PDF Compactor Project

a web application that allows users to upload a pdf file and return a compacted version of the file based on the user's specified DPI.

Features

• Compress the uploaded pdf file accroding to the radio box or the dpi entered by client
• Show the original size and the compressed size on the page
• History page helps clients check and download the pdf files(both original and compressed) uploaded by themselves
• Initial page tells clients the number of times the page has finished processing so far
• When the uploaded file is not a pdf file, or the pdf file size is bigger than 30 mb, the client will see the corresponding error

Implementation Overview

frontend

• upload pdf file from client's computer
• user determine the dpi used for compression

backend

• store the uploaded file in sever
• execute the compression command based on the client's requirement
• delete history files (both original and compressed)

Process Of the whole full_stack

Tools

Frontend

Bootstrap + HTML + JQuery + CSS

Backend

Node.js + express + multer + Ghostscript

The pdf compression rools URL

https://github.com/ourarash/shrinkpdf

Start The Project

• Firstly, install NodeJs (https://nodejs.org/en/download/) and Ghostscript (check this link carefully https://github.com/ourarash/shrinkpdf).
• Clone this repo and install all required modules:

git clone https://github.com/guiquansun/PDF-Compactor.git 
cd PDF-Compactor
npm install

• Run:

node app.js

• Test:

npm test

• Now open your browser to http://localhost:3000

- Upload a pdf file and the page is switched.

- Click Process button to do the compression

- See your history files

Future Work

• Upload multiple files simultaneously by users, and compress these files by backend server.
• Upload files from Google Drive or Dropbox
• Use other PDF compression tools that are more efficient and have higher speed.

Group members

Linxin Mai linxinma@usc.edu

Guiquan Sun gsun@usc.edu

YouTube link：

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Zd7mUN6C9A&feature=youtu.be