloads so you can know how popular it is.

To compress a PDF with it, only two taps are needed. Upload the PDF to Compress PDF File and then you can customize the output quality by adjusting the compression options it provides, like color image quality, fonts, and layers. 

Compress PDF File Screenshots

Reasons to recommend: One of the best PDF compressor apps for Android.

Smallpdf: PDF Scanner & Editor

Smallpdf is an all-in-one PDF editor to compress PDFs to resize PDFs, convert PDFs to different formats (image, Word, Excel, etc), merge & split PDFs, rotate PDFs, and other PDF editing features. 

When using it to compress a PDF, two compressing options are here for you: 

  •  Use basic compression to reduce the file size by 40%.
  •  Use strong compression to reduce the file size by 75%

Thus, you can quickly shrink a PDF document without quality loss. By the way, you can get it from both Apple Store and Google Play Store.

Smallpdf App Screenshots

Reasons to recommend: Smallpdf is a must-have tool for anyone who wants to work with PDF files more efficiently.

iLovePDF: PDF Editor & Scanner

The iLovePDF app is available for both Android and iOS devices, making it easy to use no matter where you are. It enables you to compress PDF files quickly and easily. Furthermore, it allows you to perform tasks like merging, splitting, converting, and annotating PDFs. 

iLovePDF App Screenshots

Reasons to Recommend: Reduce the PDF document size while keeping its visual quality.

Compress PDF – PDF Compressor

PDF Compressor comes to help you compress PDF documents and reduce file size on your Android. No limitation to the number of compressions.

Import a PDF from your from your device storage, Google Drive, Box, or OneDrive, and Compress PDF will automatically start compressing once it detects the PDF.

PDF Compressor App Screenshot

Reasons to Recommend: Fast compression can be completed within seconds.

Adobe Acrobat Reader: Edit PDF

Adobe Acrobat Reader mobile app lets you view, sign and annotate PDF files on your mobile device. 

With this app, you can easily open and view PDF files, including password-protected PDFs, as well as annotate and mark up documents with highlights, comments, and drawing tools. The app also allows you to fill out forms, sign documents electronically, and share files securely with others.

Adobe Acrobat Mobile App Screenshots

Reasons to Recommend: The world’s most trusted PDF reader and PDF editor. 

Top 5 Online Tools to Shrink PDF Documents without Downloading An App

Many people choose online PDF tools because they are convenient and easy to use. With online PDF tools, you don’t have to download an application on your mobile, and you can access them from anywhere with an internet connection. 

So here we also file up 5 online tools that you can easily access using your mobile browser and start compressing, converting, splitting, or merging PDF files.

ONEPDF

ONEPDF is a popular web-based PDF compression tool that allows you to compress PDF files quickly and easily. It has a simple interface and offers different levels of compression that can drastically reduce the size of your PDF files without compromising the quality of the content.

Apart from it, ONEPDF also has a PDF conversion tool that can convert from and to PDFs. Merging and splitting PDFs are also supported. Other security features, like adding passwords, and watermarks are also included.

Additionally, ONEPDF is a cloud-based platform so that You can also share your PDF files with others securely.  

Below is a detailed guide on how to compress PDFs on ONEPDF.

Step 1. Open ONEPDF Compression Tool in your mobile browser and upload the PDF from your file folder to start a PDF compression.

ONEPDF Compress Tool

Step 2. After the PDF is imported successfully, 3 different compression levels will be displayed for you to choose from. Each compression level offers you different sizes of PDFs. Choose one based on your own need and then tap the “Compress PDF” to start the compression process. If you are not sure which one to choose, we suggest you to choose Recommended Compression for the best compression result.

ONEPDF Compresses PDF Online

Step 3. When the compression is done, you will see the downloading page on which how much smaller compressing a file make will be clearly shown for your reference. 

Reduce PDF Size ONEPDF

Overall, ONEPDF is an excellent online PDF tool but the drawback is for now it doesn’t have an application. 

Reasons to recommend: ONEPDF provides three compression options to tailor different needs. Easy to access and totally free to use.

Soda PDF

Soda PDF is a comprehensive PDF solution that provides you with all the PDF editing tools to create, edit, and manage PDF files efficiently.

To compress a PDF with it, just upload the PDF that you want to shrink from your computer or the cloud platforms (OneDrive, Dropbox) to the Soda PDF editor. And when you are guided to its main page, navigate to the Compress option. Now you need to choose a compression level among the five options. 

As you can see, on its main page, you are also allowed to merge multiple PDF files into one, split a PDF file into multiple documents, and more.

Soda PDF Reduces File Size

Reasons to Recommend: Soda PDF is one of the best and most user-friendly PDF compressors.

PDF24 

Although PDF24 is not as popular as Soda, it is indeed a reliable online PDF editor, providing you with a range of editing tools. It not only lets you compress PDFs, but also allows you to effortlessly convert, combine, and split PDF documents. Moreover, PDF24 also can be used to crop PDFs and add page numbers to PDFs.

To reduce PDF size on mobile using PDF24, directly go to its website and choose the Compress PDF tool. After importing a PDF from your device, you can manually adjust DPI, and image quality to get a small-size of PDF.

PDF24 Compress PDF Tool

Reasons to recommend: Make PDFs smaller in size without compromising the quality of the content.

AvePDF  

AvePDF is aiming to better reduce a PDF size with 4 compression levels. Besides that, like most online PDF editors, AvePDF also allows you to convert PDF files to other formats such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, HTML, and more and add comments, annotations, and bookmarks to your PDF files, as well as secure them with passwords.

To compress a PDF with it, upload the document from your device or your cloud storage service and choose the desired compression level.

AvePDF Hyper-Compress PDFs

Reasons to recommend: Strongest encryption technologies to protect PDF files.

PDF Compressor

PDFCompressor is another web-based tool that is designed to compress PDF files. It is specifically intended for people who need to send PDF files via email or share them online.

It is easy to use and has a simple interface that allows you to upload your PDF files into PDFCompressor. Once you have added your files, it will immediately start compressing the PDF. It can reduce file size by up to 99%. 

PDF Compressor screenshot

Reasons to recommend: It allows you to preview the compressed version of your file before you save it.

Conclusion

No matter why you want to compress a PDF, any online tools and apps mentioned above can be used to reduce PDF size on your mobile device. And all you need is to choose one that best suits you. 

We hope these 10 tools can help you and if you find this article useful, you can share it with your friends as well.