Simple python script to compress PDF.

• Install dependency Ghostscript. On MacOSX: brew install ghostscript On Windows: install binaries via [official website] (https://www.ghostscript.com/)
• Create a symbolic link if you want to run it everywhere in bash ln -s pdf_compressor.py pdfc
• Add in PATH environment variable On MacOSX: echo 'export PATH="/absolute/path/of/the/folder/script/:$PATH"' >> ~/.bash_profile

pdfc [-o output_file_path] [-c number] input_file_path

Ex: pdfc -o out.pdf in.pdf

Output:

Compress PDF...
Compression by 65%.
Final file size is 1.4MB
Done.

• -c or --compress specifies 5 levels of compression, similar to standard pdf generator level:
  • 0: default - almost identical to /screen
  • 1: prepress - high quality, color preserving, 300 dpi imgs
  • 2: printer - high quality, 300 dpi images
  • 3: ebook - low quality, 150 dpi images
  • 4: screen - screen-view-only quality, 72 dpi images
• -oor --out specifies the output file path. If not specified, input file will be erased.
• -bor --backup creates a backup of the original file in case no output is specified to avoid erasing the original file.