PDF Size Reducer

Shrink huge PDFs for everyday users — 50 MB down to ~2 MB with one click, no CLI required.

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Why this exists

Teams needed 50 MB PDFs compressed to ~2 MB for email, portals, and storage limits. Ghostscript, Adobe, and online shrinkers exist — but they are either CLI-only, paywalled, or too conservative for image-heavy scans.

PDF Size Reducer is a desktop GUI that stacks every practical compression path in one place: Ghostscript presets (including a custom Ultra max-shrink profile), full-page rasterization, and a Check Sizes preview that runs all presets before you commit. Built for people who do day-to-day office work, not terminal power users.

Created by: Joseph Edwards (@GatoGodMode) · MIT licensed

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Core capabilities

Capability	What it does
Portable Windows exe	dist/PDF_Size_Reducer.exe — Ghostscript bundled, double-click to run
Ultra (max shrink)	Custom Ghostscript profile: 72 DPI color/gray, aggressive JPEGQ, duplicate detection, font subsetting
Ghostscript presets	Screen, eBook, Printer, Prepress, Default — vector-aware compression ladder
Rasterize modes	Ghostscript pdfimage24 or PyMuPDF page raster → JPEG PDF for scan-heavy files
Check Sizes preview	Runs every preset against your file and shows estimated size + % reduction
Only keep if smaller	Safety gate — never replaces output unless the result is actually smaller
One-click deps	Python mode can download Ghostscript from Artifex releases or pip install pymupdf from the UI

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Quick start

Windows (recommended)

Download from dist/PDF_Size_Reducer.exe or dist/PDF_Size_Reducer.zip. No install — run the exe, pick input/output, choose a method, compress.

Python (dev / Linux)

git clone https://github.com/GatoGodMode/PDF-Size-Reducer.git
cd PDF-Size-Reducer
.\run.ps1

Or:

python app.py

On first run without bundled Ghostscript, click Install Ghostscript in the app. For PyMuPDF raster mode, click Install PyMuPDF.

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Compression methods

Method	Best for	Trade-off
Ghostscript Presets	Mixed vector + image PDFs	Ultra = smallest file, visible quality loss on photos
Ghostscript Rasterize	Scanned documents, photo PDFs	Image-only output; DPI slider 72–300
PyMuPDF Rasterize	Same as above without GS raster device	JPEG quality slider 25–85; requires PyMuPDF

Typical workflow

1. Browse to your large PDF
2. Click Check Sizes — compare all presets in the preview table
3. Pick the preset/method that hits your size target
4. Leave Only keep if smaller checked
5. Compress

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Ultra preset (max shrink)

Custom Ghostscript args beyond stock /screen:

• Color/gray images downsampled to 72 DPI (bicubic)
• Mono images at 150 DPI
• JPEGQ=35, duplicate image detection, unused object/image discard
• Font compress + subset + embed

Use when file size matters more than print quality (email attachments, upload limits).

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Project layout

pdf_size_reducer/
├── app.py                 # Tkinter GUI + compression engine
├── run.ps1                # venv launcher (Windows)
├── requirements.txt       # stdlib-only for core; PyMuPDF optional
├── PDF_Size_Reducer.spec  # PyInstaller bundle (includes gs/)
├── dist/                  # Portable exe + zip
├── gs/                    # Bundled Ghostscript (exe build)
└── EnVars/                # SysMap + VarMap

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Build portable exe

Requires PyInstaller and a populated gs/ tree:

pip install pyinstaller
pyinstaller PDF_Size_Reducer.spec

Output: dist/PDF_Size_Reducer.exe

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License

MIT — see LICENSE. Ghostscript is bundled under its own license (Artifex); see ghostscript.com.