Compress, Reduce or Minimize Size of PDF Document

pdfminify

use python package: pdfminify

ghostscript

gs -sDEVICE=pdfwrite -dCompatibilityLevel=1.4 -dPDFSETTINGS=/prepress -dNOPAUSE -dQUIET -dBATCH -sOutputFile=compressed_PDF_file.pdf input_PDF_file.pdf

In the above command, you should add the correct path of the input and out PDF file.

The command looks scary and confusing. I advise copying and pasting most of it. What you need to know is the dPDFSETTINGS parameter. This is what determines the compression level and thus the quality of your compressed PDF file.

dPDFSETTINGS description:

/prepress (default) - Higher quality output (300 dpi) but bigger size
/ebook - Medium quality output (150 dpi) with moderate output file size
/screen - Lower quality output (72 dpi) but smallest possible output file size

Do keep in mind that some PDF files may not be compressed a lot or at all. Applying compression on some PDF files may even produce a file bigger than the original. There is not much you can do in such cases.